The South African Women’s Theological Project: Practices of Solidarity and Degrees of Separation in the Context of the HIV Epidemic
In: Religion and TheologySearch for other papers by Beverley Haddad in
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Abstract
It has previously been argued that the HIV epidemic is the new kairos in South Africa. The Circle of African Women Theologians has been at the forefront of theologising this crisis, particularly as it affects women. This article seeks to analyse the HIV work of six South African Circle writers namely, Denise Ackermann, Christina Landman, Madipoane Masenya, Sarojini Nadar, Miranda Pillay and Beverley Haddad. The focus of this analysis revolves around the “degrees of separation and practices of solidarity” inherent in their work. The first part of the article deals with each theologian in turn. It then identifies common threads and differences in their work employing the methodological framework of African women’s theology as outlined by Sarojini Nadar and Isabel Phiri. The article concludes with a discussion of the particularities of the South African women’s theological project and argues that the work of these six women does not deal sufficiently with “difference” or “solidarity” thus limiting their influence on the political HIV project.
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Ackermann Denise Gill R. “AIDS and Theological Education.” Reflecting Theologically on AIDS: A Global Challenge 2007 London SCM 114 120
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Ackermann Denise “Engaging Stigma: An Embodied Theological Response to HIV and AIDS: The Challenge of HIV/AIDS to Christian Theology.” Scriptura 2005 89 385 395
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Ackermann Denise Phiri I. & Nadar S. “From Mere Existence to Tenacious Endurance Stigma, HIV/AIDS and a Feminist Theology of Praxis.” “African Women, Religion, and Health”: Essays in Honour of Mercy Amba Ewudziwa Oduyoye. 2006 Maryknoll, N.Y. Orbis 221 242
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Ackermann Denise “HIV and AIDS-Related Stigma: Implications for Theological Education, Research, Communication and Community.” 2005 Geneva UNAIDS Unpublished Report of the Theological Workshop Focusing on HIV and AIDS-Related Stigma
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Ackermann Denise Cochrane J. & Klein B. “Lamenting Tragedy From ‘The Other Side’.” Problems and Potentials in South African Civil Society 2000 Washington D.C. Centre for Philosophy and Values 213 242
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Ackermann Denise “Seeing HIV and AIDS as a Gendered Pandemic.” Nederduitse Gereformeerde Teologiese Tydskrif 2004 45 214 220 (Suppl 2)
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Ackermann Denise Dube M. & Kanyoro M. “Tamar’s Cry: Re-Reading an Ancient Text in the Midst of an HIV and AIDS Pandemic.” Grant Me Justice! HIV/AIDS and Gender Readings of the Bible 2004 Pietermaritzburg Cluster 27 59
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Chitando Ezra Troubled But Not Destroyed 2009 Geneva WCC
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Dube Musa Chitando E. & Hadebe N. “In the Circle of Life: African Women Theologians’ Engagement with HIV and AIDS.” Compassionate Circles: African Women Theologians Facing HIV 2009 Geneva WCC 197 236
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Dube Musa Chitando E. & Hadebe N. “HIV and AIDS Research and Writing in the Circle of African Women Theologians 2002–2006.” Compassionate Circles: African Women Theologians Facing HIV 2009 Geneva WCC 173 196
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Erikssen Elisabet , Lindmark Gunilla , Axemo Pia , Haddad Beverley & Ahlberg Beth “Ambivalence, Silence and Gender Differences in Church Leaders’ HIV-Prevention Messages to Young People in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.” Culture, Health and Sexuality 2009 12 no. 1 103 114
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Erikssen Elisabet , Lindmark Gunilla , Haddad Beverley & Axemo Pia “ ‘Faith, Premarital Sex and Relationships.’ Are Church Messages in Accordance with Perceived Realities of the Youth? A Qualitative Study in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.” Journal of Religion and Health Cited 29 April 2013. Online: http://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007%2Fs10943-011-9491-7.pdf DOI 10.1007/s10943-011-9491-7, Published online 13 April 2011.
