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Towards an African Qur'anic Hermeneutics
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Until recently, it has never been felt necessary to re-read Islamic theology in
the context of the African experience, although in some parts of Africa Islam
continues to be viewed as an Indian or Arab religion while Christianity is seen
as a European religion. There have been calls to stop looking beyond Africa's
borders for spiritual and Islamic understanding and to start looking within
Africa for an interpretation of Islamic theology. There is no doubt that this is
an idea that is emerging out of the contemporary discourse of the 'African
Renaissance', an idea that is still in its infancy.
The received Islamic theology is a theology that was a result of
interpretations, which obviously affected the self-understanding of their
societies and were largely influenced by the socio-cultural, political and
historical conditions in which they developed - conditions which are different
from those of contemporary Africa. Moreover, there is a time-space gap not only
between the African and the classical interpretations of Islamic theology, but
just as much between the African Muslim and the Qur'an itself. He cannot just
read these texts and understand what he sees because of the gap that divides
past and present. To him, the received Islamic theology and the classical tafsir
genre constitute the 'tribal other'. To the Indian or Arab Muslim in Africa, the
African is still regarded as 'the undesirable other'. Therefore, the African
theological and hermeneutical voice must be grounded in and must grow out of
this identity of otherness. In this way decontextualisation and
recontextualisation of Islamic theology with regard to the texts as with regard
to their readers is imperative. The terms 'African Islamic theology' or 'African
Qur'anic Hermeneutics' stress the contextual nature of this theological and
hermeneutical genre in Africa. It is predominantly concerned with the ways to
reconstruct Islamic theology independent from the Arab or South Asian
socio-cultural influences. It is an attempt to bring Africa's existential
experiences to the text - what is typical of Africa, and to search for an
African intellectual self-definition. This is because the Qur'anic truth is
open, dynamic and subject to reinterpretation and recontexualisation.
Source: Section from 'Towards an African Qur'anic Hermeneutics' - Available for
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