Buhle Mpofu
Biographic Data
| ID | 6297412 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Buhle Mpofu |
| GIVEN NAMES | Buhle |
| FAMILY NAME | Mpofu |
| SIGNATURE | MPOFU B |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Pretoria |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-6833-0810 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 16 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 3 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 16 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2011 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
Addressing the ecological crisis in Southern Africa through a missional dialogue with African values
This article utilised a desktop literature review and qualitative approach to discuss how the African values of Ubuntu and ukama can enhance the response to the ecological crisis in Southern Africa through a prophetic and missional dialogue. Drawing on the African worldview, informed by a communal life of interconnectedness, the article discusses the ecological crisis in Southern Africa as a multifaceted and growing concern, driven by a complex i…
A trio reclaiming blackness and black spirituality
Issues related to racism are still pervasive in global society; and Blackness has dominated identity politics in the South African political and public debates since the downfall of apartheid. Recently, there have been questions on whether skin colour can be used as a generalised indication of being previously disadvantaged with some arguing that skin colour cannot be used as a condition for empowerment. They argue that socio-economic conditions …
Dislocation and continuity
One of the reasons that prompted Malawi’s Catholic bishops to write a pastoral letter in 1992 that triggered the movement towards democracy was the big gap between the rich and the poor. The pastoral letter, Living Our Faith, emerged as a critical voice in challenging the socio-economic and political state of affairs. The bishops demanded that the government ensures fair distribution of wealth. Since that time, Malawi has experienced different po…
Rethinking theological training as ministerial empowerment for contextual mission
This research engaged a realist paradigm to triangulate existing literature with data that emerged from a PhD study on ministerial formation within the context of being a missional church in the Uniting Presbyterian Church in Southern Africa (UPCSA). The study identified the need for theological training and ministerial formation to be relevant, contextual and responsive to the realities of the African communities. We concluded that current theol…
Missio-pastoral and theological implications for migration and increased demagoguing in South Africa
This article highlights mission challenges presented by the intensified movement of people in South Africa with a view to identify opportunities for Christian mission and challenge demagoguing in the context of growing intolerance. Migration is identified as an opportunity for mission and discussed as one of the untapped resources not just for mission, but also for economic development and social transformation. Compassion fatigue and complex cha…
Pursuing fullness of life through harmony with nature
Like the rest of the developed world, African nations are now subject to consumerist tendencies of the global economic architecture and activities, which excessively exploit natural resources for profits and are at the centre of what this article describes as ‘disharmony between nature and humanity’. The exploitative nature of consumerist tendencies requires healing and restoration as it leads towards unpredictable and destructive weather pattern…
Mission to live
Extensive work has been carried out on gender and social transformation but there is a need for more work between these intersecting trajectories and their implications for Christian mission. Drawing on data collected from one of the migrants this current study employs the postcolonial lens to analyse interview responses on a migration experience of a young female migrant in South Africa and highlights survival strategies for young migrants by de…
I’m Somali and I’m Christian
This contribution is one of a series that aimed at publishing significant findings from the research conducted for a PhD study where emerging themes were isolated and discussed. During one of the focus group conversations, Abdul (not his real name) explained how his Somali-Christian identity presented a dilemma whilst he lived with fellow Muslim Somali nationals when he was displaced during the 2015 xenophobic violence in Johannesburg. Firstly, t…
Transversal modes of being a missional church in the digital context of Covid-19
The disruptions of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in the year 2020 reshaped all aspects of life, including religious practices and rituals. As more religious activities shifted to digital space during the lockdown periods, there was a growing need to examine the link between religion and digital media. Using the model of the Uniting Presbyterian Church in Southern Africa (UPCSA), this article draws on the notion of transversal rationality an…
A conversation with a stranger
My previous research explored narratives and discourses from marginalised migrants in their quest for survival. This contribution approached the South African context through the lens of the UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 1 ‘Ending poverty in all its forms’ and employed John Hick’s notion of ‘soul-making’ to analyse themes that emerged from a summary of a conversation with a stranger. Faith in God, forgiveness and vulnerability are themati…
Rethinking the Eucharist in the aftermath of Covid-19 disruptions
