Abstract
African Initiated Churches are often seen as bridge-builders between African Traditional Religions and Christianity – as those who attracted a lot of followers because they maintained elements of traditional African beliefs that were dismissed by missionaries. This paper investigates the relationship between African Traditional Religions and African Initiated Churches focussing on its impact on the roles of women. It finds that both restricting and liberating aspects are taken over from African Traditional Religions to present-day African Initiated Churches. The religious traditions can affirm each other to foster the exclusion of women. Yet they also give room to spiritual power and charismatic authority that women may gain through age, status and divine or ancestral calling. These attributes enable women to fundamentally transform their own situation – e.g. from sick social misfits to powerful leaders – as well as to denounce and challenge existing power structures in the wider community.
[I]t is vital for African women’s liberation to be inspired by indigenous concepts and categories.
Chitando, Chirongoma, and Nyakudya 2023, p.5
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1 Introduction
African Initiated Churches are often characterised as bridges between African Traditional Religions and Christianity.1 Their success and growth are seen to be linked to the fact that they accommodated traditional beliefs and practices which had been part of every-day life for a lot of people but were dismissed by missionaries.2 Especially the early churches are described as forms of “resistance” to Western colonialism.3 Tiburcio characterises them as “African Traditional Religions rooted churches.”4 While he and other researchers suggest that this rootedness rather, or only, applies to more traditional African Independent Churches,5 others assert that it equally holds true for younger Pentecostal churches.6 In this paper they are subsumed under the term African Initiated Churches as they were both initiated in Africa by Africans without direct links to mission-initiated churches.7
When drawing a line between these types of churches it is often pointed out that Pentecostal churches reject the veneration of ancestors which forms an important aspect of various African Traditional Religions and was taken over by some African Independent Churches – i.a. with reference to the important lists of ancestors in the Bible.8 However, while Nel agrees that Pentecostal churches would reject the belief in ancestors he argues that they, as well as the older African churches, share the spiritual worldview with African Traditional Religions. He points to Spirit baptism which is practiced in some of these churches and underlines their pneumatic emphasis on the work of the Holy Spirit. As he concludes
pneumatic Christianity is close to the grain of African culture and its worldview resonates closely with the indigenous […] worldview. It operates with the assumption of the existence of unseen authorities, evil cosmic powers and benevolent spiritual forces.9
As we will see, especially this assumption of “unseen authorities” plays an important role regarding the position of women.
I do not claim that all African Initiated Churches integrated all – or the same – elements of African Traditional Religions. Different churches found different ways to deal with traditional beliefs and practices and to accommodate or reject them10 and I neither claim to speak for all these churches, nor for all different African Traditional Religions. However, this paper investigates existing connections or parallels between African Initiated Churches and African Traditional Religions, specifically in beliefs and understandings relating to the roles of women. It thereby follows up on my research on female founders of these churches in West and Southern Africa.11
African Initiated Churches are often seen to be particularly open to women’s participation and leadership – at least compared to early mission-initiated churches.12 Research has shown how women gain charismatic authority through the experience of divine calling which enables them to rise to powerful positions e.g. as healers and/or church founders in several African Initiated Churches.13 Charismatic authority as defined by Weber “knows nothing of a form or of an ordered procedure of appointment or dismissal.”14 Rather, as Renger summarises, it derives from a “‘higher source’”.15
Interestingly, the openness to women is seen to be in continuation with African Traditional Religions in which women are said to have (had) greater importance than was given to them in mission-initiated churches. This is not to overemphasise women’s pre-colonial power and influence. Yet it is noteworthy that in some cases a direct connection is traced between the roles of women in African Initiated Churches and the roles they had – and have – in African Traditional Religions.16
In the light of the above quote by Chitando, Chirongoma, and Nyakudya emphasising the importance of “indigenous concepts and categories” for “African women’s liberation” the paper aims to highlight recurrent patterns in beliefs and practices that affect the positions of women and how they reach them and, more precisely, their opportunities to transgress prescribed gender roles and to challenge existing power inequalities. This is done against the background of the current revival of African Traditional Religions which, according to Nweke, has only received “insufficient attention” so far.17 As we will see, it seems that especially women affirm their historical background and (re)claim their authority.
After a brief description of the methodology the paper will take the ceremony of rain dances in Southern Africa as point of departure to scrutinise different aspects of this ritual, such as specifically regulations for and the calling of the participants, to highlight recurrent patterns of beliefs regarding women and their roles in different African Traditional Religions and African Initiated Churches. I additionally draw on examples from Nigeria. As we will see in the case of menstruation, African Traditional Religions and Christianity can mutually affirm each other to reinforce the exclusion of women. Yet also the transformative and self-liberating potential inherent to these religious traditions becomes clearly visible. Spiritual power that women gain through status or age and the experience of being called into specific positions enable them to redefine their situation as well as to transgress social norms and thereby to challenge oppressive power structures.
