Haase_UZ_x007E_DTh (2).pdf - South African Theological Seminary

This resistance literature is quite popular, and remains focused on ‘de-centering’ the
colonial cultural hegemony. “Besides postmodernism, postcolonial studies have been
rapidly gaining attention as notoriously argumentative critical categories of our time”
(Sugirtharajah, 2002:1). Like postmodernism, postcolonialism has drawn attention to
minority and subjugated voices “which have been lost, overlooked, or suppressed in
histories and narratives” (ibid.).
Interestingly, it was Edward Said, author of Orientalism, that in the 1970’s introduced
the world to postmodernist Michel Foucault (Turner, 1994:4). Turner says of Foucault
and Said: “The analysis of knowledge and power in the work of Michel Foucault provides
the basis for Edward Said’s influential study of Orientalism (1978) as a discourse of
difference in which the apparently neutral Occident - Orient contrast is an expression of
power relationships” (Turner, 1994:21). Said’s Orientalism sought to “reduce the endless
complexity of the East into a definite order of types, characters, and constitution” (ibid.).
The deep influence of modernity in Western theologizing, has consequently influenced
global theologizing; considered by some, yet another form of neo-colonialism. Western
cultural domination is also present in biblical translations. T. Johnson Chakkuvarackal,
who teaches the New Testament at Serampore College in India, says postcolonial trends
remain a challenge to biblical interpretation.
Most of the Indian translations are distorted due
to the total dependence on the English versions,
which provide messages different from the
original sources. Thus there happens double
and even more alienation from the original text.
The different principles, colonial infiltration of
English culture and language have created the
tendency for Indians to rely on English versions
as the primary sources. In the postcolonial
period the Biblical message was corrupted
extensively due to the strategies of
decolonization of English language. and the
attempts to make intertextuality between
different religious traditions and scriptures.
In such a context, this paper enables the
translators, interpreters and the general public
to give primary emphasis for the reliable
Greek and Hebrew sources for translation and
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University of Zululand, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa