Original Research - Special Collection: Change agency in a 21st-century South Africa

Unshackling the chains of coloniality: Reimagining decoloniality, Africanisation and Reformation for a non-racial South Africa

Thinandavha D. Mashau
HTS Teologiese Studies / Theological Studies | Vol 74, No 3 | a4920 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.4102/hts.v74i3.4920 | © 2018 Thinandavha Derrick Mashau | This work is licensed under CC Attribution 4.0
Submitted: 24 January 2018 | Published: 29 May 2018

About the author(s)

Thinandavha D. Mashau, Department of Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology, University of South Africa, South Africa

Abstract

Racial divisions, polarisation and tensions are on the rise in South Africa today. A democratic dream of a rainbow nation remains just a dream with racism continuing to raise its ugly head in the democratic South Africa, to the detriment of the rainbow dream of a united South Africa. This article seeks to probe whether South Africans should continue to sing the song of racial reconciliation in the light of the continued racial tensions and post-colonial and post-apartheid legacies and stereotypes that continue to manifest in our private and public spaces. Based on an examination of the decoloniality project, Africanisation and Reformation, through literature study, the article calls for the decoloniality of faith in an effort to craft a vision for a non-racial society. This vision not only takes the importance of the redeeming memories of the 500 years of Reformation seriously, but also the notion of Africanisation and, in particular, the use of the African value systems in shaping and reconstructing a non-racial South Africa. This article taps into the resourcefulness of the Reformed faith in South Africa, as articulated in the theologies of Snyman, Tshaka and Botha, and applies them to South African discourses of decoloniality.

Keywords

Coloniality; Decoloniality; Africanisation; Reformation

Metrics

Total abstract views: 4090
Total article views: 6621

 

Crossref Citations

1. Violence and Corruption of Megachurch Leaders: Unravelling Silent Coloniality in Zimbabwe
Bekithemba Dube
Religions  vol: 14  issue: 9  first page: 1209  year: 2023  
doi: 10.3390/rel14091209

2. The case for African thought
Allucia L. Shokane, Mogomme A. Masoga
Inkanyiso  vol: 15  issue: 1  year: 2023  
doi: 10.4102/ink.v15i1.96

3. Mangrove entanglements: Reformed deposits and decolonial options
Michael N. Jagessar
International Journal for the Study of the Christian Church  vol: 24  issue: 3  first page: 316  year: 2024  
doi: 10.1080/1474225X.2024.2471137

4. Biblical discourses and the construction of genders and sexualities in contemporary South Africa: A decolonial analysis
Themba Shingange
HTS Teologiese Studies / Theological Studies  vol: 80  issue: 2  year: 2024  
doi: 10.4102/hts.v80i2.8898

5. Uphicothonzulu ngokwenkcazobungcali yenkcubekontlalo ngokobuhlanga kwibali elifutshane lesiXhosa elithi Umgcini-mangcwaba
Mlamli Diko
South African Journal of African Languages  vol: 45  issue: 4  first page: 540  year: 2025  
doi: 10.1080/02572117.2024.2434151

6. Reorientation of mission and its action plans for a reformed missional ecclesiology in Africa
Thinandavha D. Mashau
In die Skriflig/In Luce Verbi  vol: 58  issue: 1  year: 2024  
doi: 10.4102/ids.v58i1.3129

7. ‘To Hell with Bishops’: Rethinking the Nexus of State, Law and Religion in Times of Crisis in Zimbabwe
Bekithemba Dube
Religions  vol: 12  issue: 5  first page: 304  year: 2021  
doi: 10.3390/rel12050304

8. Zionism and Pentecostalism: Black Zionist Roots in the AFM of SA through the Lens of Decoloniality
Mookgo Solomon Kgatle
Studia Historiae Ecclesiasticae  vol: 47  issue: 3  year: 2022  
doi: 10.25159/2412-4265/8015

9. Curation as Engagement: Boulder Exhibits at the Origins Centre, South Africa
Catherine Namono
Critical Arts  vol: 35  issue: 4  first page: 22  year: 2021  
doi: 10.1080/02560046.2021.1995455

10. Uphicothonzulu lweentsingiselo zegama elithi ‘ kaffir ‘ kusetyenziswa inkcazobungcali yobuhlanga
Mlamli Diko
South African Journal of African Languages  vol: 44  issue: 1  first page: 39  year: 2024  
doi: 10.1080/02572117.2024.2308294

11. A critical view of family and religious studies in the context of religious abuse and extremism in Zimbabwe
Bekithemba Dube
Theologia Viatorum  vol: 44  issue: 1  year: 2020  
doi: 10.4102/tv.v44i1.47

12. Lessons from the Synod of Dordrecht (1618–1619): A missional hermeneutic for the decolonisation and Africanisation of the curriculum
Pieter H.J. Labuschagne
In die Skriflig / In Luce Verbi  vol: 53  issue: 3  year: 2019  
doi: 10.4102/ids.v53i3.2482

13. Regime enablers and captured religious mandate in Zimbabwe
Bekithemba Dube
Verbum et Ecclesia  vol: 41  issue: 1  year: 2020  
doi: 10.4102/ve.v41i1.2126

14. Racism amongst white Afrikaner adolescents: The challenge of I-Thou (Buber) relations
Sebastiaan van Dyk
HTS Teologiese Studies / Theological Studies  vol: 76  issue: 2  year: 2020  
doi: 10.4102/hts.v76i2.5240

15. Missio politica on Coalition Governance: ‘better devils’ in SA Coalition Politics
Dr Jonas Sello Thinane
Pharos Journal of Theology  issue: 104(2)  year: 2023  
doi: 10.46222/pharosjot.104.216

16. The matrix of linguistic exclusions impeding career construction for D/deaf learners
Unati Stemela-Zali, Harsha Kathard, Maximus M. Sefotho
African Journal of Disability  vol: 11  year: 2022  
doi: 10.4102/ajod.v11i0.935

17. Women (African/Black) in Theological and Education spaces, in search of a Decolonial Philosophical Perspective
Doniwen Pietersen, Stanley Taren Ngobeni, Thembeka Myende
E-Journal of Religious and Theological Studies  first page: 43  year: 2024  
doi: 10.38159/erats.202410114

18. African Knowledge Production Incubators: Approaching Indigenous and Decolonized Social Work from the Ground Up Through Stories of Our Lived Experiences
Nevashnee Perumal, Veonna Goliath, Mbongeni Sithole, Thanduxolo Nomngcoyiya, Motlalepule Nathane, Priscalia Khosa
Journal of Progressive Human Services  vol: 35  issue: 1-2  first page: 76  year: 2024  
doi: 10.1080/10428232.2024.2362469

19. The Mediation of Coloniality in Decolonisation Developments in South African Theological Education
Marilyn Naidoo
Religions  vol: 15  issue: 2  first page: 160  year: 2024  
doi: 10.3390/rel15020160