Nikondeha

Most consider jubilee to be an aspirational, ancient practice, dismissing it as impractical for modern economic practices. Among theologians and economists many doubt it was ever practiced. And they would be wrong. Kelley Nikondeha uncovers recent scholarship that tells a different story, one of Jubilee’s robust capabilities for resetting just economic systems.

This book offers the possibility of better conversations about our economic life, not just abroad, not just at national and community levels, but at home as well. Jubilee offers us principals, purpose and practices to explore together. As we face a feral world where precarious economies abound, it is good to seek better tools as systems show devastating fault lines.

Jubilee is a conversation that Nikondeha has continuously engaged in, in her work as a liberation theologian in partnership with her husband, a community development practitioner, banker, and organizer in Burundi (East Africa). In this book and her community development work Nikondeha explores the purpose, practices, and possibilities of jubilee economics, the historical precedent and current engagement that revitalize our economic conversation - and action.

We can reach for ancient wisdom from our ancestors, our priests and prophets in Jubilee and supplement that with insight from innovative contemporaries. And together we can engage conversations for better economies, rooted in the rich loam of jubilee.

Kelley Nikondeha is a writer, speaker, liberation theologian and community development practitioner. She marries biblical texts and various cultural contexts to discover what jubilee looks like in our troubled world. She combines theological insight with economic practice in partnership with her partner/husband, Claude Nikondeha, a social entrepreneur and friend of the poor. Together they founded of Communities of Hope (an NGO in Burundi), Kazoza Bank, and have two ongoing partnership projects with the UNCDF (United Nations Capital Development Fund) around economic development and reforestation of Burundi’s national park. As theologian and practitioner, they look at community thriving, economics practices, and community-level banking in their community development work in Burundi (East Africa).