The struggle for the emancipation of women needs to be fought on several fronts, including in the sphere of religion, writes Cedric Mayson.
When President Thabo Mbeki was inaugurated for his second term as President of South Africa in 1999 it was asked why men should always lead the prayers of the people on such occasions. At least half of our citizens are women, and women are great prayers. Muslims, Hindus and Jews saw the point and agreed to consider the change 'if the others did': but the rabbis, imams and priests felt the development would require too much preparation among their supporters. A woman minister spoke for the Christians, and a woman not only prayed for the African traditional worshippers, but used the President's birth language as well. Two out of five was as least a start.
Religious institutions have all been inherited from patriarchal societies.
Their leadership has always been dominated by men at all levels, from bishops and priests, imams and moulanas, rabbis and swamis, presidents of this to treasurers of that. Women prepared the refreshments, cleaned up, visited the sick, and raised money for stipends and building funds, but the men ran the show.
Society has often been motivated by strong women leaders in the religious sphere from the great women saints of history and Joan of Arc, to women icons of modern societies, and in our own experience to the crucial role played by hundreds of thousands in the women's Manyanos, and the women saints of the struggle. But it has been an uphill battle against patriarchy.
There was invariably an assumption that God was male, whether a loving forgiving Father or a condemning vengeful Punisher.
Despite these inherited attitudes of many in the churches, the SA Council of Churches rejected this concept many years ago ('Do our words hide the truth about God?' SACC, 1993): 'God is Spirit, and has neither a male nor a female body (John 4.24). The humanity created in the divine image was both male and female (Genesis 1.27). The personal relationship of God with people is seen in terms of loving parenthood, often as father (eg Luke 25), but sometimes as mother (eg. Deut.32.18; Isaiah 42.14; 46.3-4; 66.13; Matthew 23.37; Luke 15.8-10).
The Spirit of God was poured out upon both men and women throughout the New Testament period (Acts 1.34 and 2.1 etc.) and has continued to this day.' The Congregational Church of South Africa was the first to ordain a woman as minister, but the practice has gradually spread to other denominations, including major bodies like Methodists and Anglicans. But the Catholics still follow the Pope despite the gradual emergence of radical and feminist Catholic theologians. As long ago as 1982, inaugurating the Institute of Contextual Theology, Albert Nolan stated it would take into account 'the oppression of women', but it has been a slow process. The largest formations of churches in SA today are said to be the Pentecostals, who seem to prefer men up front. Only the small Reformed Jews accept women rabbis; many Muslims are disturbed by those who break the old codes, and others by those who do not. Most Hindu religious practices are in the home, and here women often take the lead.
It is a concern which brings our diversity together. Writing in the March 2006 issue of the SA Journal of Theology, Professor Annalet Van Schalkwyk of the University of South Africa (UNISA) shows some of the parallels between the suffering of Afrikaans women against oppressive attitudes in their churches, and the quest of African women theologians for a fuller liberated life. She writes: 'Healing is usually found in struggle - in struggle for life, in struggle to overcome those forces which threaten life... Afrikaans and African women have to struggle against oppressive forces so as to find healing and life.' The liberatory role of women is an ongoing matter of concern and conflict in all religions, between those who see religions as bastions of the past, and those who see them as voorlopers of the future. It is a struggle waged by sangomas and theologians, by men and women, by academics and cleaners, in schools and homes, in parliament and local ANC Branches. And in prayers for the President.
Cedric Mayson is coordinator of the ANC Commission for Religious Affairs.
[Contents]