Musa Dube was born in Botswana in 1964 in a Ndebele family. After finishing secondary school, Dube studied at the University of Botswana in the capital Gaborone. In 1988, she completed her Bachelor in Hu- manities, Environmental Science, and Religious studies. After teaching some classes at the University of Botswana, she got a scholarship and
first went to the United Kingdom at the University of Durham where she did her Master’s on New Testament Studies. After that she went to Vanderbildt University in Tennessee, United States. From there she holds a PhD in New Testament Studies. In 2001 she came back to Bot- swana and taught New Testament studies at the UB. Two years later she became an associate professor.
Since Botswana has one of the highest infection rates of HIV and AIDS, Dube tried to integrate HIV and AIDS into her work as a biblical scholar and in the classroom. Together with her students, she found ways of dealing with the disease and showed its relevance in linkage with biblical texts. The World Council of Churches learnt about her dedication to the fight against HIV and AIDS and her talent to link theological, especially biblical, insights with the disease and its impact on people. So she was engaged by the World Council of Churches as a HIV/AIDS and Theo- logical Consultant from 1997 to 2002. Before coming back to the Univer- sity of Botswana again and teaching as an assistant professor, she taught at Scripps College in Claremont, United States. Currently, she is Profes- sor for New Testament studies at the University of Botswana.
Dube’s interests can be summed up in three main categories. Her PhD dissertation with the title Postcolonial feminist interpretations of the Bible shows two of them: she reads the Bible within a postcolonial con- text and as a feminist. Furthermore, – as I have mentioned already – she links HIV and AIDS with biblical texts and themes. This article will deal with these three major areas of Dube’s work.
Postcolonialism
To introduce the term postcolonialism I am citing Bill Ashcroft’s defini- tion from the book ‘Key-Concepts in Post-colonial studies’:
”Post-colonialism [...] deals with the effects of colonization on cultures and societies. As originally used by historians after the Second World War in terms such as the post-colonial state, ‘post-colonial’ had a clearly chronological meaning, designating the post-independence period. How- ever, from the late 1970s the term has been used by literary critics to dis- cuss the various cultural effects of colonization.”1
1 ASHCROFT, Bill: Art. post-colonialism/postcolonialism. In: ID. / GRIFFITHS,
Gaerth / TIFFIN, Helen (ed.): Key-Concepts in Post-Colonial Studies. London 1998, 186-192: 186.
Stephanie Feder, Musa W. Dube reads the Bible …
In her thesis and in various articles, Dube brings up different authors who shaped the discourse on postcolonialism; she mostly refers to Ed- ward Said and his book ‘Culture and imperialism’2. Dube operates with postcolonial criticism and tries to show how it can also be used fruitfully in reading the Bible. This concept is not a new one. Fernando Segovia and Rasiah S. Sugirtharaja3 are only two of many biblical scholars who are engaged in the field of combining postcolonial criticism with the Bible. Dube ventures to implement postcolonial principles on biblical texts since “the Bible is also a colonizing text: it has repeatedly author- ized the subjugation of foreign nations and lands.”4 She analyzes “the literary constructions of colonizing texts”5 and figures out how they justify imperialism. How postcolonial reading works for biblical (and other colonizing texts) is summed up by Dube in five main points which I will shortly introduce to you with the help of questions (and examples) Dube puts towards the text.