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Erikssen Elisabet , Lindmark Gunilla , Haddad Beverley & Axemo Pia “Involvement of Religious Leaders in HIV prevention, South Africa.” Swedish Missiological Themes 2011 99 no. 2 119 135
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Haddad Beverley “African Women’s Theologies of Survival: Intersecting Faith, Feminisms and Development.” 2000 Ph.D. diss. University of Natal
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Haddad Beverley “Charting the Terrain: Religion in a Globalised HIV World.” Journal of Theology for Southern Africa 2010 138 71 90
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Haddad Beverley “Faith Resources and Sites as Critical to Participatory Learning with Rural Kwazulu-Natal Women.” Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion 2006 21 no. 1 135 154
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Haddad Beverley “Gender, Violence and HIV/AIDS: A Deadly Silence in the Church.” Journal of Theology for Southern Africa 2002 114 93 106
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Haddad Beverley “Poverty, Gendered Cultural Sexual Practices and HIV: Ethical and Theological Implications.” Journal of Constructive Theology 2009 15 no. 2 5 22
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Haddad Beverley “Practices of Solidarity, Degrees of Separation: Doing Theology as Women in South Africa.” Journal of Constructive Theology 2000 6 no. 2 39 53
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Haddad Beverley “Reflections on the Church and HIV/AIDS: South Africa.” Theology Today 2005 62 no. 1 29 37
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Haddad Beverley “Surviving the HIV and AIDS Epidemic in South Africa: Women Living And Dying, Theologising and Being Theologised.” Journal of Theology for Southern Africa 2008 131 47 57
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Haddad Beverley “The South African Women’s Theological Project in Historical Perspective: Revisiting Our Practices of Solidarity and Degrees of Separation.” JTSA 2013 145 35 58
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Haddad Beverley “ ‘We Pray But We Cannot Heal’: Theological Challenges Posed by the HIV/AIDS Crisis.” Journal of Theology for Southern Africa 2006 125 80 90
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Haddad Beverley Religion and HIV and AIDS: Charting the Terrain 2011 Pietermaritzburg UKZN
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Haddad Beverley , Olivier Jill & de Gruchy Steve The Potential and Perils of Partnership: Christian Religious Entities and Collaborative Stakeholders Responding to HIV and AIDS in Kenya, Malawi, and the DRC. 2008 London Tearfund and UNAIDS in collaboration with the African Religious Health Assets Programme
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Landman Christina. “A Theology for the Older, Female HIV-Infected Body.” Exchange 2008 37 no. 1 52 67
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Landman Christina. Phiri I. , Haddad B. & Masenya M. “Spiritual Care-Giving to Women Affected by HIV/AIDS.” African Women, HIV/AIDS and Faith Communities 2003 Pietermaritzburg Cluster 189 208
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Landman Christina. Phiri I. , Haddad B. & Masenya M. Amba Oduyoye M. & Amoah E. “The Bible as a Source of Healing and Wellness for Women Affected by HIV/AIDS.” People of Faith and the Challenge of HIV/AIDS. 2004 Ibadan Sefer 267 300
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Maluleke Tinyiko “The Challenge of HIV/AIDS for Theological Education.” Missionalia 2001 29 no. 2 125 143
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Masenya Madipoane “Between Unjust Suffering and the ‘Silent’ God: Job and HIV/AIDS Sufferers in South Africa.” Missionalia 2001 29 no. 2 186 199
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Masenya Madipoane “HIV/AIDS and African Biblical Hermeneutics: Focus on Southern African Women.” Chakana 2005 3 no. 5 21 35
