Interpreting the Book of Amos: A Contemporary African Biblical Hermeneutical Perspective

The Bible has been widely researched by a plethora of scholars the world-over, and a general observation suffices that the Bible, both open and closed, has contributed immensely to addressing political, social, economic and religious crises of life. Although this is a general scholarly observation, little attention has been given to interrogating the Bible (in particular the Old Testament) on prophecy from a contemporary African perspective. Through the application of the African biblical hermeneutical paradigm, the book of Amos is then interpreted and examined in an African way. This scholarly examination of the book of Amos stems from the observation that social justice (mispat) and righteousness (sedeqah) are the pillars of societal transformation as ushered by the eighth-century prophetic figures of Tekoa, Isaiah of Jerusalem, Jeremiah of Anathoth and Micah of Moresheth in ancient Israel. This book chapter interrogates the book of Amos from an African biblical hermeneutical perspective in order to contextually apply such to Zimbabwe for fostering social, political, economic and religious societal transformation in the post-colonial times.