Biblical Representations of Moab ― A Kenyan Postcolonial Reading

In a thorough revision of his doctoral dissertation on the Hebrew Bible at Drew University, Wafula uses Israelite-Moabite ethnic constructions to show how the language that Israelites used to help them break free from imperial control also reinscribed the imperial philosophies under which they had suffered, causing colonized victims to become colonizing victimizers. He explores how stories about Moab and the Moabites reinscribe narrative violence against the Moabites, and how counter-stories--particularly in the book of Ruth--begin deconstructing that violence by telling a positive story of the Moabites. Then he compares the Israelite-Moabite representations with the Kikuyu-Luo ethnic representations in Kenya, which shows how narrative violence can extend into actual violence against the Other. Annotation c2014 Ringgold, Inc., Portland, OR (protoview.com)

R. S. Wafula (PhD, Hebrew Bible, Drew University) completed his bachelor of divinity degree at St. Paul’s University in Limuru, Kenya. He earned his master’s degrees in theology in Hebrew Bible and Old Testament studies at Edinburgh University in Scotland; theological studies, Old Testament at the Eden Theological Seminary in St. Louis, Missouri; theology, Hebrew Bible at the Westminster Theological Seminary in Glenside, Pennsylvania; and philosophy, Hebrew Bible, at Drew University in Madison, New Jersey. Dr. Wafula is the author of ?I Am What You Are Not: A Critical Postcolonial Reading of the Africa Bible Commentary’s Abraham-Lot Stories in Genesis?, which was featured in the edited volume Postcolonial Perspectives in African Biblical Interpretations.