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Masenya Madipoane Hopkins D. & Lewis M. “Impoverished on Harvesting Ground? Re-Reading Ruth 3 in an HIV/Aids Positive South Africa.” Another World is Possible: Spiritualities and Religions of Global Darker Peoples. 2009 London Equinox 135 141
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Masenya Madipoane Holter K. “Killed by AIDS and Buried by Religion: African Female Bodies in Crisis.” Interpreting Classical Religious Texts in Contemporary Africa 2007 Nairobi Acton 165 180
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Masenya Madipoane “Seeking Security through Marriage: Ruth 1:6–18 Placed under an African Woman’s HIV and AIDS Lens.” Journal of Constructive Theology 2007 13 no. 2 57 70
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Masenya Madipoane Phiri I. , Haddad B. & Masenya M. “Trapped Between Two ‘Canons’: African-South African Christian Women in the HIV/AIDS Era.” HIV/AIDS, African Women and Faith Communities 2003 Pietermaritzburg Cluster 113 127
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Masenya Madipoane “The Bible, HIV/AIDS and African/South African Women: A BosadiApproach.” Historiae Ecclesiasticae 2005 36 no. 1 187 201
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Mboyi Lilian , Carrara Henri , Makhaye Gethwana & Frohlich Janet Understanding HIV/AIDS Stigma and Discrimination at a Community Level: Perspectives from Rural KwaZulu-Natal 2005 Victoria, Australia Oxfam Community AID Abroad
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Nadar Sarojini “Power, Ideology and Interpretation/s: Womanist and Literary Perspectives on the Book of Esther as Resources for Gender Transformation.” 2003 Ph.D. diss., University of Natal
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Nadar Sarojini “Re-Reading Job in the Midst of Suffering in the HIV/AIDS Era: How Not to Talk of God.” Old Testament Essays 2003 16 no. 2 343 357
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Nadar Sarojini “Her-Stories and Her-Theologies: Charting the Feminist Theologies in Africa.” Studia Historiae Ecclesiasticae 35 1 16 Supplement (December 2009)
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Phiri Isabel , Haddad Beverley & Masenya Madipoane African Women, HIV/AIDS, and Faith Communities 2003 Pietermaritzburg Cluster
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Phiri Isabel & Nadar Sarojini Phiri Isabel & Nadar Sarojini Introduction to “African Women, Religion and Health”: Essays in Honour of Mercy Amba Ewudziwa Oduyoye 2006 Maryknoll, N.Y. Orbis
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Phiri Isabel & Nadar Sarojini “What’s in a Name?– Forging a Theoretical Framework for African Women’s Theologies.” Journal of Constructive Theology 2006 12 no. 2 3 15
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Phiri Isabel & Nadar Sarojini “ ‘Going through the Fire with Eyes Wide Open’: African Women’s Perspective on Indigenous Knowledge, Patriarchy and Sexuality.” Journal for the Study of Religion 2009 2 no. 2 5 22
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Phiri Isabel & Nadar Sarojini Cochrane J.R. , Bongmba E. , Phiri I. & van der Water D. “Cutting Cultural Corners: Ritual Male Circumcision as a Health Asset for HIV Prevention? An African Feminist Perspective.” Living on the Edge: Essays in Honour of Steve de Gruchy Activist & Theologian 2012 Pietermaritzburg Cluster 139 154
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Pillay Miranda “Luke 7:36–50: See this Woman? Toward a Theology of Gender Equality in the Context of HIV and AIDS.” Scriptura 2003 2 no. 89 441 455
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Pillay Miranda “Church Discourse on HIV/AIDS: A Responsible Response to a Disaster?” Scriptura 2003 1 no. 82 108 121
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Pillay Miranda Hansen L. “Re-Reading New Testament Texts: A Public-Theological Resource for Addressing Gender Inequality in the Context of HIV/AIDS in South Africa.” Christian in Public: Aims, Methodologies and Issues in Public Theology 2007 Stellenbosch Sun 209 225
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Pillay Miranda “Re-Visioning Stigma: A Socio-Rhetorical Reading of Luke 10:25–37 in the Context of HIV/AIDS in South Africa.” 2008 D.Th. diss., University of the Western Cape,
