READINGS OF SEMOYA 1 : BATSWANA WOMEN'S INTERPRETATIONS OF MATT 15:21-28 Musa W. Dube University of Botswana Botswana ABSTRACT This paper will present some interpretations of Batswana women readers of Matt. 15:21-28. In keeping with the theme of this volume, the aim of pre- senting their readings is to take seriously the subjectivity and agency of their own interpretations. I shall first give the historical background of these read- ers and then briefly touch on the methods used to acquire these readings and their framework. Thirdly, I shall present the findings of a questionnaire and the tape-recorded sermons. In conclusion, I shall employ a post-colonial feminist perspective to ask what are the useful models of reading to be drawn from their interpretations. THE BACKGROUND The interpretations of Matt 15:21-28 were drawn from women be- longing to African Independent Churches in Botswana (henceforth AICs). 2 AICs denote a movement of churches that initially rose in protest against the white-only leadership in the missionary-founded churches of the nineteenth century (Ngubane, 1986:71-90). African Christians walked out of the Western churches and began their own where they could serve God with all their gifts and freedom. Their protest was not only closely tied to the beginning of political liberation movements against colonial rule; it was in itself resistance to Western cultural imperialism. The rise of AICs was also a search for a spiritual fulfillment. In the Western, missionary-founded churches Africans were presented with a gospel alien to their context, thinking, and needs, primarily because the missionary presentation of the gospel was intolerant of African religious world views and cultures as a whole. In keeping with the modernist thinking of the time, Western Christianity was prepackaged and imported 1 Semoya is a Setswana word, which means "of the Spirit." The people of Bot- swana are called Batswana and their language is Setswana. 2 I am grateful to the University of Botswana, which provided the funding for this project during the summer of 1994. -in-