The notion of God as it manifested in the Ju'hoansi Bushmen in Tsumkwe East, NamibiaThe older Bushmen are rather uncertain about the origin of their perception of God. The conversations with their children and other youngsters about their religion, are filled with laughter and mockery. Even so, the younger people still share their views and ideas. They speak of two gods, namely X!u and !Gawa - a good god and a bad god (satan, according to our beliefs). X!u, the good god is far away, somewhere up in the sky, and he has very little to do with mankind. One of his responsibilities will for example be to provide good, soft rains. The bad god, !Gawa, brings bad things to man. He lives amongst the people and they blame him for diseases, droughts, famine, floods, thunderstorms and deaths. They think therefore that he is the one who meddles with them most. When bringing the Word of God to the Bushmen it seems as if they identify with the God that the missionaries speak of. The interpreter uses the same word for the living God as the word he uses when referring to their good god: X!u. They will therefore quite easily say that they believe. The breakthrough should be for the interpreter to distinguish between X!u and Jesus Christ. The Bushmen must learn about the difference between their Monotheistic god and the Trinity from the Bible. We must therefore pray for the interpreter to be able to translate God not to be the good god, but the living God. The Bushmen must be able to choose for the real God and his son Jesus Christ.
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