Charles Osasogie Omogiate

KATHOLIEKE UNIVERSITEIT LEUVEN
FACULTY OF THEOLOGY AND RELIGIOUS STUDIES
WOMEN AND THE GENDER MOTIF IN THE AFRICAN FAMILY

A CRITICAL READING FROM AFRICAN THEOLOGY AND
JOHN PAUL II’S THEOLOGY OF THE BODY IN THE CONTEXT OF
SOUTHERN NIGERIA
A dissertation presented in partial

fulfilment of the requirements for the
Doctor’s Degree (Ph.D.) in Theology
(S.T.D.)
Promoter
Prof. Dr. Thomas KNIEPS
Co-Promoter by
Prof. Dr. Annemie DILLEN Charles Osasogie OMOGIATE
2018
iii
DEDICATION
…to the loving memory of my father, Henry Osarogie Omogiate who passed on at the
start of the composition of this project. Rest in the Lord’s peace, Dad.
v
FOREWORD
On arrival in Leuven some years ago, I set out to investigate the idea of the family in Pope
John Paul II’s theology. For this reason, I undertook an assessment of the thoughts of the
pope via a systematic study of his teachings on marriage and family, which are mainly
established in Familiaris consortio and his biblically insightful piece, The Theology of the
Body. At the end of my research at the Masters and Advanced Masters phase, I determined
that I would embark upon a contemporaneous project that connects directly to present-day
thematic considerations in African Christianity, which has ultimately led me to the inscription
of this dissertation.
At the end of this current project, befittingly therefore, I render supreme appreciation to
the infinite creator and Triune God, the finest architect ever known for crafting me into what
I am today. Showing me daily what it means to be His child in His daily provision, assurance,
preservation and guidance and for providing me with incalculable moments of grace. Osa
noyaemwan, uru ese vb’ egbe mwen.
Subsequently, I am grateful to the Archdiocese of Benin City for funding my studies in
Leuven facilitated by my warmhearted and dynamic Archbishop, Augustine Akubeze. May
the expansion of our local ecclesia community of Benin never experience a pause.
To my dear professor, Prof. Dr. Thomas Knieps your contributions to this write-up is
unquantifiable. Thank you for your mentorship, the insights you shared with me and for
showing me what it means to engage in intense research. In the same vein, I am inestimably
appreciative of my co-promoter, Prof. Dr. Annemie Dillen for tutoring me not only on the
nitty-gritty of empirical study but also for guiding me every step of the way. My deep
gratitude to the board of examiners of this research project – Prof. Dr. Hannelie Yates, Prof.
Prof. Dr. Veerle Draulans and Dr. Johan Verstraeten for your extensive and invaluable input
to this academic piece. Thank you!
Additionally, I am thankful to the professors of the Faculty of Theology and Religious
Studies, KU Leuven for the enlightening exchanges we had within and outside the classroom,
which I carry along with me. Special mention to the staff of the Maurits Sabbe library for
providing the conducive ambience for enthralling research and to my fellow students of the
Faculty particularly of the Research Unit –Theological and Comparative Ethics (RUTCE) for
your insightful contributions to the progress of this dissertation. I am gratified also by the
participants of the ethnographic study and the role played by the resident priests in recruiting
them. Thank you a lot. In a profound way, I am immensely appreciative to Paul Creevey for
his meticulous proofreading of the final draft of this dissertation and to Dr. Osariemen Anne
Omorogbe for the transcription of the entire interviews.
I show deep indebtedness to my parents – my dad, Mr. Henry Omogiate (of blessed
memory), my mum, Mrs. Rose Omogiate, my ever-supportive siblings and dear members of
my family. My heart-felt gratitude to you, Esosa, Esohe and Anku for the unquantifiable
inspiration you offer me. Special thanks to Emmanuel Chidozie, Martin Haruna and to all my
friends in Leuven/Belgium. You all epitomize what friendship is about. Thank you for your
assuring presence.
It’s hard to enlist everyone who has contributed to my academic pursuit and to my
life’s journey, but from the deepest recesses of my heart, I do appreciate all you have been to
me and still continue to be. Your love, your friendship and your support will never go
unrewarded. Amen!
Charles Osasogie Omogiate

Leuven, September 2018
TABLE OF CONTENTS
DEDICATION ............................................................................................................... iii

FOREWORD ................................................................................................................. v
TABLE OF CONTENTS .............................................................................................. vii
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY ................................................................................... xii
GENERAL INTRODUCTION..................................................................................... 1
CHAPTER ONE
AN OVERVIEW OF GENDER IMBALANCES IN SOUTHERN NIGERIA:

CULTURE, SOCIETY AND FAMILY LIFE
1.1 Introduction ......................................................................................................... 13

1.2 Gender Undercurrents in Southern Nigeria: A Sociological Analysis .......... 13
1.2.1 Structural and Functionalist Conception of Gender in Southern Nigeria ........... 14
1.2.2 Gender and Politics/Power Dynamics in Southern Nigeria ................................. 15
1.2.3 Gender and Economics ......................................................................................... 18
1.2.4 Gender Wage Gap ................................................................................................ 21
1.2.5 Gender and Culture .............................................................................................. 25
1.2.6 Gender and Language .......................................................................................... 29
1.2.7 Gender Orientations and Psychological Configurations ..................................... 32
1.2.8 The Nigerian Constitution: Imaging Gender Representation? ............................ 34
1.3 Gender and Sexuality ......................................................................................... 36
1.3.1 Marriage ............................................................................................................... 37
1.3.2 Chastity ................................................................................................................. 41
1.3.3 Gender-based Abuse ............................................................................................. 42
1.4 Between Education and Gender ........................................................................ 45
1.5 Watchdog of the Gender Structure/Principals of Gender Structuralism ..... 49
1.5.1 Religion ................................................................................................................. 49
1.5.2 Customs and Taboos ............................................................................................. 51
1.5.3 Social/Peer Pressure............................................................................................. 52
1.6 Southern Nigerian’s Asymmetrical Configurations: Underlying Reasons and
Possible Explanations ......................................................................................... 53
1.7 The Creation of the Gender Index: An Import or From Within? ................. 55
1.8 Conclusion ........................................................................................................... 58
CHAPTER TWO
AN ETHNOGRAPHIC STUDY OF THE GENDER QUESTION IN THE

CATHOLIC ARCHDIOCESE OF BENIN CITY
2.1 Introduction ......................................................................................................... 59

viii
SECTION A: METHODOLOGY OF THE ETHNOGRAPHIC STUDY

2.2 Understanding the Qualitative Research Method ........................................... 61
2.2.1 Qualitative Research ............................................................................................ 61
2.2.2 Contrasting Qualitative from Quantitative Methodology .................................... 63
2.2.3 Historical and Philosophical Foundations of Qualitative Research ................... 66
2.3 An Ethnographic Approach of Qualitative Study: Our Approach ............... 67
2.4 Fundamental Features in the Set-up of our Empirical Research .................. 69
2.4.1 Participant Recruitment ....................................................................................... 69
2.4.2 Informed Consent ................................................................................................. 70
2.4.3 In-depth Interview and Structure ......................................................................... 71
2.4.4 Participant Observation ....................................................................................... 73
2.4.5 Reflexivity and Subjectivity .................................................................................. 74
2.5 Methodology of Analysis .................................................................................... 77
2.5.1 Outlining the Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis .................................... 77
2.5.2 Philosophical Foundations of the Phenomenological School ............................. 77
2.5.3 Further Considerations: The Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis ........... 79
2.6 Conclusion ........................................................................................................... 86
SECTION B: THE FINDINGS OF THE ETHNOGRAPHIC STUDY

2.7 Introduction ........................................................................................................ 81
2.8 A Brief Overview of the Archdiocese of Benin City ........................................ 81
2.9 Ethnographic Research Question and Procedural Categorizations .............. 82
2.10 The Cultural Context ......................................................................................... 83
What are the Presuppositions of an ‘African Culture’?
a. Cultural preference for a child’s sex .......................................................... 86
b. Engaging patriarchy .................................................................................... 88
c. The obligation to show respect to the head of the family ......................... 90
2.11 The Religious Context ........................................................................................ 91
2.11.1 Faith-life vis-à-vis Gender .................................................................................... 91
a. Relationship with God ................................................................................. 92
b. Recourse to prayer ....................................................................................... 93
c. Perseverance in commitment ...................................................................... 94
2.11.2 Gender and Church .............................................................................................. 95
2.11.3 An Assessment of Pastoral Messages to Couples from Clergy, Catechists and
other Pastoral Workers ........................................................................................ 97
a. A comprehension of marriage, family and relationships ......................... 98
b. An evaluation of pre-marital programmes ............................................... 100
c. The pulpit as an avenue for transmission ................................................. 103
d. Emerging themes from pre-marital lessons and cues from the pulpit ... 105
i. Cultivating endurance............................................................................... 105
ii. Tackling ‘external’ influences .................................................................. 107
iii. Respect for the ‘other’ .............................................................................. 108
iv. Submission to one’s spouse ...................................................................... 109
2.12 Power and Relations ........................................................................................... 110

2.12.1 Between Autonomy and (In) dependence .............................................................. 111
2.12.2 Decision Making Process ..................................................................................... 112
2.12.3 Complementarity ................................................................................................... 114
ix
2.12.4 The Notion of Spousal (In) equality ...................................................................... 115

2.12.5 Acute Challenges to Male-Female Relations ....................................................... 117
a. Domestic violence..................................................................................... 118
b. Physical fights .......................................................................................... 119
c. Separation and divorce............................................................................ 120
2.13 Questions Regarding Roles and Responsibilities Among Couples ................. 121
2.13.1 Household Chores ................................................................................................ 122
2.13.2 Financial Onus ..................................................................................................... 124
2.13.3 Access to Career ................................................................................................... 124
2.13.4 The ‘Fatherhood’ Concept ................................................................................... 128
2.13.5 The ‘Motherhood’ Concept................................................................................... 129
2.13.6 The Notions of ‘Breadwinner’ and ‘Home maker’ ............................................... 130
2.14 Significant Aspects of the Relational Interaction of Spouses ......................... 132
2.14.1 Pre-marital Considerations .................................................................................. 133
a. Compatibility ........................................................................................... 134
b. Dating and courtship ............................................................................... 134
c. Marital anticipations ............................................................................... 136
d. The age-differentiation argument .......................................................... 137
2.14.2 Post-marital Realities ........................................................................................... 138
a. A gap in communication? ....................................................................... 139
b. Negotiating a qualitative home-time pattern ........................................ 140
c. An examination of spousal support ........................................................ 141
d. Interferences from external relatives .................................................... 143
2.15 Critical Discussion .............................................................................................. 144
2.16 Conclusion ........................................................................................................... 147
CHAPTER THREE
A SYSTEMATIC INVESTIGATION INTO THE GENDER QUANDARY AND THE

POSITION OF WOMEN IN AFRICAN THEOLOGY AND IN THE THEOLOGY
OF JOHN PAUL II
3.1 Introduction ......................................................................................................... 149
SECTION A: SITUATING THE GENDER QUANDARY IN AFRICAN THEOLOGY

3.2 African Theology: Its Origins and Orientations .............................................. 151
3.3 The Interaction Between Culture, Christianity and African Theology ......... 161
3.3.1 The Meaning of ‘Culture’ vis-à-vis the Challenge of the Transmission of the
‘Good News’ in Africa.......................................................................................... 162
3.3.2 The Inculturated Gospel and Its Development in African Theology .................... 165
3.4 Major Trends in African Theology ................................................................... 166
3.4.1 Inculturation and African Theology ..................................................................... 166
3.4.2 Liberation Theology in Africa .............................................................................. 171
3.4.3 The Reconstruction Paradigm in African Theology ............................................. 176
3.5 The Contributions of African Women Theologians and their Input in
the Gender Impasse ............................................................................................ 183
3.5.1 Tracing the Emergence of African Women Theologians ...................................... 183
x
3.5.2 African Women Theologians: In Search of a Constructive Response to the

Gender Motif in African Theology ....................................................................... 185
a. Mercy Oduyoye ........................................................................................ 189
b. Teresa Okure ........................................................................................... 196
c. Teresia Hinga ........................................................................................... 198
3.6 African Theology meets Feminism: Are African Women Theologians
Feminists? ............................................................................................................ 201
3.6.1 Explaining Feminism ............................................................................................ 202
3.6.2 Feminist Theology and Its Goals .......................................................................... 204
3.6.3 Are African Women Theologians Feminists? ....................................................... 207
3.6.4 Palpable Lessons Drawn from African Women Theologians ............................... 208
SECTION B: JOHN PAUL II’S THEOLOGY OF THE COMPLEMENTARITY OF THE

SEXES
3.7 A Concise Biography of John Paul II ............................................................... 211
3.8 A Close-text Reading of John Paul II’s Theology of the Body ........................ 213
3.8.1 Explaining the Theology of the Sexes ................................................................... 214
3.8.2 The Human Person Created in God’s Image ....................................................... 219
3.8.3 ‘Man and Woman He Created Them’ ................................................................... 221
3.9 Evaluating the Sexuality of Man and Woman ................................................. 223
3.9.1 Different Sexes ...................................................................................................... 223
3.9.2 The Notion of ‘Complementarity’ ......................................................................... 227
3.9.3 Parental Equality and the Upbringing of Children .............................................. 229
3.10 The Role of Women ............................................................................................ 230
3.11 Rethinking Gender Equality .............................................................................. 233
3.12 Conclusion ........................................................................................................... 236
CHAPTER FOUR
TOWARDS AN ARTICULATED RESPONSE TO THE GENDER MOTIF IN

AFRICA:
AN ETHICAL-THEOLOGICAL ASSESSMENT
4.1 Introduction ......................................................................................................... 241

4.2 Gender Dynamics in the African Family: Recurring Themes........................ 241
4.2.1 Womanhood or Motherhood? The Implications of Reproduction ........................ 241
4.2.2 Bringing in Fathers: The Persona of Fatherhood ................................................ 247
4.2.3 Childhood and Childlessness ................................................................................ 250
4.3 Gender Dynamics in the African Society: Recurring Themes ....................... 255
4.3.1 The Idea of Community in African Societies: A Case for Exclusivity in
Conjugal Relationships ........................................................................................ 255
4.3.2 Polygamy .............................................................................................................. 257
4.3.3 Widowhood ........................................................................................................... 261
4.3.4 Witchcraft.............................................................................................................. 263
xi
4.3.5 Domestic Violence ................................................................................................ 265

4.3.6 Female Genital Mutilation ................................................................................... 267
4.4 Gender Roles vis-à-vis Biological Differentiation ............................................ 269
4.5 Taking the Inculturation Debate Further ........................................................ 273
4.5.1 The Early Missionaries’ Impetus for an Inculturated African Christianity:
An Argument for Naivety? .................................................................................... 273
4.5.2 Reimagining Inculturation: A Search for Transformative Elements .................... 274
4.6 Conclusion ........................................................................................................... 277
GENERAL CONCLUSION ......................................................................................... 279
Annex I: Document for Informed Consent .................................................................. I

Annex II: Interview Questions for Empirical Research ............................................... V
Annex III: Table of Participants of the Empirical Research........................................... IX
Annex IV: A Coding Scheme illustrating the layout of Data Analysis .......................... XII
Annex V: A Map showing the site of Southern Nigeria ................................................ XIII
Annex VI: A Map showing the location of Benin City in Nigeria ................................. XIV
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. Ecclesiastical Sources
1.1 Papal Documents and Writings by John Paul II
John Paul II. Apostolic Exhortation, “On Catechesis in our Time, Catechesi Tradendae,”
16 October 1979. AAS 71 (1979): 1277-1340.
John Paul II. “Address to the Bishops of Zaire, Kinshasa,” 3 May 1980. AAS 72, 4-6
(1980): 432-35.
John Paul II. “Address to the Bishops of Kenya, Nairobi,” 7 May 1980. AAS 72, 6 (1980):
497.
John Paul II. Encyclical Letter, “On Human Work, Laborem Exercens,” 14 September
1981. AAS 73 (1981): 577-647.
John Paul II. Apostolic Exhortation, “On the Role of the Christian Family in the Modern
World, Familiaris Consortio,” 22 November 1981. AAS 74 (1982): 81-191.
John Paul II. Encyclical Letter, “On the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Life of the Pilgrim
Church, Redemptoris Mater,” 25 March, 1987 AAS 79 (1987): 361-433.
John Paul II. Apostolic Letter, “On the Dignity and Vocation of Women, Mulieris
Dignitatem,” 15 August 1988. AAS 80, 2 (1988): 1653-1729.
John Paul II. Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation, “On the Vocation and the Mission of
the Lay Faithful in the Church and in the World, Christifidelis Laici,” 30 December 1988.
AAS 81 (1989): 393-521.
John Paul II. Encyclical Letter, “On the Hundredth Year of Rerum Novarum, Centesimus
Annus,” 1 May 1991. AAS 83 (1991): 793-867.
John Paul II, Crossing the Threshold of Hope, edited by Vittorio Messori. New York:
Alfred A. Knopf, 1994.
John Paul II, Women: Teachers of Peace 3, Message of His Holiness Pope John Paul II
for the XXVIII World Day of Peace (January 1, 1995),
http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/messages/peace/documents/hf_jp-
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John Paul II. “Letter to Women,” 29 June 1995. AAS 87, 9-10 (1995): 803-12.
John Paul II, Man and Woman He Created Them: A Theology of the Body. Translated by
Michael Waldstein. Boston, MA: Pauline, 2006.
Wojtyla, Karol. The Acting Person. Dordrecht: D. Reidel, 1979.