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Pillay Miranda “Reproductive Health: Rethinking Sexist Notions of Women’s’ Bodies in the Context of HIV and AIDS.” Journal of Constructive Theology 2009 15 no. 2 41 53
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Pillay Miranda Sporre K. & Botman R. “Women in the Church: Solidarity in Suffering in the Context of HIV/AIDS.” Building a Human Rights Culture: South African and Swedish Perspectives. 2003 Falun, Sweden Institute for Human Rights 142 163
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Pillay Miranda Chitando E. & Hadebe N. “Women in the Church: Toward Developing Community in the Context of HIV and AIDS.” Compassionate Circles: African Women Theologians and HIV 2009 Geneva WCC 96 113
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Pillay Miranda De Gruchy S. , Koopman N. & Strijbos S. “Stigma in the Context of HIV/AIDS: Towards Integrating Individual and Societal Intervention Strategies.” From Our Side: Emerging Perspectives on Development and Ethics 2008 Amsterdam Rosenberg 209 221 in conversation with Tania Vergnani
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UNAIDS “World AIDS Day Report 2011.” No pages. Cited 28 August 2012 Online: http://www.unaids.org/en/media/unaids/contentassets/documents/unaidspublication/2011/JC2216_WorldAIDSday_report_2011_en.pdf.
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Vorster Willem Sexism and Feminism in Theological Perspective 1984 Pretoria Unisa
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3
Beverley Haddad, “ ‘We Pray but We Cannot Heal’: Theological Challenges Posed by the HIV/AIDS Crisis,” JTSA 125 (2006): 80–90; See also Tinyiko Maluleke, “The Challenge of HIV/AIDS for Theological Education,” Missionalia 29, no. 2 (2001): 125–143; Denise Ackermann, “HIV and AIDS-Related Stigma: Implications for Theological Education, Research, Communication and Community.” Unpublished Report of the Theological Workshop Focusing on HIV and AIDS-Related Stigma. Geneva: UNAIDS, 2005, 46–50.
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4
See Musa Dube, “In the Circle of Life: African Women Theologians’ Engagement with HIV and AIDS,” in Compassionate Circles: African Women Theologians Facing HIV (ed. E. Chitando and N. Hadebe; Geneva: WCC, 2009), 197–236.
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5
For a fuller bibliography, see Dube, “In the Circle of Life,” 228–234.
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10
See Haddad, “African Women’s Theologies of Survival,” 209–214.
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11
Denise Ackermann, “Lamenting Tragedy from the Other Side,” in Problems and Potentials in South African Civil Society (ed. J. Cochrane and B. Klein; Washington D.C.: Centre for Philosophy and Values, 2000), 213–242.
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14
Denise Ackermann, “Tamar’s Cry: Re-Reading an Ancient Text in the Midst of an HIV and AIDS Pandemic,” in Grant Me Justice! HIV/AIDS and Gender Readings of the Bible (ed. M. Dube and M. Kanyoro; Pietermaritzburg: Cluster, 2004), 27–59.
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15
See Denise Ackermann, “Engaging Stigma: An Embodied Theological Response to HIV and AIDS: The Challenge of HIV/AIDS to Christian Theology.” Scriptura 89 (2005), 385–395; and “HIV and AIDS-Related Stigma.”
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16
Denise Ackermann, “Seeing HIV and AIDS as a Gendered Pandemic,” Nederduitse Gereformeerde Teologiese Tydskrif 45, Sup. 2 (2004), 214–220; and “From Mere Existence to Tenacious Endurance Stigma, HIV/AIDS and a Feminist Theology of Praxis,” in “African Women, Religion and Health”: Essays in Honour of Mercy Amba Ewudziwa Oduyoye (ed. I. Phiri and S. Nadar; Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis, 2006), 221–242.
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17
Denise Ackermann, “AIDS and Theological Education,” in Reflecting Theologically on AIDS: A Global Challenge (ed. R. Gill; London: SCM, 2007), 114–120.
