Postcolonial Hermeneutics of the Quran

Abstract

The article sets out to examine the value of postcolonial theoretical perspectives Quran scholarship in the Ugandan context. It is set on the view that while postcolonial theory in Quranic scholarship is a viable scholarly approach elsewhere—including Islamic countries, many African countries like Uganda are still held in the textualist approach, with its imposing and rather colonizing cultural worldviews of ancient Arabia. Moreover, the experiences of British colonialism in Uganda (which altered and transformed Ugandan socio-cultural, political and economic landscapes) further complicated the ideological spaces in which a Uganda Muslim finds himself today. This subjects the contemporary Muslim to a double experience of foreignness. Using postcolonial methodological approaches, this article advances the claim for the African Contextual Hermeneutics of the Quran (ACHQ), as an innovative approach that enlivens the Quran in view of contextual complexities that characterize contemporary societies. For the Quran to be meaningful and relevant, it has to be owned by the Africans (not as a religious fetish, but an empowering voice) through creative readership and interpretations that appreciate the African contextual realities.