Original Research - Special Collection: Graham Duncan Dedication

Imvuselelo: Embers of liberation in South Africa post-1994

Vuyani Vellem
HTS Teologiese Studies / Theological Studies | Vol 72, No 1 | a3501 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.4102/hts.v72i1.3501 | © 2016 Vuyani Vellem | This work is licensed under CC Attribution 4.0
Submitted: 23 May 2016 | Published: 28 November 2016

About the author(s)

Vuyani Vellem, Department of Dogmatics and Christian Ethics, Faculty of Theology, University of Pretoria, South Africa

Abstract

The unprecedented cultural consciousness after decades of black cultural suppression in the South African public life since the 1990s summons us to the need to harness African ecclesiopolitical symbols in public life. This task is executed at a time when the notions of inter alia, spirituality and Imvuselelo are at the heart of the combustion chambers of our public and political life. Imvuselelo is a thermometer of decolonialist rebellion – the militant spirituality linked with Tiyo Soga – and is a self-combustion escape route in instances of black African epistemicide and violence. The heuristic device of iziko (fireplace) is employed to illuminate and locate the reestablishment and anamnestic praxis of protological life-giving foundations of spirituality in the African universe in our interpretation of Imvuselelo. The notion of imvuselelo is illuminated through iziko to debunk the incompatibilities, disharmonies, incongruences and conflagrations of virtual spirituality in its capture and domestication of the resources of the downtrodden.

Keywords

Image; Imvuselelo; Iziko; Rebellion; Spirituality

Metrics

Total abstract views: 3206
Total article views: 3855

 

Crossref Citations

1. Decolonisation asUnlearning Christianity: Fallism and African Religiosity as Case Studies
Jakub Urbaniak
Black Theology  vol: 17  issue: 3  first page: 223  year: 2019  
doi: 10.1080/14769948.2019.1688088