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19
See Willem Vorster, ed., Sexism and Feminism in Theological Perspective (Pretoria: Unisa, 1984).
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20
Christina Landman, “Spiritual Care-Giving to Women Affected by HIV/AIDS,” in African Women, HIV/AIDS and Faith Communities (ed. I. Phiri, B. Haddad and M. Masenya; Pietermaritzburg: Cluster, 2003), 189–208.
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22
See e.g., Christina Landman, “A Theology for the Older, Female HIV-Infected Body,” Exchange 37, no. 1 (2008): 52–67.
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23
Christina Landman, “The Bible as a Source of Healing and Wellness for Women Affected by HIV/AIDS,” in People of Faith and the Challenge of HIV/AIDS (ed. M. Amba, O. Amoah and E. Amoah; Ibadan: Sefer, 2004), 267–300.
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24
See Haddad, “African Women’s Theologies of Survival,” 215–218.
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26
Sarojini Nadar, “Her-Stories and Her-Theologies: Charting the Feminist Theologies in Africa,” Studia Historiae Ecclesiasticae 35, Sup. (December 2009): 8.
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27
Madipoane Masenya, “Between Unjust Suffering and the ‘Silent’ God: Job and HIV/AIDS Sufferers in South Africa,” Missionalia 29, no. 2 (2001): 186–199.
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28
Madipoane Masenya, “Seeking Security through Marriage: Ruth 1:6–18 Placed under an African Woman’s HIV and AIDS Lens,” Journal of Constructive Theology 13, no. 2 (2007): 57–70; “Impoverished on Harvesting Ground? Re-Reading Ruth 3 in an HIV/Aids Positive South Africa,” in Another World is Possible: Spiritualities and Religions of Global Darker Peoples (ed. D. Hopkins and M. Lewis; London: Equinox, 2009), 135–141.
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29
Madipoane Masenya, “Trapped between Two ‘Canons’: African-South African Christian Women in the HIV/AIDS Era,” in HIV/AIDS, African Women and Faith Communities (ed. I. Phiri, B. Haddad and M. Masenya; Cluster: Pietermaritzburg, 2003), 113–127.
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30
See Madipoane Masenya, “HIV/AIDS and African Biblical Hermeneutics: Focus on Southern African Women,” Chakana 3, no. 5 (2005): 21–35; “Killed by AIDS and Buried by Religion: African Female Bodies in Crisis,” in Interpreting Classical Religious Texts in Contemporary Africa (ed. K. Holter; Nairobi: Acton, 2007), 165–180.
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31
See Haddad, “African Women’s Theologies of Survival,” 220–225.
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34
Sarojini Nadar, “Re-Reading Job in the Midst of Suffering in the HIV/AIDS Era: How Not to Talk of God,” OTE 16, no. 2 (2003): 343–357.
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35
Isabel Phiri and Sarojini Nadar, “ ‘Going through the Fire with Eyes Wide Open’: African Women’s Perspective on Indigenous Knowledge, Patriarchy and Sexuality,” Journal for the Study of Religion 2, no. 2 (2009): 5–22.
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37
Ezra Chitando, Troubled but not Destroyed (Geneva: WCC, 2009), 179.
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39
Miranda Pillay, “Luke 7:36–50: See this Woman? Toward a Theology of Gender Equality in the Context of HIV and AIDS,” Scriptura 2, no. 89 (2003): 441–455; “Re-Reading New Testament Texts: A Public-Theological Resource for Addressing Gender Inequality in the Context of HIV/AIDS in South Africa,” in Christian in Public: Aims, Methodologies and Issues in Public Theology (ed. L. Hansen; Stellenbosch: Sun, 2007), 209–225; “Reproductive Health: Rethinking Sexist Notions of Women’s’ Bodies in the Context of HIV and AIDS,” Journal of Constructive Theology 15, no. 2 (2009): 41–53; Miranda Pillay in conversation with Tania Vergnani, “Stigma in the Context of HIV/AIDS: Towards Integrating Individual And Societal Intervention Strategies,” in From Our Side: Emerging Perspectives on Development and Ethics (ed. S. de Gruchy, N. Koopman and S. Strijbos; Amsterdam: Rosenberg, 2008), 209–221.
