Decolonising Biblical Studies in Africa: Re-thinking the Possibilities, Opportunities and Challenges

European colonisation of Africa was manifest in the political, economic, cultural and religious domination and exploitation of Africans by Europeans. This domination and exploitation were operationalised by force and coercion through the use of military power but also through epistemicide, in which education was used to impart colonial thinking while exterminating indigenous systems of knowledge and ways of knowing. Through a discourse and document analysis, this chapter assesses how the Bible was used in order to support the colonisation of Africa. Further, it also assesses the responses that emerged from Africans in their attempt to resist and undo colonisation, beginning with the emergence of African Initiated Churches. Generations of African readers of the Bible have, in one way or another, with success and sometimes failure, read the Bible to unlearn and undo colonisation. This chapter avers that a renewed focus on decolonisation in Biblical studies must focus on the text of the Bible, colonial interpretations, indigenous interpretations and usage of the Bible, as well as promoting the development of age-appropriate decolonial readings of the Bible for the creation of an African critical decolonised mass of Christians for the overall development of Africa.