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Gerald O. West & Musa W. Dube, eds., the Bible in Africa. Transactions, Trajectories and Trends.

Article Excerpt
* Brill, Leiden, Boston and Koln, 2000, 846 pages, hardcover, 50.95[pounds sterling].

According to the United Bible Societies Scripture Language Report 2002, Africa holds the world's leading position in the number of languages (then 641) into which the Bible has been translated in full or in part. This figure is a statistical affirmation that, among other things, the Bible has penetrated Africa, which in turn has also entered into the Bible. What then does this presence of the Bible in Africa mean? Gerald O. West and Musa W. Dube have edited a collection of essays in which 34 scholars address this question. Their book: The Bible in Africa, with voices from different perspectives, countries and church families, gives a working insight into what is happening to and with the Bible on the continent. Gerald West is professor of Biblical Studies at the University of Natal, South Africa, and Musa Dube, usually a lecturer in the New Testament at the University of Botswana, is presently theological consultant for the WCC in the Ecumenical HIV/AIDS Initiate in Africa.

The editors have arranged the essays into five broad categories: Historical and Hermeneutical

Perspectives (9 contributions), Encounters with Particular Texts (16), Comparison and Translation (9) Redrawing the Boundaries of the Bible (4), and Bibliography (1). They include useful indices of biblical references, and names and subjects, as well as their own introduction and a list of contributors. This is a large and multi-faced volume, with a lot of substance in...