Bibliography xiii
Wojtyla, Karol. Love and Responsibility. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1981.
1.2 Other Papal Documents
Leo XIII. Encyclical Letter, “On Capital and Labour, Rerum Novarum,” 15 May 1891.
Acta Leonis XII, 11 (1892): 97-144.
Pius XI. Encyclical Letter, “On the Reconstruction of the Social Order, Quadragesimo
Anno,” 15 May 1931. AAS 23 (1931): 177-228.
John XXIII. Encyclical Letter, “On Establishing Universal Peace in Truth, Justice,
Charity and Liberty, Pacem in Terris,” 11 April 1963. AAS 55 (1963): 257-304.
Paul VI. Message, “On the Land of Africa for the promotion of the religious, social and
civil welfare of the continent, Africae Terrarum,” 29 October 1967, 3. AAS 59 (1967):
1074-1075.
Pope Francis. Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation, “On Love in the Family, Amoris
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November 1964. In Decrees of Ecumenical Councils: Trent to Vatican II, edited by
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Vatican Council II. “Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, Gaudium
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Omogiate, Charles. Towards a Theology of the Family: A Critical Analysis of the

Teachings of Pope John Paul II. Unpublished Master’s Thesis, Faculty of Theology and
Religious Studies, K.U. Leuven, 2012.
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Omogiate, Charles. A Systematic Study of a Theology of Marriage and Sexuality:

Assessing the Thoughts of Pope John Paul II. Unpublished Master’s Thesis, Faculty of
Theology and Religious Studies, K.U. Leuven, 2013.
Onyekwe, Anthony. Marriage, Fertility and Life After Death: Towards a Regenerative
Model of Inculturation in the Igbo Context. Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation, Faculty of
Theology and Religious Studies, K.U. Leuven, 2014.
GENERAL INTRODUCTION
The discussion about the place of women and men in family and society vis-à-vis the
delineation of roles is age-long. In the African landscape, of particular concern in this
debate is a perceptible prevalence of asymmetry. Val Webb’s analysis of patriarchy
which means “rule of the father” admits that it was a societal system where “all legal,
social, economic, and political activities assumed the rule of the male over dependent
persons in the household and/or public arena – wives, unmarried daughters, dependent
sons, male and female slaves.” 1 Essentially, while sons eventually became heads
themselves and male slaves gained the freedom to establish their own households, the
same was different for females. Daughters, wives, widows and female slaves all remained
dependent on the male household. Webb points out that in general,
“Women under patriarchy had no legal status in their own right. They
could not vote or hold office. The lineage of children passed through the
father, and male children were preferred to female. A wife’s body
belonged to her husband, and he could beat her and restrict her
movements, or sell her into bondage if he so desired. Her education was
usually limited to household skills and basic literacy. Her right to inherit
property was restricted and, if permitted, administered by a male. This
was not simply a set of rules but part of a grand cosmic order of ‘how
things were.’”2
Webb’s elaborated elucidation leaves a lot to ponder upon. It raises questions as to the
dignity of persons. If men were endorsed to ‘own’ women and determine her sustenance,
what was the corresponding value of women? Further, on what foothold did the prevalent
undercurrent stomaching the notion of women’s inadequacy stand? Did it even strike as a
violation of female eminence? Was it intermittently contested in stints or was it all too
often accepted as ‘how things are’ in centuries past?
Moreover, the confinement of women to the household meant that men took a grip
on the public arena and interpreted events, scribbled history, stipulated societal roles
including those of men and women. In essence, patriarchy shaped early legal codes that
integrated the exclusion of women from public voice. Having gone on for centuries, this
pattern of society would eventually face challenges from movements in assorted parts of
the world beginning, in the late-nineteenth century. The ‘new dawn’ inspired by these
movements coincided with a novel appreciation of femininity. Accordingly, women
gained legal status as citizens, they acquired the right to vote, hold public offices, own
properties (in their name), access higher education and undertake professional careers.3
In light of this, the following questions emanate: what are the implications of
patriarchy for Africa? Is Africa exempt from the ubiquitous disposition towards the
1
Val Webb, Why We’re Equal: Introducing Feminist Theology (St. Louis, MIS: Chalice, 1999), 15.
2
Webb, Why We’re Equal, 15.
3
Ibid., 15.
General Introduction 2
feminine or does Africa participate in the delineations earmarked by it? It is of note that
within the context of gender, Africa as a continent has a storied-past of gender construal.
The narrative of the gender quandary in Africa is laced with interpolations emanating
from her approach to the gender question vis-à-vis the tinge that topics regarding
masculinity and femininity are not sufficiently treated across the continent’s spectrum.
Certainly, Africa is an enormous continent comprising several countries. Africa’s
divergence and vastness stretches from the Cape to Cairo, from Dakar to Addis-Ababa.
West Africa differs from East and both differ from Southern Africa. The North, top of the
Sahara is another reality entirely. Nigeria, lying in the Western part of the continent is a
country with an immense population. Its 170 million people make it by far the largest
country in Africa in terms of population. Still, so as to have a more concrete focus, our
spotlight shall be on Southern Nigeria, which has a bulky Christian majority. Very
precisely, using Benin City as a case-point, we shall consider the correlation between
gender, family, church and society.
But why is a study of gender in African Christianity necessary at all? What do we
hope to achieve in doing this? In what ways is gender a concern among the Nigerian
people? What are the implications of expounding the design of the equality of the sexes?
How far has gender chauvinism permeated the stratification of the Nigerian society?
From the point of view of marriage and the family we shall also like to know the
insinuations arising from gender conception. In what ways do married people experience
difficulties arising from gender differences? Does it play out in their relationship with one
another? Are there key features of the role assigned to each party based on gender? What
are those roles and from where do they originate? Gender questions are indeed numerous.
However, while we do not aim to answer all of it, we shall attempt to provide a
framework from which responses can be made.
Over time, scholars have attempted to theorise the meaning of gender. Alice Schlegel
considers gender as “the way members of the two sexes are perceived, evaluated and
expected to behave.”4 Schlegel’s connotation helps in identifying the divide that theorists
make between ‘gender’ and ‘sex.’ While sex refers to the biologically given differences
between women and men, gender is perceived as the social and cultural meanings
assigned to these differences.5 John Archer and Barbara Lloyd suggest an understanding
that illustrate this difference. They postulate that sex refers to the binary categories ‘male’
and ‘female’ while gender relates to the attributes associated to the two sexes, which are
‘masculine’ and ‘feminine’ as different from ‘male’ and ‘female.’6
4
Alice Schlegel, “Gender Meanings: General and Specific,” in Beyond the Second Sex: New Directions in
the Anthropology of Gender, eds. Reeves Sunday and Gallagher Goodenough (Philadelphia: University of
Pennsylvania Press, 1990), 23.
5
Ursula King, “Introduction: Gender and the Study of Religion,” in Religion and Gender, Ursula King
(ed.), (Oxford: Blackwell, 1995), 5-6.
6
John Archer and Barbara Lloyd, Sex and Gender, 2nd edition (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
2002), 17.
3 General Introduction
Ursula King rightly observes that gender issues concern both men and women
although at present gender studies are largely focused on women because ‘women have
been voiceless for so long.’7 In contemporary times, the analysis of gender is very much
discussed in avenues where the construction of gender identity and gender relations is
deemed relevant in the comprehension of the social order of any society.8
It is noteworthy to observe that across the gamut of family and marriage, the relation
between the sexes is perhaps one of the most dominant themes. In fact, because we are all
sexual beings, sexuality is at the heart of our human self-definition. The Catholic teaching
is that we live in and through our bodies. However, while this teaching is at its core
liberating, organic and suffused with a special beauty, it is also easily controverted,
misunderstood and divisive.9 The Catholic tradition from Augustine to Bede, from John
Chrysostom to Aquinas, from Tertullian to Bonaventure 10 illustrates to us what the
content of the understanding of human sexuality was in earliest Christian times. That the
tradition has witnessed a certain evolution is indubitable. What is however not definite is
the extent and degree to which this evolution has shaped the Catholic perception of
human sexuality. The concern that has been raised is that these earlier writers rendered
accounts of sexuality that were not alien to the thinking of the time. To this end, one sex
was given more attention and regard than the other. Quite frankly, it was expressed – or
so it seemed – that one was the norm and the other sex had to conform to it. On this
account, we find it rather challenging to address gender from an African purview. The
challenge before us is that more recent progressions have taken a great leap into new
fields of exploration beyond the pre-enlightenment epoch.
Gender mainly ideologies connote the definition of rights and obligations as well as
‘appropriate’ behaviours for women and men in society. It also relates to the status of
women and in men in the society and thereby gains significance sequel to the importance
attached to the status of a person in order to determine how he or she is ranked and
regarded in the society.11 African societies seem to have witnessed for a very long time, a
casual acceptance of discriminatory gender ideologies and practices devoid of a deeply
critical estimation and evaluation. The implication of this trend is that a plethora of
foibles have taken on the form of normality. Obviously, when systems are not tested
intermittently, there is no guarantee of their optimal relevance. Therefore, it is crucial to
put to the test the everyday praxis of gender on the African scenery. This test is at the
7
Ursula King, “Introduction: Gender and the Study of Religion,” 1.
8
Ibid., 5.
9
Douglas R. Letson, ed., Sex and Marriage in the Catholic Tradition: A Historical Overview (Ottawa:
Novalis Publication, 2001), 11.
10
These authors have made enormous contributions to the evolution of the Christian notion of human
sexuality from antiquity up until the Middle Ages. Werner Jeanrond has explained that in Early Antiquity
leading up to the Medieval Era, there was a traditional image of the body as a one-sex body. This image
portrayed the male body as the standard of the human body. Women were perceived as less perfect men.
See Werner Jeanrond, A Theology of Love (New York: T&T Clark, 2010), 13.
11
See Jonathan Kangwa, Gender, Christianity and African Culture: Reclaiming the Values of Indigenous
Marriage and Female Initiation Rites (Dallas, TX: St. Paul, 2017), 43-44.
same time a necessity and an imperative. African Christian families need to be aided by
an adequate account of a normative approach of the relations between the sexes so as to
better understand the challenges posed by gender ideologies/orientations. One way to
activate this perspective is to navigate through the fabric of African cultures and peoples.
From the plane of history, the roots of marriage are traceable to Roman and African
cultures. In African societies for example, marriage made the union of families possible.
It enacted a contract between families wherein the death of a spouse did not terminate this
unification. A valid marriage included the consent of the parties, the consent of the
parents/guardians and the payment of lobola.12 Marriage was held as an ‘amalgamation’
of persons who remained eternally bound. What this meant was that spouses, as soon as
they were married had little or no reason to step out of this wedlock. Still, a caveat
existed. The wife had the grave obligation to give birth to a child. In fact, she was not
fully accepted until she gave birth to her first child.
The overall deportment of man to woman, not only in Africa, has been accused of
being responsible for making women – in many cases – unable to take their rightful place
both in the family and in the society at large. One aspect often cited by scholars is that the
woman has not been directly associated in decision-making. What this could mean is that
she is not allowed to have a say or to express consent with regard to the person who is to
marry her. Even when she is the firstborn, she is not entitled to inherit anything from the
father.13 While the existence of this practice cannot be disputed, it is also known that
women hold the ace in some parts of the world. This is evidenced in the matrilineal
societies of Akan in Ghana, the Tuaregs in North Africa, the Mosuos of China and the
Garos of northeast India to mention but a few. Women, especially those of royal
households were known to be powerful. Queen-mothers such as the Nanas of the Asante
Kingdom (Ghana) and the Iyobas of the Benin Kingdom (Nigeria) were an important
linchpin of their communities.14
It needs to be said, however, that this officious position has witnessed a shift. In the
wake of a modern advancement in scholarship, there has been an evolution regarding the
place of a woman both in the family and in society. A more critical understanding of
sexual difference has become more manifest. This has led to a deliberate re-evaluation of
12
Lobola is the transfer of cattle from the husband’s group to the wife’s guardian. This payment mainly
conferred rights on the husband over the wife. The right of the husband over the wife is in concurrence
with the statutes found in the Code of the Hammurabi (1750 B.C.E.) Under the code, there was a provision
that the husband, but not the wife, could divorce his spouse without cause. More than that, if the husband
divorced his wife for a cause, such as for being barren, disloyal or unfaithful, the status of the woman was
lowered afterwards. See Rita Simon and Howard Altstein, Global Perspectives on Social Issues: Marriage
and Divorce (Oxford: Lexington Books, 2003), 5.
13
Bernadette Kunambi, “The Place of Women in the Christian Community,” in African Christian
Spirituality, ed. Aylward Shorter (London: Geoffrey Chapman, 1978), 151.
14
Flora Edouwaye S. Kaplan, “Some Thoughts on Ideology, Beliefs and Sacred Kingship among the Edo
(Benin) People of Nigeria,” in African Spirituality: Forms, Meanings and Expressions, ed. Jacob K.
Olupona (New York: The Crossroad Publishing Company, 2000), 128-9. See also The Power of a Queen
Mother http://academics.smcvt.edu/africanart2/kathleen/Power.htm [April 18, 2015].
the contributions of both sexes to the growth of the Nigerian society. At the level of the
household, fathers appear to be more willing than before to actively participate in family
chores. The girl-child is offered similar opportunities for academic pursuit and on a larger
scale the picture of parents forcing daughters into marriage is no longer trendy. While
these may sound quite positive, external practices need not carry one away. Many women
still experience marital violence from their husbands. More and more young girls are used
as objects of prostitution, pornography and forced marriages. In some cases, the
experience of joy at the birth of a child varies depending on the sex of the child. More
than ninety-percent of political office holders in Nigeria are of the male folk. The
labelling of serious concerns and argumentations of the female sex as ‘women talk’ is not
less exhibited.
It is obviously easy to trace the origin of this menace to the patrilineal societies of the
continent. How could a woman have a voice in a society dominated by males? How could
a woman be considered a decision-maker in a home where the man is always the head?
What stance could a woman who was wife along with four other women have? The worse
scenario here would be a situation where she is childless. In this case, she had no accent
whatsoever since she doesn’t qualify to be a ‘complete person’ as a result of her
unfruitfulness. That was enough to make her passive in the household. However, on the
other side of the divide, a man may not suffer much inconvenience when he is proven to
be impotent. In this case, efforts were made to raise sons for him through an ‘assistant.’15
Yet, it is not enough to lay blame on the traditional cum sociological set-up alone.
The ecclesiological orb has also being indicted. The missionaries appeared too eager to
‘win’ converts to Christianity or to fill the churches that they did not adequately challenge
the existing structure. Much more, they themselves were coming from a patriarchal
background. It seemed that a confrontation with a male-dominated community on the
issue of gender was one to be avoided if they were to succeed. Suffice it to say that this
concern was mostly overlooked. Even when it was given a mention, women were usually
encouraged to be submissive to their husbands. Ogbu Kalu also echoes this thinking when
he posits that there was a prevalent liberal stance of the Roman Catholics, which included
making compromises. One such tolerant position was to ignore the ‘pagan’ cultures and
baptize as many as possible into the fold in the envisaged hope that they would become
true and well-grounded believers later. In some cases, this strategy did not work out.16
Still, how did it also happen that very few girls where in the schools? How did it
happen that the missionaries did not observe – in the schools run by them – the minuscule
number of girls in a sea of boys? This is all the more surprising considering that school or
education was seen to be at the service of evangelization. More than that, the capturing of
the minds of the young was visualized as a systematic disengagement from the mores of
15
The Levirate marriage in ancient times took this form also. The brother of the deceased man had the
obligation to marry his brother’s widow so as to raise children for the brother.
16
Ogbu U. Kalu, “Ancestral Spirituality and Society in Africa,” in African Spirituality: Forms, Meanings
and Expressions, ed. Jacob K. Olupona (New York: The Crossroad Publishing Company, 2000), 72.
the people, which was intended by the evangelizers.17 This was meant to be at the core of
the école-église method. Yet this important piece of establishing education for both sexes
was missing.
Nkiru Nzegwu notes that male-dominant views gained ‘legitimacy’ over the years
because they were hardly challenged. For her also, the European colonial policies of the
20th century all but fostered this supposition. Nzegwu notes thus:
“The consequent problem of gender subordination in Africa over the last

sixty years or so can be traced to European colonial policies and African
men’s views and constructions of the family. Because this male-
dominant view of the family has never being challenged, it has gained
legitimacy and paramount importance. Modern prejudices about women
underlie this view, and such biases have worked to consolidate and
protect men’s rights within the family and in the society at large. The
consolidation of husband’s and son’s rights has resulted in a patriarchal
consciousness in which the subordination of daughters and wives is
taken for granted and is assumed to be culturally rooted and based on
their natural inferiority. This lends support to the characterization of
African societies and African families as historically oppressive to
women.”18
Nzegwu’s interesting supposition that male dominance is ‘assumed to be culturally

rooted’ leaves much to be pondered upon. Is male dominance ‘culturally rooted’ or
imposed by colonialism? She gives the impression that both were crucial factors in the
establishment of gender orientation. A look at the organisation of African families before
the advent of colonialism might help offer some clarifications.
The African family is mostly principled on the division of labour. This holds good
for the parents as well as for the children. It is interesting to note that a man is recurrently
required to prove his manhood by being the primary provider for the family. This
interplay between social norms and economies weighs heavily on the men. Consequent
inadequacies in these prescribed roles are likely to create some sort of individual and
marital tension. In past times, this reliance on the man’s provision for the family partly
rendered the vast unemployment and sparse education of women tenable. What this also
meant was a stringent economic dependency and general subordination of the wives. It
was only in rare cases that women bore sole responsibility for fending for the family.
When this happened it was mostly because the man was either ill or deceased. If this
occurred while the man was alive and healthy, he was sure to be popularly considered a
‘weakling.’ Such ‘departures’ were seen as an ‘attack’ on manhood and male authority.
17
Ibid, 73.
18
Nkiru U. Nzegwu, Family Matters: Feminist Concepts in African Philosophy of Culture (New York:
State University of New York Press, 2006), 2. See also Chinua Achebe’s depiction of Nigerian’s
patriarchal representation in Things Fall Apart (London: Penguin, 2006).
Expectedly then, in terms of household responsibility, the roles of child rearing and
housekeeping is prescribed to the female.19
The responsibility of children largely depended on their gender too. It was the boys’
duty to accompany the father on game-hunting, farming routines, structural constructions
etc. Simply put, he was trained to be ‘a man.’ He needed to avoid crying in the presence
of girls (not excluding his sisters), he needed to be a protective figure to his sisters – not
minding his size – as this was a dress rehearsal in view of rendering protection for his
wife and family. The little girls were mostly expected to ‘stick’ to their mothers for it was
only through this exercise they could properly learn how to be devoted wives and
mothers. Stories were told to them of steadfast and loyal wives who reaped – by their
dedication – the fruits of motherhood epitomized in their progeny.20 Predictably, the act
of cooking featured prominently on the list of ‘values.’ This went with the traditional
adage that ‘the path to winning a man’s heart was through his stomach.’ Girls and boys
were also taught differently on how to deal with their emotions.21
Where do these leave us today? The socio-cultural landscape of Southern Nigeria
(and most parts of the country also) is engrafted with an asymmetrical relationship of
women and man. Theological positions have been surmised in view of digging into the
anthropological framework of the African in the quest for achieving a more parallel
19
See also Leanor Johnson and Robert Staples’ evaluation of gender economics in mid-20th century Black
American marriages in Leanor B. Johnson and Robert Staples, Black Families at the Crossroads:
Challenges & Prospects (San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2005), 74-5.
20
The bini traditional folklore is coloured with tributes paid to women. In fact, the Oba (King) is
illustrated as a role model to be emulated by other Benin sons and daughters who must show respect to the
women who bore them. Flora Edouwaye Kaplan recounts thus: “the Oba, like his subjects, reveres his
mother. He honours her and raises her to the status of queen mother, the Iyoba, three years after his own
coronation. He builds a palace for her at Uselu, where she is attended by servants and by her own chiefs.
The Oba grants his birth mother various insignia of high rank, denoting her new gender status, equivalent
to a male chief. He may grant her the privilege of using both ceremonial swords, like himself–the ada as
well as the eben–as did Oba Erediauwa in 1981. When she dies, the Oba has a shrine built for her at Uselu
and decorates the altar in the palace where the Iyobas are venerated.” Flora Edouwaye S. Kaplan, “Some
Thoughts on Ideology, Beliefs and Sacred Kingship among the Edo (Benin) People of Nigeria,” 129.
21
Susie Orbach succinctly explores a similar Western stereotype in her work, “A Woman’s Place?” She
notes: “girls are encouraged to deal with unmet dependency needs by providing for others. Starting at an
early age, they are guided to be solicitous, thoughtful and caring of others, just like their mothers. They
practice the skills of emotional relatedness, of sorting out one another’s problems, and they develop the
facility of interpreting the emotional temperature of others. When hurt, they are briefly consoled, but then
taught to turn their attention to the needs of others, to bigger hurts that need addressing, or to be self-
sacrificing in order not to inflict pain or distress on others.” On the other side of the divide, Orbach
observes that “the boy in the meantime, is learning and practicing a different set of emotional responses to
his neediness. As he learns to be separate from his mother, he distances himself from the early intimacy by
taking on a stance of being not like mother. While he may not have the model of a father to identify with
on a consistently available basis – fathers spend considerably less time with their children than mothers –
he will learn a different code and set of solutions to the problems of his unmet dependency needs. He will
be offered the solution of appearing not to need, of denying his own needs, not through taking care of
others and melding in with their needs as a girl might do, but by detaching himself from others and
appearing need-free. He will bolster this self-image through competing and defining his separateness. His
self-identity involves making a space between himself and others. Susie Orbach, “A Woman’s Place?” in
Women, Men and Marriage, ed. by Christopher Clulow (London, Sheldon Press, 1995), 112-3.
façade where both gender can be offered equal opportunity. This shall be the thrust of our
project.
Research Status Quaestionis of the Research Topic