2 Methodology
While this article mainly draws on literature, I also had the chance to interview three experts in the field of African Traditional Religions, namely Dr. Senzokuhle Doreen Setume and Prof. James Amanze from the department of Theology and Religious Studies at the University of Botswana and Prof. Félix Ayoh’Omidire, the professor and chair of Brazilian and Afro-Latin-American Studies at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria. The semi-structured interviews were conducted in 2023 and focussed on the roles of women within specific ethnic groups and religious traditions. While Omidire provided insights on the culture and religion of the Yoruba in Western Nigeria, Setume and Amanze discussed beliefs and rituals in the context of Southern Africa and the example of the Balobedu in Northern South Africa. These regions form the main focus of this paper.
3 Women, Menstruation and Rain
One of the rituals women are prominently present in are rain dances, or wosana dances, which are i.a. performed in parts of Botswana and Zimbabwe in order to ask for rain and fertility of the land.18 In the following, different aspects of this ritual, such as some of the underlying understandings, regulations and restrictions for the participants as well as the calling procedure, form points of departure to highlight recurrent beliefs relating to women that exist both in different African Traditional Religions and in African Initiated Churches. Interestingly, these similar understandings exist even though the specific ethnic groups referred to in this paper may differ with regard to location, cultural, political, economic aspects and traditions.
4 Potentials of Rain and Menstruation
Setume describes the rain dances and the associated priestesses in her contribution Isangoma and Wosana the Rain Priestess: Women as Vehicles to the Sustainability of African Indigenous Religions. While both men and women can be called, she states that “[m]ost wosana dancers are women [emphasis in the original].”19
The perceived interrelatedness of women and rain(-making) also manifests itself in other regions. One example is the figure of the Rain Queen Modjadji, the queen of the Balobedu in Northern South Africa. This hereditary queen is believed to have specific powers of bringing rain and presides over the rain-making ceremony which takes place every year. As Amanze highlights, rain brings life and is thus, like women, associated with fertility.20
This understanding resonates with Lewis-Williams findings. According to him the /Xam in South Africa called girls who have their first menstruation “!kwi/a //ka:n” which means “rain that had recently fallen and that was believed to be especially potent.” As he concludes, “rain in its fresh, potent state thus paralleled the girl at her first menstruation.”21 Interestingly, this potency is not only linked to fertility but also to spiritual potency. Lewis-Williams points to beliefs of the Ju/’hoansi (also Ju/’Hoansi) in the border region of Namibia and Botswana and summarises that “rain that has just fallen has a lot of n/om [spiritual energy or power] – as has a girl at puberty.”22 This perception is not unique to Southern Africa. As Omidire explains, among the Yoruba menstrual blood is seen to have powerful àṣẹ (or ashe) which could be understood as the power to create or change things.23
5 Menstruation as Obstacle
While menstruation is associated with the potency to procreate and in some cases also with spiritual potency or power, it is not only perceived as something positive. Oduyoye underlines that menstrual blood is often understood “as being a pollutant.” She argues that some “Christian communities use menstruation […] to marginalise women and keep them subordinate.”24 In fact, also in African Initiated Churches restrictions for women are linked to their actual or suspected menstruation. In some churches women who currently have their period are not permitted to come close to the altar and female pastors might be restricted from performing certain sacraments or preaching form the altar.25 Novieto suggests that it has been easy for these churches to implement the understanding of women’s ritual uncleanliness during menstruation and the related regulations because this idea does not only exist in the Old Testament but also in different African Traditional Religions.26 This example showcases how the two sources can reinforce each other to justify the exclusion of women from specific rituals or positions.
