Global Hermeneutics? - International Voices in Biblical Studies ...

10 GLOBAL HERMENEUTICS?
promote biblical scholarship within the Roman Catholic Church in Africa. PACE
operates through biennial conferences and publication of conference papers in its
series of Proceedings. 7 Another major example, this one a non-denominational
organisation working on a national level, is the Nigerian Association for Biblical
Studies (NABIS), established in the mid-1980s to promote biblical research in
Nigeria. 8 NABIS operates through annual conferences and publication of articles in
its African Journal of Biblical Studies; amidst an ocean of academic journals in
sub-Saharan Africa this one has survived for more than twenty years as a voice of
biblical interpretation from explicit African perspectives.
The experiences of the pioneer organisations from the 1980s eventually
inspired others to establish similar organisations; one example is the Association
for Biblical Scholarship in Eastern Africa (ABSEA), 9 another is the Ghana
Association of Biblical Exegetes (GABES). 10 In addition to such national and
regional organisations, the question of establishing a non-denominational, pan-
African organisation has sometimes been discussed. However, for various reasons
the project never materialised. 11 Similarly, international organisations like the
Society of Biblical Literature (SBL) and the International Organization for the
Study of the Old Testament (IOSOT) have been able to attract African Old
Testament scholars to their congresses only to a very limited degree. The 2007
congress of IOSOT was the first where a scholar from sub-Saharan Africa—Dr.
Mary Jerome Obiorah, Nigeria 12 —had been invited to read a main paper (see,
though, previous examples of short papers presented by Africans at IOSOT
congresses). 13 More successful as far as international and inter-African
7
See A. Kabasele Mukenge, “Association Panafricaine des Exégètes Catholiques,”
BOTSA 8 (2000), 3–5.
8
See J. O. Akao, “Nigerian Association for Biblical Studies,” BOTSA 8 (2000), 5–7.
9
See V. Zinkuratire, “Association for Biblical Scholarship in Eastern Africa,” BOTSA
8 (2000), 9–10.
10
See B. A. Ntreh, “Ghana Association of Biblical Exegetes,” BOTSA 11 (2001), 21–
22.
11 See K. Holter, “Is there a need for a pan-African and non-denominational
organization for biblical scholarship?” BOTSA 8 (2000), 10–13.
12 See M. J. Obiorah, “Perception of God’s house in the Psalter: A Study of how the
Psalmists understand the temple” (Unpubl. main paper, IOSOT Congress, Ljubljana, 2007).
13 S. G. A. Onibere, “Old Testament sacrifice in African tradition: A case of
scapegoatism,” in ‘Wünschet Jerusalem Frieden’: Collected Communications to the XIIth
Congress of the International Organisation for the Study of the Old Testament, Jerusalem
1986. Beiträge zur Erforschung des Alten Testaments und des Antiken Judentums 13 (eds.
M. Augustin and K.-D. Schunk; Frankfurt a.M., 1988), 193–203; A. O. Mojola,
“Understanding ancient Israelite social structures: Some conceptual confusions” (Unpubl.
short paper, IOSOT Congress, Cambridge, 1995); idem, “The Chagga scapegoat purification
ritual and another re-reading of the goat of Azazel in Leviticus 16,” Melita Theologica 50
(1999), 57—83; D. T. Adamo, “The trends of Old Testament scholarship in Africa” (Unpubl.