Introductions in

Feminist Theology

Editorial Committee

Mary Grey
Lisa Isherwood
Catherine Norris
Janet Wootton

Sheffield Academic Press

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Introducing African
Women's Theology

Mercy Amba Oduyoye

 Copyright © 2001 Sheffield Academic Press

Published by Sheffield Academic Press Ltd

Mansion House
19KingfieldRoad
Sheffield SI 1 9AS
England

Printed on acid-free paper in Great Britain

by Bell & Bain Ltd
Thornliebank, Glasgow

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available

from the British Library

ISBN 1-84127-143-8
 Table of Contents

Editors' Preface 7

1. Presenting the Study 9

2. Significant Contexts of African Women's Theology 22

3. Women's Word about God 39

4. Jesus the Divine-Human: Christology 51

5. On Being Human: A Religious Anthropology 66

6. The Household of God: Studies in Ecclesiology 78

7. Hospitality and Spirituality 90

8. Resurrection of the Body: An Eschatology L10

9. The Way Forward 120

Bibliography 128
Index of Authors 133
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 Editors' Preface

Introducing Feminist Theology is a BISFT (Britain and Ireland School

of Feminist Theology) series committed to the global family of feminist
theologies, as part of the universal struggle of women for justice and the
recognition of full humanity. It is the hope that this book, Introducing
African Women's Theology, the sixth in the series, will play a significant
part in this process. It was a great joy when Professor Mercy Amba
Oduyoye accepted the invitation to write it. Well-known in the Ecu-
menical Movement globally as well as for the way she opened up the
Women's Desk in the World Council in Geneva and launched the
Decade of Churches in Solidarity with Women, she has for many of us
been the voice who brought the anguish of Africa to the Christian theo-
logical scene and refused to allow us to ignore the steadily worsening
situation as Africa sank increasingly into poverty, debt, and the tragedy
of AIDS.
This book is not only the vision of one woman theologian, inspiring
though that may be. Although it does not claim to represent all the
theologizing of African women from the 54 countries of the Organi-
zation of African Unity (OAU), it is very much an attempt to give voice
to the growing community of African women theologians. Specifically,
the book arises from the author's experiences between 1976 and 1996
when she made a sustained effort to discover and cultivate African
women doing theology. This involved the creation of The Circle of
Concerned African Women—and it is the lectures and papers from the
Circle meetings which form a unique and precious resource for this
book.
Professor Oduyoye poignantly depicts the context of African women
doing theology: colonization and slavery form not only the background
but the continuing struggle in the shape of racism, the increasing pov-
erty engendered by globalization and neo-colonial economic structures.
She shows how African women bring unique gifts to theology: the
powerful tradition of story-telling means that theirs is narrative theology,
8 AFRICAN WOMEN'S THEOLOGY

drawing on oral traditions, myth, folk tale and of course the creativity of
African women novelists.
Introducing African Women's Theology is not ivory tower theology, nor
is it a book only for women. What Mercy Oduyoye conveys is African
women's commitment to sustain life itself, a struggle born of the daily
efforts of caring and nurture for the whole community. The significant
contribution that it makes is the challenge to theology, liberation and
the transformation of oppressive structures. In order to do this the book
engages in a double hermeneutic: biblical hermeneutics is in dialogue
with cultural hermeneutics. The reader is left in no doubt that the one is
not possible without the other: a deep love of the liberating message of
the Bible enables African women to draw out the transforming message
to eradicate the injustice of a culture that still refuses full dignity to
women. This method stimulates reflection on Christology, anthropology
and ecclesiology. We are inspired by a vision of hospitality that extends
to the hospitality of the earth herself.
The generosity of the author, her love for her people and country,
and her vision of theology make this book unique. My hope is that the
voices she has enabled through her book will never again be silenced,
and that the longed-for transformation will be realized in her lifetime.