At the same time it is interesting to note that these restrictions might be lifted when women pass menopause. In some cases only post-menopausal women can hand out all sacraments – or be ordained as pastors at all.27 Similarly, regarding the described rain dance, Amanze points out that only women after menopause are allowed to brew the beer which is needed for the ceremony to attract rain. This is because the other women are seen to be “hot” while, in order to cause rain, coolness is needed.28
6 Menopause and Spiritual Power
6.1 Surpassing Gender
The fact that women who have passed menopause are authorised to perform rituals they could not carry out before seems to be well established. Grillo, van Klinken and Ndzovu summarise:
As persons age they are believed to take on greater spiritual power. Female elders past menopause occupy a transcendent status as human beings who have surpassed gender. This widespread conception of their special nature is most clearly expressed in ritual performance.29
Referring to this quote, Sipeyiye warns that “a hermeneutic of suspicion” should be employed with regard to this belief “because of the patriarchal privileges that often lurk behind such beliefs.” As he further elaborates:
The belief may be a patriarchal ploy to ‘accept’ women elders past menopause as ‘men’. They have ceased to be ‘women’ but have become ‘men’ and, therefore, can preside over ritual practice without threatening men’s monopoly of power [single quotation marks in the original].30
This is a valid point. The fact that restrictions on women are lifted does not necessarily mean that patriarchal privileges, or the underlying patriarchal system, are lifted as such. No matter whether one follows Sipeyiye’s assumption that these women could be seen as men or not, one could argue that it will often be men who allow women to expand their space of ritual performance – be it in the context of African Traditional Religions or in African Initiated Churches. Even though Sipeyiye questions Grillo, van Klinken and Ndzovu’s assessment, what equally transpires from both statements is the fact that gender is not understood as something fixed. Both the idea that post-menopausal women have “surpassed gender” as well as that they are accepted as men, show that gender is seen as something that takes different forms in different phases of life.31 Both in African Traditional Religions and in African Initiated Churches, these phases or stages come with different duties and opportunities.
6.2 Spiritual Activism
Especially with regard to African Traditional Religions examples suggest that, while their status changes, the growing spiritual power of elderly women is tightly linked to aspects which would be associated with womanhood, such as their role as mothers or even their female genitals. According to Omidire in the case of the Yoruba, women past menopause are said to have especially strong ashe. They are no longer perceived as mothers of their children but as “our mothers” – mothers of the community as such.32 In her work on the Igbo in Nigeria, Grillo speaks of “Female Genital Power.”33
Post-menopausal elders, referred to as ‘the Mothers’, are considered the living embodiment of the ancestors, the guardians of the moral order, and conduits of the paramount spiritual power to protect the community. The seat of this power is the female sex.34
Not only are elderly women again seen as “mothers” but their spiritual power is explicitly related to their female genitals. Moreover this part of the body plays a central role in a powerful ritual. According to Grillo, the women “strip, pound the ground, and slap their genitals as they curse the enemy. This act of spiritual combat is a dangerous taboo for men to view.”35 While she describes this ritual as a “spiritual weapon”,36 she points out that it is also performed “as a form of political activism against governmental corruption and violence.”37
A very similar account is given by Nobel Peace Prize winner Leymah Gbowee. When peace negotiations on the civil war in Liberia were held in Ghana without any sign of progress, women who had protested outside the building during the whole process, decided to block the doors of the meeting hall in order to force the (mainly male) discussants to stay in the room until a solution would be found. When officers approached to arrest them, Gbowee stood up and announced that she would strip naked, should they come closer.
But in threatening to strip, I had summoned up a traditional power. In Africa, it’s a terrible curse to see a married or elderly woman deliberately bare herself. If a mother is really, really upset with a child, she might take out her breast and slap it, and he’s cursed. For this group of men to see a woman naked would be almost like a death sentence. Men are born through women’s vaginas, and it’s as if by exposing ourselves, we say, “We now take back the life we gave you.”38
Several aspects are noteworthy here. First, it is not a specific ritual but the sheer act of an elderly woman stripping naked which is associated with the ability to curse. Interestingly, according to Gbowee, this also applies to married women. This suggests that it is not only age but also social status that plays a role here. Moreover, it is not only the vagina’s spiritual power that is affirmed in this quote but also the female breast seems to be a seat of power. Thus, two parts of the female body which, in the context of motherhood, would be associated with nourishing and giving life, now have the means to bring curse and take life – more precisely men’s life.
Both cases highlight how elderly women exercise, or refer to, spiritual power which can be dangerous for men. This is worth of note as elderly women might be well respected but also often belong to the most vulnerable groups of society, especially when they are widows.39 Moreover, the act of appealing to a spiritual or traditional power as last resort in a highly political situation illustrates how spirituality is interwoven with all parts of life. In this vein the cases could be seen as examples of what Maparyan defines as “spiritual activism.”40 As she explains “[s]piritual activism is social or ecological transformational activity rooted in a spiritual belief system or set of spiritual practices [emphasis in the original].”41 In Gbowee’s case the act of stripping definitely transformed the situation. It was not explicitly related to a ritual, yet the spiritual power it referred to was understood and acknowledged. Not only were the women not arrested, but peace negotiations continued.