African societies in general and African Christianity in particular struggle with the issue
of gender and how to achieve more egalitarian and just relations between women and
men both in the public and private sphere in a quest for an all-round development of our
society. It is held that the male dominant view has gained legitimacy and paramount
importance because it has not been seriously challenged. Traditional prejudices about
women as being less capable than and inferior to men underlie this view, and such biases
have worked to consolidate and protect men’s dominance within the family and in the
society at large.22
The struggle to attain more egalitarian relations between men and women in Africa
has been nurtured first by a global feminist movement that originated in the western
world and set out to fight patriarchal structures wherever they can be traced. 23
Subsequently, indigenous African thinkers have started to comb through the traditional
African worldview in order to trace and eradicate its patriarchal components. 24 Also the
Roman Catholic Church’s discourse on gender in Africa does not present itself in a
homogeneous way: while the mainstream of African theologians adopt an emancipatory
approach to gender issues which is inspired mainly by western feminist thinking25, others
side with the more recent magisterial teaching of the late pope John Paul II 26 who
strongly advocates the equality of both sexes but at the same time insists on gender-
specific, though complementary traits and roles of women and men respectively.27
In these previous studies of gender in Africa, however, I am convinced that a praxis-
oriented approach to the gender question among African couples has not been reflected.
22
Mercy Oduyoye, Daughters of Anowa: African Women and Patriarchy (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis: 1995),
137-8; Teresa Okure, “Women in the Bible,” in With Passion and Compassion: Third World Women
Doing Theology, eds. V. Fabella and M. Oduyoye, (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1988), 56-57 and Nkiru U.
Nzegwu, Family Matters, 44-45.
23
Adriaan van Klinken, Transforming Masculinities in African Christianity: Gender Controversy in Times
of AIDS (Farnham: Ashgate, 2013), 57-58.
24
Teresa Okure, “Feminist Interpretations in Africa,” in Searching the Scriptures 1, ed. Elizabeth
Schüssler Fiorenza (London: SCM, 1993), 77-82; Emmanuel Katongole, A Future for Africa: Critical
Essays in Social Imagination (Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2005), 196.
25
Mercy Oduyoye and Musimbi Kanyoro, The Will to Arise: Women, Tradition and the Church in Africa
(Maryknoll, NY: Orbis: 1992), 1-5.
26
See John Paul II, “On the Dignity and Vocation of Women, Mulieris Dignitatem,” 15 August 1988. AAS
80, 2 (1988): 1653-1729; John Paul II, “On the Role of the Christian Family in the Modern World,
Familiaris Consortio,” 22 November 1981. AAS 74 (1982): 81-191; and Man and Woman He Created
Them: A Theology of the Body, trans. Michael Waldstein (Boston, MA: Pauline Books and Media, 2006).
27
Mpyana Fulgence Nyengele, African Women’s Theology, Gender Relations, and Family Systems
Theory: Pastoral Theological Considerations and Guidelines for Care and Counseling (New York: Peter
Lang, 2004), 42; Tinyiko Maluleke, “Half a Century of African Christian Theologies: Elements of the
Emerging Agenda for the Twenty-first Century,” Journal of Theology for Southern Africa 99 (Nov. 1997):
20.
Identifying my contribution to the gender discourse in African theology therefore, this

dissertation aims at actualizing a contextualized approach to gender issues which on the
one hand takes into consideration the concrete and lived experiences of African couples
rooted in traditional African anthropology and culture and on the other hand activates and
operationalizes the critical potential of the above-mentioned theoretical frameworks
identified as a major current for a well-articulated development of the Nigerian landscape.
This dissertation therefore fits into the overall thematic discussions in African
theology today. To this end, I aim to pursue a continuation of the critical analysis
instigated by the main voices in the emergent field of gender studies in Africa. In alliance
with preceding scholars, I intend to demonstrate that an ethical-theological re-imagination
of the gender conundrum in Africa must find its way into Africa Christianity if theology
in Africa – whether in the shape of inculturation theology or liberation theology – is to
remain relevant to the needs and aspirations of the African people.
Motivation
Growing up in a conventional African community namely Benin City in Edo State,
Nigeria afforded me substantial insights into the manner of relations that occur between
the sexes. I noticed first-hand, how traditional conceptions of gender (relations)
influenced the society in which we grew up. While the equality of women and men was
always resounded in theory, in practice, it was not always the case. The lived experiences
of couples were a testament to the truism that there was a prevailing gender injustice that
favoured the male sex over the female one. It was an indication of the gap that existed
between theory and lived reality.
Within the interval when I became more observant of my surroundings, efforts have
been made to improve the relations between the sexes, mainly within the context of
marriage and family life. Notable among them are the works of John Paul II with
particular reference to his insistence on a complementarity-equality model and of
indigenous African theologians who have stressed the need for Africans to disregard
those aspects of the African culture that have motivated the asymmetry in gender. Yet,
what we find is that most of these positions are conceived in an abstract and a-contextual
way so much so that they have not substantially contributed to bringing about change in
the relation between the sexes. The question then is: how can one re-formulate the
African Christian discourse on gender in a way that it will challenge and confront gender
biases and ideologies especially at the level of praxis more effectively?
Hypothesis
The hypothesis on which this present research is based is that conceptual frameworks
such as those suggested by African theologians on the one side and John Paul II on the
other hand are in some ways abstract and a-contextual to tie in with the grass root
experience of African women and men. More concretely, it can be hypothesized that the
mainstream approach of African theologians to gender issues is a slice of a global (pro)
feminist academic discourse that is entrenched in western Enlightenment thought,

advocating central values such as equality, freedom and autonomy, but does not concur
with the stance of (mainly) African women who do not share the feminist negative
assumption about male headship as a negative feature of patriarchy.
Conversely, John Paul II’s theology of the complementarity of the sexes is critical
toward the western modern approach and its focus on the individual’s autonomy, and
instead situates gender issues from the outset within the setting of marriage and family as
divine institutions. This communitarian approach appears to be closer to the African
mentality but it can be assumed that its essentialist understanding of complementary
gender identities and roles will only corroborate African male attempts to justify
particular practices connected with male headship. Because of such largely un-reflected
underpinnings, these gender theories might thus either be insensitive to the African
mentality or implicitly perpetuate male superiority and therefore be of little help to
redeem unjust gender relations.
The Research Question(s)

Our central research question is: how should an African Christian discourse on gender
look like that respects the cultural heritage and grass root experiences of African couples
on the one side and goes against unjust gender structures on the other side? This research
question falls into two sub-questions: (1) What are the possibilities and obstacles for
Christian theological gender ideologies to contribute to the transformation of unjust
gender structures in local African communities? (2) Under what conditions are traditional
and current gender practices and patterns susceptible to critical conceptualization from a
Christian perspective?
Methodology
In order to access and assess the complexities of themes in our research, the
methodological thrust of this project is rightly interdisciplinary. Whereas the goal of this
project is to articulate theological reflections, we discovered the necessity of entering into
critical dialogue with scholars from the fields of humanities and social sciences.
Accordingly, we integrated approaches such as descriptive, historical, analytical,
ethnographic and hermeneutical-critical methodologies.
While the first chapter is mostly descriptive and analytical, the chapter dedicated to
an empirical analysis in the Catholic Archdiocese of Benin City is based on an
ethnographic study. The bulk of the data came in the form of in-depth semi-structured
interviews. Participant observation in the various communities in which the research took
place was also prominent. Finally, the method of analysis used in locating the local
discourse and perception of gender-related issues among the participants of our
qualitative data anthology is the Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA).
In the third chapter, a historical and analytic methodology is used. First, we

examined the origins of African theology with due attention to its sources and
subsequently evaluated in how far these sources have shaped the theological discipline in
Africa today. We proceeded to analysing the mainstream approaches in African theology
(namely, inculturation, liberation and reconstruction theologies) vis-à-vis the diversified
approaches of the foremost voices in the African gender discourse. The fourth chapter is
developed by means of a hermeneutical-critical methodology. In doing this, a critical lens
is placed on the interpretations of both the African women theologians and John Paul II,
which we have identified in the course of our research.
Structure and Composition of the Research

This dissertation is organized into four chapters. The first chapter presents an overview of
the issue under discussion. In order to excavate the implications of gender in the culture,
society and family life in Southern Nigeria, we shall endeavour to zoom into various
socio-cultural existing realities. In demonstrating how gender features in the archetypal
Nigerian experience, we shall examine the manner in which gender nuances are embodied
in politics, economics, culture and linguistics, marriage and sexuality, education. We
shall also attempt to identify possible motives for the asymmetrical gender structuring in
Southern Nigeria in addition to isolating prevalent predispositions with regard to gender.
This discussion anticipates the in-depth treatment of recurrent themes in African women’s
theology in the ensuing chapters. In effect, in this chapter, we shall present the
foundations on which gender ideologies in Nigeria are developed. We will explore when,
where and how the awareness of gender-related prejudices have arisen, how it is present
in the current public debate and how it is addressed in the respective fields previously
mentioned.
A heuristic investigation of the perception of the gender question at the grass root
echelon is the focal point of the second chapter. Following from our examination of the
interplay between gender and society in the first chapter, we aim at accessing the local
discourse on gender-related issues with particular reference to women, marriage and
family life in Nigeria. First, we shall delineate the important steps of qualitative research
and clarify the methodology for research. This will help us to remain alert in the
systematic and methodological analysis of our ethnography. Next, we shall analyse the
emergent categories from the empirical study. The principal cornerstones to be watched
out for are the interaction between the cultural and religious contexts and their influences
on each other. Subsequent thematic analysis would include the intersection between
authority, power and control in male-female relationships in Nigeria. Concretizing the
first chapter, the empirical study combines interview sessions with participatory
observation in the Archdiocese of Benin. The objective of this ethnography-based study is
to arrive at a sturdy paradigm that integrates the experiences of Nigerian couples and
dialogues with magisterial teachings on the relation between the sexes.
The succeeding task in the third chapter is to scrutinize how the sociological
foundation of gender is manifest in theology and church life – which the first chapter
obviously excludes. We intend to explore and to discuss the church’s discourse on
gender, and in what ways the insights of African theologians and the teachings of John
Paul II might contribute to a sustained search for a contextualised approach to the gender
question. This chapter is therefore structured along two lines. In the first section, we will
review how indigenous African theologians have taken up issues of gender identity and
relations over the past decades. We will present and critically analyse the main voices in
this field, starting from the first feminist critiques of African male theology over critical
investigations into the patriarchal roots of African culture up to more recent approaches.
The groundwork for this enterprise shall be laid in the systematic presentation of the
major trends of African theology such as inculturation, liberation and reconstruction
theologies and intentionally demonstrate how they have been silent on the gender
discourse. In the second section, we will analyse John Paul II’s theology of the
complementarity-equality of the sexes from the primary sources. We shall attempt to
identify the building-blocks of his theology of sexual difference in order to discover what
its application for an equal appreciation of men and women in Nigeria might be. We will
also study some of the main (western) critics of John Paul’s position, which might help us
to remain alert to its possible shortcomings with regard to realizing equal-regard
relationships between women and men.
The fourth and final chapter will present an ethical-theological analysis of the gender
question in African Christianity. Here we shall carefully integrate the fruits of our
ethnography in the analysis of the gender conundrum in Africa. In doing so, we shall
provide the peculiarities of the gender problematic in Africa’s families and societies. This
will be done by assimilating a conversation between African women theologians and
John Paul II to account for a more egalitarian and just approach to the relations between
women and men both in the public and private sphere in African Christianity. In a more
practical way, we shall identify the shades of the gender query in African societies and
propose channels through which they could be addressed. In effect, this conclusive part
synthetizes the results of our study and suggests some guidelines for an ecclesial and
theological discourse which takes African couples’ experiences, along with their
social/communitarian embedding, seriously - while remaining at the same time critical
toward unjust gender relations. The objective of this chapter is to formulate responses to
the question of how an African Christian discourse on gender should look like that
critically recognizes the cultural heritage and grass root experiences of African couples
on the one side and effectively goes against unjust gender structure.
CHAPTER ONE
AN OVERVIEW OF GENDER IMBALANCES IN SOUTHERN

NIGERIAN: CULTURE, SOCIETY AND FAMILY LIFE
1.1 Introduction
The asymmetrical configuration of gender in Nigeria is real. Snapshots of the gender
narrative permeate diverse domains in Nigeria from economic to politics, from education
to language, from cultural stipulations to the constitutional formulation of legal texts. The
claim is that there is a prevalence of gender-related discrimination in these multiple layers
of development. Our intention in this chapter is to zoom into the fundaments of the
sociological landscape in Nigeria in order to critically analyse how gender biases are
constructed and negotiated.
In this introductory chapter we will provide an overview of the discussion on gender-
related issues in the African continent with a special focus on the situation in Nigeria. We
shall attempt to situate the gender enigma within a sociological tide with reference to
Southern Nigeria. We will explore how the gender motif is present in the current public
debate when and where the awareness of gender-related discrimination has arisen, and
how it is addressed in the respective academic fields of sociology, political and cultural
studies. Particular attention will also be paid to investigating how gender considerations
factor in the society, culture, marriage, education etc.
1.2 Gender Undercurrents in Southern Nigeria: A Sociological Analysis
“Each society therefore has its own ‘script’ for gender roles: ideas about
what it means to be male and female and how they inter-relate, which
depend upon the organization of subsistence, and human perceptions of
their relationship to their environment.”1
This segment and the subsequent parts of this chapter seek to investigate how gender
impacts in the typical Nigerian experience. In other words, we attempt to see to what
extent the typical conception of gender influences the various aspects of the Nigerian life.
Examples of such aspects are politics/power dynamics, economics, culture/anthropology,
language/manner of linguistic reference, psychological configurations, marriage,
education and the construction of social taboos. Thereafter, an examination of some
factors, (principals/watchdogs) that perpetuates this typical structuralist conception of
gender in Nigeria, specifically Southern Nigeria will be made. Further on, we hope to
discern the underlying reasons and possible explanations for Southern Nigerian’s
asymmetrical configuration of gender.
1
Eliane Graham, Making the Difference: Gender, Personhood and Theology (London: Mowbray, 1995),
74.
14 An Overview of Gender Imbalances in Southern Nigeria: Culture, Society and Family Life
1.2.1 Structural and Functionalist Conception of Gender in Southern Nigeria

There are different structures of gender in a society. This is the order in which the
feminine and masculine genders are placed side by side. These ‘gender structurings’ are
what gives rise to patrilineal or matrilineal societies. Examples of ‘gender structurings’
include symmetrical gender structuring and asymmetrical gender structuring. Various
variants of these two main ‘gender structurings’ are observable in various human cultures
and subcultures. For example, asymmetrical ‘gender structuring’ can result in either a
patrilineal or a matrilineal society. Furthermore, these ‘gender structurings’ later on
assume deep embeddedness in the common practices and daily life of the people such that
they assume a functional force or pragmatic logic, as “the best way of doing things.”
They define worldviews and shape the cultural rationale for inter-gender relationships and
gender presuppositions and stereotypes.
This pattern of movement from ‘gender structuralism’ to ‘gender functionalism’ is
not unidirectional. It can also move in both ways. This means that there can be a
movement from ‘gender functionalism’ to ‘gender structuralism’. Chimaraoke Izugbara
gives a succinct description of structural and functional conception of gender in Ngwa, a
Southern Nigeria society.
“The Ngwa 2 society is patrilineal, patriarchal and patri-focal. The

functions and positions of men and women in Ngwa society are
culturally defined. Men are the heads of households and their wives live
under their oversight. Land-owning and use rights are patriarchal and
very old men, who are rooted in tradition and culture, head local Ngwa
communities. Men are also always very suspicious of attempts that will
encourage women to go beyond acceptable positions or become very
powerful. Male children are valued more than female ones. And quite
early, the former are socialized to see themselves as head of households,
breadwinners, and ‘owners’ of their wives and children. On the other
hand the cultural socialization of females aims largely at training them to
accept male domination and control, stay faithful, loving and subservient
to their male partners. Anecdotal and proverbial evidence portrays the
ideal Ngwa man as semi-ruthless, adventurous, and hardworking with
little or no respect for the views, idle chatters, and childish emotions of
women and girls. Ideally, the Ngwa view women as servants of their
husbands. They are expected to satisfy the husbands sexually, cook for
them, and bear them children. Ngwa men are culturally allowed to have
several sexual partners but the women are not. Men also do easily
divorce their wives on account of infidelity and unfaithfulness. The
Ngwa circumcise their female children very early in life and tend to view
it as a mechanism to check waywardness and sexual immorality among
women.”3
The issues noted above lead us to a basic and central question: how is gender configured
2
The Ngwa Society, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ngwa [accessed September 16 2014].
3
Chimaraoke Otutubikey Izugbara, “The Socio-Cultural Context of Adolescents' Notions of Sex and
Sexuality in Rural South-Eastern Nigeria,” Sexualities 8, (2005): 600.
An Overview of Gender Imbalances in Southern Nigeria: Culture, Society and Family Life 15
in Southern Nigeria? This section will proceed with the claim that there is gender
imbalance in Southern Nigeria and females occupy the lower side of this jingle-over. The
above sketch by Izugbara can be said to be representative of most traditional communities
in Southern Nigeria. In other words, the conception of gender in Southern Nigeria is
mostly patrilineal, patriarchal and patri-focal in structure.4
Such ‘gender structuring’ spills over, in a functional manner, and creates resonating
ripples of effects on the various traditional institutions, defining them, allowing itself to
be defined by them and perpetuating itself within them. This is why we can
simultaneously insist that the conception of gender in Southern Nigeria also has a
functional logic. In other words, a sort of functional logic defines most of the typical
responses to objections of the gender structures existent in Southern Nigeria. This
structuralist and functionalist conception of gender will become clearer as we examine
how the conception of gender manifests within the different aspects of life in Southern
Nigeria.
1.2.2 Gender and Politics/Power Dynamics in Southern Nigeria

