Poverty alleviation as an aspect of the Missio Dei Paradigm : The case of the Basarwa

Abstract

The history of the Basarwa people of Southern Africa, particularly those in Botswana, is punctuated by poverty-related suffering. This study has established, among others, that a multiplicity of complex historical developments that occurred over a period of several centuries led to the present poverty conditions of these people. For this study, however, the ways in which the Basarwa were perceived and the subsequent treatment that was meted out to them have emerged as the key contributory factors to their poverty conditions. It is thus the position of this study that the Basarwa's poverty was man-made and is primarily a result of broken and dysfunctional human relations. It is also a result of the many years of dispossession and alienation from the many social and cultural formations that are pertinent to their worldviews. Given the forgone situation, the study has explored the biblical and theological situation of the Basarwa and has come to the conclusion that poverty is in contradiction to the missio Dei or the will of God for his creation. In the light of these biblical and theological reflections, the study proposes a mission paradigm that is based on the Trinitarian understanding of mission, with God's unconditional love, the grace of Jesus Christ and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit as an answer, albeit partially, to the poverty conditions that are faced by the Basarwa. The only lasting solution to the poverty of the Basarwa is lying in the healing of human relations.