At the same time, Grillo’s and Gbowee’s examples show that while elderly women might defy gender in one way or another and obviously do hold great(er) spiritual power, a division between women, who exercise the ritual, and men, for whom it is dangerous to see it, still persists. One might thus ask whether women in a certain life phase surpass gender as such or whether their “transcendent status”, as Grillo at al. put it, rather allows them to surpass some of the gender-related restrictions and to gain specific gender-related powers at the same time.42
Interestingly, Amanze points out that while women who (might) have their period cannot take part in certain rituals, the Rain Queen Modjadji “is divine.”43 Therefor gender – and the related regulations – do not apply to her. She can lead the rain-making ceremony independently from her menstruation. Thus, similarly to the married woman in Gbowee’s account, the fact that the Rain Queen has somehow surpassed gender is not related to her age, but to her status. Yet, differently from the married women, her status relies on her religious position and authority. With regard to the importance of this authority, it is also worthy to take a look at the calling procedure of the wosana dancers.
7 Calling Procedure – From Illness to Power
Phibion reports that the wosana dancers are believed to be chosen directly by Mwali who can be understood as supreme deity i.a. responsible for “peace, the fertility of the land and its people.”44 This call is often marked by severe afflictions such as headaches, fatigue or weakness, or infertility. Phibion refers to his local informant according to whom “most female wosana have fertility problems as an affliction.” He then summarises the process as follows:
As in other cases of selection in other religions, the individual first seeks healing of the affliction in vain, and through some specialists comes to know the meaning of this affliction. In most cases revelation of the meaning of affliction is followed by reluctance to accept the vocation. The deterioration of the individual’s condition, however, makes him/her to accept the call, and undergo the initiation.45
As Phibion mentions, similar processes of selection or calling can be found in other religions. In fact it is striking that the described narrative of severe illness which is finally interpreted by a specialist as a calling followed by reluctance to accept this call exactly reflects the narrative I discerned in my study on female founders of African Initiated Churches. Many of the called women did not only overcome their sickness but became well-known healers themselves. This illustrates how the call can also bring specific spiritual powers.46 According to Asamoah-Gyadu the gift of healing is particularly appreciated because it both resonates “with indigenous divination and therapeutic methods” and “biblical precedents” which might explain why it continues to play an important role in African Initiated Churches.47 In several cases reluctance did not lead to an aggravation of the health condition but rather to additional spiritual experiences such as recurrent visions, dreams or moments of trance. In both cases however, the persistence and reinforcement of these experiences, or the illness, mark the persistence of the calling – be it into the role of a wosana or a church founder. They thereby testify to the reality of the calling and increase its credibility thus also increasing the credibility and legitimacy of the recipient of the call.
7.1 The Question of Fertility
Besides the fact that Phibion’s description entirely corresponds to the calling process of female church founders it is remarkable that “most female wosana” are reported to suffer from fertility problems. This suggests that especially women with fertility problems become the principle actresses of a ritual which is intrinsically related to rain and thereby, as we have seen earlier, to fertility. This is noteworthy as women’s fertility and their ability to bear children play a crucial role in many African societies. According to Premack it “is not a stretch to say that, not only in Yorubaland but across sub-Saharan Africa, having children is often understood as the very best kind of prosperity.”48 Not having children might have negative consequences – both on a social and spiritual level. As Premack finds, childless women are “more likely to be accused of witchcraft” which can lead to their, potentially forced, exclusion from society.49 The worldly society seems to be mirrored by the spiritual sphere. As Grillo et al. point out, not everyone can become an ancestor. “Only those who lived a full life, left descendants, cultivated moral values and achieved social distinction can attain this status.”50 Having children is thus not only a sign of prosperity but a criterion for social and spiritual recognition. However, according to Phibion’s informant, women who might be infertile, and thus do not meet the expectation of having children, are chosen to take on responsibility for the fertility of the land and thereby for the life and survival of the community.
This again resonates with the experience of female church founders. Many of these women were childless or lived in other ways that were traditionally less acceptable.51 Referring to two specific examples, Marie Lalou who founded the Deima Cult in Ivory Coast, and Blé Nahi, who claimed to be her successor, Hackett summarises that these women
transformed and legitimated their socially unacceptable circumstances through spiritual means. They claimed status and were valued as ideal, spiritual mothers, who had renounced their roles as traditional mothers for the good of the community.52
Of course these cases might differ from each other in some points. Being chosen to be part of the group of rain dancers certainly comes with another range of duties and opportunities than being chosen to become the founder of one’s own church. Nevertheless both examples point to the transformative power of this experience. The call allows women to redefine their situation and to transform their status. The experience of severe illness which would otherwise be associated with great vulnerability and dependency on others becomes an experience of choseness.53 This choseness enables women who do not fulfil the requirements for social and spiritual recognition to take on powerful spiritual positions with important responsibility for the community.