Mary Grey
(on behalf of the editorial committee)
 Chapter One

Presenting the Study

Statement of Purpose
The particular theologies of African women express aspects of global and
African Christian theologies from the vantage point of women's expe-
riences and locations. They are the theologies that reflect women's heri-
tage of participation in Africa's colonial and missionary history. They
reflect the antecedent religion and culture which continue as Africa's
religio-culture. This component of the context of Christian theology in
Africa is one that plays a key role in women's theologies. The mercantile
and colonial encounters with Arabs, Europeans and peoples of European
descent, continue in Africa in terms of economic disadvantage flowing
out of a history of enslavement and economic exploitation. The roots of
poverty, racism and militarism are nourished by this history. Encounters
with the propagators of Christianity and Islam have had a deep and per-
vading influence on the evolution of spirituality, religion and culture in
Africa and continue to do so.
Given the geographical extent of Africa, and the diversity of Africa's
peoples and historical experiences, there is a need to define the limits of
the use of'African' and 'African women'. The meaning of Africa, for
the purpose of this study, is limited to countries from which have come
the women's theological writings utilized in this study. No attempt is
made to cover all of the 54 or so nations that belong to the Organization
of African Unity (OAU).1 This is done because the purpose of this book
is to review the written sources of African Women's Christian theology

1. The countnes of origin of the African women theologians \vhose \vords and/
or ideas appear in this publication are: Angola, Republic of Benin, Botswana,
Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo (Zaire), Cameroon, Egypt, Ethiopia,
Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Malagasy Republic, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Republic
of South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Togo, Zambia, Zimbabwe.
10 AFRICAN WOMEN'S THEOLOGY

emanating from a particular source, namely, The Circle of Concerned

African Women Theologians (The Circle).2 Other religious perspectives
and oral expressions are present only when necessary for comparative,
collaborative or contrasting purposes, as their stance impinges on the
community of understanding.
The word 'women' is limited to those who count themselves African
and who believe that women have a desire and a responsibility to do
their own thinking and to speak their own words about God as about all
other religious and cultural concerns. The theology covers the writings
of women who do not accept that African men's theology should suffice
for the entire faith community. What we attempt to study here is
African Christian Theology in the women-centered key.3 There are
expressions of faith from women alumnae of a variety of theological
institutions as well as from other disciplines. Several are ordained into
the Eucharistic ministry while others are lay theologians. All are keen
churchwomen, and many have intensive liberative praxis and advocacy
roles for the concerns that stimulate their theology. All together these
are women whose theologizing go beyond the written word to liber-
ative and transformative action. Women in this study refers to African
women unless otherwise qualified.

Methodology
The narrative is mostly in the third person although I generally include
myself in what I accept as efforts at offering liberating perspectives. I am
therefore writing as a participant observer in this ongoing creative pro-
cess. The first observation is that African women accept story as a source
of theology and so tell their own stories as well as study the experiences
of other women including those outside their own continent, but espe-
cially those in Africa whose stories remain unwritten. In this regard, the
creative writings of African women have furnished a rich source of
women's views on life as lived in Africa, thus providing the theologians
with other perspectives on the context in which they theologize as well

2 The Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians was inaugurated in

1989 to facilitate research, writing and publication by a pan-African multireligious
and multiracial network of women with a concern of the impact of religion and cul-
ture on African women.
3. Theology is necessarily God-centered. Women-centered is to be understood
as what highlights women as actors, agents and thinkers.
 1. PRESENTING THE STUDY 11

as how women from other disciplines interpret contemporary Africa.

This framework is necessary, given the fact that narrative theology pre-
vails in both oral and written materials. The normative role of stories in
Africa's oral corpus, and the role of story in biblical theology, give
women the paradigm for their theological reflection. Story was a tradi-
tional source of theology, which seems to have been superseded by ana-
lytical and deductive forms. It has taken the feminist movement to bring
back the personal into academic studies and thereby revive the impor-
tance of the story. The approach to theology, that has characterized
women, is to tell a story and then to reflect upon it. Some chapters will
appropriate this method.
In doing theology women adopt a perspectival approach rather than
analysis and critique of existing works. They grant that there are unique
insights that come from individuals from contexts other than one's own
and that there is something to be appreciated from that which is differ-
ent. Other people's thoughts and arguments become stimulants, and not
points of argument aimed at establishing what is definitive. Rather, the
approach is that of dialogue as women aim at affirmations, continued
questioning of tradition in view of contemporary challenges, and as they
struggle with making their own contribution to the creation of theo-
logies that respond to the demands of spirituality. There is very little
refutation and apologetic to be gleaned from African women's theology.
What is present are statements of faith and the basis for such affirmations.

