Feder, Inspiring for Liberation – Legitimizing for OccupationThere is a short episode in the book of Joshua (Jos. 2) where her story is
told: two Israelites are sent by Joshua in order to spy on Jericho and its
inhabitants so that the capture of Jericho will be successful. The two
spies come into the house of the prostitute Rahab who hides them from
the King of Jericho. After Rahab asks to be saved along with her family
when Jericho is captured, the spies agree and make the deal that Rahab
should hang out the red ribbon through which the spies had been saved
when they left the house of Rahab.
There are five crucial aspects to Dube’s analysis of the Rahab story: 1)
although the two Israelites’ job is to spy out the Canaanite land, they
only spy at Rahab’s house. No further Canaanite land is visited or spied
upon. The only contact the Israelites have is Rahab – a prostitute. There-
fore, it is evident that Rahab can be seen as a representation of the whole
Canaanite people. 2) Rahab is a prostitute, who can be taken by every
man. This reflects the “colonizer’s desire to enter and domesticate the
land of Canaan.” (Dube 2004:77) 3) that Rahab is a prostitute points to
the aspect of wilderness and the superior moral status of the colonizers.
4) Rahab’s voice is like the voice of the colonizers: “she is the mouth-
piece of their agendas” (Dube 2004:78). Her spoken words reflect the
colonizers’ desires: if the people just accept the colonization it will be
good and life bringing for them. Dube interprets Rahab’s actions as
collaboration: she acts on the side of the colonizers. Since her life and
the life of her family seem to be the only ones to be rescued by the in-
vaders, it seems that she gave up her own people, having no trust in
them. 5) Rahab represents the Canaanites. With her behavior and her
speech she incorporates the Canaanite people which wants to be domi-
nated by the Israelites. Rahab therefore becomes a “cultural bomb”
(Dube 2004:80, based on Ngugi wa Thiong’o 1986:3) since she is asking
for the annihilation of her people in their names (cf. Dube 2004:80).
In other articles like “Rahab says Hello to Judith” (Dube 2003) or “Rahab
is Hanging out a Red Ribbon” (Dube 2005) Dube uses the Rahab story
for different aims. Interestingly, she evolves the Rahab reading prisma
which means that imperialism and patriarchy have to be recognized and
to be fought against. The problem for western readers of this story (and
of other stories, too) is that the oppression through patriarchy is seen by
the readers. The imperialistic structures, however, are ignored and
therefore are not discussed so that there is the risk of harmonizing the
text and sticking to its imperialistic perspective.