A Poetics of Postcolonial Biblical Criticism
God, Human-Nature Relationship, and Negritude
Imprint: Cascade Books
Telling in current biblical postcolonial discourse that draws insights from the works of Aime Cesaire, Frantz Fanon, and postcolonial theorists is the missing contribution of Leopold Sedar Senghor, the architect of Negritude. If mentioned at all, Senghor is often read through conclusions drawn by his critics or dismissed altogether as irrelevant to postcolonialism. Restored to its rightful place, Senghorian Negritude is a postcolonial lens for reading Scripture and other faith traditions with a view to reposition, conscientize, liberate, and rehabilitate the conquered, and enable them to reclaim their faith traditions and practices that once directed a mutual relationship between God, human, and nature--a delicate symbiosis before the French colonial advent in West Africa. A keen eye for cross-cultural analysis and contextualization enriched this volume with an intriguing reading of scripture, Ancient Near Eastern and Greco-Roman texts in conversation with other faith traditions, particularly Senegalese Diola Religion. As a Poetics of Postcolonial Biblical Criticism, Negritude is an optic through which people of faith may look around themselves, critically reread their sacred texts, reassess their vocation, and practice mutuality with God and nature on the heels of chilling climate change. Enshrined in this innovative argument is a call for introspection and challenge for people of faith to assume their vocation--human participatory agency.
Aliou Cissé Niang is Associate Professor of New Testament at Union Theological Seminary in New York. He is the author of Faith and Freedom in Galatia and Senegal: (2009) and co-editor (with Carolyn Osiek) of Text, Image and Christians in the Graeco-Roman World: A Festschrift in Honor of David Lee Balch (2012).
“In an interdisciplinary and cross-cultural tour de force, Senegalese-American New Testament scholar Aliou Niang introduces two new voices into current debates about African Traditional Religion, ecology, postcolonialism, and the Bible: Léopold Sédar Senghor whose seminal ideas on Négritude and a ‘civilization of the universal’ have been neglected for too long, and the earth-centered wisdom of Niang’s own native Diola culture—glimpses of ancient indigenous survival knowledge strikingly relevant in times of global ecological crisis. A fascinating book!”
—Brigitte Kahl, Professor of New Testament, Union Theological Seminary New York
“In a brilliant deployment of scholarly insights from multiple fields and subfields in biblical studies—from history of religions to comparative religions to exegesis and reception history—Aliou Niang’s A Poetics of Postcolonial Biblical Criticism is as compelling in its theoretical and methodological framing and appropriations of Senghorian Negritude as it is in its engagement with the multipositionality and multilocality of the postcolonial hermeneut. Forceful, yet unapologetic, Niang’s A Poetics is a refreshing read of the Bible, of African (Diola) culture, and of biblical interpretation itself. It is a veritable gift of Africana hermeneutics to the field of biblical scholarship.”
—Kenneth Ngwa, Associate Professor of Hebrew Bible, Drew University Theological School
"Niang here draws competently on a vast cultural and disciplinary range of conversation partners. This work is grounded in concrete cultural realities, hermeneutically sophisticated, and enlightening for current philosophic, literary and ecological discussions."
Craig Keener, Professor of New Testament, Asbury Theological Seminary in Wilmore, Kentucky.
“Pope Francis, in the encyclical Laudato Si’, writes that “indigenous communities and their cultural traditions…are not merely one minority among other, but should be the principal dialogue partners” in restoration of degraded nature and culture. (Para. 146) This dialogue will include a re-reading of Scripture through indigenous sources of wisdom. When this is carried out by deeply informed biblical criticism the results are a gift to all. Aliou Cissé Niang’s work is that gift. A splendid work! Larry Rasmussen, Reinhold Niebuhr Professor of Social Ethics emeritus, Union Theological Seminary New York.”
Larry Rasmussen, Union Theological Seminary
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