Original Research - Special Collection: Reception of Biblical Discourse in Africa

Prevent the rise of a black messiah: Madness or revolution

Hlulani M. Mdingi
HTS Teologiese Studies / Theological Studies | Vol 78, No 1 | a7816 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.4102/hts.v78i1.7816 | © 2022 Hlulani M. Mdingi | This work is licensed under CC Attribution 4.0
Submitted: 06 June 2022 | Published: 14 December 2022

About the author(s)

Hlulani M. Mdingi, Department of Systematic and Historical Theology, Faculty of Theology and Religion, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa

Abstract

In the late 1960s, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), a United States of America (US) intelligence agency, developed what is famously known as Counter Intelligence Program (COINTELPRO). Its mission was to surveil, misinform, misdirect and subvert or destroy black ‘subversive’ militant groups. The main intention of COINTELPRO was to ‘prevent the rise of a messiah’ who could ‘unify, and electrify, the militant black nationalist movement’. This insight is important as it reveals how those outside of black life (FBI) would invoke biblical language to define the possibility of revolution. This article through Black liberation theology seeks to present the idea of messianism as both an experience of Africans and oppressed peoples in the Global North and Global South. The idea of messianism is part of biblical reception in Africa and the African experience of colonialism. In South Africa, messianism would be observed from the perspective of African Christianity, while another form of messianism would be seen from Nat The Prophet Turner as well as the radical identity of Christ in Black liberation theology. The article will not take lightly the idea of surveillance of black militant groups in the same way as the priestly class surveillance Christ ministry. At the same time, the article would reflect on why lunacy is associated with those that seek to subvert oppression. This article seeks to discuss the role of messianism and militancy in Black or African Christianity and highlighting biblical reception and African affectivity.

Contribution: This article explores the imaginative ways the Bible or its themes have been used by both the oppressor and the oppressed, often the latter using the Bible for its prerogative, namely, revolution and liberation.


Keywords

Messiah; blackness; revolution; madness; liberation; messianism; Black and African Christianity biblical response

Metrics

Total abstract views: 1375
Total article views: 2117

 

Crossref Citations

1. Reception of biblical discourse in Africa
Itumeleng D. Mothoagae
HTS Teologiese Studies / Theological Studies  vol: 78  issue: 1  year: 2022  
doi: 10.4102/hts.v78i1.8112