ABSTRACT
The recurrent relationship between disability and poverty retrogressively impacts on the realisation of a sustainable society in Africa, in which society must be built on the fundamental and transformative principles of social inclusion, cohesion, justice and leaving no one behind. Historically, this relationship has emanated precisely from the exclusion of persons with disabilities from mainstream society. Given that poverty eradication stands as the greatest challenge and an indispensable requirement for the realisation of sustainable development across the African continent, this chapter demonstrates the contribution and significance of positive perspectives on disability in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament in fostering the inclusion of persons with disabilities in Africa’s mainstream development initiatives and in eradicating poverty in all its forms and dimensions among the constituency of such persons. Drawing insights from the social model of disability, the chapter demonstrates how positive perspectives on disability expressed in the Old Testament texts such as Leviticus 19:14 and Deuteronomy 27:18 present an unprecedented and untapped opportunity to initiate a paradigm shift that challenges the systematic exclusion, stigmatisation and discrimination of persons with disabilities in the quest to achieve the sustainable development particularly in Southern Africa.