Discourses in gender often happen to be power discourses and politically charged. Jeffrey
C. Isaac fittingly capture this position when he asserts that “the gendering of politics and
the politics of gender are fundamental concepts of human life.” 5 Issues of gender
equality/inequality, gender difference, gender emancipation, feminism and the rights of
women can hardly be exhaustively discussed without special reference to politics or an
appeal to political terms and scenarios. As a result, this discourse often portends political
consequences and defines the power dynamics within a community or system network.
It is equally important to note that discourse on gender impacts and reveals the
conception of gender. The conception of gender has major implications for the definition
of politics, the shaping of political structures and the mapping of power dynamics. The
reverse is also the case. Gender situations reveal how a society conceives gender
difference and also provide data for gender discourses. This is also the case of Southern
Nigeria where gender seems to cut through, using the expression of Karen Beckwith and
Lisa Baldez, ‘every aspect of politics.’6
And this is exactly why it is possible to discern the Southern Nigerian’s conception
of gender from the manner that gender is politically enacted. The inclusion and exclusion
of gender in politics is a good beginning in the articulation of the conception of gender
4
Though slightly distinct, these terms all point to the same reality – male dominance.
5
Jeffrey C. Isaac, “Gender and Politics,” American Political Science Association 12, no. 1 (March 2014):
1,
http://journals.cambridge.org/download.php?file=%2FPPS%2FPPS12_01%2FS1537592714000012a.pdf&
code=4f9971d88cad3a4f417e3dfa463249ff [September 19 2014].
6
Karen Beckwith & Lisa Baldez, “Politics and Gender” (March 2005) quoted in Jeffrey C. Isaac, “Gender
and Politics.” American Political Science Association 12, no. 1 (March 2014): 1,
http://journals.cambridge.org/download.php?file=%2FPPS%2FPPS12_01%2FS1537592714000012a.pdf&
code=4f9971d88cad3a4f417e3dfa463249ff, [September 19 2014].
within any community. This is because politics is often the representation of the people’s
highest trust and responsibility. Thus active participation in public life is often the lust
and privilege of the privileged members of a society. In others words, politics is the
domain of those at the pinnacle of the hierarchical configuration of society.
On the 6th of July, 2003, the United Nations released a report entitled Women and
Natural Resources: Unlocking the Peace building Potential. In this report we see that
women are often excluded from the political life of most crises regions. Women “remain
largely excluded from owning land, benefiting from resource wealth or participating in
decision-making about resource management” even when they are “primary managers
and users of natural resources.”7 Is this also the case in Southern Nigeria? A simple yes or
no answer may not satisfy this question because of its complexity.
Perhaps, a look at history will help us in unravelling the stratification of gender in
Southern Nigeria and further test our hypothesis that females are subjugated to the lower
rank of its gender stratification. In ancient times, before the emergence of the colonial era
in Nigeria, the two empires of Benin and Oyo are among several kingdoms in Southern
Nigeria that were distinguished by the vastness of their domains and their sophisticated
administrative structures. An examination of the place and roles of females within the
administrative structures of these kingdoms can demonstrate how the asymmetrical
political structuring of gender is portrayed within traditional Southern Nigeria. In this
section, we will mainly consider the Benin empire because even though both empires
maintain slightly different political models of administration, they both share great
similarities in their ‘gender structurings’ and ‘gender functionings’.8
The Benin Empire is ruled by the King, traditionally referred to as oba. The Oba
assumes office on the grounds of succession. His younger brothers, princes, eventually
become heads of the annexed villages of the kingdom. In fact, the members of the king’s
family were automatically part of the nobility. His mother is a title holder (Iyoba) whose
court was situated near the city at Uselu. The king ruled in cooperation with the holders
of various chiefly titles who were organised into three main orders of chiefs namely: the
seven uzama, the palace chiefs and the town chiefs. These chiefs assisted in the
administrative bureaucracy of the kingdom while they also constituted the state council.9
The style of governance we get from the above picture is that the brothers of the king
were involved in the kingdom’s affair, whilst not much is said about the role of his
sisters. His mother is however installed on an elevated platform.10
7
United Nations Development Programme, Women and Natural Resources: Unlocking the Peace-building
Potential, http://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/librarypage/crisis-prevention-and-recovery/women-
and-natural-resources/ [October 12 2014].
8
See Alexander Nzemeke and Eddy Erhagbe, Nigerian Peoples and Culture, 2nd ed. (Benin City: Mindex,
2002).
9
See The Edo Socio-Political Organization, http://www.everyculture.com/Africa-Middle-East/Edo-
Sociopolitical-Organization.html, [October 12 2014].
10
See Flora Edouwaye Kaplan, “Iyoba: The Queen Mother of Benin: Images and Ambiguity in Gender
and Sex Roles in Court Art,” Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 810, Iss. 1 (1997): 75-77. See
Conversely, Nkiru Nzegwu renders a critique of recorded history for its devaluation
of women through assuming their irrelevance in political matters. She supports her claims
by mentioning that even though this historical devaluation of women is made on the
presupposition “that Bini society is a rigidly gendered society, there is no evidence that
the Edo of the Ogiso period up until the nineteenth century was gendered in the same way
as modern day Edo. Even with the royal family, the actions of the Uvbis and Iyobas tell a
different story.”11 She also points out that the devaluation of women is not essentially an
African tradition. Subsequently, she criticizes the British anthropologist John Picton for
“his rigid masculinist framework evident in his reconstruction of Yoruba history to
enthrone patriarchy and the category gender as normative features of Yoruba social
relations historically.”12
Indeed, Nzegwu was right to insist that personalities such as Emotan, the Iyobas:
Idia, Elaba, Ewebonoza, Ohogha II, Ose, and Omozogie, and Uvbi (princesses) Edeleyo
(daughter of Oba Ewuare), Adedeku (daughter of Oba Ozolua), and Aghayubini
(daughter of Oba Osemwende) ascertain that Benin royal women were not the deferring,
politically subordinate beings that the twentieth-century ideals of womanhood and the
“good mother” prescribes for modern African women.13
Although there is also no record of a female monarch in Benin Kingdom and besides
the titular positions given to the mother and wives of the kings, other key political
positions are mainly the privileges of men. However, women in the kingdoms of Benin
and Oyo had access to power through other unofficial means. This is why a bit of
disclaimer should be introduced at this point that despite the above pointers to masculine
superiority in the political structures of Southern Nigeria, it will be too simplistic to
assume that women are utterly powerless within political life. This is because a closer
observation has revealed some subtle power dynamics in favour of females. In other
words, there are often very strong feminine influences, even though, they are often
unsounded. History records several accounts of heroines such as Iyoba Idia, mentioned
above, who is referred to as the ‘hidden Oba’ of Benin.14 Although it is noteworthy to
insist that these power roles of women are not affirmed and given equal prominence by
the same traditional institutions and structurings that upheld the access of men to political
power and authority. In most of these cases, women seem to be at the background of the
also Robert E. Bradbury, The Benin Kingdom and the Edo-Speaking Peoples of South-Western Nigeria
(London: International African Institute, 1957).
11
Nkiru Nzegwu, “Iyoba Idia: The Hidden Oba of Benin,” Journal of Culture and African Women Studies,
Iss. 9 (2006), http://rainqueensofafrica.com/2012/11/iyoba-idia-the-hidden-oba-of-benin/ Accessed on
October 12 2014. The Uvbis are the wives of the kings. The Iyobas are the mothers of the kings.
12
Ibid.
13
Kaplan, “Iyoba: The Queen Mother of Benin,” 78, 93, 99. Elsewhere, we have argued that the bini
traditional folklore is littered with extensive honour paid to women. The Oba was a pacesetter in this
regard, honouring his mother as the esteemed ‘Iyoba’. See Charles Osasogie Omogiate, “Towards a
Theological Response to the Gender Problematic in African Christianity,” Jurnal Teologic 15, no 1 (2016):
194.
14
Nzegwu, “Iyoba Idia.”
socio-political dynamics where only men shone, or as it may seem, have the right to
shine. Contrary to Nzegwu, laying the blame of distorted interpretations on western
patterns alone is contentious. Indigenous gender politics also contribute in an enormous
way.
For example, an approach to the issue of gender political structuring within Nigeria
is the recognition and representation of the female gender in the modern political
structures of Southern Nigeria, alongside their share in the distribution of basic political
means and goods. Modern-day Southern Nigeria has three of the six geopolitical zones in
Nigeria. The first of the three zones is the South-South geopolitical zone with six states of
Edo, Delta, Rivers, Cross-River, Akwa-Ibom, and Bayelsa. Secondly, there is the South-
West geopolitical zones which includes the states of Lagos, Osun, Oyo, Ogun, Ekiti and
Ondo. Then there is the South-East geopolitical zone covering Abia, Anambra, Imo,
Enugu and Ebonyi states. It is interesting to see that since the present democratic
dispensation began in the year 1999, there has not been a female governor in any of the
afore-mentioned states in Southern Nigeria or any in the North also. Indeed, the recent
appeal to women to become active key players in politics and in government is an
attestation to the underrepresentation of women in Nigerian, specifically southern
Nigeria’s political life.
Yet, politically how do women perceive themselves? Do they think they have equal
rights to political power and representation? Daily encounters show that the average
female Nigerian nurses a certain mistrust towards the political ambitions of female
candidates. More often than not, they will prefer to queue up to vote for the male. David
Bwakali thus avows that women speak out on gender equality but do not do much
themselves when it comes to action. To illustrate this, he recounts that in Kenya during
the 1997 national elections, women voters outnumbered men but the sole and first ever
woman presidential candidate fared much worse than was expected. The response given
by a middle-aged woman who caste her vote for another candidate was shocking. To her,
‘a woman president will just act high and mighty and despise her fellow women.’ 15
Nevertheless, one might say that this mistrust and misgiving is more cultural than
malicious. A good number of women have been made to believe that only men are able to
offer solid governance.
1.2.3 Gender and Economics

“I see two significant differences between careers and homemaking. (1)
Careers are most often lived out in public, while many tasks of
homemaking occur in a more private sphere. (2) homemaking is not
rewarded with societal prestige or a wage (unless you are working in
another person’s home).”16
15
David John Bwakali, “Gender Inequality in Africa,” Contemporary Review 279 (Nov. 2001): 271.
16
Eileen Klassen Hamm & Less Klassen Hamm, “Homemaking and Careers: Cooking the Ordinary Soup
of Our Everyday Lives,” in Women & Men: Gender in the Church, ed. Carol Penner (Waterloo: Mennonite
Closely connected to the politicization of gender is the commoditisation of gender.

Gender in Southern Nigeria has been valuated, economically appraised and commoditized
in various ways to leave us with some patterns that reveal how gender is conceived in
Southern Nigeria.17 Some of the ways this has been done manifest in issues such as dowry
and bride price, subjugated economic roles allowed to women and the consequent
economic pressure on men. This is captured by the thoughts of Eileen Klassie Hamm
quoted above.
In recent times a Catholic priest was invited by a family to bless their building. When
he arrived, the female spouse greeted him.
WOMAN: “Welcome, Father. Thanks for coming to bless my house.”
PRIEST: “Your house?” The priest retorted in surprised anger. “What gave you the
impression that this is your house? Who gave you the right to own a house?”
The lady, now embarrassed, tried to explain to the priest that she built the house with her
own personal resources accruing from her business.
The priest ignored the woman and turned to the husband, who he regarded as imprudent
and a weakling for allowing his wife to claim ownership of a landed property in his
presence. It took some minutes of polite placating for the old priest to continue with the
blessing of the house.18
Diminutive snapshots of common day realities like the above story can reveal quite a
lot about the conception of gender in Southern Nigeria. These acts of economic
discrimination against women are quite ubiquitous. Ranging from societal expectations
on women to maintain and run household chores, to professional misconduct carried out
against female colleagues at work.
A few decades ago, a girl's chances to thrive economically could be jeopardized by
the gender structuring of the society from her childhood. A female child was less
preferred to a male child when it comes to nourishment, let alone access to education. The
few who were ‘lucky’ enough to escape early child marriage and had accessed some
levels of education were expected to terminate their education in time and confront the
more 'feminine' issues of marriage and child bearing. This societal expectation 19 on
Publishing Press, 1998), 43. On some occasions, literature by Western authors are used to illustrate the
African situation especially when they corroborate the realities in Africa.
17
There was also a commoditization of gender in ancient times. In the biblical world, there were profound
inequalities in the relative economic value attached to the labour of women and men. Leviticus 27 asserts
that an adult man shall be valued at 50 shekels of silver and an adult woman at 30. The value attached for
younger people of the different age-grades also varied each according to its sex. See Lev. 27: 1-7. See also
Mavis Maclean, “Economic Ties,” in Women, Men and Marriage, ed. Christopher Clulow (London,
Sheldon Press, 1995), 97.
18
This was narrated in a discussion with one of the participants of the conversation. The discussion was
held on December 22, 2014.
19
Katie Wiebe narrates a similar Western perspective. According to her, “older women are more likely to
face new crises of caretaking for their husbands, parents, and sometimes grandchildren. Yet older women
are often seen monitoring their husband’s bodies. Gail Sheehy (New Passages) observes that a woman
carries pills in her purse that her husband must take. She even reminds him when to take them-often out of
women to run their life around a man and family is sometimes so deeply entranced that
'professional women' sometimes feel less feminine. Obviously, the recourse to the term
'professional women' where there is hardly one as ‘professional men’ reveals quite a lot
about societal presuppositions on women economic roles.
Within the workspace, there seem to be norms in contemporary African society that
are prejudicial to women. A variety of these norms appear to thrive in the Public
Administration System. Victor Ayeni declares that “many administrative institutions
unashamedly express preference for male against female employees. The complaint is
that the latter at child-rearing stage are less reliable and committed. Because of this some
institutions even maintain different conditions of service for male and female
employees.”20 This is quite telling for a society that places lofty expectations on married
couples to give birth to children.
In like manner, we notice an alarming rigidity with regard to professional roles that
are taken up by women. Women were barred from some strategic positions in
professional life. It was only recently that women were allowed to train and to fill certain
special roles in the military. Women in politics, besides few appointments into ministerial
positions, are encouraged to restrict themselves to internal party politics, focusing mainly
on the role of women leaders and mobilizers. Despite these recent efforts at gender
equality in Nigeria, over 70 percent of Nigerian women live in extreme poverty.21
“Money in marriage represents power and control,” Mavis Maclean notes, “lack of it
limits choices and freedom.”22 This is particularly true in the context under scope. The
source of family income does to a large extent influence the balance of power between
husbands and wives. It would seem that, in African traditional societies, the man is the
breadwinner of the family. His premiere role is to provide for the financial needs of the
family, just as the mother is expected to attend to the immediate needs of the household.
However, in some situations, these functions are contested by financial might. Working-
class mothers, whose husbands earn less than them, are often treated differently by their
husbands. These wives might tend to be of huge service in the household especially in
those cases where the man is, for some reasons, out of employment. It is in this scenario
that Maclean’s supposition comes to the fore. The man’s choices might indeed become
limited to the extent that he depends on his wife for financial aid. While this is not the
case in every situation, it does hold good in a number of circumstances.
Susie Orbach reasons that in previous centuries, men have displayed this giving role
through being the resourceful, sturdy and financially providing one. She argues that the
fear of becoming a widow.” Katie Funk Wiebe “Gender and Aging: Male or Female – What Difference
Does it Make?” in Women & Men: Gender in the Church, ed. Carol Penner (Waterloo: Mennonite
Publishing Press, 1998), 90.
20
Victor Ayeni, “Gender Sensitivity in Public Management Education in Africa,” The International
Journal of Public Sector Management 6, no. 2 (1993): 58.
21
Abimbola Adelakun, “Does Jonathan Really Love Women?” http://www.thescoopng.com/abimbola-
adelakun-jonathan-really-love-women/ [November 11, 2014].
22
Mavis Maclean, “Economic Ties,” 96.
silence of men was usually interpreted as knowing and wise rather than an ‘unknowing
paralysis’ that happened to be the case for some men. Orbach, however pinpoints the
changing tide that has occurred in recent times. According to her, “there has been a
collapse of the economic arrangement between women and men, the veil of dependence
has been lifted leading to a breakdown in the scheme in which the woman provided
emotional and household services and the man provided economic stability.”23
To my mind, though Orbach’s assumption is related to the western world, it is also
concrete and real in Africa. In recent times, more and more women have become the
providers for their families. Even when their husbands are working-class, they too prefer
to contribute to family earnings rather than remain idle. All the more in rural societies,
women make significant contributions to food production and processing. In his empirical
survey, Shehu Abdul Rahman declares that women in Nigeria provide some 60-80
percent of agricultural labour and are responsible for 80 percent of food production. 24 In
many parts of the country, they exclusively take charge of farm produce processing
activities like threshing, winnowing, grinding, pounding, smoking, salting, drying etc.
Overall, they work more hours than men regardless of the season, both in farming and in
non-farming activities. To exemplify this, reports show a 16-hour working day for
African farming women.25
Yet, it remains difficult for women to cope in the face of social, economic and
cultural obstacles working against their economic contribution to agricultural
development. Rahman too has argued that “the obstacles have for a long time been
intensifying gender inequality and exacerbating poverty among women. Therefore,
women have not been given the opportunity to realize their full potential.”26 Rahman’s
intention is to accentuate the contribution of women to the economy via agricultural
development and he thinks the only possibility for achieving this is to equally consider
women as subjects of development.
1.2.4 Gender Wage Gap

Closely tied to the commoditisation of gender is the discrepancy in wage pay along
gender lines. The question we seek to respond to here is: do men and women who
23
Susie Orbach, “A Woman’s Place?” Women, Men and Marriage, 113.
24
Shehu Abdul Rahman, “Women's Involvement in Agriculture in Northern and Southern Kaduna State,
Nigeria,” Journal of Gender Studies 17, no. 1, (2008): 18.
25
Rahman, “Women's Involvement in Agriculture,” 18-19.
26
Ibid., 24. Literature abounds to show that whilst women do the most work in the subsistence agricultural
sector, men have more opportunities in the commercial sector as we shall explain later in the following
section. Furthermore, despite attaining a large share of work in the agricultural segment, key decisions and
major farm inputs are not the prerogatives of rural women. Besides, the risk of losing land rights is a
disincentive for women to invest in land in the knowledge that her right to own land is contingent on her
relationship with her husband or male relatives. See Diego Angel-Urdinola and Quentin Wodon, “Income
Generation and Intra-Household Decision Making: A Gender Analysis for Nigeria,” in Gender Disparities
in Africa’s Labor Market, ed. Jorge Saba Arbache, Alexandre Kolev and Ewa Filipiak (Washington DC:
The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development / The World Bank, 2010), 385.
produce about the same output receive equal pay? Put differently, if we assume that wage
gap between men and women is a reality, does gender play a role? Is the Nigerian
workspace gender-egalitarian or not?
Let us examine Tilahun Temesgen’s rendition of the meaning of gender wage
discrimination. According to Temesgen, gender wage discrimination is said to exist
“when two workers who otherwise are identical in their human capital endowments and
other characteristics except their gender are paid different wages” 27 or what Tinuke
Fapohunda describes as the comparative differences in the average gross earnings of men
and women within an economy.28 Put simply, gender wage discrimination occurs when
two individuals with similar capacities are paid dissimilar wages based on their gender.
The question is: why do employers discriminate in wage payment? What is the
determinant of gender wage differentials in the Nigerian economy?
Findings seem to suggest that employers discriminate for various reasons. Temesgen
hints that some employers might discriminate as a result of difference in demand for
women and men. To illustrate this, a number of employers might find it more beneficial
to differentiate along gender lines by way of paying women less than men owing to the
impression that they are more likely to be absorbed by familial commitments than men.
Hence women get paid relatively less compared to their marginal productivity. Temesgen
also cites some other possible reasons such as: family commitments and responsibility of
rearing children, less mobility from place to place (especially when such jobs demand
frequent trips), pregnancy and maternity leaves etc.29
While it does seem unfair for one to be discriminated against based on commitments
to family and children, this makes sense from a profit-oriented viewpoint where there is
an inclination towards worker’s productivity. It is not that the employers do not enjoy the
work women do in their firms; the fear is that their output may be mitigated by other
commitments. The consequence of this could be that ‘professional ladies’ or ‘working-
class ladies’ less fancy the idea of giving birth to children, or that they prefer to give birth
soon after marriage (that is if they do get married) so as to concentrate fully on their
careers.
This trend does not do much to support family commitments and responsibilities. It
might very well account for the presence of females in clerical jobs and jobs that require
minimal amount of working time. Indeed, the consequence of little amount of working
27
Tilahun Temesgen, "Effects of Labor Market Institutions and Establishment Characteristics on Gender
Wage Inequality in Africa," International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy 28, nos. 9/10 (2008):
311.
28
Tinuke M. Fapohunda, “The Gender Pay Gap in Nigeria: Causes and Remedies,” Mediterranean
Journal of Social Sciences 4, no. 2 (2013): 211.
29
Temesgen,"Effects of Labor Market Institutions," 312. Michelle Budig and Robert L. Moore carry out a
similar study of employer discrimination but from a different cultural context. For further reading see
Michelle J. Budig, “Gender: Self-Employment and Earnings: The Interlocking Structures of Family and
Professional Status,” Gender and Society 20, Iss. 6 (2006): 725-53; Robert L. Moore, “Employment
Discrimination: Evidence from Self-Employed Workers,” The Review of Economics and Statistics 65, no.
3 (1983): 496-501.
time is little amount of monthly pay. If a gender-egalitarian work environment were a

