AN AFRICAN PHILOSOPHICAL ANALYSIS OF ISAIAH 58: A HERMENEUTIC ENTHUSED BY UBUNTU

African philosophy is a recognized field both in the Old Testament and philosophy studies in Africa. Jacobus W. Gericke argues that ‘methodological and conceptual debates in African philosophy are things that biblical scholars can learn from when seeking to address the controversy regarding the relationship between the Hebrew Bible and philosophy’. On the conceptual debates in African philosophy, Mogobe B. Ramose holds that ‘Ubuntu is not only a word or a concept... On the contrary, Ubuntu is a lived and living philosophy of the Bantu-speaking peoples of Africa’. It is argued in this paper that African philosophy can throw light on the reading of the ancient biblical text in South Africa, particularly in relation to Ubuntu. First, this contribution examines African philosophy in South Africa with a view to conceptualise a hermeneutic enthused by Ubuntu based on a reading of Isaiah 58. Second, in this article the author attempts to re-construct the Sitz-im-Leben of the Isaiah 58 in the light of African philosophy