God, Human-Nature Relationship, and Negritude

Sunday at 1:00 pm on October 3, October 10, October 17| Facilitated by Dr. Aliou Niang

Learn more about Dr. Niang here

Register Here

The course introduces the book (A Poetics of Biblical Criticism: God, Human-Nature Relationship, and Negritude) to the class, discuss its methodology (Senghorian Négritude as Poetics of Postcolonial Biblical Criticism), and its relevance to Diola (a Senegalese West African ethnic group) subsistence-level agricultural practices sensitive to nature. During the first International Conference on Negro Writers and Artists in Sorbonne, Paris in 1956, Léopold Sédar Senghor preset his speech with the following words.  “The Negro is the person of Nature who traditionally lives of and with the soil, in and by the cosmos.” If the Négritude Movement founded by Aimé Césaire, Léopold Sédar Senghor, and Léon-Gontran Damas was primarily a protest against colonialism, what does Senghorian Negritude have to do with reading sacred text/scripture sensitive to creation/nature?  In what ways is Senghorian Négritude a good lens for reading sacred text/scripture and reflecting on Diola sustainable agriculture? What might Christians learn from Diola farming practices?

A postcolonial reading of scripture seeks to conscientize people of faith about the symbiotic relationships between God, humans, and nature. The call to conscientize both colonized and colonizer, oppressed and oppressor is a relevant mission and vision of Riverside Church community members. The book is available for purchase from either Wipf and Stock or Amazon.