Original Research - Special Collection: VukaniBantuTsohangBatho - Spirituality of Black Liberation

Boleo: A postcolonial feminist reading

Musa W. Dube
HTS Teologiese Studies / Theological Studies | Vol 76, No 3 | a6174 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.4102/hts.v76i3.6174 | © 2020 Musa W. Dube | This work is licensed under CC Attribution 4.0
Submitted: 31 May 2020 | Published: 17 December 2020

About the author(s)

Musa W. Dube, Department of Theology and Religious Studies, Faculty of Humanities, University of Botswana, Gaborone, Botswana; and, Department of New Testament and Related Literature, Faculty of Theology and Religion, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa

Abstract

The relationship between postcolonialism and feminism is often complicated and conflict-laden in its struggles against empire and patriarchy and its related social categories of oppression. The question is, How have African women in former colonies balanced their act? To address this question, the article focusses on Boleo, A Setswana Novel. Firstly, theories of post-coloniality and feminism are explored. Secondly, four creative African women writers are analysed for their take on the intersection of postcolonialism and feminism prior to reading Boleo, A Setswana Novel. Thirdly, the analysis of Boleo indicates boundary crossing and cross-border oppressions and solidarity in the struggle against apartheid that features a female protagonist and other minor characters. It is proposed that because the novel equates apartheid with sin (boleo), it thus constructs salvation as the concerted communal efforts of resistance and suspicion towards the institutions of the oppressor, characterised by baitiredi [independent or self-actualising workers], a political movement founded by Boleo. The analysis of the African novel indicates that the struggle against colonial and patriarchy gave rise to the First Things First; Second Things First and Both Things Simultaneously approaches, which are evident within African women creative writers.

Contribution: This article adheres to the journal’s scope and vision by its focus on a systematic, historical, exegetical and practical reflection within a paradigm in which the intersection of philosophy, religious studies, social sciences and humanities generate an interdisciplinary, multidisciplinary and transdisciplinary contested discourse.


Keywords

postcolonial studies; Vuyani Vellem; feminism; African literature; apartheid; patriarchy; black theology; intersectionality; First Things First; African women writers; Olebile Gaborone

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