Chikamoneka!: Gender and Empire in Religion and Public Life

Lilian Siwila

Description

This is a pioneering volume that emerges from the voices of women scholars who belong to the Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians in their response to the subjection of women and children in religion and public life. The book uses the metaphor "Chikamoneka" literally meaning, it shall be seen, to demonstrate resistance to all forms of oppression by empire to humanity, especially those inflicted on women and children. Some of the themes that addressed in this book are drawn from women's lived experiences. This demonstrates the power of narrative theory as a tool for academic discourse. The book makes a vital contribution to academic, religious and secular society in the field of Gender, Religion, Development and Sociology. It is also the first publication by the Zambian Women of Circle.

Sujets

• Gender Studies
• Social Science
• Sociologie, société et politique
• Religión
• African Theology
• Religion in Africa
• Social sciences

Informations

• Publié par: Mzuni Press
• Date de parution: 21 mars 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9789996076039
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 4 Mo

Extrait

CHIKAMONEKA!

Copyright 2022 Authors

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any from or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without prior permission from the publishers.

Published by Mzuni Press P/Bag 201 Luwinga Mzuzu 2

ISBN eISBN

978-99960-76-02-2 978-99960-76-03-9

The Mzuni Press is represented outside Malawi by: African Books Collective Oxford ([e-mail])

www.mzunipress.blogspot.com www.africanbookscollective.com

Editorial assistance: Hope Kaombe

CHIKAMONEKA!

Gender and Empire in Religion and

PublicLife

Edited by Lilian Cheelo Siwila Sylvia Mukuka Nelly Mwale

Mzuzu 2022

Acknowledgements

4

The production of this book is the effort of the women of the Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians, Zambia Chapter. Special thanks go to the executive for their initiative to organize a conference that brought together the contributors of this volume. We are also grateful for the support of the elders of the Circle as such Dr Elizabeth Nkumbula, for her unwavering support and participation in all the Circle meetings, Dr Inonge Mbikusita Lewanika, Mama Lucy Kasanga, Mama Omega Bula, and the late Rev Sampa-Bredt. We honour you as the pioneers of the Circle work in Zambia. We also want to thank our sponsors, the United Methodist Church of Canada and the Council for World Mission through the support of Dr Collin Cowan. And finally, to the publishers for accepting to put the work of Zambian Women scholars on the world map.

Contents

Foreword

Introduction

African Women Speak out in the Face of Empire L ILIAN C HEELO S IWILA

Chapter One

Masculinity and Empire in Religion and Public Life: Social Construction of a ‘Real Man’ in Zambia L ILLIAN C HEELO S IWILA

Chapter Two

Prophecy for Prayer and Profit: Women’s Experiences and their Contestation of the Empire in the Media in Zambia N ELLY M WALE

Chapter Three

Kenosis as a Theological Response to the Culture of Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church S R P ETRONELLA B WEUPE B WALYA

Chapter Four

A Feminist Critique of the Concept ofIshiluand its Effect on Women with Mental Disability in Zambia L ILIAN S IWILA &C HARITY M ULALAMI

Chapter Five

Speaking One Voice against Gender Based Violence: Perspectives from the “Thursdays in Black” Campaign C YNTHIA K ABANDA &S YLVIA M UKUKA

5

8 13 13

33

55

70

92

120

Chapter Six

Penetrating the Cracks of Patriarchy: Perspectives on Gender and Leadership in the Church P EGGY M ULAMBYA -K ABONDE

Chapter Seven

Remembering the Silent Liberationist Political Hero! Mama Betty Kaunda, the Mother of the Nation J UDITH L UBASI Z IWA

Chapter Eight

Groaning in the Face of Empire: My Journey as the First Woman Bishop in the United Church of Zambia S YLVIA M UKUKA