This contribution recommends a re-thinking of Christian traditions with regards to sacraments and use of technology in the context of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. It is a comparative study that employed field observations from two congregations with different traditions: one from Protestant Reformed tradition and another from Pentecostal Charismatic background to analyse how they conducted Holy Communion services. By highligh…
I’m Not a Fruit which Fell from a Tree
This discussion highlights how some African foreign migrants living in South Africa articulate resistance to exploitative and corrupt tendencies in what emerges as life affirming and death denying developmental discourses. This article triangulated data collected from a Module PRT112 – an Introduction to Missiology – with data which emerged from a study designed to interrogate the lived experiences of foreign migrants in Johannesburg South Africa…
Mission on the margins
This article proposes a critical paradigm to identify missional areas that have received scant attention from the church and to theorise ways in which alternative modes of doing mission in the context of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) present a solution against tendencies which marginalise and exploit the poor. Examining ways in which local churches in South Africa responded to challenges posed by COVID-19, the article identifies socioeconom…
‘It is now in your hands’
This article examines how coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) impacted on religion–state relations in South Africa. By examining the models of religion–state relations the article highlights the implications of these relations in the context of the South African government’s national response to COVID-19 and critically engages a public theology of ‘immense trust and authority’ assigned to leaders. The article identifies ‘separation with interacti…
Church as Hostile, Host or Home
Human migration has been on the rise globally and it has fuelled xenophobia and growing intolerance towards migrants in the receiving communities. This article draws from data collected for a PhD thesis and highlights the experiences of African migrants in religious spaces and congregations in Johannesburg, South Africa. The PhD project this article draws from identified Christian religious identities as a form of belonging and explored models fo…
Zimbabwe's Land Reform
It required the eloquence and boldness of Ian Scoones et al. to produce this impressive empirical study on the impact of Zimbabwe's controversial Fast Track Land Programme. The book addresses one province, Masvingo, a relatively dry natural farming region without uniform agricultural potential and supposedly of limited interest to political elites. The book explores ‘what happened to different people's livelihoods once they acquired the land’ (p.…
Zimbabwe's Land Reform
It required the eloquence and boldness of Ian Scoones et al. to produce this impressive empirical study on the impact of Zimbabwe's controversial Fast Track Land Programme. The book addresses one province, Masvingo, a relatively dry natural farming region without uniform agricultural potential and supposedly of limited interest to political elites. The book explores ‘what happened to different people's livelihoods once they acquired the land’ (p.…
Zimbabwe's Land Reform
It required the eloquence and boldness of Ian Scoones et al. to produce this impressive empirical study on the impact of Zimbabwe's controversial Fast Track Land Programme. The book addresses one province, Masvingo, a relatively dry natural farming region without uniform agricultural potential and supposedly of limited interest to political elites. The book explores ‘what happened to different people's livelihoods once they acquired the land’ (p.…
Church as Hostile, Host or Home
Human migration has been on the rise globally and it has fuelled xenophobia and growing intolerance towards migrants in the receiving communities. This article draws from data collected for a PhD thesis and highlights the experiences of African migrants in religious spaces and congregations in Johannesburg, South Africa. The PhD project this article draws from identified Christian religious identities as a form of belonging and explored models fo…
Mission on the margins
This article proposes a critical paradigm to identify missional areas that have received scant attention from the church and to theorise ways in which alternative modes of doing mission in the context of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) present a solution against tendencies which marginalise and exploit the poor. Examining ways in which local churches in South Africa responded to challenges posed by COVID-19, the article identifies socioeconom…
‘It is now in your hands’
This article examines how coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) impacted on religion–state relations in South Africa. By examining the models of religion–state relations the article highlights the implications of these relations in the context of the South African government’s national response to COVID-19 and critically engages a public theology of ‘immense trust and authority’ assigned to leaders. The article identifies ‘separation with interacti…
Pursuing fullness of life through harmony with nature
Like the rest of the developed world, African nations are now subject to consumerist tendencies of the global economic architecture and activities, which excessively exploit natural resources for profits and are at the centre of what this article describes as ‘disharmony between nature and humanity’. The exploitative nature of consumerist tendencies requires healing and restoration as it leads towards unpredictable and destructive weather pattern…
Mission to live