priority to the policy makers in the Nigerian economy, attempts would have to be made to
ensure that women are not disadvantaged as a result of the amount of time they render to
their families.
Toyin Saraki contends, however, that gender wage gap is present across the globe.
She recalls that in New Zealand, where the gender wage gap is the smallest worldwide,
men still get an average of 5.6% more than women. The figure is put at 17.5% for the
UK. Saraki judges that even though Nigeria has a fairly standard gender wage gap in
comparison to other countries and quite similar to that of the UK or the US, as
represented by the indicators that women earn about 70% of what men do, there is still
much to be done to arrive at a parallel valuation of women and men. Her worry is that
gender inequality costs sub-Saharan Africa a huge cost averaging $US95bn per year, a
figure that surpasses the GDPs of some single African states. Saraki signifies also that
aside from the skirmishes of gender wage gap, career women in Nigeria are faced with
other gender-specific challenges such as unstable access to financial systems and
microfinance credit in order to boost women’s economic independence.30
Gender pay gap is rightly identified as a major policy concern in discourses
regarding national development. Tinuke Fapohunda examines the causes of gender pay
gap in Nigeria and locates it on three levels. First, in the differences in human capital, that
is differences in individual characteristics. Secondly, crowding discrimination, that is, the
materialisation of male-dominated jobs owing to the productivity, skills and experience
demanded by the employers. Thirdly, other categories of discrimination, which includes
labour market discrimination, wherein men and women of equal productivity and
aspirations are treated differently with regard to hiring, retention, training and promotion
implementation.31 Summarily, she identifies the gender wage gap as a resultant effect of
several factors namely, occupational segregation, workplace flexibility, number of hours
worked, gender stereotypes, bias favouring men, anti-female bias and perceived role
incongruence, maternity leave and so forth.32
Thus, gender wage gap exists due to a combination of economic, socio-cultural and
educational factors. In addition, it is also consequent on a lack of a regulating legislation
coupled with present-day realities of an increased private-sector employment and a
diminished employment rate of governmental institutions. Therefore, even when the
Nigerian constitution stipulates equal pay for equal work without prejudice on the basis of
sex, the absence of legislation to put this into effect makes the stretching gap in wages a
30
Toyin Saraki, “Closing the Gender Wage Gap in Africa and Beyond, (28 March 2017),” Huffpost,
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/section/us-news, [accessed 30 May 2018]. See also Taiwo Adekunle
Aderemi, “Does the Wage Curve Exist in Nigeria? Evidence from a Disaggregated Labour Market,”
Journal of Social and Economic Development 17, Iss. 2 (2015): 184-99; Ikechukwu D. Nwaka, Kalu E.
Uma and Gulcay Tuna, “Trade Openness and Unemployment: Empirical Evidence for Nigeria,” The
Economic and Labour Relations Review 26, Iss. 1 (2015): 117-36.
31
Fapohunda, “The Gender Pay Gap in Nigeria,” 212-4.
32
Ibid., 218-9.
reality. Moreover, it leaves the affected individual with a sense of being undervalued,
with viable consequences for productivity in the workplace.
On the other hand, it is noteworthy to state that gender pay differences are also a
result of discrimination that originate outside of the workplace. Temesgen relays that in a
number of patriarchal societies, there is the belief that women are not as productive and
as capable as men in for instance, an engineering field or in those professional
occupations that are usually high paying. Therefore, parents are more likely to send their
daughters into non-engineering fields – assuming they decide on these issues for their
children. 33 In the long run, there will be more male engineers and more male
professionals than female. In effect, men are more likely to get access to such jobs where
better pay is offered. To challenge this system one must confront the perennial ideology
that men are more technical and productive than women.
Yet to limit gender discrimination in the workplace to employers alone is one-sided.
These studies reflect that discrimination against women in Nigeria also arises from male
colleagues as well. 34 It is understood that male co-workers make the most of gender
discrimination to gain or maintain positions of relative privilege and power – although
this might also hold good for female workers in top management positions. Prejudices
from colleagues might lead to an experience of alienation from women workers, which
might be wrongly interpreted as a reluctance to become involved.35 The resulting effect is
to term her a ‘passive’ worker. Johan Verstraeten has therefore argued that even though
the elimination of discrimination from the workplace is not of itself a guarantee for
actualising an eloquent life, he is assertive that women should be afforded equal
opportunity in order to be selected and should be afforded the possibility of acquiring the
relevant knowledge or skills needed to compete.36 He however cautions that the reliance
on statistics alone to determine whether women receive less income or have access to
higher paid jobs without paying attention to other prominent issues involved such as the
problem of symbolizing the career-women as the ‘successful woman’ might lead to the
endorsement of some sort of workaholic-ism or a disposition that values women more
when they are career-oriented than when they are family-oriented.37
33
Temesgen, "Effects of Labor Market Institutions," 312. In an empirical study using a manufacturing firm
level survey data, Temesgen has discovered that being a woman in Nigeria reduces expected average
wages by as much as 19 percent compared with that of men. He makes a similar survey in an Ethiopian
context also. See Tilahun Temesgen, “Determinants of Wage Structure and Returns to Education in a
Developing Country: Evidence from Linked Employer-Employee Manufacturing Survey Data of
Ethiopia,” Seoul Journal of Economics 18, no. 4 (2005): 277-302.
34
See Oyewole Simon Oginni, El-maude Jibreel Gambo and Kareem Moses Ibrahim, “Nexus of Gender
Pay Gap and Economic Growth: Evidence from Nigeria,” International Journal of Management Sciences
and Business Research 3, Iss. 4 (2014): 8; Ikechukwu Darlington Nwaka, Fatma Guven-Lisaniler and
Gulcay Tuna, “Gender Wage Differences in Nigerian Self and Paid Employment: Do Marriage and
Children Matter?” The Economic and Labour Relations Review 27, Iss. 4 (2016): 490-510.
35
Temesgen, "Effects of Labor Market Institutions," 315.
36
Johan Verstraeten, “Marriage and the Law: An Ethical Perspective,” INTAMS review 6, Iss. 1 (2000):
64.
37
Verstraeten, “Marriage and the Law,” 66.
Going forward, Fapohunda recommends that the reduction of gender pay gap could
be made possible via initiatives that combat occupational segregation and acknowledges
that government policies promoting equal opportunities for males and females in the
workplace is imperative.38 Indeed, it goes without saying that adequate monitoring of pay
differences, improvement of the contractual terms of part-time jobs, ensuring and
supporting parental leave and care services are important steps to combat gender wage
discrimination. More than anything else, it is to be noted that the promotion of women’s
economic rights is decisive to a nation’s economic growth.
Rather than seeking for theories that stimulate competition among gender, targeted
policy intervention might be a way out in expunging gender wage gap. For instance,
affirmative action could guarantee the promotion and selection of women in managerial
and administrative positions in so far as they are qualified. In addition, labour market
institutions such as trade unions might be able to influence public and private firms to
ensure that gender wage gap is crossed out. However, a problem might be that there are
only a handful of women in these unions.
1.2.5 Gender and Culture

The educationist, Hauwa Imam notes that gender issues are more rooted in culture than in
religion. She buttresses her claims by postulating that the practices which women are
expected to partake in on the occasion of the loss of their husbands are hardly religious.
Pinpointing culture as a fundamental source of women subordination therefore, she
argues that the rites of widowhood such as elongated public mourning, pubic hair shaving
and widow inheritance by her in-laws are mostly culturally founded. Imam submits that
the absence of such observances for widowers speak volume of a protruding gender
imbalance in several Nigerian cultures. The consequence of rejecting this levirate
arrangement is that they face the threat of expulsion from the family in a way that they
are left with no portion of inheritance from their late husband. In addition, the custody of
her children might be jeopardised.39
Imam speaks therefore of a certain oppression through tradition. She contends then
that to undermine the place of a woman in family and society is to categorize women as
second-class citizens. Going further in identifying a link between culture and politics, she
supposes that the cultural nuance of a dearth of female politicians in the country is due
greatly to the cultural subordination of women and an exuberant understanding that
women are mostly suited for household roles. In calling for a restoration of a woman’s
place in Nigeria’s socio-political space that has been diminished by the gender lacuna,
38
Fapohunda, “The Gender Pay Gap in Nigeria,” 218-9.
39
Hauwa Imam, “Gender Issue is More Rooted in Culture Than Religion, (29 May 2018),” Saturday
Magazine https://guardian.ng/saturday-magazine/gender-issue-in-nigeria-is-more-rooted-in-culture-than-
religion/ [accessed 29 May 2018].
she advocates for an affirmative action in order to guarantee women’s contribution to

national development.40
Reviewing the relationship between gender and culture, Tayo Ajayi raises a similar
issue that culture is mostly presented as a sturdy explanatory variable in illustrating the
predominant gender philosophies in the Nigerian society. He argues that in the first place,
Nigerian women are socialized into a culture of gender inequality to the extent that
obvious gender discriminations are perceived as ‘normal.’ 41 Ajayi underscores that
whereas such a subordinate position of Nigerian women in a male-dominated
environment acts contrary to the principles of social justice and equality of persons as
contained in the Nigerian constitution, the socio-cultural foundations of individuals
makes the possibility of an equal playing ground for men and women quite arduous.
Nevertheless, he is of the view that since the 1995 World Conference of Women in
Beijing, some successes have been recorded in Nigeria in terms of bridging the gender
gap.42
Relatedly, whilst explaining the stratification of the Nigerian society, Ogege
Omadjohwoefe argues that the Nigerian society is stratified along gender classification.
Explaining further, he posits that male and female in Nigeria possess unequal access to
power, prestige and property. Omadjohwoefe’s assertion is that gender stratification has
immense consequences for gender roles in that male roles are generally more valued and
rewarded than those of females which in turn places women in an unenviably unequal
position with regards to authority, prestige and wealth due to negative restrictions and
reduced opportunities for women.43
Omadjohwoefe notes that in pre-modern times where women were disadvantaged by
their biology, menstruation, childbirth and menopause and consequently depended on
their husbands during pregnancy, child-nursing and so forth, men paraded themselves as
dominant in hunting roles, house-building and competent in meeting the expectations of
women. In his allegory, women’s activities became limited to child-care and homework
for a considerable part of their lives since a child at her breast, or in her hip or on her back
needed to be nursed, the presence a large number of children meant women turned out to
be physically encumbered and their activities were restricted to the home and to child-
care while they depended on men for livelihood support. Hence while women’s
‘ordinary’ routines were taken for granted, men’s activities became prestigious.44
Subsequently, Omadjohwoefe echoes that predominant gender discriminations are
rooted in a largely stereotypic value system where women are regarded as the ‘weak sex’
40
Imam, “Gender Issue is More Rooted in Culture Than Religion.”
41
Tayo Ajayi, “Cultural Explanations of the Status of Nigerian Women,” Journal of Research in National
Development 6, no. 1 (2008): 4.
42
Ajayi, “Cultural Explanations of the Status of Nigerian Women,” 4.
43
Ogege Samuel Omadjohwoefe, “Gender Role Differentiation and Social Mobility of Women in
Nigeria,” Journal of Social Sciences 27, no. 1 (2011): 67.
44
Omadjohwoefe, “Gender Role Differentiation,” 68.
or as the ‘second sex’. He is optimistic that an appreciation of the female sex could be
achieved through the empowering of the woman and the girl-child by a committed focus
on her equal access to education, occupational and employment opportunities,
emboldening women’s involvement in politics, bridging the gender wage gap and an
unrestricted access to the public sphere. He suggests that these and other actions would
help to improve the status of women and their public position within the socio-political
and economic ladder in society.45
A detection of multiple evolutions in the role and status of women in Nigeria from
pre-colonial times to the early decades of the 21st century has been developed by Tayo
Falola. Falola has recounted the major role of women in the social and economic
activities of pre-colonial Nigeria. He argues that even though division of labour was
specified along gender lines, women controlled major trade activities and had access to
land through their husbands or parents. He is adamant that women were not as docile or
powerless as contemporary literature tends to represent. Furthermore, he pinpoints that
beyond the household; prestigious chieftaincy titles, which wielded enormous privileges
and power, were held by women in the Edo and Yoruba traditions.46 Aside the influential
Queen-Mothers of these traditions, Falola identifies notable legendary women figures
such as Emotan of Benin, Moremi of Ile-Ife, Amina of Zaria and others in depicting that
women in pre-colonial times were considered a very important component of the political
organizations of notable empires. In Falola’s reasoning, it was the combination of
patriarchy with colonial rule in the 20th century that inspired the diminishing of women’s
status in society. His contention is that as male chiefs collaborated with the British
colonial administration in the collection of taxes and governing, the place of female
chiefs gradually declined in significance.47
For this reason, Julia Hamaus avers that in the African context – as in many parts of
the world – gender inequality is deeply engrained in the cognizance of people. She argues
therefore that the argument that advocates the position that gender equality is not part of
‘the culture’ is quite misleading since culture is dynamic and constantly evolving.
Secondly, she contemplates that such a disposition neglects the fact that within one
culture, there might be different sub-cultures. Thirdly, Hamaus assumes that the defence
of the rights of women and the advancement towards gender equality must be
acknowledged as a cultural movement in itself. Fourthly, she demands that the notion of
cultural identity – in terms of a person’s sense of belonging to a particular group or
45
Ibid., 73.
46
Toyin Falola, “The Role of Nigerian Women,” in Encyclopaedia Britannica,
https://www.britannica.com/topic/role-of-Nigerian-women-1360615, [accessed 30 May, 2018].
47
Toyin Falola, “The Role of Nigerian Women.” Jonathan Kangwa admits that in matrilineal societies,
even when men hunted and were skilled in fishing, women also did the same and also controlled the
economy. They controlled the production and distribution of food. Whilst in patrilineal societies though
women may be in leadership and ritual positions, in general, power still rested in the hands of men. See
Kangwa, Gender, Christianity and African Culture, 42-43.
culture – be well elucidated since it appears to be central to the discussion of gender

