Browsing by Author "Wabyanga, Robert Kuloba"

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An afro-bibilical reading of genesis 2-3 in response to climate change
(Sheffield phoenix press, 2023) Wabyanga, Robert Kuloba
The primary focus of this paper is an Afro-biblical reading of Genesis 2-3, informed by indigenous epistemologies and in response to contemporary local and global environmental crises. Using the context of Uganda, it brings African spiritual sensitivities about nature into conversation with Genesis 2-3. Based on archival and ethnographic research, the questions directing the investigation are: how can African spirituality inform reading of Genesis 2-3? What is the significance of Afro-biblical reading in responding to the problems of climate change?
The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah revisited: military and political reflections
(Old Testament Essays, 2015) Wabyanga, Robert Kuloba
That Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis have been a subject of constant cognitive itch is a truism rather than fiction. Aware that the HB is an ideological text, the story of Jordan states notably Sodom and Gomorrah may need further reflections outside sexual frontlines but from the perspectives of political dynamics of the ANE. This paper explores Sodom and Gomorrah as a political and military story that turned theological and ideological. I opine that the fire that razed Sodom and Gomorrah could have been the result of military invasion(s). What is however intriguing is the interest of the biblical writer: at what points would the military or political afterlife of Sodom and Gomorrah meet with the ideological interests of the Bible writer? What interests does the writer have in Sodom and Gomorrah that he finds it necessary not only to conceal the historical reality but also invent ideas and imageries of Sodom and Gomorrah as condemned cities? The paper employs Clines' and Exum's strategies of reading against the grain and defragmenting the stories. In this case, the different stories of Sodom and Gomorrah in chs. 10, 13, 14, 18 and 19 are read critically and in conversation with each other.
“I am Black and Beautiful”: A Black African Reading of Song of Songs 1:5–7 as a Protest Song
(Journal of the Old Testament society of South Africa, 2021-11-16) Wabyanga, Robert Kuloba
Adamo’s article on Ebed-Melech’s protest brings fresh insight into my earlier article on Song of Songs 1:5–7, prompting me to reread the text as a protest song (essay) against the racial stigmata that continue to bedevil black people in the world. The current article, using hermeneutics of appropriation, maintains the meaning of שְׁחוֹרָה as a black person, who in the Song of Songs protests against the racism, which transformed her status to that of a socio-economic other. The study is informed by the contemporary and historical contexts of racial injustices and stigma suffered by Blacks for ‘being’ while Black. The essay investigates this question: In which ways does Adamo’s reading of Jer 38:1–17 influence an African reading of Song 1:5–7 as a protest against racism? The article employs African Biblical Hermeneutics, as part of a creative and literary art in the protests against racism, to read the biblical text as our story—a divine story, which in the language of Adamo, has inherent divine power that can empower oppressed black people.
Innovation or Competition? A Critical Analysis of Contemporary Divine Healing Practices of Pentecostal Africans in Africa and the Diaspora
(International Bulletin of Mission Research, 2020-10-12) Wabyanga, Robert Kuloba; Nyamnjoh, Henrietta; Ugba, Abel
This article examines current practices of divine healing of Pentecostal Africans. It provides insights into current developments by using the explanatory concepts of innovation, competition, and agency. The article draws on data obtained through an interdisciplinary, transnational, and multisite investigation of eight Pentecostal churches in Kampala, Nairobi, Cape Town, and London. Methods used included ethnographic observation, visual ethnography, and semistructured interviews. Pentecostal Africans in Africa and the diaspora, this article argues, are simultaneously reenacting centuries-old faith-informed healing practices and creatively reinventing aspects of these practices to assert their relevance in a postmodern world characterized by religious plurality, competition, and secularism.
Reading Proverbs 13:23 in Texts and Contexts of Poverty in Africa: A Theoretical Framework
(Journal of the Old Testament society of South Africa, 2022) Wabyanga, Robert Kuloba
The Masoretic text of Prov 13:23 (רָב־ אֹ֭כֶל נִ֣יר רָא שִׁ֑ים וְ יֵ֥ש נִ֜סְפֶֶּ֗הבְלִ֣ א משְפָָּֽט) highlights the absence of mishpat (משְפָט) as the cause of the poverty of the poor. This article reads Prov 13:23 in conversation with the contemporary conceptualisation of economic poverty. The concept of mishpat (משְפָט) is theorised and hermeneutically applied to the issue of poverty in Africa. The key questions under investigation are: What is mishpat in the text and its context? How should mishpat be read in the African context? How does the biblical understanding of the poor and mishpat inform responses to Africa's poverty? In this study, the assumptions are that poverty in Africa is the result of both socio-economic and political injustices of the West and Africans themselves. Africans are agents of their own poverty. The study employs a hermeneutical and multidisciplinary approach, drawing examples from the social sciences.
The teaching and learning of Religious Education in Ugandan Schools after fifty years: A critical analysis
(Makerere University Press, 2021-04) Wabyanga, Robert Kuloba; Kaije, Doris
Religious Education (RE) is a value-oriented subject that has been part of the Ugandan curricula since independence. Its main purpose, as stated by the National Curriculum Development Centre (NCDC) is to promote the development of moral, ethical, and spiritual values. It is an academic discipline, which is geared to the development of an inquisitive and critical approach to fundamental questions of religion and human existence. However, the extent to which the aims and objective of RE have been achieved is a subject of contention. There is no lack of evidence of all sorts of moral, ethical, and spiritual anarchy in the Ugandan society, which calls for a scholarly investigation into the content, methodology, and evaluation techniques in the teaching and learning of RE in primary and secondary schools. The study is based on textual information, observations, and personal experiences and purposeful interactions with fellow RE teachers. It is our opinion in this chapter that RE in Uganda's primary and secondary schools has been reduced to cognitive achievements without emphasis on the affective domain. The teaching and evaluation emphasise cognitive output rather than behavioural outcomes. Keywords: Religious Education, moral values, teaching/learning religion.