Extensive work has been carried out on gender and social transformation but there is a need for more work between these intersecting trajectories and their implications for Christian mission. Drawing on data collected from one of the migrants this current study employs the postcolonial lens to analyse interview responses on a migration experience of a young female migrant in South Africa and highlights survival strategies for young migrants by de…
I’m Somali and I’m Christian
This contribution is one of a series that aimed at publishing significant findings from the research conducted for a PhD study where emerging themes were isolated and discussed. During one of the focus group conversations, Abdul (not his real name) explained how his Somali-Christian identity presented a dilemma whilst he lived with fellow Muslim Somali nationals when he was displaced during the 2015 xenophobic violence in Johannesburg. Firstly, t…
Transversal modes of being a missional church in the digital context of Covid-19
The disruptions of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in the year 2020 reshaped all aspects of life, including religious practices and rituals. As more religious activities shifted to digital space during the lockdown periods, there was a growing need to examine the link between religion and digital media. Using the model of the Uniting Presbyterian Church in Southern Africa (UPCSA), this article draws on the notion of transversal rationality an…
A conversation with a stranger
My previous research explored narratives and discourses from marginalised migrants in their quest for survival. This contribution approached the South African context through the lens of the UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 1 ‘Ending poverty in all its forms’ and employed John Hick’s notion of ‘soul-making’ to analyse themes that emerged from a summary of a conversation with a stranger. Faith in God, forgiveness and vulnerability are themati…
Rethinking the Eucharist in the aftermath of Covid-19 disruptions
This contribution recommends a re-thinking of Christian traditions with regards to sacraments and use of technology in the context of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. It is a comparative study that employed field observations from two congregations with different traditions: one from Protestant Reformed tradition and another from Pentecostal Charismatic background to analyse how they conducted Holy Communion services. By highligh…
I’m Not a Fruit which Fell from a Tree
This discussion highlights how some African foreign migrants living in South Africa articulate resistance to exploitative and corrupt tendencies in what emerges as life affirming and death denying developmental discourses. This article triangulated data collected from a Module PRT112 – an Introduction to Missiology – with data which emerged from a study designed to interrogate the lived experiences of foreign migrants in Johannesburg South Africa…
A trio reclaiming blackness and black spirituality
Issues related to racism are still pervasive in global society; and Blackness has dominated identity politics in the South African political and public debates since the downfall of apartheid. Recently, there have been questions on whether skin colour can be used as a generalised indication of being previously disadvantaged with some arguing that skin colour cannot be used as a condition for empowerment. They argue that socio-economic conditions …
Dislocation and continuity
One of the reasons that prompted Malawi’s Catholic bishops to write a pastoral letter in 1992 that triggered the movement towards democracy was the big gap between the rich and the poor. The pastoral letter, Living Our Faith, emerged as a critical voice in challenging the socio-economic and political state of affairs. The bishops demanded that the government ensures fair distribution of wealth. Since that time, Malawi has experienced different po…
Rethinking theological training as ministerial empowerment for contextual mission
This research engaged a realist paradigm to triangulate existing literature with data that emerged from a PhD study on ministerial formation within the context of being a missional church in the Uniting Presbyterian Church in Southern Africa (UPCSA). The study identified the need for theological training and ministerial formation to be relevant, contextual and responsive to the realities of the African communities. We concluded that current theol…
Missio-pastoral and theological implications for migration and increased demagoguing in South Africa
This article highlights mission challenges presented by the intensified movement of people in South Africa with a view to identify opportunities for Christian mission and challenge demagoguing in the context of growing intolerance. Migration is identified as an opportunity for mission and discussed as one of the untapped resources not just for mission, but also for economic development and social transformation. Compassion fatigue and complex cha…
Addressing the ecological crisis in Southern Africa through a missional dialogue with African values
This article utilised a desktop literature review and qualitative approach to discuss how the African values of Ubuntu and ukama can enhance the response to the ecological crisis in Southern Africa through a prophetic and missional dialogue. Drawing on the African worldview, informed by a communal life of interconnectedness, the article discusses the ecological crisis in Southern Africa as a multifaceted and growing concern, driven by a complex i…
Sociology (14 works) · Political science (13 works) · Law (10 works) · Christian Theology and Mission (8 works) · History (8 works) · Religion, Society, and Development (8 works) · Gender Studies (6 works) · Aesthetics (5 works) · Environmental ethics (5 works) · Geography (5 works)