THE AFRICAN HUMANITY IN THE ERA OF HIV AND AIDS: A RE-READING OF THE LIBERATION-MOTIFS IN EX 3:7-10; 20: 2 IN THE SADAC CONTEXT

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to access the significance of the original setting-in-life of Exodus 7:3 -10; 20: 2 as reservoirs of the ‘good-news of God’s powerful interventions among people who suffer adversities. This portion of the Exodus story and the underlying liberation motif are linked to the African contexts. Africans like the beleaguered Israelites await God to send charismatic leaders like Moses to collaborate with him to heal the infected and affected African populations. The paper argues that the same God who saved the Israelites from bondage is still accessible to Africans who are currently being oppressed by pandemics of all types; the worst being the inexorable HIV and AIDS epidemic. As a biblical-theological response to the cankerworm, the paper explores what the African nations in the SADC region are doing to eliminate the epidemic. The paper concludes on a clarion-call on the African scientific community, the medical professionals, social engineers and aid-donors to embrace God's benevolence as they struggle to assist the southern African states re-invent the wheel of progress in Africa's public health sector. Prayer is the "master-key" to God's door. African peoples are therefore enjoined to seek the face of God in prayers for divine intervention in these days of lamentation and grief.