8 Authority to Speak and Denounce
The calling process as described by Phibion also resembles the call of an ancestor. Ancestors fulfil different responsibilities. They do not only protect their own family but also watch over fertility and prosperity of the wider community. However, if they are not respected or otherwise upset, they can also bring misfortune, illness or death.54 To communicate their will they can call people to become their media. As Amanze points out, refusing this call can lead to sickness which will not end until the call is accepted. He also highlighted how the mediumship of women might affect their position; “If ancestors speak through a young girl, people listen even though the elders are more respected.”55 The ancestors’ authority is thus somehow transferred to the respective medium – at least as long as he or she shares their message.
Following this idea Moyo explicitly highlights the “liberational” aspect of this process pointing to the fact that ancestral spirits are often believed to “choose to possess the despised of society, for instance the poor and suffering” thereby enabling them to speak out.56 She also mentions the Vimbuza healing dance which is mainly practiced in Malawi. Vimbuza both refers to the spirits which mainly take possession of women as well as to the respective healing ritual during which the possessed person starts singing and dancing. According to Moyo it “can be looked at as a protest dance by women oppressed in patrilineal societies […] A possessed woman sings songs of protest against her oppressive husband, mother and father-in-law and others.”57 She compares these phenomena to the experience of women becoming vessels of the Holy Spirit and concludes:
Whether possessed by ancestral spirits or filled with the power of the Holy Spirit, their identity is overtaken by the supernatural, and they soar to levels beyond the reproach of the natural authority, thus altering the otherwise unalterable in the quest for more just and inclusive communities. Whatever these women denounce or demand as divine charge, it is taken as authoritative through the woman agency or medium.58
In both cases the gained authority does not only allow (young) women to speak in front of the (elderly) community members but also to voice topics which might otherwise not be discussed in public and to request changes – also in rather patriarchal communities. Interestingly, also some female church founders used their position to denounce practices that are harmful to women.59 Whithout overestimating the impact of this (temporarily) gain of authority these acts could again be understood as forms of spiritual activism through which women attempt to transform their situation and thereby also the community as such.
9 (Re)Claiming Status
According to Tiburcio the veneration of ancestors and the respective rituals can be seen as one of the biggest differences between mainline or missionary churches and African Initiated Churches.60 More generally, African Traditional Religions “were given derogatory names” and were seen as “religions of lower status” by Western missionaries.61 Nevertheless they did not disappear and currently even seem to gain more importance – apparently especially among women. Recent publications point to traditional female leaders and concepts of empowerment or emphasise the need to find homegrown answers to the subordination and oppression of women.62
A BBC News documentary available on Youtube finds that “particularly women” recur to these belief systems and portrays three young female practitioners.63 The persisting influence of the missionaries is a recurrent topic in the accounts. Amanda Gcabashe, a traditional healer from South Africa, summarises their impact as follows: “They worked on our minds and that is why right now, we are our own oppressors after they’ve left.” In her view this is why traditional beliefs and forms of healing are still not fully accepted. Similarly, Mildred Otieno from Kenya who refers to herself as urban mystic helping people with their problems in life through divination, describes how people were told to “hate” their own culture. Thus, she sees the act of reclaiming her spirituality and her heritage as a way of “fighting back” and of “decolonising” her mind and spirit.64 All portrayed women encourage people to learn about their culture and to speak out against its oppression.
Regarding the position of women Gcabashe argues that they used to be equal which, according to her, is reflected in the fact that many African languages have no specific pronouns to differentiate between “he” and “she”. Otieno underlines that woman held various leading positions in traditional religions. As she points out: “We were healers, witches, we were oracles. And we were appreciated as such.”
