‘You flood them with sleep’ (Ps 90:5) : human transience in the Hebrew Bible and in African indigenous sacred texts

Abstract

Death, disturbing as it can be, is an inevitable phenomenon. All cultures must find the right language to explain this reality or at least provide the linguistic tools to navigate it. Among the tools cultures employ for dealing with this phenomenon are texts, the biblical text being an example. This study, using the comparative approach of African biblical hermeneutics, examines Psalm 90 as an example of a text that is used to address the concept of death. It further argues that the ideas and strategies adopted by the biblical text are comparable to those employed by African indigenous sacred texts, such as the Owuo atwedie [the ladder of death], the Adinkra textual system. CONTRIBUTION : Moreover, the parallel reading of these two texts complements our understanding and facilitates our communication about a rather difficult subject in contemporary African contexts.