Chitando, “If My People...” A Critical Analysis of the Deployment of 2 Chron 7:14 ...who resort to questionable survival strategies due to the failures of the
state should not be condemned. As I have noted above, by far the largest
portion of the blame should be shouldered by those who had the man-
date to guide the nation to prosperity. As the musician Andy Brown
observed cynically, Zimbabwe had degenerated into, “nyika yematsotsi” (a
country of crooks) due to government’s very own tendency of resorting
to unorthodox means to run the economy.
Popular Readings of 2 Chronicles 7:14
and the Challenge of Africanizing Biblical Studies
In the foregoing sections, I have outlined the deployment of 2 Chron
7:14 during the Zimbabwean crisis. I have drawn attention to the socio-
economic and political contexts in which the passage was asked to
“speak.” I have also examined the positive and problematic deployments
of the passage. At this stage, one would be forgiven for asking two re-
lated questions. First, is it within the mandate of a scholar to judge
whether a biblical passage is read positively or negatively? Second, even
if a scholar were to undertake such a task, how does s/he reach such
conclusions?
The questions raised above are critical as they have a bearing on the
character of biblical studies in Africa. The dominant, Western paradigm
is that basically the scholar of the bible has the task of understanding the
original context in which the specific biblical passage emerged. In this
regard, this chapter would have concentrated exclusively on the interpre-
tative interests (as opposed to the life interests, as I have done herein).
Emphasis would have been placed on issues relating to the historical
context in which 2 Chron emerged, its authorship, theology and so on.
These are quite valid scholarly pursuits. However, I am convinced that
African biblical studies must place more emphasis on the life interests
as these emerged directly from African existential realities. At any rate,
there is a growing realisation that what has been accepted as “universal
and standard models of biblical interpretation” are in fact partisan and
parochial. Cheryl B. Anderson, an African American woman biblical
scholar, has put this across lucidly:
Until recently, the leadership circles in both the church and the academy
were able to distance themselves from their readings of the Bible by con-
tending that they were merely following divine mandate or scholarly meth-
ods. Now, however, there is a sense that the few cannot arrogate to them-
selves the power to speak for all humanity – and for God. The particularity