How can a Conquered People Sing Praises of their History and Culture? Africanization as the Integration of Inculturation and Liberation

Engaging the work of Professor Christina Landman

“…By employing this research methodology, Landman is breaking boundaries by challenging traditionally accepted methodologies that rely on the distance created in Western positivism. Landman defends this methodological position by citing Prof. Rothney Tshaka, who argues that such a methodology is more true to the values held in the African context regarding how research should be done (Tshaka 2016) compared to the values of traditional Western methodologies. So, Landman speaks and is enabling the marginalised to speak by unlocking their voices by means of conversation, co-research and codiscovery (Landman & Yates 2017).…”

Transformative Education, Participative Black Theology and the Challenge of Making a Difference

“…Contemporary Black theologians, such as Tinyiko Maluleke (Maluleke 2022), Rothney Tshaka (Tshaka 2016(Tshaka , 2019, and the late Vuyani Vellem (Vellem 2014), writing in the postapartheid era, have all come to continue the radical tradition of exploring religious and theological perspectives through a liberative framework, seeking to deepen the concept and practice of Black consciousness and empowerment of Black Africans. In the years after 1994, particularly in the second decade of the new century, and the universal enfranchisement of all South Africans, the continued development of Black theology has had to respond to a host of contemporary problems facing ordinary Black people.…”

“…One such issue was the phenomenon of a Black-run government overseeing the continued marginalisation of the Black majority of the population. Whether in terms of confronting 'Afrophobia', 3 or challenging the democratic essentialism surrounding the continued support for the African National Congress, post-1994 South African Black theologians have wrestled with continued existential problems that plague the poor Black majority of the nation (Tshaka 2016(Tshaka , 2019.…”

Liberating the classroom: Ethnographic elements in liberation theologies curricula

“…598–599) explain that for them, as teachers in a master's program on gender, religion, and health in South Africa, this method aimed at consciously privileging lived experiences over abstract theorizing and emphasized the importance of the knower. Also writing in South Africa, Rothney Tshaka (2016, p. 104) promotes this kind of approach by identifying the centering of “those stories of Africa and her people that are perceived to be unscholarly” as a primary source of theology as he reflects on what Africanizing theological faculties should entail. Conversely, as noted above, writing in the United States, Strain (2000) found using stories and narratives ineffective in assisting North American students to begin to understand the reality of their other.…”