Musa W. Dube

Prior to joining Candler’s faculty in 2021, Dr. Musa W. Dube served as professor of New Testament in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at the University of Botswana. She has held positions at the World Council Churches, Scripps College, Union Theological Seminary, University of Stellenbosch, University of Bamberg, and University of South Africa.

Particularly known for her work as a postcolonial feminist theologian, her research interests include gender, postcolonialism, translation, and HIV and AIDS studies. Her research has been supported by awards from the John Templeton Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, the World Council of Churches, and the Society for Biblical Literature, among others. In 2011, she received a Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Research Award from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, one of academia’s most prestigious funding institutions.

Dube has authored 262 academic works, published in journals, books, encyclopedias, educational modules, and magazines, and has edited 12 volumes. Her first book, Postcolonial Feminist Interpretation of the Bible (Chalice Press, 2000), challenges the often oppressive and patriarchal Western interpretations of biblical texts and offers an alternative, less imperial interpretation that attends to and respects needs of women. Her book The HIV and AIDS Bible: Some Selected Essays (Scranton Press, 2008) examines the HIV/AIDS crisis in light of biblical and ethical teachings and argues for a strong theological presence alongside economic, social, and political efforts to deal with the disease.

The 2017 winner of the international Gutenberg Teaching Award, Dube has given up to 162 papers in at least twenty-six countries, and has served in institutions in Switzerland, the U.S., Germany, and South Africa as well as her native Botswana. She received an honorary doctorate from Stellenbosch University (South Africa) in 2018.

Dube is the current continental coordinator of The Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians, vice president of the Society of Bibilcal Literature (2022-2023), and a member of the The United Methodist Church.

BOOKS

Co-editor, African Women Legends and the Spirituality of Resistance. Routledge, 2024

Co-editor, Ecofeminist Perspectives from African Women Creative Writers: Earth, Gender and the Sacred. Palgrave Macmillan, 2024

Co-editor, Ubuntu and Women: Building Community in the Urban Space. Cape Town: Sun Press, 2023

Co-editor, The Bible Centers & Margins: Dialogues Between Postcolonial African and UK Biblical Scholars, T & T Clark, 2018

Co-editor, Postcoloniality, Translation and the Bible in Africa, Pickwick Publications, 2017

Co-editor, Postcolonial Perspectives on African Biblical Interpretations, SBL, 2012

HIV and AIDS Bible: Some Selected Essays, The University of Scranton Press, 2008

Co-author, The Voices and Identities of Botswana’s School Children, UNICEF, 2005

Co-editor, Feminist New Testament Studies: Global and Future Perspectives, Palgrave Macmillan, 2005

Postcolonial Feminist Interpretations of the Bible, Chalice Press, 2000

Moral Education 2, Longman, 2000

The Victims: A Novel, Botsalaano Press, 1993

CHAPTERS AND ARTICLES

“Consuming A Colonial Cultural Bomb: Translating Badimo into ‘Demons’ in Setswana Bible,” pp.251-278 (republication). In Gained in Translation Volume II: Bibles, Histories & Struggles for Identity.  Frank & Timme.

“African Ecofeminisms: African Women Writing Earth, Gender and the Sacred,” pp. 3-33. In Ecofeminist Perspectives from African Women Creative Writers: Earth, Gender and the Sacred, Palgrave Macmillan, 2024

“My Bones Shall Rise: Reconnecting with the Spirits of African Women Legends,” pp. 3-24.  In African Legendary Women and the Spirituality of Resistance. New York: Routledge, 2024

“Ubuntu,” pp.51-52. In Ecofeminist Perspectives from African Women Creative Writers: Earth, Gender and the Sacred, Palgrave, 2024

“Hell,” pp.205-206. In Ecofeminist Perspectives from African Women Creative Writers: Earth, Gender and the Sacred, Palgrave, 2024

“Psalm 23: An Autobiographical and Intertextual Reading” pp.52-58. Psalms: Texts @ Contexts. T & T. Clark, Bloomsbury Publishing, 2024.

“Foreword, Tracing the Footsteps of Eku and Nwanyeruwa to Women’s War of Liberation,” 11-22. Sankofa: Liberation Theologies of West African Women. Bamberg University Press, 2023.

Editor, Special Issue on Botho/Ubuntu and Community Building Journal of Interdenominational Theological College, Volume 51, 2022.

Co-author, “Naomi/Laban Shower and the Creation of Womanist Botho/Ubuntu Ethic of Community Living Spaces.” In Journal of the Inter-denominational Center Vol. 51 (2022):1-54.

“Towards Botho/Ubuntu-centred Individuals, Communities and Nations.” In Journal of the Inter-denominational Center Volume 50 (2021): III-XIX.

“Go laya: Unsettling Patriarchy in Gaborone Bridal Showers,” In Journal of the Interdenominational Center, Vol. 51 (2021):1-46.

Editor, Special Issue on Botho/Ubuntu and Community Building, Journal of Interdenominational Theological College, Volume 50,

Co-author, “Exploring Botswana Bridal Showers Through a Relational-Cultural Connections.” In Journal of the Interdenominational Center Vol. 51 (2021):47-82.

“John 18:2-19: A Postcolonial Trickster Reading of the Arrest and Trial of Jesus.” In Tubinger Theologische Quartalschrift/2, 2022: 54-73

“Speaking the Unspeakable: Biographies of PLWHA,” pp. 229-250. In Mother Earth, Mother Africa and World Religions. Cape Town: Sun Media, 2022

Co-author, “The Christic Okavango Delta of Botswana,”pp. 37-56. In Mother Earth, Mother Africa and World Religions. Cape Town: Sun Media, 2022

“Mother,” p.13; “Goliath,” p.153; “HIV & AIDS,” pp.183-184 and “Africa,” pp. 251-252. In Mother Earth, Mother Africa and World Religions. Cape Town: Sun Media, 2022

“Teaching in the Death Zone: Mainstreaming HIV and AIDS in the Curriculum with African Theologians,” in International Bulletin of Mission Research, 2019

Co-author, “Pathways to Social Capital and the Botho/Ubuntu Ethic in the Urban Space of Gaborone,” Botswana. Global Social Welfare: Research, Policy and Practice, 2019

“Purple Hibiscus: A Postcolonial Feminist Reading,” in Missionalia 46/2, 2018

Co-author, “Reproducing or Creating a New Male? Bridal showers in the urban space in Botswana,” in Journal of African Studies, 2020

Co-author, “Reproducing or Creating a New Male: Bridal Showers in the Urban Space of Botswana,” in Journal of Gender and Religion in Africa, Vol 24/1

The Mercy Amba Oduyoye Global Leadership Award, Circle of Concerned African Women Association 30th Anniversary Celebrations, 2019

Winner of Botswana Society Poetry Competition, 2019

Doctor of Theology (Dth), Honoris causa, Stellenbosch University, 2018

Gutenberg Teaching Award, University of Gutenber Mainz, 2017

John Templeton Foundation through Nagel Institute Research Award, 2016

Frau des Monats, IG Feministische Theologinnen, 2015

NACA Research Award, 2014

UB HIV & AIDS International Research Champion, University of Botswana Red Ribbon (UBBRA) Awards, 2014

HIV and AIDS Teaching Champion, UBBRA Awards, 2014

Named Professor Extraordinary, Dept of Religion & Classical Studies, UNISA, 2015-2017