BiAS 7 – The Bible and Politics in Africa
art man’,^9 suggesting that Mwari was neither male nor female or that
Mwari was both. Equally, Mahoso traces the roots of the idea of a male-
conqueror-God to the process of translation of the Bible from Hebrew to
Greek, to Latin, to English and later to Shona, by the Europeans, who
had the idea of a dominant male God. For Mahoso,
looking at Africa in relation to Europe, we see that the historical record gives
us three belts: A belt, mostly in Africa, where Mwari, Musikavanhu (God), is
neither male nor female; a belt where God is depicted as mostly female...
and a belt far in the North, where God is projected as a male warrior God.
What makes this geography important is not only the fact that the culture of
the aggressive warrior God has overrun the belt of the Goddess and the belt
of the non-gendered Mwari (Musikavanhu)....Even our idea of Mwari
(Musikavanhu) has also been overrun and overturned. Mwari Baba, though
in Shona, is not a Shona expression. It is a translation from Eurocentric
language and thought. Consider the impact of this Northern tradition and
language on translations of the Bible from Hebrew to Greek, to Latin, to
English and later to Shona.....Consider the opening to the Book of John in
the New Testament in view of three belts I have outlined: The Shona trans-
lation from English says: “Pakutanga Izwi rakanga riripo, Izwi rakanga riri
kuna Mwari, Izwi rakanga riri Mwari.” We get some relief that in Shona
there is no need to put a “he” or “she” to represent Mwari. But the transla-
tion of the Greek term logos to mean izwi or word is a problem for vanhu
(the Bantu). Logos combines the sense of word with that of thought and that
of reason and wisdom. But Izwi may mean only voice or word. In terms of
African relational thinking and philosophy, the opening of John could read
as follows: “Pakutanga Mwari akapa simba rekufunga nokutaura. Simba rep-
fungwa nokutaura zvaive na Mwari, zvikauya muvanhu sechipo chaMwari.
Pasina simba rekufunga nokutaura hapana unhu, hapana ruzivo. Ruzivo rwa
Mwari runojeka murima, nerima harina kurukunda.”^10
Paradoxically, Mahoso and many African scholars believe that the same
(translated) Bible can be a weapon to liberate the oppressed African
masses; against the intention of the translator. In fact, history has it that
although the translation of the Bible was aimed at indoctrinating Afri-
cans with Western values, in the end it achieved the opposite as Africans
began to read it to affirm rather than dismiss their traditional values that
the missionaries had always suppressed.^11 From then on, Africans un-
(^9) Nisbert Taringa, ‘African Metaphors for God: male or female’, Scriptura: International
Journal of Bible, Religion and Theology in Southern Africa, Vol. 86. 2004, 174-179.
(^10) Tafataona Mahoso, ‘Language rescue and African Liberation’. AFRICAN FOCUS:
Zimpapers. O3 September 2011.
(^11) Cf. Masiiwa Ragies Gunda, The Bible and Homosexuality in Zimbabwe: A Socio-historical
analysis of the political, cultural and Christian arguments in the homosexual public debate