The Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians (the Circle) formally came into existence in 1989 in Accra, Ghana. Under the charismatic leadership of Mercy Amba Oduyoye, the Circle sought to be the voice of African Christian women at the grass roots level. To this end research and publication was and still is one of the major pillars and activities of the Circle. The main objective of the Circle is ‘to write and publish theological literature written by African women from their own experience of religion and culture on this continent’. In this regard the Circle has been and continues to be the voice for and on behalf of the African woman in religion, culture and theology. However, 25 years down the line there is need for an evaluation of the legacy of the Circle. How has the Circle been a voice for the voiceless, a mentoring instrument for women venturing into the academia? This article seeks to do this evaluation by examining the activities of the Circle including research publication.
The Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians (the Circle) formally came into existence in 1989 in Accra, Ghana. However, there were other meetings and associations prior to the inauguration of the Circle. These associations both inspired and supported the Circle. They include the Ecumenical Association of Third World Theologians (EATWOT) and the meeting of African Women Theologians held in Ibadan, Nigeria in 1980. Under the charismatic leadership of Mercy Amba Oduyoye, the Circle sought to be the voice of African women at the grass roots level. Today the Circle boasts several national chapters and regional representation in Eastern Africa, West Africa, Central and Southern Africa. There is also representation in Egypt. African women theologians purposed to be the voice of the voiceless through research and documentation of the theology of African women, especially at the grass roots level. They aimed at making the African woman visible and her existence given its rightful recognition and dignity.
The Circle has several other objectives that guide and contextualise the desire to be the voice. These objectives include research and publication on pertinent issues that affect women, coming together at national, regional and Pan-African conferences and workshops to share their research findings and to hear each other’s stories. These gatherings provide safe spaces for women to be themselves and to share the experiences that inform their narratives and help create their theologies. The Circle and its members are mentors to one another. The mentoring project helps younger and upcoming women in religion, culture and the academia to begin to understand the importance of their own stories and also the stories of other women. The mentoring programme is essential for the future of the Circle as it brings into the fold new and younger members even as mature and aging ones begin to grow weary.
This article seeks to evaluate the Circle’s performance in relation to these objectives. It specifically discusses the notion of voice, both figuratively and literally, in order to evaluate the Circle’s performance as the voice of African women in religion and culture. A detailed evaluation was done by Musa Dube (
The overarching objective of the Circle is to be the voice of African women, especially at the grass roots level. Research and publication were to form a foundational component of this voice. But the Circle realised early on that the raw data for this would come from the lived experiences of women themselves. Nyambura (
And where the words of women are crying to be heard, we must each recognize our responsibility to seek those words out, to read them and share them and examine them in their pertinence to our lives. (p. 43)
By committing themselves to becoming the voice of voiceless African women, Circle members took cognisance of the fact that being voiceless is a symptom of many other negative conditions or social ailments that afflict the women of Africa. The Free Dictionary (
At another level voicelessness is indicative of a lack of dignity born out of the fact that the voiceless one has no means of expressing even her or his own dignity. It implies the failure or the lack of interest of those around such an individual to listen or at least pay attention to what he or she has to say. Joan Bolker (
the inability to write or speak our central concerns. Or to write but as a disembodied persona who bears no relation to our inherent voices. We say only what we think we’re expected to say, and end up telling lies or half-truths. Voicelessness is also feeling powerless to speak and sensing that there is no one out there who speaks for us.
Each aspect of Bolker’s definition above can be applied to African women in culture and religion. Not being able to write or speak their central concerns is an apt description of women in general and the African woman in particular. This was a major challenge that the Circle has sought to respond to in its 25 years of existence. Sociopolitical, religious and theological processes have tended to go as if the woman does not exist. If she exists, she has no concerns and if she has any concerns at all she does not understand them. She is not capable of articulating them. For this reason, the man would articulate them and voice them on her behalf. This reflects back on our earlier definition of voicelessness: that of being dumb. Women are deemed to be dumb because they are without a voice. But they are also dumb because they are stupid, making it necessary for the man to talk on her behalf. The centrality of voice in African women’s theology cannot be overemphasised. The major problem of this situation is that the articulation is done from an ‘Other’s’ perspective. This has been the case especially in the articulation of women’s concerns in theology.
