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Reclaiming biblical and South African slave narratives: reading Hagar (Genesis 16 & 21) and Susanna (Een Oor) van Bengalen, (slave woman in the cape colony) through a womanist hermeneutic
Thesis (MTh)--Stellenbosch University, 2025.
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Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University
2025
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| _version_ | 1867614082447704064 |
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| access_status_str | Open Access |
| author | Arendse, Madre |
| author2 | Claassens, L. Juliana M., 1972- |
| author_browse | Arendse, Madre Claassens, L. Juliana M., 1972- |
| author_facet | Claassens, L. Juliana M., 1972- Arendse, Madre |
| author_sort | Arendse, Madre |
| collection | Thesis |
| dc_rights_str_mv | Stellenbosch University |
| description |
Thesis (MTh)--Stellenbosch University, 2025. |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oai:scholar.sun.ac.za:10019.1/132046 |
| institution | Stellenbosch University (South Africa) |
| last_indexed | 2026-06-10T12:46:22.874Z |
| license_str | Other — see source repository |
| provenance_str_mv | Harvested via OAI-PMH from SUNScholar — Stellenbosch University Repository |
| publishDate | 2025 |
| publishDateRange | 2025 |
| publishDateSort | 2025 |
| publisher | Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University |
| publisherStr | Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University |
| record_format | dspace |
| source_str | SUNScholar — Stellenbosch University Repository |
| spelling | oai:scholar.sun.ac.za:10019.1/132046 Reclaiming biblical and South African slave narratives: reading Hagar (Genesis 16 & 21) and Susanna (Een Oor) van Bengalen, (slave woman in the cape colony) through a womanist hermeneutic Arendse, Madre Claassens, L. Juliana M., 1972- Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Theology. Dept. of Old and New Testament. Women in the Bible Women -- Religious aspects -- Christianity Bible -- Feminist criticism Bible -- Hermeneutics Slave narratives -- South Africa Womanist theology -- Hermeneutics UCTD Thesis (MTh)--Stellenbosch University, 2025. Arendse, M. 2025. Reclaiming biblical and South African slave narratives: reading Hagar (Genesis 16 & 21) and Susanna (een oor) van Bengalen (slave woman in the Cape Colony) through a womanist hermeneutic. Unpublished masters thesis. Stellenbosch: Stellenbosch Univeristy [online]. Available: https://scholar.sun.ac.za/items/d4df5983-01da-438d-8449-f74a5e3d4c4f ENGLISH SUMMARY: This study intended to engage the erasures and intentional academic amnesia around the lives and experiences of enslaved women in the Cape Colony in a transgressive manner. It firmly rejects a historical account of the past that does not fundamentally engage and lean into the existing nuances and inherent complexities. In very few instances, does the identity of those who occupied the positions at the bottom of the power structure receive any space within the historical consciousness. Therefore, this study set out to particularly employ Womanist Biblical Interpretation to uncover, unearth and unveil the silenced lives, essentially subjected to systemic erasure and inherent violence. Metaphorically, this study employed Toni Morrison’s analogy of a “site of memory” (2019:238), which essentially means collecting the resources, documents, cultures and artefacts that can be used to “tell the story”. Morrison implores black women to visit these sites to “journey to see the remains left behind and to reconstruct the world that these remains imply” (2019:238). Articulated within this exhortation is a two-fold responsibility of those who wish to engage and disrupt historical thought as it has been presented. These are, first, a critical analysis of what lies before us when reading, seeing and hearing the sources. Second, paying close attention to these sources, evoking a story pointing to a more extensive and more profound reality than what is explicitly shown. Hence, the “construction of the world implied” fundamentally points to the narratives that are not told, inaccessible, and inherently veiled by that which aims to forcefully and purposefully forget. Therefore, this study aims at regarding, valuing, seeing and seeking the inner lives of enslaved women that have so readily been veiled. This study places Hagar in Genesis 16 and 21 at the centre of this analysis. It draws out her experiences by looking at three core aspects of her enslavement; these are survival, motherhood and disposability. These three aspects that arise in regarding Hagar’s life as presented in Genesis 16 and 21 form the foundation on which the fragments of Susanna (Een Oor) van Bengalen, a slave woman in the Cape Colony who was tried and sentenced to death for murdering her infant child, are re-collected and brought into consciousness. Finally, the narrative re-collection of Hagar and the re-collection of fragments of the life of Susanna are placed in Womanist inter(con)textual dialogue. Womanist Biblical Interpretation, as a hermeneutical approach that centres lived experiences, cultures, histories and traditions of women of colour, afforded this study the space to bring the context of our enslaved women in the Cape