Communal Relationship

The previous two chapters addressed African moral theories according to which relationality has a merely instrumental status, viz., is good solely as a means to the advancement of either the common good or vital force. Chapter 6 begins to make the case for taking harmonious or communal relationship to be what should be pursued as an end for the African tradition. Drawing particularly on ideas from Desmond Tutu, it provides a detailed reconstruction of sub-Saharan understandings of harmony or communality, and points out that, as the combination of sharing a way of life with others and caring for their quality of life, it is similar to what English-speakers label ‘friendliness’. It also provides reason to reject extant, consequentialist principles according to which such a relationship is a final good (or goal) that is to be promoted, roughly because they cannot ground human rights.

8. The Bible in the post-colonial world

‘The Bible in the post-colonial world’ describes how colonizers and missionaries used the Bible. During the colonization of Latin America, the narratives of the conquest of Canaan in Joshua and Judges provided support not only for conquest, but also for the merciless killing of those who refused to submit. Nevertheless, Latin America also saw a powerful movement arise to rescue the Bible from its colonial misuse. In Africa too, the Bible could be used as an instrument both of oppression and of liberation. In South Africa, the stories of the Exodus and the entry to the Promised Land played a significant part in the emerging ideology of Afrikanerdom. At the same time, church leaders like Desmond Tutu used the language of the Bible to mount a powerful attack on apartheid.