(1) Characterization is the first of the five aspects. In colonizing litera- ture “the colonized and colonizer are sharply contrasted.”6 On the one hand the text relates to subjugated people who are “helpless, evil, inar- ticulate, backward, disorganized, lazy, exotic, and babies in need of in- struction.”7 On the other hand the colonizer is depicted as someone in control, “civilized, Christian, teacher [...], articulate, literate and culti- vated.”8 In order to make this aspect apparent while reading, Dube asks the question: “How does the […] text construct difference: Is there dia- logue and liberating interdependence, or is there condemnation and replacement of all that is foreign?”9
(2) Another aspect is geography. Imperial thoughts are transferred ac- cording to Dube by “[s]ome lands that are depicted as empty, unoccu-
2 Cf. SAID,Edward: Culture and Imperialism. New York 1993.
3 SUGIRTHARAJAH, RasiahS.: Charting the Aftermath. A Review of Postcolonial
Criticism. In: ID.(ed.): The Postcolonial Biblical Reader. Malden/MA 2006. – SE- GOVIA,Fernando: Mapping the Postcolonial Optic in Biblical Criticism. Meaning and Scope. In: ID./STEPHEN Moore: Postcolonial Biblical Criticism. London et al 2005, 23-78.
4 DUBE,MusaW.: Toward a post-colonial Feminist Interpretation. In: Semeia 78
(1997) 11-25: 15.
5 loc. cit. 6 loc. cit., 16. 7 loc. cit. 8 loc. cit.
9 DUBE,MusaW.: Postcolonial biblical interpretation of the Bible. St. Louis/MO
pied, and waiting to be discovered.”10 The question Dube puts to the text is: “Does the […] text encourage travel to distant and inhabited lands and how does it justify itself?”11
(3) The third aspect mentioned by Dube is traveling. The travelers are foreigners, mainly coming from metropolitan centers of the world and they are only few. The few travelers are regarded as authority which “is grounded on race, religion, technology, and knowledge.”12 Since those travelers describe deficiency of civilization they see the need in develop- ing the colonized people. The right of traveling is only a colonizer’s opportunity; colonized people depend on the support of their colonizers to travel to distant lands; colonized people without any status do not even have the possibility to travel at all. The questions Dube puts to the text is: “Who travels and [w]hy? Which side of the text am I journeying on as a reader?”13
(4) Colonizing texts can have a special gender perspective. As Dube writes: “The colonized are symbolized by their indigenous women, who epitomize all backwardness, evil, and helplessness.”14 Dube’s question to the text is: “Does the […] text employ gender and divine representa- tions to construct relationships of subordination and domination?”15 (5) The last point Dube refers to is the material interests which are re- flected in colonizing texts. However, the economic interests were dis- guised and moral values such as education, civilization, and Christianity were mainly focused on. In another article, she refers to a quotation of Thomas Pringle, a missionary in Africa. His words [illustrates what Dube means]:
“Let us enter upon a new and nobler career of conquest. Let us subdue savage Africa by JUSTICE, by KINDNESS, by the talisman of CHRISTIAN TRUTH. Let us thus go forth, in the name and under the blessing of God,
10 DUBE,MusaW.: Toward a post-colonial Feminist Interpretation. In: Semeia 78
(1997) 11-25: 16.
11 DUBE,MusaW.: Postcolonial biblical interpretation of the Bible. St. Louis/MO
2000, 129.
12 DUBE,MusaW.: Toward a post-colonial Feminist Interpretation. In: Semeia 78
(1997) 11-25: 16.
13 DUBE,MusaW.: Rereading the Bible: Biblical Hermeneutics and Social Injustice.
In: KATALONGE,EMMANUEL (ed.): African theology today, Volume 1. Scranton/PA 2001, 57-69: 57.
14 DUBE,MusaW.: Toward a post-colonial Feminist Interpretation. In: Semeia 78
(1997) 11-25: 17.
15 DUBE,MusaW.: Postcolonial biblical interpretation of the Bible. St. Louis/MO
Stephanie Feder, Musa W. Dube reads the Bible …
gradually to extend the moral influence, and, if it be thought desirable, the territorial boundary also, of our colony, until it shall become an Em- pire.”16
The first part of the quotation shows the moral interests. The second part reveals the economic interests which lay behind the moral ones. By reading the biblical texts according to Dube’s questions the reader be- comes aware of the imperial and colonial appearance of the text. A de- colonial perspective on the text is required to which I will refer later.