For years, African women in religion and culture have had no say in the development of theology. Consequently it has been necessary for women in religion and culture to find a voice and a language that is different from ‘that which has been provided out of the dominant culture’ which is essentially patriarchal (Neuger
It is enough to say a great challenge is ahead of us which demands boldness and courage. Speaking from the Christian context, we are advocates for a voice which has been missing in the decisions and the shaping of the African church and theology that we wish to see taken seriously by every Christian … (pp. 77–83)
The challenge to take responsibility was taken seriously by the Circle foremothers and fore sisters. In the preface to Mercy Oduyoye’s book
Circle women sought to dialogue with their cultures and their communities of faith. They sought to name their pain and the perpetrators of their pain. Women began to voice their experiences in the context of culture and religion in ways hitherto unknown and untested. In this way women in the Circle have helped one another to create new narratives as well as develop new interpretative lenses. The Circle becomes the interpretive community. This has helped women in religion and culture as well as those in academia to create new narratives that would help in the creation of new stories. New narratives would help women to create a future in which they would have a say in their own self-understanding by interpreting their experiences from their own perspective.
Thus Circle theologians observed, described and recorded how women at the grass roots do rather than think theology (Nyambura
The narratives that women gave (as indicated above) formed the raw data for Circle publications. For members of the Circle the saying ‘publish or perish’ took on an added perspective. It became meaningful outside of the academia. It was imperative for the stories to be made known to the rest of the world. Failure to do this would mean that the women of Africa would continue to perish for lack of knowledge. They would continue to perish in silence. It is in this way that research and publication became a voice of the voiceless both in academia and in society at large. The publications make the voice of African women be heard, their experiences be recognised and their contribution be recognised as valid.
In the preface to the Circle publication
have embarked on research and publication about what they learnt, studied, heard and come to know of Christianity and its interaction with African religion and culture with particular reference to women’s lives(
Most if not all the literature would be about women and for women. The literature would also be a documentation of Circle members’ engagement with various issues of concern in church and society.
The Circle came into being at a time that the world was just beginning to realise the magnitude of the HIV and AIDs pandemic. The world was waking up to the realisation that HIV and AIDs did in fact have a woman’s face. The most ostracised and stigmatised members of society were women with HIV and AIDs. In Africa in particular, women were often blamed for bringing the virus into families. They would be thrown out of the marital homes when and if their spouses died of AIDs related complications. Women in Africa were often victims of negative cultural and religious beliefs. These often taught that HIV and AIDs were a result of sin, broken taboos and witch craft. Thus at their meeting held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in August of 2002, Circle women presented papers on HIV and AIDs and how religion, culture and other social practices helped make the woman more vulnerable and susceptible to HIV infection. A series of publications came out of these papers, at least one book out of each region of the Circle. As of 2003, there were 31 books published. Musa Dube (
However, in relation to past publication we must mention and recognise the work of our foremothers whose research and publication have given voice to African women and African women theologies. Oduyoye’s publications in general have done this. But of note are
In choosing to become the voice of the voiceless, in helping African women in religion and culture to begin to see the world through their own eyes sometimes for the very first time, the Circle was not only making women visible, it was making the church and the communities at large aware of the existence of people who had hitherto been ignored or whose existence was of no consequence. Women were challenged to become aware of their own existence but also of their ability to define their own identity and to tell their own story. The Circle as a community of women doing theology made them aware of each other’s existence. More importantly the Circle has made its members aware of their common heritage as women, a heritage of voicelessness. African women theologians would be made aware that they must move and work in solidarity with each other and with other vulnerable people in fighting the tyrannies of silence and oppression. Self-awareness is essential in our self-understanding which in turn is fundamental in our awareness and our understanding of others. Self- awareness has an impact on our understanding of God too. The Circle would in its history create awareness of the silent majority in the pews of our churches. Circle theologians would create the awareness of the fact that women are missing from the pulpits because they have not been given the resources by which they would become effective occupants of pulpits. The absence of women in theological institutions thus became a matter of grave concern for the Circle.
