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This leads to the next section, which deals with female ex-prisoners’ perception of God.
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the temple of God. Participant Rambai also narrated: What can really help me is to know God personally, because when I was I arrested, I did not know God, but now I am a prayerful Christian.
As in the Zimbabwean context, what emanated from female ex-prisoners’ perception of God in a North American context studied by the scholar Nikki Howard, was how their relationship with God has impacted their lives. The prison experience drew them closer to God. This is what has saved their lives and given them a stronger relationship with God. Kim (an ex-prisoner) in Howard’s thesis (2009:85) described herself as the bride of Christ and as a woman who lives her life for God.
Female ex-prisoners in the present study also demonstrated a confidence that God was beside them despite their crimes.
The second theme is that the women in the study believe that God is on their side even when society is not. As Participant Zorodzo claimed: God loves me always in happy moments and sad moments and I am a God fearing woman. Participant Maruza also maintained: When I hear people talking derogatorily about me, I do not argue, I just say that may God help them.
This theme denotes a God who fights for them despite their rejection by society. In the words of Masenya (2005:53), the thinking of Participant Maruza is reflected: God
h o w e v e r is the avenger of God’s people. Whatever evil is done to God’s people will be avenged by God in God’s own time.
The third theme is that female ex-prisoners have come to grips with a God who offers forgiveness even though they have been doubly condemned as deviant women and as criminals. For example, Participant Shuvai reported that: God forgave me. I pray to God that I should work for myself and not steal other people’s money.
Rosemary Radford Reuther (cited in Gonzalez 2007:127) points out that:
While women tend to already be linked to sin and a state of being fallen through the kind of thinking that perpetuates gender injustice, feminist theological anthropology highlights that male and female both fully reflect the divine image, and are both fully deserving of God’s grace.
The fourth theme to emerge was a faith in a God who provides for them. When Participant
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Chenai was assisted at ZACRO after having been turned down at Prison Fellowship, she asserted that: I was treated well, given food and accommodation. God is with me in all this.
Their idea of God who provides for them as they struggle to cope in society is linked to material survival in particular. According to Beverley Haddad (2008:49) survival embraces a dignity, a quality of life, which is fundamentally linked with these women’s understanding of God in their lives. Building on this understanding, poor and marginalised women are able to employ strategies that can take control of and impact on their material conditions of oppression. Haddad goes on to suggest that in the interconnectedness of faith and material conditions, these survival strategies and resistance practices are fostered, which in turn can lead to social transformation.
As aluded to in the above quotation by Reuther, regarding a God who forgives all humanity (male and female) equally, feminist theological anthropology is revealed in the above perceptions of God. Feminist theological anthropology, as indicated in section 2.2, consists of three major facets. The first is the critique of longstanding patriarchal readings of the Bible which endorse “interpreting women’s subordination to men as part of God’s original and enduring intention for human life” ( Kvam 1996:11). Feminist theological anthropology argues rather that women and men are both created equally in the image of God. The second facet is to question Christian theology’s dualisms which tend to
“posit a [diametrically opposite] difference between two entities”, so that maleness is categorized with “mind, reason, will and transcendence, …[while femaleness is]
“categorized with body, intuition, emotion and immanence” (:11). This implies that women’s domain is that of the body (reproduction), children and the home and that to fail in, or to venture beyond this domain constitutes deviance. The third facet of feminist theological anthropology is linked to its critique of Christian theological assumptions of women being the source of the original sin, being “prone to sensual desires”. This is deemed to constitute a “danger”, which is then used to justify male control over females, leading to the marginalisation and oppression, and hence the suffering of women.
The three facets together form the basis, within feminist theological anthropology, of the problematic understanding of the nature of women.
First, by stating that God is with them despite their crimes and prison sentences and
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despite the fact that they are described as criminals, the f e m a l e ex - prisoners mirror the thinking of feminist theological anthropology even though they are unaware that such a theory exists. Odoyuye (2001:72) points out that Christ is the ultimate representation of the imago Dei, being “the paradigm or archetype of what humanity is in God”. Therefore, all who follow Christ - women and men - are “called to image Christ” and, like the female ex- prisoners, de Gruchy (1997:254) concludes that “there is nothing in my ‘being-ness’ that offends God.” As articulated by Rakoczy (2004:43): “Feminist theology advocates “an anthropology which affirms women’s dignity and equality.” Second, when these women admit in their interviews that they experience severe physical and emotional suffering and that God is their comfort in the midst of such pain, they again affirm the feminist theological anthropological emphasis on women’s experiences of “the concrete reality of suffering, oppression and liberation” (Maria Pilar Aquino 1993 in Gonzalez 2007:116) . It seems patently clear from the above four themes that the women’s perceptions of God reveal aspects of their spiritual and emotional struggles as well as their material hardships.
In view of these various forms of suffering, we now examine the question: why do these women cling to God when they are suffering, and how do they understand this suffering?
I argue that their continued trust in God, despite their suffering, is a representation of how African people in general perceive evil and suffering in relation to God. African theologians have provided some indicators of how Africans embrace God irrespective of their suffering. Isaiah Dau (2010:118-127) shows that Africans view God as the creator, the Supreme Being and source of life. God is therefore not the source of suffering and would not harm anyone. Mbiti (1990:199) asserts that it is rather the spirits who are believed to be sources of evil, for example, the living dead who have recently died are thought to bring fear and evil to the living. Human beings are understood to invoke these spirits to harm those whom they resent or envy. Consequently, when Africans suffer they do not blame God, as they are of the view that suffering and evil are caused by human beings. The more Africans suffer, the more they hold on to God and pray to God, while blaming humanity for the calamity which befalls them (Smith 1950:30; Magesa 1997:50).
However, suffering is not to be glorified. The example of Jesus is emphasized by feminist theological anthropology, and his suffering and self-sacrifice (as Isaiah’s suffering servant)
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for the salvation of humanity, forms part of this example. Their liberationist view sees salvation not as something to be awaited in heaven, as Rakoczy (2004:52-54) states, our humanity is to be experienced in our communities as we offer human care and respect each other on earth, rather than waiting for God’s justice in heaven. Feminist theology has challenged traditional eschatology, by arguing that women (and men) are not looking for help in the future alone. They want to see God act now. Salvation is now.
Kennedy Owino (2010:158) takes up the theme of the suffering of women, pointing out that in many cases women see themselves as co-sufferers with Christ and remain passive without addressing their situation of suffering. He further reflects on Phiri’s citation of Carolyn Huggen who argues that there is a belief that suffering is a Christian virtue, while women in particular have been positioned as the suffering servants. As Owino warns: “There is danger in this kind of perception which spiritualises suffering and glorifies pain” (2010:158). In spiritualising suffering, a theology of prayers, liturgies, songs and poems has been developed, which fails to address the real problems that prevent the fullness of life. Musimbi R. A. Kanyoro (2010:25) concludes in such situations that:
“Much of our time our loud lamentations are heard only as tiny whispers.” Feminist theological anthropology thus requires that the systemic causes of women’s suffering need to be addressed rather than sacralising the experience of suffering itself.
Nevertheless, in the midst of suffering female ex-prisoners continue to cling to God, and, as noted by Phiri (2005:37) this is of great importance, since “African women’s spirituality is marked by a constant life of prayer [or communication with God].”
This brings to a close of this chapter, which has summarized and analysed (using the three theories underpinning this research study) the female ex-prisoners’ perceptions of self, society, and God.