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What then did such thinking entail? Oduyoye (2004) summarises the three main areas that underpinned Western Christian patriarchal thinking of the missionary period, and which has subsequently been embraced by African Christians. First, Christian Scripture was and remains a powerful force in determining women’s identity. In the same way as an African proverb “delineates cultural norms for women, so the theology of ‘the Bible says’ defines accepted norms for African Christian women” (Oduyoye 2004:91). The absolutist reading of the Christian Scriptures which the phrase ‘the Bible says’ denotes, is due to the dominant method of approaching scripture in Africa. As Oduyoye (2004:101) notes, in relation to the African continent:
Biblical models of human relationships, which fit well with the African traditional world-view, have been accepted as unchanging norms for all times and all peoples. It is not surprising, then, that anything other than a literal reading of the Bible is unacceptable.
This understanding of the Bible originated with the missionaries, who emphasized the headship of men and the subordination of women in their scriptural interpretations of male and female roles and identities. For example, “Paul’s injunction in 1 Timothy 2:11-12 that women should not speak publicly in church [was and] is often cited in support of this discriminatory position” (Oduyoye and Kanyoro 2006:210), while particular Old Testament writings are deemed to admonish women to fulfil their most important function of being good wives, such as Proverbs 31:10-31 (Chitando and Chitando 2005:26).
Second, Oduyoye (2004:93) highlights the fact that the church has been “blinded to the absence or presence of women.” According to Oduyoye and Kanyoro (2006:209-210), the most often used argument against women being involved in leadership in the church is that it is divinely pronounced that women are subordinate to men, so that there is no justification at all for their leadership over men under any circumstances.
Meanwhile, they also highlight that “all priests in Judaism were male.” Oduyoye (2004: 93) further points out that:
In Africa, collaboration between the traditions of Hebrew [s]cripture and aspects of traditional religion, has affected the nearly total exclusion of women from rituals; this naturally militates against women priests [and other kinds of church leaders]. Even worse, significant exemptions in Africa’s religious practices that validate the contributions of women [such as the Shona spirit mediums mentioned above], have been overlooked because they do not
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confirm Judeo-Christian perspectives.
Further still, Oduyoye (2004:97) argues that the patriarchal hierarchies “enthroned” in the church mean that “leadership and initiative are seen as contrary to the female spirit,” so that once again, “the pyramids of power that exist in African culture have found companions in Christianity.”
Third, Oduyoye (2004:96) mentions the exclusive masculine language of Christianity, and laments the continued “mouthing of what… [Africans] were taught a hundred or more years ago by European and American missionaries.” These missionaries based their thought on long-accepted emphases on the maleness of God, as revealed in the
“predominantly male images and roles of God… [which effectively contributed to] the socialization of patriarchy” (Reuether 1983:61). As pointed out by Oduyoye and Kanyoro (2006:210), Christian writing and thought also generally stressed that “Jesus and his apostles were… males.” This view was reflected in the response of Participant Kundiso as follows:
I am a Christian and I go to Johane Masowe. We are not allowed to preach in Johane Masowe. This is a church policy which is oppressive to women. We are to teach others through preaching but the church laws do not allow that we stand before people preaching. So they are holding us back.
Participant Zadzai similarly asserted that:
I went to the Vapostori church. Women are not allowed to read the Bible.
It is only men who read the Bible and preach.
Among the Masowe Apostles, as among many other AICs and mainline churches, women comprise the overwhelming majority of members. While they do not hold formal leadership positions as teachers and preachers, women participate actively in prayer meetings and healing ceremonies. Johane Masowe recognised the importance of women in his church. A collection of documents produced by early followers of Johane Masowe, known as the “Gospel of God Masowe Apostles”, reads “We honour the ‘sisters’ greatly because they represent the house of God…
however they have no power to give rules in the church… they must listen to the rules passed by God whose name they pray” (Mukonyora 2007:101). In other
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words, “the rules passed by God” mirror the understanding of the nature of men and women, as defined by men, validating gender-separation and the male-dominated hierarchy of both church and society (Mukonyora 2007:101). In this respect, the Masowe Apostles have simply reproduced the gender oppression prevalent in Zimbabwean society (Mukonyora 2007:102).
Despite Mukonyora’s conclusion above, many AICs do celebrate the role of women deemed to have been touched by the Holy Spirit. There are parallels between the spiritual role of women in AICs and in their role traditional spirituality, where women act as mediums, healers and midwives. Thus, women have considerable influence over their churches as prophetesses, whose task is to eliminate various forms of evil (Lilian Dube 2000:297).
However, although women prophets are not a threat to the established male hierarchy which prevails in these churches, they do command a lot of power through the authority vested in them by the Holy Spirit. West (1975:52) explains:
A message from the prophets, as it is believed to come from the Holy Spirit, would not be ignored by Church leaders whatever their view on its content might be, and prophets are generally consulted on most important matters pertaining to the church…Thus the prophet, either as “messenger” or “oracle”, will often wield more influence in church affairs than many men in the formal hierarchy.
Having outlined the ways in which Christianity has defined gender among African women, and hence how it has informed their identities, it becomes necessary to present a brief historical overview, up to the present day, of the socio- political situation in Zimbabwe and its impact on women, including female prisoners and ex-prisoners.
4.5. The general socio-political and economic situation in Zimbabwe as regards