During the missionary era and several decades after, theological training for women was viewed as neither important nor necessary. This was mainly because such training was aimed at producing candidates for ordained ministry and women’s candidature was not a consideration. In many of the African Initiated Churches, formal theological training was not a basic requirement even for the men in leadership positions. The leading and direction of the Holy Spirit were the main requirement. But with access to developed-world education made available by missionaries, women in the African church began to desire much more than the mere basics. Women began to better understand what it means for them to be the church in Africa as expressed by Phiri and Nadar (
The voice of women in decision making and leadership positions have thus remained muted because of the lack of opportunities for the training that would equip them with both knowledge and necessary skills. Women fill the pews while the men occupy the pulpits. Women in church have generally been recipients of theology rather than initiators of theology based on their own lived experiences. Women at the grass roots continue to be church without having a say in some of the very basic and personal aspects of their lives. The Circle took up the challenge to raise awareness to this disparity evident in the church and society. It advocates for the admission of more women in theological training institutions as a matter of policy. Ruth Muthei James (1999) notes the high level of disparity both in access to and in the practice of skills acquired at theological schools in Kenya. The obstacles that women face in their efforts to access theological education are different from those faced by men. Even their post-college experiences are vastly different. She further points out that even with theological education women are still relegated to performing roles that are perceived to be female like making tea for visitors, teaching Sunday school, or just being helpers to their minister husbands. James (1999) observes in conclusion that:
the issue of theological education for women in Kenya needs to be re-examined. As long as official religious leadership is considered the domain of men, theological education will remain male oriented. Such a scenario gives women few chances in pursuing theological education. (p. 118)
One of her suggestions for changing this situation is for the curricular in theological institutions to include more material about women and, we dare to add, by women and for women. It is in response to this type of advocacy by Circle theologians that St Paul’s University in Limuru, Kenya, which first admitted female students in 1976, has made a conscious effort to develop a course that befits Muthei’s suggestion. This is the course entitled
I conclude this article by echoing Nyambura Njoroge’s (1997) words:
Our wise foresisters and foremothers marched on and it is upon their shoulders we stand and together say ‘no’ to violence, exclusion, marginalization, and silence. Daughters of Africa have heard the call to ‘arise’, ‘wake up’,
This challenge must also be taken seriously by the Circle members themselves. The need to read and critique each other’s work cannot be overemphasised. We must read each other’s work and use it as basis for further research and teaching in our institutions. Having listened and responded to the call to arise, the Circle must continue to move and not stand still. The Circle cannot and must not allow the voice that rung out loud and clear from Ghana to Addis Ababa, from Cameroun to Kempton Park in South Africa to be muted once again. In doing this we must be aware of the dangers involved even in the attempt to be the voice of the voiceless. In this regard we must guard against turning our voices into mere noise. This can happen when we fail to listen to each other and when we are unforgiving of each other’s shortcomings and weaknesses. It can happen if we allow ourselves to forget the initial spirit of the Circle by allowing regionalism and other artificial boundaries to divide us.
African women doing theology must move on holding each other’s hands to respond to current pressing issues. These include challenges brought about by religious and political fundamentalism, the radicalisation of young people, human trafficking, and neo slavery among others. Many mothers are shedding tears because they have lost their children, some as young as 10 years to radical groups. Women and girls continue to be lured away to foreign lands with the promise of a better life only to end up as slaves and sex toys for their employers. The 2013 Pan-African Circle conference theme was related to the search for safe spaces for women and girls. Women and girls are unsafe both in private and in public places. They are not safe in their workplaces and in the homes (increase in rape cases by fathers and teachers). We shall do well to engage with society to respond to these seemingly insurmountable challenges. What should be our theological response to these challenges? Domestic violence continues almost unabated in our societies. Women bear the brunt of this violence. More research and analysis of social contexts that breed and encourage violence should continue to be our focus.
The Circle must also continue to engage with the issues that gave birth to it. There are women in Africa whose voices are still whispers, whose experiences are regarded as non-issues and who still wallow in abject poverty. In spite of great gains in some of our communities, the girl child remains an endangered species. Among the Pokot and the Turukana of Kenya, for example, some kind of parity has been achieved in school enrolment but the problem of retention for the girl child remains a great challenge. The Circle needs to continue engagement with culture and cultural practices that make it difficult to go beyond the mere basics of primary school.
The Circle purposed to be the voice of women in religion and culture. These women would be from all religions and subcultures of the continent of Africa. The Circle has not been very successful in being the voice of non-Christian religions. With all the current interreligious challenges in the continent, the Circle needs to be much more ecumenical and inclusive of particularly Islamic and African Traditional voices and perspectives.
This article set out to give a general evaluation of the Circle’s performance and achievements in its 25 years of existence. A lot has been achieved as evidenced by the research and publications. There is evidence that theological institutions are working towards gender parity in their admission processes as well as in the course content. Further evaluation is necessary in order for us to see what the actual impact of the Circle and its activities in society is.
The author declares that she has no financial or personal relationships which may have inappropriately influenced her in writing this article.