Biblical Hermeneutics and African Culture

African women's theology constructed at their own pace, from their

own place, portrays their priorities and perspectives. There has been an
emphasis on survival, as they have to live so that they may be present in
this life to struggle to disclose God's hand in their lives and in the
actualities of Africa. Together, with the emphasis on context, is the
place of the Bible. Skills for the interpretation of the Bible and culture
from their own location have become a major challenge for women
theologians especially as the Bible has become part of the African con-
text. The need to distinguish the good that is liberating has turned the
attention of many to biblical as well as cultural hermeneutics. Therefore,
in theologizing, African women resort to tradition but they do so with
skills for critical examination.
Cultural hermeneutics enables women to view the Bible through
African eyes and to distinguish and extract from it what is liberating.
12 AFRICAN WOMEN' s THEOLOGY

Since the Bible depicts other peoples' cultures, and we know from Afri-
can culture that not everything in culture is liberating, we come to the
Bible with the same cautious approach we have to culture. Any inter-
pretation of the Bible is unacceptable if it does harm to women, the vul-
nerable and the voiceless. There are two sides to treating culture as a
principle for hermeneutics. Taking culture as a tool with which to
understand and interpret one's reality, and specifically the Bible, allows
one to take one's experience seriously and to connect it with other real-
ities. Culture is a broad concept, which always needs fine tuning, but in
the African women's language, the broad description used for it is 'What
human beings have made from nature, and because of nature and com-
munity'. All that is not nature has been 'cultivated', worked upon,
devised, dreamed up, and given shape and meaning by the human mind
and hands. Culturing, therefore, is a continuous activity of the human
community, and culture has become the locus of resistance.
The other aspect of the appropriation of culture is evident in devising
a hermeneutic of liberation to identify the positive aspects of culture and
to promote them. The dynamism of culture demands that all take the
responsibility to contribute to its evolution. So cultural hermeneutics
directs that we take nothing for granted, that we do not follow tradition
and ritual and norms as unchangeable givens, and that cultural relativism
does not become covert racism and ethnocentrism. Life is to be lived
deliberately, intentionally and consciously and where this practice has
been lost we have to create awareness of life experiences and their impli-
cations. Experiences are to be analyzed, not only for their historical,
social and ethical implications, but also for their capacity to create what
grows to become cultural norms. African women have identified culture
as a favorite tool for domination. That double culture leads to double
oppression is the experience of all colonized peoples. In Africa, how-
ever, what we have to contend with is multiple cultures and multiple
oppressions. In appropriating or critiquing culture, coping devices are
discouraged as they only play into the patriarchal scheme. What we seek
are strategies for transforming attitudes, beliefs and practices. We always
ask of culture, how do I understand this experience, how does it relate
to my context, who is benefiting? Is it just?
In cultural hermeneutics, one faces the challenge of struggling with
one's culture while fencing off those waiting to use our culture to
under-rate us. Cultural hermeneutics seeks a critique from within, and
not an imposition from without. The challenge of cultural hermeneutics
 l. PRESENTING THE STUDY 13

is the methodology. How does one recuperate historical memory, re-

reading myths that are empowering while critiquing domesticating ones.
We face the challenge of how to uncover the messages of cultural codes,
myths, symbolisms and rituals, while never losing sight of the fact that
contexts get more and more specific, the closer one gets to particular
experiences and particular individuals.
Taking steps towards cultural hermeneutics we have found a few foot-
holds on the path. There are no absolute truths in human affairs and
human culture.
• Culture is frequently a euphemism to protect actions that
require analysis.
• We need to interpret our own culture, engage in inter-cultural
dialogue, and work towards cultural transformation.
• Keen sensitivity to the plurality of cultures and the dynamism
of particular cultures is essential.
• Domesticating cultural practices thrive on the power of myth
to go unchallenged, therefore 'Stop acting on these practices,
and reflect on them.'
• Identify and promote what sustains and enhances life.
• Develop a keen sensitivity to the inherent dangers of tying
identity to culture.
Illustrative of African women's concern for cultural hermeneutics are the
writings of Oduyoye and Kanyoro. Oduyoye seeks parameters for iden-
tifying cultural elements that are life-affirming for women in Africa,
whether they are validated by traditional Christian teaching or not. Key
to this search is women's full humanity and participation in religion and
society. Elements deemed incompatible with the gospel of fullness of life
are studied for the cracks that may lead to transformation and the intran-
sigence that call for prophetic condemnation. She allies cultural herme-
neutics to biblical hermeneutics and finds this a very fertile area for
imaginative theological reflection. Most African women use the Bible in
very traditional ways following those of the schools of theology at which
they studied. Several, however, have developed very creative ways of
retelling biblical events so that they reflect the actual experiences of
African women (Landman 1996).
Euro-American feminist theologians have alerted us to the hermeneu-
tics of suspicion and that of commitment. The cultural hermeneutics
being proposed combines both, as it shows African women taking a