Editorial

Abstract

One of the central issues with which Black theology has had to wrestle is the way in which our perception of reality has been shaped by coloniality and Whiteness. I work in the prestigious climes of Oxford university, in what is a predominantly White privileged space. Upon meeting a young Black woman student as a new, informal mentee, I was forced to confront my inbuilt prejudice that was far too ready to assume that she was an affirmative action or an access student for whom some sort of compensation had been made to allow her entry into Oxford. Within a couple of minutes of talking with her my prejudices were decimated. The question that lingered in my brain, long after the student had departed, was how could an experienced, anti-racist, critical pedagogy infused, Black theologian still be trapped in an internalised colonised world view that assumed that Black people were inherently less capable than their White counterparts? On further reflection I was reminded that conscientisation and liberation are best understood as ongoing processes rather than just static, one-off events. Yes, I had read lots of books inculcating a radical and revolutionary view of the world into my consciousness, but all of us are ongoing works-in-progress, as new knowledge and truths confront us through our ongoing maturation as human beings. The five peer review articles (and one accompanying review article) in this issue are linked in the way they challenge us to ‘think again’ and see the world and others differently. Each, in their own way, remind us that the task of consciously knowing is not a static or purely abstract affair, but rather, is an embodied and often affect driven enterprise, where we learn to see, be and feel differently. Gordon Dames provides the first piece in this issue of the journal. His article offers a contextual analysis of the contemporary challenges facing education in South Africa that are framed in terms of the concept “wounds of humanity”. In addressing these wounds, the author proposes a Christian religious leadership pedagogy that provides a form of subversive education and a new prospect for leadership education that is illuminated in this work. This mode of educational praxis is developed in order to teach leaders the disposition for ethicaljustice and peace, followed by a proposal for a new cultural heritage of humanity; namely, the quest for a true humanity that is our collective destiny. Amaryah Shaye Armstrong’s paper argues that W.E.B. Du Bois’ short stories are a rich source of apocalyptic theology. Reading them apocalyptically, she argues, helps to illuminate how Du Bois employed Christian theological material in order to negate the White supremacist order. Reading Du Bois apocalyptically shows the significance of Black cultural production in apocalyptic terms and demonstrates the exilic character of Black people in modern history. Through a close reading of 3 short stories by Du Bois, the author shows how his sense of the apocalyptic draws on the prophetic, messianic, and eschatological dimensions, in Black religion, as they anticipate a world ungoverned by White supremacy and free from anti-Black violence. John Arierhi Ottuh’s article examines the conflation of Christianisation, commerce and civilisation (3Cs,) as strategies of European imperialist movements. His article considers the impact such endeavour has made on Nigeria’s historic and contemporary struggles with enslavement. Using the historical method, this paper argues that the methods of the 3Cs adopted by the colonial imperialist, whilst they had some positive impacts, they