Swazi Tinganekwane and the Hexateuch: An Exploration

Abstract

This paper focuses on selected stories in the first six books of the Old Testament, the Hexateuch. The Hexateuch has many stories that seek to answer existential questions that bedevil humanity such as: Who am I? How I did I come to this world? What is my duty in this world – a wilderness? Where do I go from and why am I in this present predicament? From the Old Testament cycles of stories, these questions are explained on the basis that humanity is under condemnation because it inherited the genealogical sin of Adam and Eve. There are also stories that explain interpersonal relationships, human beings’ relationship with the environment, and those that account for certain geological features in the world around us. The following narratives in the Old Testament act as classical examples: the Fall, the Tower of Babel, the rainbow, Jacob’s dream at Bethel, the Flood, Lot’s wife, to name only a few. This paper draws affinities between Swazi Tinganekwane and selected Old Testament stories and by the process of demythologization (unraveling the myths) argues that both genres are an outgrowth of the immediate community’s fertile imaginations intended to answer certain existential questions and intrigues. On the basis, the Old Testament genre is portrayed as inganekwane from an African perspective.