Jubilee Economics: The Purpose, Practices, and Possibilities for a Better Future (Kelley Nikondeha) - Review
What does the Bible say about
economics? Many westerners probably assume that biblical economics corresponds
to modern capitalism, but does it? If we pay attention to the prophets, the
Torah, and to Jesus, it's clear that they never read Adam Smith. That doesn't
mean they would agree with Karl Marx either, but their words might be closer to
Marx than Smith. One of the key principles we find in reading Scripture is the
idea of Jubilee. This concept is laid out in the Torah, though some have
questioned whether it was ever practiced in full. Nevertheless, the principle
is found there. Then there’s Jesus’ sermon preached at the synagogue in Nazareth,
where he applied Isaiah's messianic message to his own ministry. In that
message, he declared that his ministry was inaugurating the "year of the
Lord's favor." In speaking of the “year of the Lord’s favor,” he was
referencing the concept of jubilee, which included debt forgiveness. So, if we
want to be a biblical people, should we embrace the message of jubilee?
As we ponder that question, might
we consider what Kelley Nikondeha has to say about Jubilee Economics? In her most recent book, titled Jubilee Economics: The Purpose, Practices, and Possibilities for a Better Future,
she offers her take on the question of jubilee in the context of her
experiences, along with her husband Claude, in their community development work
in the African nation of Burundi. Kelly Nikondeha is an author, liberation
theologian, and, with her husband Claude, a community development practitioner.
I have read and greatly appreciated Nikondeha’s previous books, including Adopted:
The Sacrament of Belonging in a Fractured World; Defiant: What the Women of Exodus Teach Us about Freedom; and The First Advent in Palestine: Reversals, Resistance, and the Ongoing Complexity of Hope. She
is a gifted writer and insightful Christian leader. Jubilee Economics
builds on what she has written in her previous books, which also draw on her
own experiences, which makes her books deeply personal, as is her reading of
Scripture.
In Jubilee Economics,
Nikondeha, as noted above, draws on the work that she and her husband engage in
the African nation of Burundi. Her husband, Claude, is a native of Burundi,
while she was born and raised in the United States. While she has middle-class
roots, her husband rose out of poverty, and together they have engaged in
community development work to help others in Burundi find their way out of
poverty. They have focused their work among the Batwa people, who have lived on
the margins of Burundian society, having been displaced from their original
homes.
Jubilee Economics draws on
the biblical principle of jubilee, applying the principle, or at least the
spirit of the principle, to modern economic situations. One of the primary
tools in their work is the Kazoza Bank, which they established to provide
Burundians access to a stable financial system that would allow them to save
money and gain access to financial resources for their own economic well-being,
including supporting land ownership, debt relief, and entrepreneurship. Out of
their own experiences in community development, combined with Kelley's biblical
and theological studies, they seek to offer pathways to a more just economy.
Nikondeha divides her book into
three parts, each of which has three chapters that explore the message of the
section. Part One focuses on "The Purpose of Jubilee." Part Two
explores "The Practices of Jubilee." Finally, in Part Three,
Nikondeha speaks to "The Possibilities of Jubilee."
Beginning with Part One, "The
Purpose of Jubilee," Nikondeha offers a chapter on the "Prehistory of
Jubilee" (Chapter 1). This is an important place to begin because we might
assume that jubilee practices started with the Hebrew people. However,
Nikondeha demonstrates in this chapter that debt relief and debt forgiveness
were important economic principles practiced throughout the ancient Near East.
She introduces us to Enmetena, the ruler of the Sumerian city of Lagash, who
made use of debt forgiveness to make a treaty with a neighboring kingdom. Thus,
"He understood that war impoverished soldiers and their families, and the
years of warfare had exacted a toll. So he announced the cancellation of debts
pertaining mainly to crop rents and fees owed to the palace" (p. 19). This
act allowed people to return to their homes, freed from debt. With that story
in place, she offers us a tour of various efforts to make use of debt
cancellation for the good of the people. Chapter 2 is titled "Jubilee
Canon." Here she explores the biblical references to jubilee, while also
mixing in experiences in Burundi. The purpose of jubilee here isn't just
freedom from indebtedness, but the use of debt cancellation as "a gateway
to a newly structured society where the wealth gap is closed, and there is
greater equity between neighbors" (p. 38). Then in Chapter 3, titled
"Jubilee Campaign," she draws on Jesus' message of jubilee, showing
how he and his neighbors lived under Roman occupation. In this chapter, she
brings Jesus' message of jubilee into conversation with their work in Burundi. As
she interweaves the two realities, we learn something of the work that Claude has
done with the Batwa people and other communities. She concludes the chapter and
the section by reminding us that economic justice was a pillar of Jesus’ vision
for society. So, she writes: “Jesus carried the jubilee campaign forward into
the first century and by his example has commissioned all who call themselves
disciples to follow suit” (p. 60).
