What are post-colonial approaches?

R.S. Sugirtharajah, in his introduction to Voices from the Margin, defines a post-colonial reader as “the real and actual reader/hearer…these flesh-and-bone readers—minjung, dalits, indigenous people, male and female, professional and lay, standing within their own social location—oppressive, caste-ridden, patriarchal, multi-religious, and trying to make sense of their context and the texts” (3). This is also a Third World theology, from peoples who are from previously colonized areas, and who are now trying to break down the oppressive systems that still control aspects of their lives.

The hermeneutics a post-colonial interpreter utilizes will be different depending on his or her situation. For example, “a hermeneutics of liberation which is envisaged for an African women’s struggle will be at once a human, African and feminist hermeneutic of liberation” (Mosala, 173). Whatever forms of oppression in their lives, post-colonial interpreters will use theologies to struggle against them.

This approach is so open to addressing everyone’s struggle, and recognizing that each person will have a different experience and context out of which they read and interpret the Bible. This allows for richness in interpretations and more ways of discovering meaning from the Biblical text. I like this approach because of its “attempts to address the issues of struggle, marginality, and colonialism” (Sugirtharajah 1). Trying to break down systems of oppression, and allowing everyone a chance to use their lives as a way of interpreting scripture is inspiring and meaningful.