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40
Miranda Pillay, “Church Discourse on HIV/AIDS: A Responsible Response to a Disaster?” Scriptura 1, no. 82 (2003): 108–121; “Women in the Church: Solidarity in Suffering in the Context of HIV/AIDS,” in Building a Human Rights Culture: South African and Swedish Perspectives (ed. K. Sporre and R. Botman; Falun, Sweden: Institute for Human Rights, 2003), 142–163.
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43
See also, “Women in the Church: Toward Developing Community in the Context of HIV and AIDS,” in Compassionate Circles: African Women Theologians and HIV (ed. E. Chitando and N. Hadebe; Geneva: WCC, 2009), 96–113.
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44
Musa Dube, “HIV and AIDS Research and Writing in the Circle of African Women Theologians 2002–2006,” in Compassionate Circles: African Women Theologians Facing HIV (ed. E. Chitando and N. Hadebe; Geneva: WCC, 2009), 190.
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45
See Beverley Haddad, “Practices of Solidarity, Degrees of Separation: Doing Theology as Women in South Africa,” Journal of Constructive Theology 6, no. 2 (2000): 39–53.
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46
Beverley Haddad, “Gender, Violence and HIV/AIDS: A Deadly Silence in the Church,” JTSA 114 (2002): 93–106.
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47
See also Beverley Haddad, “Reflections on the Church and HIV/AIDS: South Africa,” ThTo 62, no. 1 (2005): 29–37.
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50
Beverley Haddad, “Faith Resources and Sites as Critical to Participatory Learning with Rural Kwazulu-Natal Women,” Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion 21, no. 1 (2006): 135–154; “ ‘We Pray But We Cannot Heal’: Theological Challenges Posed by the HIV/AIDS Crisis,” JTSA 125 (2006): 80–90; “Surviving the HIV and AIDS Epidemic in South Africa: Women Living and Dying, Theologising and Being Theologised,” JTSA 131 (2008): 47–57.
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54
See Beverley Haddad, “Charting the Terrain: Religion in a Globalised HIV World,” JTSA 138 (2010): 71–90; and Beverley Haddad, ed., Religion and HIV and AIDS: Charting the Terrain (Pietermaritzburg: UKZN; 2011).
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55
Isabel Phiri and Sarojini Nadar, “What’s in a Name? – Forging a Theoretical Framework for African Women’s Theologies,” Journal of Constructive Theology 12, no. 2 (2006): 3–15.
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The South African Women’s Theological Project: Practices of Solidarity and Degrees of Separation in the Context of the HIV Epidemic
In: Religion and TheologySearch for other papers by Beverley Haddad in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Abstract
It has previously been argued that the HIV epidemic is the new kairos in South Africa. The Circle of African Women Theologians has been at the forefront of theologising this crisis, particularly as it affects women. This article seeks to analyse the HIV work of six South African Circle writers namely, Denise Ackermann, Christina Landman, Madipoane Masenya, Sarojini Nadar, Miranda Pillay and Beverley Haddad. The focus of this analysis revolves around the “degrees of separation and practices of solidarity” inherent in their work. The first part of the article deals with each theologian in turn. It then identifies common threads and differences in their work employing the methodological framework of African women’s theology as outlined by Sarojini Nadar and Isabel Phiri. The article concludes with a discussion of the particularities of the South African women’s theological project and argues that the work of these six women does not deal sufficiently with “difference” or “solidarity” thus limiting their influence on the political HIV project.
| All Time | Past Year | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 254 | 36 | 2 |
| Full Text Views | 148 | 1 | 1 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 15 | 0 | 0 |