Chapter Nine

6

138

162

184

On Being a Single Mother and Clergy: A Call to Create Safe Space for Single Women Clergy in the Church 211 H ELLEN C HISANGA Chapter Ten Re-writing the Story of Ordination of Women: My Story as the First Ordained Woman in the Reformed Church of Zambia 225 R OSE M ULOWA Chapter Eleven

We are Still Few here: An Exploration of Women’s Underrepresentation in Theological Higher Education in Zambia N ELLY M WALE AND M ALIGELITA J OFTER N JOBVU

240

Chapter Twelve

Patriarchy in Theological Education in Zambia: Narrating my Personal Experiences at the Theological College of Central Africa and the United Church of Zambia University M ARY Z ULU M WICHE

Chapter Thirteen

7

255

Jezebel the Female Empire: Hermeneutic Reflections on 1 Kings 21 278 C HARITY M ULALAMI Chapter Fourteen Participation of Women in the‘Kuomboka kwa Likomu’ Ceremony in Munyama Area in Kalabo District 293 L UNGOWE S INJWALA &J UDITH L UBASI I LUBALA -Z IWA Bibliography 311

Foreword

8

For centuries, women have been struggling to find means of addressing oppressive structures both in religious and secular spaces. The exclusion of women from participating in what are known as male dominated spaces as a historical factor continues to haunt our societies especially when such moves are viewed as normative in the name of culture and religion. The influence of colonialism and mission work in most African countries did not make things any better for women, while our own African cultures also continue to contribute to the silencing and subjugating of women as they have done over the centuries. Musimbi Kanyoro is right to say that African culture is like a double-edged sword - while we embrace our culture as something that informs our identity, there are some aspects of our 1 cultures that require critical scrutiny. This unique volume, the first edited volume to be written in Zambia byThe Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians, presents the experiences of women in religion, culture and other empires around and within such as patriarchy, colonialism and globalization. Informed by narratives of their own experiences and those of other women drawn from various contexts, these authors have produced a volume that is worth celebrating. As members of the Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians’ Zambian chapter, they have become the pioneers of an academic volume focused on gender and religion from a Zambian perspective. This is a historical event in that even those of us who were the pioneers of the birthing of the Circle were not able to produce a book volume bred in Zambia.

Mercy Amba Oduyoye argues that “for a long time African women’s experiences were written by others and those ‘others’ spoke on our

1  Musimbi Kanyoro, “Introducing Feminist Cultural Hermeneutics: An African Perspective,”Introductions in Feminist Theology,”Cleveland: Pilgrim Press, 2002.

 9 2 behalf and wrote on our behalf as though we were dead.” But time has come for Women Theologians in our country to begin to publish what emerges from their own research and experience as women to bring gender issues from a religious perspective to the academic space. In his bookOrientalism, Edward Said observes that colonialism involves political, economic, and cultural hegemony and military domination when it comes to the production of knowledge about the 3 “other” who in this case is the colonized. The era we are in is an era of empire whose attitude to those on the margins is no different from that of the colonial systems. Hence the need for local knowledge that will speak to the realities of our contexts.

I want to congratulate the authors of this volume who have accepted the challenge to break the void on gender and religion academic work in our context. The volume comes as an asset both in academic institutions, religious and secular society. As Gayatri Spivak asks when speaking about the Dalit women of India: “Can the Subaltern Speak?” I confidently respond to her question; “Yes, the Subaltern 4 has Spoken!

By bringing out the diverse voices and experiences, the authors recount and expose the negative practices that are retrogressive to human development. The book also demonstrates the power of narrative theory as a tool for academic discourse analysis. The stories in this book are not just any other form of narrative but are stories that stimulate the reader’s consciousness. As Sarojini Nadar argues,

2  Mercy Amba Oduyoye,Hearing and Knowing: Theological Reflections on Christianity in Africa, Maryknoll: Orbis, 1986. 3  Edward W. Said,Orientalism, New York: Vintage, 1978. 4  Gayatri Chakravorti Spivat, “Can the Subaltern Speak?” (1993), since then reprintted in various forms.