Part One provides the historical,
biblical, and theological foundations for the kind of jubilee economics that
Nikondeha and her husband have tried to introduce in Burundi, which, like many
African nations, suffers from impoverishment rooted in their post-colonial
realities. In Part Two, “The Practices of Jubilee,” she focuses on three areas
of concern. The first is "Loan Practices" (Chapter 4). In the
introduction to this chapter, Nikondeha shares the story of a fire that
decimated a village market, destroying inventories, businesses, and savings.
Kazoza Bank, the financial institution that her husband had established, had to
deal with this reality. The goal was to provide ways for these people, mostly
women, to get back on their feet financially. Besides debt relief, Claude
worked with the people to provide loans that would allow them to get back on
their feet. One of the important principles of Kazoza Bank was to help the 97%
of Burundians who did not have access to banking institutions, largely because
they couldn't afford the fees, access to a safe and reliable bank. In Chapter
5, she speaks of "Labor Practices" in the context of high
unemployment. The goal here is to help people organize so they can participate
more fully in the economy, as they address the challenges of exploitation.
Finally, in Chapter 6, she speaks of "Land Practices." Here we learn
about the displacement of the Batwa people, first from the forested region
where they had lived for generations, to land they did not control. As landless
people, they were often exploited. So, here we learn of efforts led by Claude
Nikondeha to provide them with land of their own. Kelley mixes into the
conversation the story of Ahab, Jezebel, and the land of Naboth. Thus, we see a
story of land seizure in the Bible as a warning about modern practices of land
seizure and displacement. She writes that "Jubilee gives tangible
expression to the sacred relationship between humanity and land" (p. 108).
After offering insight on matters
of loan practices, labor practices, and land usage through a Jubilee lens,
Nikondeha offers her thoughts on the ongoing "Possibilities of
Jubilee" (Part Three). She begins this section with a chapter titled
"Loss and Lament" (Chapter 7). She points out that to move forward,
there is a need for lament. Here she draws on Isaiah's words about loss, as she
laments the losses experienced by her Batwa friends. Lament is a healthy
practice that provides a sense of relief as people deal with the trials and
travails of navigating their economic systems and situations. While the
principles of jubilee can be helpful, lament allows people the opportunity to recognize
that things don't always work out as one hopes. After recognizing the reality
of loss and the need for lament, Nikondeha moves on in Chapter 8 with a word
about "Hope and Hard Work." While there is a need for lament, there
is also a need for hope. However, hope requires hard work by everyone involved.
She points to her husband’s efforts to extricate himself from poverty and the
lessons learned to share with others, so that, with imagination and tools, they
can move forward. Finally, Nikondeha brings her exploration of Jubilee Economics to a conclusion with a chapter titled "The New City and the
Work of Imagination." Throughout the book, she tells stories about the
work she and Claude engage in among the Batwa people, an indigenous group that
had been marginalized by the dominant groups. Looking forward requires
imagination and a vision of the biblical "new city." Again, she draws
on Isaiah, who envisions a transformed landscape in the aftermath of the
destruction of Jerusalem. She points out that the jubilee vision is full of
slow gains, along with "empire grabs, lands lost, discrimination."
Therefore, there is both lament and hope. That is because "Isaiah's new
city is not yet. But his vision remains, inspires, instructs, and provides a
moral compass" as she and Claude work toward a better tomorrow (p. 151).
Too often, we view jubilee as some
kind of aspirational idea that has no practical value. We look at the
discussion in Torah of fifty-year intervals of returning land to its original
owners and assume that this never took place. We can't know for sure whether
and to what degree the principles were enacted; nevertheless, as Kelley
Nikondeha demonstrates in her book Jubilee Economics, there are
important practical implications that can be implemented, including debt
forgiveness, as we work together toward a better tomorrow. That said, once
again, Kelley Nikondeha has written a book in Jubilee Economics that I
highly recommend.
Copies of Jubilee Economics can be purchased at your favorite retailer, including my Amazon affiliate and Bookshop.org affiliate bookstore.
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