equality.48
Taking Hamaus further, the idea that gender discrimination is easily recognisable is
genuine. What is however enthralling, as Hamaus identifies, is that there is a shade of
‘normalcy’ attached to it. Put differently, because people have been socialized in a culture
that regards women as subordinate to men, they tend to dispute that the theme of gender
equality does not arise in popular narrative since everyone knew their roles in the
household and in the society and seamlessly slotted into those roles. The critical questions
that are hardly answered by these proponents are: on what basis are these roles assigned
and whose interests are served in the allocation of these roles? Surely, the articulation of
gender stereotypes surrounding male supremacy and female subservience seems to be at
the background of these ‘cultural’ positions. Therefore the choice needs to be made on
whether to see women subjugation as a non-issue or whether to consider them as crucial
concerns that demand urgent redress.
Accordingly, structures of culture can clearly manifest the status of each gender. One
such indicator is the manner in which ancestry is traced in Southern Nigeria. Though,
around the world and in different times of history, we can find vestiges of societies where
ancestry is traced bi-lineally ‘through both male and female lines,’49 in Southern Nigeria,
the family name of the father is given prominence even in cases of single motherhood,
where the father played no role at all in the upbringing of the children.
Though studies around the world "indicate that the higher the woman's social status
or income, the less likely she is to take her husband's name,"50 we notice that in Southern
Nigeria, women keep their marital titles and husband's name, long after a divorce
procedure. This is one of the reasons why there seems to be an anxiety to produce a male
child in most young families, in order that the name of the family, in other words, the
name of the father, could be perpetuated through time. This gender structuring also
influences succession of titles and wealth through family lines.
More than anything else, it should be emphasised that traditional African culture
stipulated different roles for men and women in the society. Boys and girls often grew up
knowing what society required of them. While the boys herded livestock, girls would
fetch firewood and water. As the boys hunted, older girls would perfect their cooking
prowess. When it was time to get married, the young men would have been sufficiently
groomed into husbands that fit into the society’s description of husband. His sisters too in
turn would have become the blueprint of the ‘perfect wife.’ Each life was lived not
48
Julia Hamaus, “Dismantling Patriarchy in Nigeria (September 2016),” Results in Development,
http://www.itad.com/dismantling-patriarchy-nigeria/ [accessed 30 May, 2018].
49
Pamela Sheingorn, "Appropriating the Holy Kinship: Gender and Family and Family History,” in
Perspectives on Marriage, Household & Children, ed. Carol Neel (Toronto: University of Toronto Press,
2004), 274.
50
Carolyn Heibrun, quoted in Anne Kingston, The Meaning of Wife: A Provocative Look at Women and
Marriage in the Twenty-First Century (Toronto: Harper Collins, 2004), 43.
necessarily according to individual aspirations but more according to the norms of the
society in which they lived.51
Scholars are of the opinion that by today’s standards, traditional African culture was
not fair to women. It assigned the woman’s place to the kitchen and the man’s place in
the open – hunting games and fighting fields. Truly, their roles were different in ensuring
successful homes and societies, but to insist that some roles were inferior to others is
false. David Bwakali puts this succinctly when he avows that women were victims of
injustice in traditional African culture not as a result of what society did to them but
because of what society did not do to them. 52 Bwakali testifies that “boys grew up
knowing that they had to be strong, hardworking and wise so that they could take good
care of their wives, children and society. Girls grew up knowing that they had to be
hardworking and submissive so that they could find good husbands who would take good
care of them.”53 Put differently, it was not up to girls to make their lives successful. It was
up to their future husbands. In this way, they were shorn of the initiative to craft and
attain an independent life.
With regard to gender and culture therefore, the point that has been frequently raised
is that African indigenous cultures readily became a reference for the establishment and
maintenance of gender discrimination. While this is seldom disputed, Cyril-Mary Olatunji
remains adamant in his estimation that it would be unjust to accuse African indigenous
cultures for fostering gender discrimination. He pleads for a certain consideration of
culture’s innocence. According to Olatunji, “culture is not static and represents the social
mechanisms for dealing with particular situations in a given society. Over time, the
repetitions of such mechanisms become embedded in values and traditions and
represented in rituals.”54 What Olatunji points to is the transformative process of culture
in a way that it purges itself of detrimental social conventions through negotiation and
consensus however slow such a process might be.55 Such transformative procedure often
regards language as a vehicle of culture.
1.2.6 Gender and Language
Abolaji Mustapha gives the impression that there is a certain bias representation in
literature that might directly or indirectly shape gender identities. He suggests that at the
centre of this argument is a prejudicial way in which the sexes (males and females) are
exemplified which often times are rather imbalanced or unfair to women. The examples
Mustapha tenders are the existence of gender-bias texts and language such as the
incessant use of ‘chairman’, the stereotypical representation of a sex group, the
51
Bwakali, “Gender Inequality in Africa,” 270.
52
Ibid., 270.
53
Ibid.
54
Cyril-Mary Olatunji, “An Argument for Gender Equality in Africa,” CLC Web: Comparative Literature
and Culture 15, no. 1 (2013): 3.
55
Olatunji, “An Argument for Gender Equality in Africa,” 3.
invisibility of a sex group vis-à-vis the dominance of another.56 He focuses also on the
conventional image of woman in textbooks and the way school narratives in formal
curricula are constructed in basic terminologies as if ‘masculinity’ and ‘femininity’ are
generally in contrast to each other. As a consequence, he pleads for an elimination of
sexism in language use in order to provide an atmosphere in a way that engenders
equality not only in the way both sexes are viewed, but also in a way they are treated or
given equal opportunities in human society. 57 Accordingly, the place of literature as a
mirror of reality is well documented.58
Joseph Babalola and Gabriel Oyinloye have surveyed the place of gender linguistic
peculiarities in Nigeria. They assert the existence of a general conservative belief that
nature typically favours females in the domain of good language performance. The
implication is that male students in secondary schools display the idea that language and
literature courses in the Arts and Humanities are better suited for the females whereas
mathematics and science classes are ‘designed’ for boys due to their technical abilities.
Babalola and Oyinloye go further to show that this trend is a corollary to the declining
performance of male students in English language erudition. 59 On the other hand,
however, the long-term effect is that there are bound to be more boys proceeding in the
field of sciences characterised by better-paid jobs, which subsequently has visible
implications for the gender wage gap.
Conversely, however, the detection that men tend to talk longer and dominate the
scene of discussions between men and women has little to do with men’s literary
erudition or with women’s deficiency in the area of language acquisition and language
learning since studies show that women perform better in the quick acquisition of
56
Abolaji S. Mustapha, “Gender and Language Education Research: A Review,” Journal of Language
Teaching and Research 4, no. 3 (2013): 454-63, at 455. See Wale Adegbite, “Language, Gender and
Politics: A General Perspective,” in Language, Politics and Gender: A Festschrift in Honour of Professor
Y.K. Yusuf, ed. A. Odebunmi, E.A. Arua and S. Arimi (Ibadan: Centre for Black Africa Art and
Civilization - CBAAC, 2009): 9-21; Tayo Lamidi, “Gender-neutral Pronoun Usage Among Selected
Second Language Users of English in Nigeria,” in Language, Politics and Gender, 191-211; Samuel
Ayodele Dada and Omolara Kikelomo Owoeye, “Sexism in Nigerian English,” Journal of Research in
Gender Studies 2, no. 2 (2012): 72-86. Dada and Owoeye specifically note that the ‘Nigerian English’
contains peculiar features that are deeply rooted in Nigeria’s cultural experience at the phonological,
syntactic, semantic and stylistic levels. They then demonstrate that gender contributes to the distinct
features of the Nigerian English which owes tremendously to the Nigerian socio-cultural setting especially
in the way male and female are perceived. See Dada and Owoeye, “Sexism in Nigerian English,” 72.
57
Mustapha, “Gender and Language,” 456.
58
See Jerome Terpase Dooga, “Linguistic Choices and Gender Roles in New Nigerian Literature: An
Examination of Alpha Emeka’s The Carnival and Razinat Mohammed’s A Love Like a Woman’s and
Other Stories,” African Research Review 3, no. 3 (2009): 137-8. Dooga raises the question as to whether
the social behaviour metaphorically captured in works of art reflects the feminine-masculine relationships
in the real world and whether they are a consequence of the social milieu. Do they merely reproduce
existing gender ideologies of women and womanhood or they unintentionally tell the story of a gendered
society? See Dooga, “Linguistic Choices and Gender Roles,” 138.
59
Joseph Olurotimi Babalola and Gabriel Oludele Oyinloye, “Language and Gender Distinctions,”
International Review of Social Sciences and Humanities 2, no. 2 (2012): 238-9. See also Femi Akindele
and Wale Adegbite, The Sociology and Politics of English in Nigeria: An Introduction (Ile-Ife: Awolowo
University Press, 2005).
language tools than men laced with the potentials for achieving semblance with the native
speakers of a language.60 According to Babalola and Oyinloye then, men’s dominance in
discussions has more to do with a demonstration of men’s authority, power and control in
society. As a strategy for male dominance, they attest to what is referred to as the
‘interruption mechanism’ where males gain the floor of discussion for themselves by
interrupting the speech of females and solely determining turn-taking procedures thereby
asserting their position in the communication system.61
The English language connotation for the three gender categories of masculine,
feminine and neuter are represented through nouns and pronouns such as ‘man’ (his,
him), ‘woman’ (her, hers), ‘animal’ (it) respectively. Akin Odebunmi maintains that prior
to the feminist linguistic movement period, those words in English that did not fit into
these gender categories were regularly associated with the masculine gender with ‘doctor’
(his), ‘engineer’ (his), ‘driver’ (his) and so forth. He admits however that with the advent
of the feminist linguistic revolution, many gender-balanced and gender-neutral elements
have been introduced into the English language encapsulated in the use of masculine
anaphors such as ‘his/her’ and ‘him/hers’ in addition to partitive pronouns such as
‘everybody’, ‘somebody’, ‘anybody’ in the same way that the singular ‘they’ has been
introduce to neutralise the genderisation of common nouns including ‘doctor’, ‘engineer’,
‘driver’. 62 Odebunmi cites further changes in popula maxims as, “Man proposes, God
disposes” which tend to fancy a patriarchal posture presenting the man as subsuming the
woman has been re-constructed as “To propose is human, to dispose is divine.”63
Language is deemed to be central to the production of social reality. 64 Nevertheless,
how does gender function in the languages and common expressions of Southern
60
Peter Trudgill, “Sex, Covert Prestige and Linguistic Change in Urban British English of Norwich,”
Language in Society 1, no. 2 (1972): 179-195, at 179.
61
Babalola and Oyinloye, “Language and Gender Distinctions,” 238. Some authors are of the opinion that
such a disposition may have arisen from an erroneous male belief that female’s opinions/ideas are
relatively shallow and should therefore not be expressed at all. Hence their linguistic freedom and
linguistic rights are denied them. See C. Edward, G. Ugwuadu and E. Krisagbedo, “Linguistic Study of
Gender Inequality in Nigeria,” Journal of Igbo Language and Linguistics, no 4 (2012): 32-36 at 33-34. See
also Adelaide Haas, “Male and Female Spoken Language Differences: Stereotypes and Evidence,”
Psychological Bulletin 86, no. 3 (1979): 616-26. Haas explicitly explains that there is a widespread belief
that men’s speech as compared to women’s is coarser and more direct whereas women’s speech tended to
be subtle and more conservative in the use of expressions particularly regarding to certain parts of the
human body. He illustrates further that where men and boys use words like, ‘damn’ or ‘sh*t’, women
articulate softer expressions such as ‘oh dear’, ‘goodness me’ or ‘my gracious’. See Haas, “Male and
Female Spoken Language Differences, 617.
62
Akin Odebunmi, “Language and Gender Perspectives in Nigerian Theo-Religious Contexts,”
Anglogermanica Online (2010): 65-84,
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/233645636_Introduction_2_Methodology_and_Design_3_Gende
r_Linguistics_and_Theo-
religious_Discourse_4_Theoretical_Perspectives_Discourse_Tracking_and_Ideology_5_Studies_on_Gend
er_and_Religion_6_Gender_Theories_61 [accessed May 30 2018].
63
Odebunmi, “Language and Gender Perspectives in Nigerian Theo-Religious Contexts,” 68.
64
Danielle Hanisch and Nicole Moulding, “Power, Gender, and Social Work Responses to Child Sexual
Abuse,” Affilia 26, no. 3 (2011): 278.
Nigerians? There is undoubtedly an inter-penetration between gender and language. In

Southern Nigeria, there is an abundance of common terms that designate certain roles to
women and express deeply imbedded presuppositions about the female gender. These
terms carry encoded gendered frameworks. Examples are 'wise one' ‘market women’,
‘women wrapper’, and ‘ashawo.’65
In Southern Nigerian, the expression 'wise ones' is traditionally reserved for elderly
males, who have distinguished themselves in the socio-cultural sphere. It is rare that older
women are addressed in such manner. On the other hand, the term ‘market woman’ is
used to describe women actively engaged in open-air market places, mostly as sellers. It
is rarely the case in common usage to refer to a man as a ‘market man’ even when he is
more engaged in market sales activities than those referred to market women. When a
man seeks to protect the interest of his spouse in a dedicated knightly manner, or does
things for her that goes beyond normal expectations, he is seen as a weakling a tagged a
‘woman wrapper’. It is interesting to note that such an expression exists for the female
gender because the society expects them to live their lives around a man, to be totally
dedicated to pleasing a man and serving his needs. It is hard to see a promiscuous man
being referred to as a male prostitute, but a lady with more than one sex partner is quickly
tagged a slut, that is an ‘ashawo’. The male gender is considered more physically virile
than the female gender, this is why immediately the word rape is used, a picture
eventually comes to mind: a man forcing his sexual desires on a woman. A man would
only face ridicule if he tendered that he had been raped by a woman.
1.2.7 Gender Orientations and Psychological Configurations

How is gender psychologically configured in Southern Nigeria? How does the psyche of
the people often react to and forge the gender issue? How is the Southern Nigerian
conditioned to address the issue of gender? The analysis from Neolithic times on
psychological configurations as offered by Sebastian Kraemer might help. Kraemer does
this by tracing the rise of patriarchy from the Neolithic times to the present day. His
notable accent in this debate is to identify the interweaving of the perspectives of social
anthropology and psychoanalysis so as to arrive at an interpretation of what is going on. 66
His contention is that the historical rise of patriarchy is a slow version of what happens in
the development of each boy in western societies. Accordingly,
“The boy learns that to be a man he must renounce his need of woman
(principally his mother); join the world of the absent male (his father);
and put on a good performance. Haunted and threatened by the power of
the archetypal woman, he seeks to gain a hidden proximity to her to
restore what he most craves for, while simultaneously maintaining a safe
distance by retaining control and subjecting her to envious attacks of one
65
‘Ashawo is one term that is used to designate a woman who engages in prostitution or immodest sexual
encounters.
66
Christopher Clulow ed., Women, Men and Marriage (London, Sheldon Press, 1995), 11.
kind or another. This admittedly, is the negative outcome from childcare

practices, and it is not a universal feature. What is important is to draw
the connections between how we organize our child rearing and other
work commitments today, and the kind of society we are building for
tomorrow. Marriage, as the institution for cross-gender relationships, is
the centre of negotiations taking place at a private level about the
division of labour in society as a whole.”67
Men and women are not expected to express themselves in the same way. For instance,
when it comes to court cases, there is always an insistence of upholding the regulations of
the community when it comes into friction with individual opinions. While this might suit
the common good, the challenge might be that the objectivity of the judges is
questionable. Nkiru Nzegwu claims that in different African societies, male judges who
rule for women’s subjugation rationalize their rulings citing the dictum that the
‘community is always larger than the individual.’ Furthermore, they relate that the
traditions and cultural values that have been applied are vital to the overall ‘identity, well-
being and continuity of the community.’ Yet, the question remains, what about the
individuals who make up the community? Are their experiences taken for granted?
Nzegwu asserts that what this portends is a trivialization of the modern African woman’s
insistence on the protection of their constitutional right of equality and fair hearing. These
judges situate this insistence on the protection of individual rights within the current of
the ideologies of individualism and feminism typically characterized as antithetical to the
African way of life.68 Therefore, to challenge what is “perceived as ‘African culture’ or
‘African values’ is considered by these judges a direct threat to the vital force of African
society and to what it means to be African.”69
We admit with Nzegwu that the problem with this stance is its failure to examine
what is claimed to be ‘the true African community’ and the benefits and entitlements that
are due to its members. The challenge posed by the advent of the Enlightenment and
modernization might engender a rethink on determining which social features and cultural
proponents are worthy of preservation as ‘traditional’ and which are subject to
modernization.70 However, a more nuanced reading of the current situation indicates the
inclination of women to place wholeness above fragmentation. What this does is to
encompass them in the category of those who may be sacrificed or those who may be
negated especially as they tend to willingly suppress their individual interests in the name
of the survival of the unit. To a large extent, women abandon themselves to serve others
without calculating the gain that might accrue. The fact that there might be no reciprocity
does not seem to trouble most Nigerian women.71
67
Clulow ed., Women, Men and Marriage, 11.
68
Nzegwu, Family Matters, 3.
69
Ibid., 3.
70
Ibid.
71
For further reading see Mercy Oduyoye, “Feminist Theology in an African Perspective,” in Paths of
African Theology, ed. Rosino Gibellini (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1994), 173-4.
It is necessary to state that in attempting to maintain and solidify gender orientations

and configurations, there are various gender orientation activities such as age-grade
initiation ceremonies and premarital fattening of Calabar 72 girls, such that "by
adolescence, boys and girls have been bombarded with messages about what constitutes
gender-appropriate behaviour." 73 Scholars are of the opinion that boys have been
configured to become sexually, physically and psychologically domineering towards the
female folk. 74 Izugbara et al note that pervasive male control of wealth, power and
decision-making, rigid gender roles and concepts of masculinity are often linked to
toughness, male honour or dominance, cultural tolerance of the physical punishment of
women and children, beliefs that men own women and gender norms that encourage
physical aggression.75 The consequence of this orientation is that women in sub-Sahara
Africa become more vulnerable to amplified violence.
Within the household also, there are different roles that boys and girls are expected to
play. It is not unusual to find a man who cannot cook simply because he was not allowed
into the kitchen in his boyhood days as a result of the common belief and practice that tag
the kitchen as the location and workplace of the woman. On the other hand, it will be a
startling scene, even in modern day Southern Nigeria to find a woman fixing her broken
car because she is expected to be too fragile to know anything about auto mechanics.
These aspects of society and its affiliation with gender examined above should help us in
our exploration of two central themes: ‘marriage’ and ‘chastity.’
1.2.8 The Nigerian Constitution: Imaging Gender Representation?

At the heart of a nation’s administration is her constitution. Put simply, a constitution is a
document embodying the system of fundamental principles according to which a nation
state or organisation is governed. Similarly, the Constitution of Nigeria features as the
supreme law of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The current Constitution was enacted a
few years ago on May 29, 1999 heralding on the same day the inauguration of the Fourth
Nigerian Republic. A cursory look at the Nigerian constitution is therefore deemed
relevant in order to extract a nexus between gender, politics and administration.
Chinwe Ezeifeka and Nneka Osakwe have critiqued the Nigerian constitution for
fostering a dominant ‘male-as-norm ideology.’ In their analysis of the 1999 Nigerian
Constitution, they contend thus: “our findings show a preponderance of generic
72
Calabar is a coastal city in Southern Nigeria. In pre-independent times it served as the first Nigerian
capital city.
73
Nancy Levit, The Gender Line (New York: New York University Press, 1998), 49.
74
Rachel Jewkes, L. Penn-Kekana and H. Rose-Junis, “If They Rape Me, I Can’t Blame Them:
Reflections on Gender in the Context of Child Rape in South Africa and Namibia,” Social Science and
Medicine 61, no. 8 (2005): 1809–20.
75
Chimaraoke Otutubikey Izugbara, Emmanuel J.C. Duru and Peter O. Dania, “Women and Male Partner-
dating Violence in Nigeria,” Indian Journal of Gender Studies 15, no. 3 (2008): 463-4. See also Lori
Heise, “Violence Against Women: An Integrated Ecological Framework,” Violence against Women, 4:3
(1998): 262–90; Rose-Juni Jewkes, L. Penn-Kekana and H. Rose-Junis, “If They Rape Me, I Can’t Blame
Them: Reflections on Gender in the Context of Child Rape in South Africa and Namibia,” 1809–20.
masculine noun and pronoun references, tracking antecedents that refer to social and
political positions open to eligible individuals in Nigeria... These findings buttress the
‘male-as-norm’ ideology and the relegation to anonymity of the female gender in this
important national document.”76 The key point that Ezeifeka and Osakwe raise is that it is
unfair for such a ‘supreme’ document to reflect gender bias.
In order to substantiate their positions, Ezeifeka and Osakwe relay that the language
employed in the Nigerian Constitution literally takes the female population of about 80
million people out of the picture in the occupation of the Nigerian socio-political space.
They worry that the lexical and grammatical expressions in which the Nigerian
Constitution is encoded relegate to a level of anonymity, almost half of the country’s
population. This, they insist is a setback to such a ‘highly prized official document’
considering the important contributions which have been made by women in governance
in Nigeria. 77 They declare that it becomes worrisome “when we realize that the
Constitution is a crucial document which projects the country’s ideology and statutes, and
ought to reflect gender parity and equity in language use with regard to both sexes.”78
For the purpose of our study, we shall only briefly examine some of the phrases in
the constitution deemed suggestive of gender biases. In chapter VI, Part I, Section A,
which is themed ‘The President of the Federation,’ article 131 declares:
“A person shall be qualified for election to the office of the President if -
(a) he is a citizen of Nigeria by birth;
(b) he has attained the age of forty years;
(c) he is a member of a political party and is sponsored by that political party; and
(d) he has been educated up to at least School Certificate level or its equivalent.”
On the ‘Establishment of Office of Vice President,’ the 166-page document states
in the same section, article 142, paragraph 1:
“In any election to which the foregoing provisions of this Part of this Chapter relate,
a candidate for an election to the office of President shall not be deemed to be validly
nominated unless he nominates another candidate as his associate from the same political
party for his running for the office of President, who is to occupy the office of Vice-
President and that candidate shall be deemed to have been duly elected to the office of
Vice-President if the candidate for an election to the office of President who nominated
him as such associate is duly elected as President in accordance with the provisions
aforesaid.”
We may consider another excerpt in the Third Schedule, Part 1 on the
‘Establishment of Federal Executive Bodies.’ The first sentences of Item I focusing on
the National Judicial Council assert:
“The National Judicial Council shall comprise the following members -
76
Chinwe R. Ezeifeka and Nneka Osakwe, “Gender Representation in the 1999 Nigerian Constitution: A
Critical Discourse Analysis for Socio-Political Equity,” Discourse & Society 24, no. 6 (2013): 687.
77
Ezeifeka and Osakwe, “Gender Representation,” 689.
78
Ibid., 689.
(a) the Chief Justice of Nigeria who shall be the Chairman

(b) the next most senior Justice of the Supreme Court who shall be the Deputy
Chairman.”
The above extracted excerpts from the Constitution go to show the preponderance
of gender insensitive lexical and grammatical expressions in the official document.79
On the other hand, it should be said that, quite possibly though, the lack of gender
sensitivity in the Nigerian constitution might not be a calculated ploy to exclude women
from governance. It seems more to have come from an androcentric Weltanschaung in
which the male is the reference point or from what has been registered earlier as ‘male-as-
norm’ ideology. Indeed, in praxis, women are not excluded from governance at the top
echelon. Election primaries at party levels reveal a number of female candidates who vie
for top political offices including the presidency and governorship. However, the nation
still awaits its first female president or its first female governor in any of the 36 states of
the Federation.
In addition to the perceived insensitivity of the Constitution of the Federal Republic
of Nigeria in terms of language, it is also claimed that the Constitution does not guarantee
the economic, social and cultural rights of women which is seen as vital components for
the promotion and protection of women’s human rights and a channel to further ensure
the full advancement of Nigerian women.80 In order to address this gap and to enhance
the participation of women in political and public life, the Committee on the Elimination
of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) has recommended Nigeria to take
advantage of the on-going constitutional review so as to adopt legislation on special
measures such as affirmative action aimed towards intensifying the participation of
women in the country’s political and public life.81
1.3 Gender and Sexuality