Colony to the Biblical text. In doing so, this study investigates and critiques modes of erasure; these women do not give their inner lives up that easily. AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie studie het ten doel gehad om die uitwissing en doelbewuste akademiese amnesie rakende die lewens en ervarings van slawevroue in die Kaapse Kolonie met ʼn transgressiewe benadering aan te spreek. Dit verwerp ʼn historiese weergawe van die verlede wat nie fundamenteel die bestaande nuanses en kompleksiteite ondersoek en verdiep nie. In slegs enkele gevalle word die identiteit van die wat die posisies onder aan die magsstruktuur beklee het, ruimte in die historiese bewussyn gegun. Hierdie studie fokus derhalwe spesifiek daarop om Womanist Bybelse Interpretasie toe te pas op die stilgemaakte lewens, wat aan sistemiese uitwissing en inherente geweld onderwerp was; om dit te ontdek en te onthul. Metafories het hierdie studie Toni Morrisonn se analogie van “site of memory” (plek van herinneringe) (2019:238) gebruik, wat verwys na die hulpbronne, dokumente, kulture en artefakte wat aangewend kan word om “die verhaal te vertel’. Morrison versoek vroue van kleur om na hierdie plek te reis om die oorblyfsels te sien wat agtergelaat is, en om die wereld wat hierdie oorblyfsels impliseer, te rekonstrueer (2019:238). In hierdie aansporing le ʼn tweeledige verantwoordelikheid vir diegene wat historiese denke wil bevraagteken en ontwrig soos dit voorgestel word. Eerstens vereis dit ʼn kritiese ontleding van wat voor ons is wanneer ons die bronne lees, sien en hoor; tweedens roep dit die leser om te fokus op hierdie bronne om ʼn verhaal te ontbloot wat noodwendig op ʼn groter en dieper werklikheid dui. Die “konstruksie van die wereld wat geimpliseer word” dui dus op die narratiewe wat nie vertel word nie, wat nie toeganklik is nie, en wat inherent verbloem word deur die magte wat doelbewus vergeet afdwing. Dus, is hierdie studie gemik op die herwaardering van die innerlike lewens van verslaafde vroue wat so maklik versluier is. Die studie plaas Hagar uit Genesis 16 en 21 in die middelpunt van hierdie analise. Dit ontleed haar ervarings deur drie kernaspekte van haar slawe-ondervinding uit te lig, naamlik oorlewing, moederskap en wegdoenbaarheid. Hierdie drie aspekte, wat na vore gekom het deur op Hagar se lewe soos voorgestel in Genesis 16 en 21 te reflekteer, vorm die basis waarop die fragmente van Susanna (Een Oor) van Bengalen, ‘n slawevrou aan die Kaapkolonie wat ter dood veroordeel is vir die moord van haar babadogtertjie, onthou en in die bewussyn geplaas word. Laastens, word die narratiewe herroeping van Hagar en die gefragmenteerde herroeping van Susanna se lewe in Womanist inter(kon)tekstuele dialoog geplaas. Womanist Bybelse interpretasie, as ʼn hermeneutiese benadering wat op die lewens, kulture, geskiedenisse en tradisies van vroue van kleur konsentreer, bied aan hierdie studie die ruimte om die konteks van slawevroue in die Kaapkolonie by die Bybelteks te bring. Die studie ondersoek en kritiseer die verskillende modusse van uitwissing, wat in wese nie die innerlike lewens van hierdie vroue maklik prysgee nie. Masters 2025-05-21T06:21:02Z 2025-05-21T06:21:02Z 2025-03 Thesis https://scholar.sun.ac.za/handle/10019.1/132046 Stellenbosch University 121 pages application/pdf Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University |
| spellingShingle | Women in the Bible Women -- Religious aspects -- Christianity Bible -- Feminist criticism Bible -- Hermeneutics Slave narratives -- South Africa Womanist theology -- Hermeneutics UCTD Arendse, Madre Reclaiming biblical and South African slave narratives: reading Hagar (Genesis 16 & 21) and Susanna (Een Oor) van Bengalen, (slave woman in the cape colony) through a womanist hermeneutic |
| title | Reclaiming biblical and South African slave narratives: reading Hagar (Genesis 16 & 21) and Susanna (Een Oor) van Bengalen, (slave woman in the cape colony) through a womanist hermeneutic |
| title_full | Reclaiming biblical and South African slave narratives: reading Hagar (Genesis 16 & 21) and Susanna (Een Oor) van Bengalen, (slave woman in the cape colony) through a womanist hermeneutic |
| title_fullStr | Reclaiming biblical and South African slave narratives: reading Hagar (Genesis 16 & 21) and Susanna (Een Oor) van Bengalen, (slave woman in the cape colony) through a womanist hermeneutic |
| title_full_unstemmed | Reclaiming biblical and South African slave narratives: reading Hagar (Genesis 16 & 21) and Susanna (Een Oor) van Bengalen, (slave woman in the cape colony) through a womanist hermeneutic |
| title_short | Reclaiming biblical and South African slave narratives: reading Hagar (Genesis 16 & 21) and Susanna (Een Oor) van Bengalen, (slave woman in the cape colony) through a womanist hermeneutic |
| title_sort | reclaiming biblical and south african slave narratives reading hagar genesis 16 21 and susanna een oor van bengalen slave woman in the cape colony through a womanist hermeneutic |
| topic | Women in the Bible Women -- Religious aspects -- Christianity Bible -- Feminist criticism Bible -- Hermeneutics Slave narratives -- South Africa Womanist theology -- Hermeneutics UCTD |
| url | https://scholar.sun.ac.za/handle/10019.1/132046 |
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