One could question whether women and men were really seen as equal in pre-colonial time – or whether women were respected as witches. Nnaemeka warns that it is not helpful to overestimate the power women had in pre- or post-colonial times. She argues that in many cases women’s “relatively powerful [emphasis in the original]” positions were “further eroded” during colonialism.65 Moreover one could argue that some of the portrayed women incorporate aspects or rituals from outside African Traditional Religions. Otieno for example uses tarot cards in her divination. Yet this does not seem to diminish the credibility of their engagement; The documentary received overall positive feedback in the comment section with many commentors further emphasising the need to engage with traditional religious knowledge. Interestingly, one commentor identifies as “African and a proud Witch [sic].” Not only the post itself but also the fact that it has received 49 likes so far, suggest that others share Otieno’s positive perspective on witchcraft. What becomes clearly visible in the documentary and the reactions is that the affirmation of traditions and heritage is seen as part of a much needed process of decolonisation. Moreover, this affirmation also becomes a resource for women’s empowerment and enables them to (re)claim social and spiritual recognition. It thus serves as a double form of emancipation both from unequal social structures as well as from colonial thoughts and teachings.
10 Conclusion
When investigating the positions women have in African Traditional Religions it appears that gender identity and especially the roles, restrictions and opportunities that are associated with it are not necessarily understood as being fix. Rather, they might change according to different life stages. It seems that in some ways this understanding has been taken over by some African Initiated Churches – at least with regard to women. Both religious traditions share the idea of women going through different stages that are linked to specific duties and specific opportunities. Especially older (post-menopausal) women may gain positions or spiritual powers that were not accessible for them before. Yet, also other accesses to spiritual power and authority, such as status and spiritual calling were discerned in this paper.
As Nel has pointed out, both religious traditions share a spiritual worldview which assumes the existence of powers that might be unseen but hold and give authority. It is because of this shared worldview that they acknowledge the experience of the call, coming from spirits or the Holy Spirit, as a sign of choseness and charismatic authority. This experience enables women to take over powerful positions as rain dancers or church founders. In other cases spiritual powers and/or charismatic authority might be timely restricted and bound to the duration of a specific ritual. Yet both ways allow to (temporarily) transgress social restrictions related to gender, age or status and to openly denounce abuse of power within family and community structures and to demand change. This power and authority is acknowledged by the wider community – even if exercised by women who might otherwise not have a high standing. This shows that the transformative power which women gain is twofold; it enables them to transform their own standing by redefining their situation as well as to transform the wider community through acts which could be understood as spiritual activism.
Especially the empowering resources of African Traditional Religions seem to be rediscovered by women as an decolonising and emancipating experience. It remains to be seen if and how this will affect the situation of women in wider society. However, as we have seen in the case of women’s perceived uncleanliness or “heat” during menstruation, not all beliefs and practices of African Traditional Religions that resonate with African Initiated Churches support women’s empowerment. In this and other cases their connection has rather fostered women’s exclusion. Yet the examples presented in this paper clearly point out that beliefs enabling women to gain authority and spiritual – and thereby transformative – power might truly serve women’s liberation as Chitando, Chirongoma, and Nyakudya suggest.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Senzokuhle Doreen Setume, James Amanze and Félix Ayoh’Omidire as well as the church leaders for sharing their time and insight. The interviews with church leaders referred to in this paper were conducted within the framework of the research project Potentials of Cooperation with African Initiated Churches. Funding by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) is gratefully acknowledged. Moreover, I gratefully acknowledge financial support by the Equal Opportunities Fund (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin).
Biography
Marie-Luise Frost studied Religious Studies, Area Studies Asia/Africa and Religion and Culture in Potsdam, Berlin, Lausanne and Oslo. Besides different freelance activities in the cultural field, she worked as researcher in the Research Programme on Religious Communities and Sustainable Development at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin from 2015 to 2022. In 2024 she completed her PhD thesis “I got the call – not him” The Role(s) of Women in African Initiated Churches at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. The article “We were healers, witches, we were oracles.” forms part of her cumulative dissertation. She is a Research Associate at the University of Pretoria. Her research interests are religion and gender and religion and development.
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Other Sources
BBC News: Meet the African Women Reviving Traditional Religions, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BWZQEPFK5Q (date of last access: 20.04.2024).
UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage website: Vimbuza healing dance, https://ich.unesco.org/en/RL/vimbuza-healing-dance-00158 (date of last access: 15.04. 2024).
Nel, The African Background of Pentecostal Theology; Masondo, The African Indigenous Churches’ Spiritual Resources for Democracy and Social Cohesion; Bompani, Religion and Development from Below; Meyer, Christianity in Africa; Kiernan, The African Independent Churches.
Bompani, Religion and Development from Below.
Anderson, “Stretching Out Hands to God”, p. 56; Nel, The African Background of Pentecostal Theology, p. 2.
Tiburcio, African Initiated Churches (AICs), p. 270.
Nel, The African Background of Pentecostal Theology; Meyer, Christianity in Africa.