This section focuses on the correlation between gender and society. We intend to show
how gender concerns apply to issues such as marriage, procreation, polygamous
relationships, chastity, sexual abuses, domestic violence etc.
79
Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (Promulgation) Decree 1999, no. 24. See also Ezeifeka
and Nneka, “Gender Representation,” 692-4.
80
United Nations Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, The
Nigeria CEDAW NGO Coalition Shadow Report (July 2008), 13-14.
https://www.fidh.org/IMG/pdf/Nigeria-report.pdf [accessed 3 October, 2018].
81
“Outcome of CEDAW Review of Nigeria: More Action Needed to Implement the WPS Agenda (8
August, 2017,” Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom https://wilpf.org/outcome-of-
cedaw-review-of-nigeria-greater-action-needed-to-implement-the-wps-agenda/ [accessed 25 September,
2018]
1.3.1 Marriage
Diane Hughes’ has reasoned that “human personality and behaviour, and ultimately
history itself, are shaped by the character of a society's domestic life is a premise that
underlies the importance historians now assign to the household. Its demographic
configurations, it is held, influence the socializing of children, generational attitudes, sex
roles, and affective kin ties.” 82 The detailed insight of Hughes’ supposition is the
conjuring up of a philosophical link between the institutions of marriage and family and
how gender might contribute to these fields.
It is almost impossible in sub-Saharan Africa to talk about marriage without raising
issues of family and children. In most societies, women are seen as procreators, nurturers
and men’s helpers.83 In theory and in practice, the boy or his family traditionally initiates
courtship and marriage. It is rare and almost scandalous if a girl makes the first move in
an inter-gender sexual relationship. Sometimes marriage proposals are made directly to
the family and accepted on behalf of the girl by the head of the household. Most of the
time, both families are actively and keenly involved. In light of structural functionalist
theory where the family was “the central institution of socialization, it was the primary
agency of cultural determination of individuals’ personality traits, inculcating the
dominant value system and its pattern variables.”84
It is not surprising that some scholars of African and Western background have
interpreted the ceremonies leading up to marriage in Africa in terms of trade. Their
interpretation of African wives equate to persons who have been ‘sold into slavery’ or
whose ‘reproductive potential has been purchased by the man they call their husband.’85
This may not represent a true picture however. The exchange of gifts (sometimes
excessive and sometimes coming from the groom alone) is actually intended to
emphasize the worth of women and not to ‘buy her’ as it may seem. Rather than an
economic transaction, it provided an opportunity for community participation and social
witnessing of the coming together of two persons of different families.86
Marriage, according to Judith Bennett is "both a private matter and a public
institution. Although it technically required only the couples' consent, it usually involved
the assistance of parents, the participation of neighbours, and the approval of
82
Diane Owen Hughes, "Domestic Ideals and Social Behavior: Evidence from Medieval Genoa," in
Perspectives on Marriage, Household & Children, ed. Carol Neel (Toronto: University of Toronto Press,
2004), 125.
83
Oduyoye, “Feminist Theology in an African Perspective,” 168.
84
Simon Szreter, Fertility, Class, and Gender in Britain 1860-1940 (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1996), 23.
85
86
Ibid., 168. Elechi Amadi’s picturization of pre-independent Nigeria in Ethics in Nigerian Culture might
give the impression that in ancient Nigeria, a wife was regarded as the husband’s property. This is however
indubitable given that not too long ago, men usually claimed ownership of the woman as soon as the bride
price was paid. It is also important to note that in some parts of the country the bride price are relatively to
the extent that they suggest there was a property to be acquired. See Elechi Amadi, Ethics in Nigerian
Culture (Ibadan: H.E.B., 1982).
administrators. Marriage disintegrated old families by removing members to create a new

family, but it also forged human links that could strengthen social ties with blood
relations."87 Marriage is also conceived to change the social networks of the principals,
their parents, and their siblings. 88 It is not uncommon for the male partner in a new
marital union to expect his female counterpart to be grateful for ‘saving’ her from the
torment of singlehood.
Societal attitude towards polygamy and extra-marital affairs is another indicator of
this gender structuring of Southern Nigeria. On the 27th of November, 2014, there was
revealing news concerning Femi Kuti, a respected Nigerian musician and the eldest son
of Nigerian’s legendary afro-beat musician, Fela Anikulapo Kuti. Femi Kuti discovered
that he was not the biological father of two of his five children.89 He was reported to be
astonished and shocked by the DNA results that informed him of this situation. An
interesting twist to this story is that although he has three wives himself, he fervidly
regretted the infidelity of his wives. This particular scenario demonstrates societal
legitimization of masculine promiscuity and its double standard criminalization of similar
attitudes for women. Although one might argue that he had married them, there might be
an unwritten cultural law that allows men to be adulterous and yet honourable. This same
law calls into question any lady involved with more than one sexual partner and tags her
as a prostitute. David Cohen explains this quite revealingly:
“Female honour largely involves sexual purity and the behaviour which
social norms deem necessary to maintain it in the eyes of the watchful
community. Male honour receives the active role of defending that
purity. A man’s honour is therefore involved with the sexual purity of his
mother, sisters, wife and daughters – of him chastity is not required. The
vigilance of men is necessitated therefore by the free play which social
norms give to the expression of masculinity through the seduction of
women of others, and also by the view of female sexuality which posit
that women need to be protected from themselves as well.”90
Thus, Sylvia Ifemeje contends that polygamy in itself represents an unfair and unbalanced
stance against women in marriages. Decrying that the vast majority of Nigerian men are
potentially polygamous, under customary law, she avows that “they are free to marry as
many women as possible, while sharia law restricts them to four at a time. This is very
discriminatory as the woman is not accorded the corresponding rights of polyandry and
87
Judith M. Bennett, "The Tie That Binds: Peasant Marriages and Families in Late Medieval England, in
Medieval Families," in Perspectives on Marriage, Household & Children, ed. Carol Neel (Toronto:
University of Toronto Press, 2004), 214.
88
Bennett, "The Tie That Binds," 214.
89
A Response to Marital Infidelity, http://encomium.ng/shocking-dna-result-two-of-femi-kutis-five-
children-are-not-his/ [January 13, 2015].
90
David, Law, Sexuality and Society: The Enforcement of Morals in Classical Athens (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1994), 140.
cannot, under either law, marry other men during the subsistence of a current marriage.”91
She laments too that polygamous men have been known to pamper their most beloved
wife (or wives) and her (their) children, to the detriment of the other wives who often fall
prey to all mode of domestic violence, such as economic deprivation and wife battering.
Furthermore, she intimates that polygamy is a known channel for the spread of sexually
transmitted diseases such as HIV/AIDS as many sexual partners are involved.92
The question of enforced marriage also requires some reflection. Although this is
more prevalent in the Northern States, they also feature in the South. 93 Parents are willing
to offer their children to suitors who make their intentions known. The problem here is
that the daughter might be denied the right of choice. This is especially difficult in
instances where a wealthy man seeks to marry a girl from a poor background. In such
situations, parents require little or no pressure from the rich suitor before they give their
daughter out in marriage in the expectation of an enjoyment of a better life. Not a few
number of girls go into marriage without giving consent. Giving a son ‘out in marriage’ is
hardly applicable.
Emmanuel Emovon discusses that in the Edo traditional society, it is the
responsibility of the elders of the bride’s family to chair the betrothal rites leading to
marriage. These elders are habitually men. The Okaegbee94 of the host family informs the
bride-to-be that the guests are present among whom is a suitor. He asks the bride-to-be if
she knows the suitor, and then if she agrees to his request. If the response is positive, he
prays for the both of them and the broken kola nuts of welcome are then shared to all
present. When the wedding day comes, the groom’s family presents gifts to the bride’s
family as a token of a lifetime of services from the groom. After the singing of a welcome
song, they again re-state their intention to marry a daughter of the hosts and they make a
formal request on behalf of their own son. They again ask a confirmation from the bride-
to-be if she accepts their request and if they are to accept the gifts. When she has made a
91
Sylvia Chika Ifemeje, “Gender-Based Domestic Violence in Nigeria: A Socio-Legal Perspective,”
Indian Journal of Gender Studies 19, no. 1 (2012): 142-3.
92
Ifemeje, “Gender-Based Domestic Violence in Nigeria,” 143.
93
Izugbara et al recalls that in a very popular case that was brought to court by Women in Nigeria (WIN),
an NGO in defence of rights, Hauwa Baba Ahmed was forcefully given away in marriage at the age of 11
to a man old enough to be her grandfather. This enforced marriage was contracted by her father in
exchange for a debt owed to the old man. Hauwa subsequently ran back home twice but was refused
shelter for long and forcefully returned to the man by her father. To ensure that Hauwa didn’t flee
anymore, the old man chopped off her legs. The result was that she bled to death. Upon the insistence of
WIN, the old man faced trial and was convicted. In the end, he received only a prison term. Izugbara et al,
“Women and Male Partner-dating Violence in Nigeria,” 466-7. On her part, Silvia Ifemeje explains that
when girls who are emotionally, educationally and economically ill prepared to face the challenges of
marriage are forced into it, they cannot negotiate for safe sexual behaviour from their husbands. The end-
product is that the under-aged brides usually become their husbands’ foot stools and are exposed to the
medical hazards associated with early childbirth, such as vesicovaginal fistula and rectovaginal fistula. See
Ifemeje, “Gender-Based Domestic Violence in Nigeria,” 141-2.
94
The Okaegbee is usually the head of the extended family. It is a position often reserved for the eldest
male in the family.
positive confirmation, she returns to her room where she has been all along throughout
the ceremony while the groom-to-be returns to his seat.95
Similarly, it is important to note as Emovon affirms that the “mothers of brides are
by custom required to stay behind the scenes. The elders of the families, including the
fathers of the bride and bridegroom, take the front seat in the celebration”.96 In effect, the
elders of both families are take charge of the ceremony from start to finish. When the host
family is satisfied with all that has happened, the host Okaegbee will declare that the
family was ready to give out their daughter in marriage. The guest family is then required
to pay the bride price and the ceremony continues.97 The participation of both families is
situated in the communitarian understanding that marriage is a union not merely between
two persons but between two families. While it shows how important the family is in Edo
marriage culture, it establishes too that the bride is wedded to a family. In fact, she is
handed over to the groom’s father who is expected to take care of her as if she were her
own daughter.98 We shall discuss the implications of community in the third and fourth
chapters. Furthermore, what is quite striking is that the men play a foremost role in the
marriage rites where the women are less involved.
Central to marriage and family life is the procreation of children. As we noted in the
introduction, African attitudes to having progeny are quite close to those of the Hebrew
scriptures. “Increase, multiply and fill the earth” is a religious obligation in the cultures of
both African and the Hebrew people. Oduyoye recounts that “children are as the Psalmist
says they are (Ps. 127 and 128); men become polygamous to have them, and childless
widows such as Tamar and Ruth exhaust all the provisions of their culture to fulfil this
obligation.”99 What is quite striking in Oduyoye’s narrative is that both parties might not
exhibit analogous responsibility for childbearing. She duly recognizes this herself and
therefore buttresses it as follows:
“In Anowa by Ama Ata Aidoo, Anowa and her spouse Ako prospered
economically but were extremely unhappy because they were childless.
It was assumed that Anowa was the responsible partner, and this was
confirmed by some diviners. At the end of the drama, when it becomes
clear that it was Ako who was at fault, husband and wife both committed
suicide. They were victims of a religio-cultural factor with a hold on all
Africans, Christians, Muslims and practitioners of Africa’s own primal
religion.”100
95
Emmanuel Emovon, “Edo Customary Marriage,” in Edo Cultural Voyage, edited by Omorodion Uwaifo
(Lagos: Hanon Publishers, 2006), 32-35.
96
Emovon, “Edo Customary Marriage,” 31
97
Ibid., 36.
98
Ibid., 38.
99
100
Ibid., 170 (emphasis added). For a detailed reading see Ama Ata Aidoo, Anowa (London: Longmans,
1970).
The above picture does indeed give the impression that whilst they both underwent the
same fate in the end, the beginning of the marital breakdown is heralded by the assigned
guilt to the wife. Such situations might lead women to become more interested in their
fertility than in their person. We suspect that this attitude cuts across several religions
although men and women of faith in some religions might tend to be more patient to
issues of infertility and childlessness. To be sure, we shall attend to this theme in the
second and fourth chapters.
1.3.2 Chastity
When it comes to chastity, different standards apply to the male and the female. The
reputation of a woman to a large extent depends on her fulfilment of community
expectations of chastity. Conversely, men assert their manliness and enhance their
reputation by displaying their potency. 101 Thus, there is the tension between the
presupposed chastity of the woman and the manliness of the predatory men whom women
must resist. A burden might rest upon the shoulders of the female not only to be chaste
but also appear to be chaste. Juliet du Boulay explains the rationale for this in this way:
“A woman, however genuine her sense of shame, is thought to be in

danger of losing her honour since men are insistent and she is by nature
frail… And since it is assumed in this way that she will inevitably fall if
she puts herself into temptation, it becomes her business as an
honourable woman not to put herself into temptation at all. If, therefore,
she is seen in a compromising situation, she will inevitably be assumed
to have compromised, whether or not this is actually so.”102
This probably explains why female virginity is highly regarded in Southern Nigeria.
However, it has been argued that the demand for a ‘pure woman’ or a ‘virgin’ before
marriage is solely for the benefit of the man. The dispute that has arisen is that this
demand on ‘purity’ might have nothing to do with the woman’s physical well-being and
probably has very little to do with her spiritual health as well. Mercy Oduyoye succinctly
identifies this ambivalence in the following words: “Men’s duplicity on purity of body
and mind is shown dramatically in the way a man guards his wife with his life and yet
asks his neighbour’s wife for sexual favours; a man would guard his sister’s virginity
with a knife while insisting on experimenting with his best friend’s sister.”103
In some parts of the country, women face restrictions on their public presence. Even
in their private behaviours the modesty/decency expected of them is upper than their male
counterparts. They are meant to show more politesse and civility in public. The chastity
of the girl before marriage is not always debatable. Little wonder there is a huge emphasis
placed on virginity before marriage. Upon marriage, fidelity is required of both whereas
101
Cohen, Law, Sexuality and Society, 63.
102
Juliet du Boulay’s assessment of family reputation and shame in ancient traditional societies, quoted in
David Cohen, Law, Sexuality and Society, 64.
103
acts of infidelity are less intolerable for the female. Izugbara et al observes that among
the Tiv of central Nigeria, a man can affirm his hospitality to his male visitor by offering
his wife or daughters to ‘warm his bed’ at night.104 This goes to show that the chastity of
the female is determined by the permissibility of the head of the household. It is unknown
what measure of hospitality is offered to female visitors when they come.
1.3.3 Gender-based Abuse

Gender abuse mostly comes in the form of violence. Scholars have conceived violence
against women in general as the most pervasive and insidious form of human rights abuse
in the world.105 This is however debatable as violence against children is very obviously
cruel. The term violence connotes the use of physical force in way that it inflicts injury or
damage to the object of the attack. Violence usually takes several forms and might as well
be direct or indirect, intended or unintended.
Violence against women is generally physical, sexual or psychological. Often times,
the effect of violence – especially sexual violence – extends beyond the victims to the
families and on some occasions to the community. Surprisingly, results of an empirical
study in Southern Nigeria show that perpetrators of sexual violence such as rape are
usually relatives or friends of the victim.106 They are hardly strangers! This makes the
issue at hand even more complex as victims rarely communicate the incident to family
members or friends or make a report to enforcement authorities. The reasons for this
might be (1) the onus of proof which lies on the victim who has the arduous task of
substantiating – with evidence – the often stringent determinant of a rape case; (2) the
perception of stigma that comes along with sexual violence such as rape; (3) victims lack
knowledge about their right to redress and the exorbitant cost of legal representation
involved may inhibit victims from seeking such redress; (4) organisations meant to
provide adequate care and support for victims are not readily available.107 A prominent
facet of gender abuse is ‘domestic violence’ which refers to the violence that occurs
within a home or one that is caused by a family member.
Sylvia Ifemeje asserts that gender-based domestic violence has deep roots in many
African societies, including Nigeria. She links the social context of such violence in
104
Chimaraoke Otutubikey Izugbara, “Notions of Sex, Sexuality, and Relationships among Adolescent
Boys in Rural South-eastern Nigeria,” Sex Education 4, no. 1 (2004): 63-80. Warming the bed refers to
having sexual intercourse.
105
For further reading see Lori Heise, Mary Ellsberg and M. Gottemoeller, “Ending Violence against
Women,” Population Reports 27, no. 4 (1999): 1-44; Sanja Sarnavka, “Using the Master’s Tools:
Feminism, Media, and Ending Violence against Women,” Gender & Development 11, no. 1 (2003): 91-93;
Izugbara, et al., “Women and Male Partner-dating Violence in Nigeria,” 461.
106
See Ademola J. Ajuwon, Benjamin Oladapo Olley, Olagoke Akintola and Iwalola Akin-Jimoh, "Sexual
Coercion in Young Persons: Exploring the Experiences of Rape Victims in Ibadan, Nigeria," Health
Education 104, no. 1 (2004): 8-17.
107
Ajuwon, et al., "Sexual Coercion in Young Persons: Exploring the Experiences of Rape Victims in
Ibadan, Nigeria", 9-10. For a detailed explanation on “the onus of proof” see Morolake Omonubi-
McDonnel, Gender Inequality in Nigeria (Ibadan: Spectrum Books, 2003).
Nigeria to the traditional African patriarchal societies that determines gender power
structure. In other words, the asymmetric power assigned to the male in traditional
marriages transmits into the supposed liberty to violate and batter his wife whenever she
fails to fulfil her obligations to him according to his judgement. 108 In Ifemeje’s opinion,
such kinds of violence has ultimately “facilitated and encouraged the continued
marginalisation and subjugation of women and girl children to mere chattels, meant to be
seen but not heard.” 109 Ifemeje’s assertion aligns with the earlier mentioned
presupposition that cases of gender-based violence are hardly reported to relatives or
relevant authorities.
Akachi Odoemene does not differ much from this suspicion of patriarchy as fostering
the continuance of sexual violence. In order to develop a more nuanced perspective of the
psychology of sexual violence, he intones that such violence is not just a crime against
the victim in isolation but a collective affront against a people who the victim represents.
Citing Anthony Giddens’ Sociology, Odoemene re-echoes that far from being just a
physical attack, sexual violence is an assault against an individual’s integrity and dignity.
To him, such acts embody an attempt to degrade, control and humiliate the victim and in
time, leads to a denial of his or her self-determination. According to Odoemene, sexual
violence is very often gendered, specifically targeting women, and appears to be a
product of patriarchal social hierarchy. 110 More than that, he declares that patriarchy
“produces a strict distinction between two kinds of persons: subjects (males—persons
who do things or are expected or entitled to do things to others) and objects (females—
people who have things done to them or are expected to have things done to them).
Hence, in patriarchal societies women are treated as mere products or objects.” 111 The
root of this gender-based violence is in social normative ideologies of male sexual
entitlement. The fact that sexual violence is principally perpetrated by men against
women, only serves to reinforce this asymmetry of power and domination.
Furthermore, gender-based violence is often complicated by the community’s
perception of the causes of such situations. The interpretation is mostly that the men in
question are not ‘man enough’ to the extent that they have lost both the exclusive access
to sexual activities coupled with the loss of control over their wives. How do such
husbands respond? They respond with silence in public and at home, with abandonments,
insults and even physical violence. Worse still, family members often blame the victim
(the women) for the situation at hand.112
108
109
Ibid., 138.
110
Akachi Odoemene, “The Nigerian Armed Forces and Sexual Violence in Ogoniland of the Niger Delta
Nigeria, 1990-1999,” Armed Forces & Society 38, no. 2 (2012): 227. For a detailed account on the impact
of sexual violence see Anthony Giddens, Sociology, 5th edition (Cambridge: Polity, 2008).
111
Odoemene, “The Nigerian Armed Forces and Sexual Violence,” 227.
112
Ibid., 228.
Another aspect of gender abuse that seems not to have been sufficiently explored in
sub-Sahara Africa is dating violence. Chimaraoke Izugbara et al delineate dating violence
as ‘a pattern of controlling behavior that one partner uses to exercise power over the
other. It often involves physical violence or threat of physical violence, emotional or
mental abuse, and sexual abuse including threats of it.”113 Although dating violence could
be perpetrated by either gender, authors allude that it is more likely to be executed by
males. 114 Such abuses to women might include: punching, flogging and the use of
coercion to engage in sexual activities. Izugbara et al relates that women who experience
abuse in this way tend to respond to this victimization by: crying, fighting back, running
away or obeying the abusive partner. On the other hand, abused men are more likely to
get pinched, slapped and kicked. A major difference is that the abused men tend to
ignore, dismiss and laugh off their abuse.115
A recent survey has shown that there are more victims of sexual violence among the
country’s illiterate population. Often times, these victims condone such acts of violence
perpetuated by their husbands as ‘normal and approved of by culture.’ What this implies
is that less educated women are not aware of their rights and so are bereft of enforcing
them. We concur with Ifemeje that female illiteracy does inhibit the eradication of
gender-based violence. What is to be sought is an embedded educational sensitization that
hunts for the liberation of females from the oppressive and domineering shackles of
domestic violence.116 Victims of such abuse should be made to recognize that gender-
based abuse is not ‘normal.’
Female genital mutilation is not novel in many parts of the globe. According to UN
statistics, at least 150 million women living today have undergone female genital
mutilation and a further three million girls are at risk of being subjected to the practice
annually. Its prevalence ranges from about 5 percent to 90 percent depending on the
exposure of the community to education. Unsurprisingly, African countries top the chart
of countries where the habit is in praxis.117 Although there has been an overall decline in
its prevalence, this progress is likely to be offset by rapid population growth in countries
where the despoliation occurs. The major downside of this practice is that in addition to
the violation of the sufferer, it presents a formidable health-risk to women and girls.
For this reason, the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women
(CEDAW) has consistently advocated for the domestication of the Violence Against
113
Izugbara, et al., “Women and Male Partner-dating Violence in Nigeria,” 462-3.
114
See Ron Thorne-Finch, Ending the Silence: The Origins and Treatment of Male Violence Against
Women (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1992); Walter Dekeseredy and Katharine Kelly, “The
Incidence and Prevalence of Woman Abuse in Canadian University and College Dating Relationships,”
Journal of Human Justice 4, Iss. 2 (1993): 25-52.
115
Izugbara, et al., “Women and Male Partner-dating Violence in Nigeria,” 462.
116
Ifemeje, “Gender-Based Domestic Violence in Nigeria,” 145-6.
117
Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, “Female Genital Mutilation is an act that cuts away equality,”
www.unwomen.org [accessed October 10, 2018]. Among the Kisii ethnic group of Western Kenya, it is
reported that the rate could be as high as 84 percent. Interestingly, girls who are mutilated are deemed to
command bigger dowries (bride price) and they accrue respect from their peers.
Persons Prohibition Act. In order to eliminate female genital mutilation, they pinpoint
legislative and administrative measures such as the passing of Bills on this subject into
Laws in the State Houses of Assembly and the calls for Government Agencies and
Ministries to increase the sensitization of citizens across the States of the Federation.
Mass awareness and education at all levels by these agencies are identified as concrete
ways to tackle this enigma.118
1.4 Between Education and Gender

