The CIHA Blog seeks to highlight critical and religious voices to explore connections among different issues of social importance in colonial and post-colonial contexts. Today, we are posting two short descriptions of the recently published book, Our God of Ubuntu is Infected by Corona Virus, by Reverend Lwamkelo Gwaxaza. The book provides a theological reflection on how COVID-19 has impacted African ways of life and particularly, the notion of Ubuntu/humaneness. We would love to hear your thoughts in the comments section!
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Rev. Gwaxaza explains the complexity of the challenges that the world and especially African people are facing concerning the spread of the COVID-19 virus in the African context. He writes: “The coronavirus is a strange visitor, unknown and unexpected in human life.” This statement summarizes the complexity of dealing with the strangeness of the virus when it comes to your shores and your own house. From Rev. Gwaxaza’s perspective, the God of Ubuntu/humaneness has coronavirus. If God is among the people and shares Godself with humanity, it is then so that God is infected by the coronavirus. The virus itself, he argues, has made African people’s lives difficult, including by affecting churches and cultural institutions, as well as normal human relations. The notion of Ubuntu/humaneness cannot be actualized in the context of the coronavirus, socially, religiously, or economically, while countries and people are suffering because of the virus.
(Dr Sipho Mahokoto is a lecturer at Stellenbosch University, Faculty of Theology in the Ecclesiology and Systematic Theology Department and teaches Public Theology and Ethics. He is also an ordained minister of the Uniting Reformed Church in Southern Africa – serving at the Kayamandi congregation in Stellenbosch, South Africa).
In this book, Rev Gwaxaza is challenging us as ministers and theologians during this coronavirus time, to be vigilant theologically in seeking to be the voice of the voiceless, especially those who have been impacted by the virus. The book shows Rev Gwaxaza’s zeal and theological appetite for engaging in matters that directly affect society. The chapter on Ubuntu/humaneness is outstanding for me because he shows that the coronavirus, in violating who we are, raises significant hermeneutical questions, such as, where is God located in human society? Is it possible for umntu/person to find God outside Ubuntu/humaneness? The God of Ubuntu/humaneness for abantu/people is infected. This chapter challenges us to look back and locate the God of Ubuntu/humaneness and do away with the western God who cares little and has no idea of what Ubuntu/humaneness is. I regard this book as the pocketbook of all the Church ministers now and in the future.
(Mzukisi Faleni: Dip Theo (Dumisani Theo Institute), BA Hons (University of the Western Cape), MTh (University of the Western Cape), MPhil (University of Stellenbosch)).