Nel, The African Background of Pentecostal Theology; Öhlmann/Gräb/Frost, Introduction. Interestingly, several researchers point to what they describe as “syncretic” relations of newer Pentecostal churches, referred to as New Prophetic Churches, and African Traditional Religions, mainly with regard to the way these churches emphasise healing and prophesising (Matshobane, New Prophetic Churches and Syncretism, p. 1; cf. Manyonganise, ‘When Faith Is Not Enough’; Kgatle, Consultations in New Prophetic Churches and African Traditional Religions).
Different terms are used to refer to these churches. Aside from African Independent Churches also the term African Indigenous Churches is used which emphasises their rootedness in
indigenous traditions and beliefs. The term Pentecostal or Pentecostal-Charismatic churches can be seen to point to the important role of the Holy Spirit in these churches. However it has to be noted that they all share important aspects and the lines between the different types are often not that clear. A detailed discussion of the term African Initiated Churches can be found in Öhlmann/Gräb/Frost, Introduction.
Anderson, “Stretching Out Hands to God”; Nel, The African Background of Pentecostal Theology; Meyer, Christianity in Africa.
Nel, The African Background of Pentecostal Theology, p. 6. See also Öhlmann/Gräb/Frost, Introduction.
Meyer, Christianity in Africa.
See Frost, “I Got the Call – Not Him”. As this earlier publication focussed on the accounts of female church founders, priority will be given to examples from African Traditional Religions in this article.
Parsitau, Women Without Limits and Limited Women; Mwaura, Gender and Power in African Christianity; Hackett, Women and New Religious Movements in Africa.
Frost, “I Got the Call – Not Him”; Mwaura, Gender and Power in African Christianity; Hackett, Women and New Religious Movements in Africa.
Max Weber, From Max Weber, p. 246.
Almut-Barbara Renger, Authority, p. 148.
Asamoah-Gyadu, Pentecostalism and the Transformation of the African Christian Landscape; Mwaura, Gender and Power in African Christianity.
Nweke, The Revival of African Spiritualities, p. 303.
For a more detailed description of these dances see Setume, Isangoma and Wosana the Rain Priestess, and Phibion, Bakalanga Music and Dance in Botswana and Zimbabwe. Similar dances are also performed in other African countries, e.g. Kenya (Koster, The Kilumi Rain Dance in Modern Kenya).
Setume, Isangoma and Wosana the Rain Priestess, p. 96.
Amanze, interview 2023.
Lewis-Williams, San Spirituality, p. 154.
Lewis-Williams, San Spirituality, p. 154.
Omidire, interview 2023. According to the Encyclopedia of African Religion, ashe is believed to be the first energy that existed. Through its own determination it became the “Creator, Oludumare” (Bankole, Ashe, p. 74). Even though different interpretations exist – also outside the African continent where the concept was spread by enslaved African people during the 18th and 19th centuries – ashe is mainly understood as an “organizing force that accounts for the origins and nature of humans and the universe” (Bankole, Ashe, p. 74). Interestingly the idea of an intrinsic link between (menstruational) blood and potency or fertility – rather than sickness – can also be discerned in the findings of John who did intercontextual bible reading with communities in Owamboland, Namibia. She reports that the bleeding of the women (Mark 5:21–43) which is sometimes read as a sign of her infertility in “Western” interpretations, was rather understood as a sign of fertility by the participants. In their view her bleeding showed that she was able to give birth or that she had given birth before (John, Biblical Interpretation and African Traditional Religion).
Oduyoye, Preface, p. xviii.
Frost,‘Women Care More’.
Ernestina Novieto, Women Leaders in Ghanaian Pentecostal/Charismatic Churches.
Frost,‘Women Care More’.
Amanze, interview 2023. This seems not to be a single case. Baloyi also mentions the special role of post-menopausal women in rituals to end droughts in Kenya (Baloyi, A Pastoral Evaluation of Menopause in the African Context).
For the importance of the concept of coolness in the wosana ritual also see Phibion, Bakalanga Music and Dance in Botswana and Zimbabwe.
Grillo/van Klinken/Ndzovu, Religions in Contemporary Africa, p. 196.
Sipeyiye, Rethinking Environmental Sustainability Through the Ndau Notion of Communal Existence, p. 97.
This also seems to be true for men. With regard to the Yoruba, Oyěwùmí holds that the social categories of “men” and “women” did not exist in their context but were introduced through colonisation. Rather than gender, “the primary principle of social organization was seniority, defined by relative age” (Oyěwùmí, The Invention of Women, p. 31).
