This presentation makes the case for investigating the status and role of the Bible in African settings. It goes on to examine a queer contextual Bible reading in a contemporary African context, describing and reflecting on the process of reading the story of Daniel in the Lions’ Den, then reimagining this story in dramatic form, together with a group of Ugandan LGBT refugees based in Nairobi, Kenya. Particular focus is placed on the motifs of the lions and the den, which for the refugees represent a variety of figures and situations of threat in either Uganda or Kenya. The presentation introduces some of the participants at the heart of this project, who are all connected to a community-based group called The Nature Network (TNN). Next, it describes the methodology that underlies engagement with the biblical story. Finally, it explores how life stories and shared experience combine with communal creativity to achieve liberatory and empowering results of striking originality. The analysis of the process and findings is framed in terms of a hermeneutics of trust, as contrasted with a hermeneutics of suspicion.