Omidire, interview 2023. This is also visible in the Gẹlẹdẹ spectacle among the Yoruba which, according to Drewal and Thompson Drewal, is performed to honour “spiritually powerful women – elders, ancestors, and deities” who are referred to as “the great ancestral mothers” or simply “the mothers” (Drewal and Thompson Drewal, pp.7 et seq.). The importance accorded to mothers resonates with the fact that “mother” or “ma” is used as a respectful address for women in different parts of Africa. Interestingly, it has also become a sort of a title for some female church founders like Ma Nku, the founder of the St. John’s Apostolic Faith Mission in South Africa, or Mai (“mother”) Chaza who founded a church in Zimbabwe known as the Church of Mai Chaza or Mai Chaza Church (Frost, “I Got the Call – Not Him”).
Grillo, An Intimate Rebuke, p. 2.
Grillo/van Klinken/Ndzovu, Religions in Contemporary Africa, p. 196.
Grillo/van Klinken/Ndzovu, Religions in Contemporary Africa, p. 197.
Grillo, An Intimate Rebuke, p. 2.
Grillo/van Klinken/Ndzovu, Religions in Contemporary Africa, p. 197.
Gbowee, Mighty Be Our Powers, p. 162.
Frost, “There Is a Silent War Going On”.
Maparyan, The Womanist Idea, p. 114.
Maparyan, The Womanist Idea, p.119.
See also Chitando/Chirongoma/Nyakudya, eds. Chihera in Zimbabwe.
Amanze, interview 2023.
Phibion, Bakalanga Music and Dance in Botswana and Zimbabwe, p. 131. Mwali seems to be a complex deity whom different attributes are assigned to. Phibion provides a detailed overview of different understandings and concepts of Mwali. See also: Rodewald, Understanding ‘Mwali’ as Traditional Supreme Deity of the Bakalanga of Botswana and Western Zimbabwe: Part One.
Phibion, Bakalanga Music and Dance in Botswana and Zimbabwe, p. 188.
Frost, ‘I Got the Call – Not Him’.
Asamoah-Gyadu, Pentecostalism and the Transformation of the African Christian Landscape, p.101.
Premack, Bless Us with Children, p. 180. Roets and Clemence formulate it even more pointedly. Based on interviews with teenagers who tried to educate their peers on sexual health and the use of contraceptives in Cameroon they summarise that one of the challenges the teenagers encountered were “socio-cultural expectations. In African society, the purpose of women is to bear a child [emphais in the original]” (Roets/Clemence, Teenage Pregnancy Prevention, p. 55).
Premack, Bless us With Children, p. 180.
Grillo/van Klinken/Ndzovu, Religions in Contemporary Africa, p. 27.
Frost, ‘I Got the Call – Not Him’.
Hackett, Women and New Religious Movements in Africa, p. 264.
See also Frost, ‘I Got the Call – Not Him’.
Grillo/van Klinken/Ndzovu, Religions in Contemporary Africa; Chidester, African Religion.
Amanze, interview 2023.
Moyo, “Singing and Dancing Women’s Liberation”, p. 391.
Moyo, “Singing and Dancing Women’s Liberation”, p. 390. Vimbuza dance is part of the intangible cultural heritage. The Unesco description of this dance sustains Moyo’s interpretation of it as protest dance. According to the Unesco website the “ritual goes back to the mid-nineteenth century, when it developed as a means of overcoming traumatic experiences of oppression, and it further developed as a healing dance under British occupation, although it was forbidden by Christian missionaries. By becoming possessed by Vimbuza spirits, people could express these mental problems in a way that was accepted and understood by the surrounding society.” https://ich.unesco.org/en/RL/vimbuza-healing-dance-00158.
Moyo, Religion, Spirituality and Being a Woman in Africa, p. 73.
Mwaura, Gender and Power in African Christianity.
In many cases the term “ancestor worship” is used. However, different authors have argued that ancestors are not worshipped “as a surpreme or divine being” would be but simply receive the same amount of respect and “the same kind of attention that was owed to living elders.” Chidester, African Religion, p. 12.
Tiburcio, African Initiated Churches (AICs), p. 253.
E.g. Dube/Musili/Owusu-Ansah, eds., African Women Legends and the Spirituality of Resistance; Dube/Musili/Owusu-Ansah, eds., Gender and African Indigenous Religions; Chitando/Chirongoma/Nyakudya, eds., Chihera in Zimbabwe.
BBC News, Meet the African Women Reviving Traditional Religions.
“For me, reclaiming my spirituality, and especially my heritage is a way of me fighting back the system. So I’m decolonising not just my mind, but my spirit.”
Nnaemeka, Introduction, p. 19.