Without a doubt, the place and impact of education in the overall empowerment scheme
is enormous. The quality of education acquired by an individual serves up as a vital tool
in his or her elemental development. For this reason, successive attempts are usually
made by governments, and at the basic level, parents in ensuring that the child receives
quality education. To put this in perspective, the 1985 Nairobi Declaration and the World
Declaration on Education for All in Jomtien, Thailand instigate a more determined
approach to the attainment of education by the young.119
Nevertheless, the point that has often been raised by scholars is that even when
education has received enhanced attention in Nigeria, the same cannot be said about
ensuring access to, and improving the quality of education for the female child in some
parts of the country. This is all the more important especially when the development of
women through education is considered a major pillar in the nation’s economic
development. Risikat Dauda argues that there has been a weak institutional framework
coupled with a lack of coordination of policy initiatives within the educational system. 120
In her thinking, this lack of support hinders the realisation of education as the basis for
the full promotion and improvement of the status of women and its recognition as a
118
“Outcome of CEDAW Review of Nigeria: More Action Needed to Implement the WPS Agenda (8
August, 2017,” Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom https://wilpf.org/outcome-of-
cedaw-review-of-nigeria-greater-action-needed-to-implement-the-wps-agenda/ [accessed 25 September,
2018]. See also United Nations, Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against
Women (5 October 2006), 28. https://documents-dds-
ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N06/687/84/PDF/N0668784.pdf?OpenElement [accessed 3 October, 2018].
See also United Nations, Consideration of Reports Submitted by States Parties Under Article 18 of the
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women: Sixth Periodic Report of
States Parties - Nigeria (5 October 2006), 28. https://documents-dds-
ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N06/687/84/PDF/N0668784.pdf?OpenElement [accessed 3 October, 2018].
119
The United Nations’ Conference on Women in Nairobi in 1985 was held in order to appraise the
achievements of the earlier designated United Nations’ Decade for Women (1975-1985). The document
produced by the Conference centred on the implementation of strategies for the advancement of women
and the role of women in peace and development. In the same vein, the 1990 UNESCO Conference in
Jomtien reaffirmed the notion of education as a fundamental human right and urged countries to intensify
efforts to address the basic learning needs of all.
120
Rusikat Oladoyin Dauda, “Female Education and Nigeria’s Development Strategies: Lots of Talk,
Little Action?” Indian Journal of Gender Studies 14, Iss. 3 (2007): 461.
fundamental tenet of development strategy. Her contention is that “there can be no

sustainable development if women remain ignorant, disenfranchised and discriminated
against. Improving and widening access to education, especially basic education, is an
objective in itself, as well as the conduit to accelerated social and economic
development.”121 A fundamental aspect of Dauda’s argumentation is the engendering of
education in development programmes and strategies.
The struggle for empowerment of the girl-child through education falls into the
parasol of ‘gender equity education.’ Gender equity education is a sustained attempt in
ensuring that a particular gender is neither disadvantaged nor favoured in the pursuit of
basic education for citizens. Undoubtedly, such an approach would require equal
opportunities for every child to access education – an opportunity that has been lacking
over time. To ensure this, the phenomenon of institutional discrimination and the
pervasiveness of gender politics would have to be challenged. Such a challenge might
have to emanate from a display of discontent to the parent’s treatment of the female child
during the formative years. This treatment is very much linked with the socialised belief
that boys and girls are meant to fulfil distinctly different roles in society. Therefore, while
formal education for boys might be perceived as a viable economic investment, females
might be socialised to internalise that marriage and procreation is what a woman was
created for. Consequently, higher education might simply be an unfortunate
postponement of her self-fulfilment.122
The foundation for such a theory is that the roles that have been ‘assigned’ to each
gender contribute greatly to an individual’s attainment of a fulfilled existence. The
question is: in how far can we ascribe fulfilment to gender roles? Or is the fulfilment of a
person guaranteed by the actualisation of gender responsibilities (that is if there is
something like that)? The effect of this ideology is likely to sustain and aggravate the
engraftment of male dominance and it’s correlation with the reduction of women as
second-class citizens, not fit enough to determine their own destiny. Narrating from his
personal experiences of a not-so-different background from that of Southern Nigeria,
Samuel Adu-Poku lampoons such traits of hegemonic masculinity that have paved way
for recurrent gender discrimination and domination within the domestic and public
spheres. He recalls that:
“For many years, I witnessed the unceasing discriminatory practices

against females, both within the family and within the Ghanaian cultural
and educational milieus. As a woman, my mother played multiple roles
as wife, farmer, educator, trader, and mother of five children. My father,
as a professional educator, spent most of his time working in the public
121
Dauda, “Female Education and Nigeria’s Development Strategies,” 461.
122
Samuel Adu-Poku, “Envisioning (Black) Male Feminism: A Cross-cultural Perspective,” Journal of
Gender Studies 10, Iss. 2 (2001): 158. See also Ama Ata Aidoo, “Ghana: To be a Woman,” in Sisterhood
is Global: The International Women’s Movement Anthology, ed. R. Morgan (New York: Anchor Press,
1984).
service. When my parents were confronted with the issue of deciding

which of their five children (three girls and two boys) to provide with
tertiary education, they invested their limited financial resources in the
education of their sons at the expense of their daughters. Their decision
was grounded in prevailing patriarchal cultural practices and the modern
economy which present men as husbands, breadwinners, leaders,
administrators, public service workers, soldiers, politicians, with women
as wives, mothers, sexual aids, and domestic workers.”123
Adu-Poku’s assertion of parents’ discriminatory treatment of their female children is not

a unique case. It features strongly in several homes across the region. However, it is
appropriate to explain that economic reasons are largely associated with these situations.
Whereas a parent might be willing to offer education to his or her child, financial
constraints might make this impossible. In such occurrences, the initial impulse would be
a preference for formal education for the boy rather than the girl. Such initial intuition
emanating from parents is itself a problem.
Some scholars are of the view that the academia has not done much in improving
gender sensitivity in the country. Seen as an important keystone in the development
process of the nation, the intellectual space, which features both as an academic ambience
and a socializing agent, seems not to have made gender awareness a priority. This air of
indifference bears a contrasting mark from the expectations associated with the academic
environment. Victor Ayeni is of the view that “one expects the university public
management centres to respond to the prevailing concern about the condition of women
not only in terms of appropriating research endeavours, but also in the quality of their
graduates. Judging by existing programmes, teaching materials and methodology as well
as structure and composition of implanting staff this is simply not the case at the
moment.”124 What this portends is that the recruitment of public policymakers, executors
and trainers might be imbalanced. Put differently, key policy-making and implementation
institutions are male dominated not only population-wise but also in terms of ideas and
actions that these institutions generate.125 The effect of this trend is enormous.
In Nigeria, recent statistics show that less than 5 percent of managers are women and
just about 4.5 percent are in the top-management positions.126 For a country where the
female folk represent about 50 percent of the population this truly is worrisome. The
under-representation of a particular group in education and management re-echoes and
reverberates in the entire stream of governance and administration. Ruth Meena
123
Adu-Poku, “Envisioning (Black) Male Feminism,” 158.
124
Ayeni, “Gender Sensitivity in Public Management Education in Africa,” 49-50.
125
Ibid., 50.
126
Ibid., 50. John Okpara is of the opinion that the ideology which suggests that certain occupations are for
men only are gradually breaking down. He maintains that at the management and leadership level,
Nigerian women now hold positions of leadership or prestige in management and decision-making levels
more than ever before. See John Okpara, "Gender and the Relationship between Perceived Fairness in Pay,
Promotion, and Job Satisfaction in a sub-Saharan African economy," Women in Management Review 21,
no. 3 (2006): 225.
subsequently laments that Africa’s governance system seem to promote the “impression
that men are and have been the creator of ideas and women the consumers.” 127 Bolanle
Awe is more radical in her approach. According to her, the way forward is in “giving
women a shot at providing solutions to our managerial problems if after 30 years the men
have found no solution.”128 How then can a balance be achieved within the structures of
management and governance? How must we provide the most suitable conditions under
which women and men can function?
As a matter of fact, the intrinsic relationship between women’s education and
educational development must be taken seriously. Risikat Dauda has identified two
approaches in respect of this relationship. The first is the equity-based approach which
attempts to secure equity for women in the development process by recognising women’s
multiple roles and seeking to meet specific gender needs through direct state intervention
and advancing economic and political autonomy to women. This approach distinguishes
women as active participants in development. The second approach is the efficiency
reason. This latter approach acknowledges the gains to be derived in propelling equality
among women and men. The reasoning is that with equal education, women’s
contribution to economic development is equivalent to men’s, therefore a reduction in
gender imbalances in education will ultimately further women’s capacity to contribute
meaningfully to economic progress.129 Dauda’s assumption is laudable in the sense that it
unambiguously spells out the relationship between gender equity education and output
efficiency. Without a doubt, the role of human capital in the development process of a
nation is not to be under estimated. Dauda’s contends accordingly that, “it is advisable
that female education should be integrated into the planning process in order to achieve
sustainable growth and development. Facilitating women’s education will improve their
social and economic status by restoring their confidence and self-worth, and increasing
their participation in national decision-making and development.”130
It is important to state that what is lacking in terms of having a balance in structures
is not necessary policies and guidelines. The lacuna that has been identified is rather a
lack of implementation. For starters, the place of formal education as the answer to the
limitations of the untrained mind must be taken seriously. Samuel Adu-Poku’s
affirmation of the disadvantages of females in most African states is a reference point.
His interpretation is that such disadvantages have engendered women’s continuous
subordination and lack of access to resources in postcolonial Africa.131 To our mind, the
transformative process of emancipation that is to be sought for might find a sturdy pillar
127
Ruth Meena, "Incorporating Gender Analysis into Political Science," Southern Africa 5, Iss. 1 (1991):
42. See also Ayeni, “Gender Sensitivity in Public Management Education in Africa,” 50.
128
Bolanle Awe, "The Role of Nigerian Women in Management in the 1990s", Management in Nigeria,
26:6 (1990): 9. The ’30 years’ Awe refers to are the years between 1960-1990, that is, the year of the
country’s independence from colonial rule to the moment of her reflection.
129
130
Ibid., 463.
131
Adu-Poku, “Envisioning (Black) Male Feminism: A Cross-cultural Perspective,” 159.
in education. As Rusikat Dauda puts it, “Nigeria needs to engender its development as a
matter of urgency, taking the engendering of education as a starting point, in view of the
centrality of the human being to all meaningful programmes of development.” 132 To be
sure, it is necessary that women themselves become directly involved in the promotion of
gender issues. We concur with Victor Ayeni that the few female scholars of the African
landscape are yet to be sufficiently concerned amid this subject matter with particular
reference to gender structures. 133 For now, we turn to the enforcers of gender
structuralism.
1.5 Watchdogs of the Gender Structure/Principals of Gender Structuralism

In order for any structure, including the configuration of gender, to perpetuate itself
through time and enforce itself within the varying aspects of the life of a community, it
needs certain enforcers and watchdogs. These components might also operate as
root/causes for the on-going reoccurrences of the situation.
1.5.1 Religion
The predominant worldview in most African societies is cosmological. The gods, the
order of the universe and human’s devotion to this divine order are the three essential
elements of this cosmological order. Things are teleologically ordered and have their
place. 134 This is why an asymmetrical gender structuring can be existent and even
reinforced in religion through its rituals and ideologies on women and religion then
becomes a watchdog of the gender structure, such that the people's conception of the gods
are framed in a way that seem to make even the gods respectful of gender difference and
therefore worshippers are obliged to respect this asymmetrical gender structure without
question.
In traditional religious sects where women are thought to be unclean and where
sexual or even normal contact with women could destroy the efficacy of charms and
talismans, then there is affirmation of the purity of the male gender over that of the
female. Special religious positions are reserved for males only and women are forbidden
from some religious rites such as the wearing of the masquerade.
Conversely, some scholars are of the opinion that in some parts of Southern Nigeria,
gender did not play a role in the realm of the Supreme deity. Sabine Jell-Bahlsen has
insisted that among the Ibos, the Supreme Deity – Chi-Ukwu is beyond shape and gender.
She notes that in the complex cosmology of the Ibo universe, the Supreme Deity presided
132
133
Ayeni, “Gender Sensitivity in Public Management Education in Africa,” 53.
134
Dominique Zahan has explained that the African traditional spirituality is especially stratified to include
several (secondary) deities who occupy differing levels of supremacy under the watch of the Supreme
Deity himself whose function is essentially that of ‘Creator.’ See Dominique Zahan, “Some Reflections on
African Spirituality,” in African Spirituality: Forms, Meanings and Expressions, ed. Jacob K. Olupona
(New York: The Crossroad Publishing Company, 2000), 4-7.
over a pantheon of lesser nature spirits and deities both male and female.135 She argues
that in postcolonial Nigeria, “only missionary-trained local and foreign influenced
scholars or artists would attach gender to the Supreme God and narrow his image down to
a European male with long hair and a long beard, an idea alien to the African context.”136
Therefore, Mercy Oduyoye insists that the participation of women in religion is
frequently underestimated. Her contention, however, is that women themselves are
custodians of religion who choose to live by faith. She avers that “the cycle of gestation,
birthing, nurturing, and mourning in which women are personally and symbolically
involved makes them allies of nature and therefore of religion. Women have become self-
appointed custodians of the primal principles of life, and they are collaborators with the
principalities and powers of the unseen world.”137
From a Christian purview, scholars are of the opinion that women’s spirituality bears
a qualitative difference from that of men because the experience of socioeconomic
realities in both genders differs. Oduyoye is of the opinion that women’s dependence on
religious beliefs, practices, and ritual is more intensely demonstrated and that this is
consequent upon the tendency of African women to explicitly express their dependence
on God.138 However, the palpable challenge according to her is that when women express
themselves about God, the model that comes across is male theology otherwise they
would have to seek men’s approval for what they write. The challenge therein is to not
exploit women’s spirituality using religion, a tool that can liberate as well as alienate.
Such exploitation fronted by men and by agencies of the community might lead to a
vicious cycle of wide-scale exploitation. For instance, how does one come to terms with
the remark: ‘men make God and women worship them’?139
There is a sense to which a wide range of scholars has classified religion in Africa as
predominantly male-oriented. Dominique Zahan is of the opinion that, broadly speaking,
African religion is usually a male affair. She reasons that it is not until after menopause
that women often become “the true agents of a cult whose power is parallel,
complementary, and sometimes superior to that of males, and yet independent of
them.”140 Zahan’s acknowledgement of the male as the true masters of religion, stems
from her judgement that attached to masculinity is a prerogative that gives him the power
to put to death, therefore the authority to sacrifice. On the other hand, this prerogative is
not suitable to femininity to which the giving of live is frequently assigned.141
135
Sabine Jell-Bahlsen, “The Lake Goddess, Uhammiri/Ogbuide: The Female Side of the Universe in Igbo
Cosmology,” in African Spirituality: Forms, Meanings and Expressions, Jacob K. Olupona, ed., (New
York: The Crossroad Publishing Company, 2000), 39.
136
Jell-Bahlsen, “The Lake Goddess,” 39.
137
138
Ibid., 167.
139
Ibid., 167.
140
Zahan, “Some Reflections on African Spirituality,” 19.
141
Ibid., 19-20.
1.5.2 Customs and Taboos

In every society, there are “normative structures reflected in the values and expectations
of the community”, thus there is certain societal pressure for individuals to conform their
behaviors to these values and expectations.142 There are specific customs, from manner of
ornamentation to gender roles, that serve as constant reminders of these asymmetrical
‘gender structurings’ and ‘gender functioning’ in Southern Nigeria. These customs also
have in-built mechanisms to enforce and to punish defaulters of these gender structures.
How do certain taboos, constructed around gender, establish themselves as
inhibitions or become points of gender emancipation? In some sections of Southern
Nigeria, it is forbidden for a woman to come face to face with a masquerade. Similarly,
women are kept away from witnessing certain aspects of secret practices and rituals.
Cyril-Mary Olatunji observes that a recurrent argument in justifying this ‘custom’ is that
like children, women require special care and protection.143 The question that emerges is:
is the prohibition placed upon women inspired by a carriage of compassion?
If there is anything that directly negates the compassion thesis, it is the concept of
widowhood. In traditional societies, spouses are generally expected to mourn the loss of
their partner. The manner in which they do so quite differs. Whereas the widowers are
meant to mourn the loss of their wives for some months, widows, in addition to this, are
often the chief suspects when their husbands die. Even a certified medical report on the
cause of death might not exonerate her from this debacle. In order to validate her
innocence, some customs might demand that she drinks the water that was used to bathe
the corpse of her deceased husband.
Sylvia Ifemeje adds that other included rites for a new widow may include: (1) a
complete shave of the hair; which includes the pubic hair (2) sitting and sleeping on the
floor through the period of mourning (3) jumping over the corpse of her late husband (4)
crying loudly at intervals as a mark of respect for the departed (5) an in-house
imprisonment for a period of time. Men who lose their wives do not necessarily need to
go through this process.144 To be sure, widowhood as it is practiced in parts of Southern
Nigeria testifies horribly to the assumption that there is more to the status of women in
traditional societies than merely ‘protecting them.’145
Likewise, there is an inference to the Edo custom of succession and inheritance
articulated by Sam Igbe. In Igbe’s purview, there is clarity in the customary right to
inheritance of a deceased father’s estate. The prevalent practice is that the family shares
out the property to the children strictly according to age and without discrimination
according to gender. The same applies when a deceased mothers property is to be shared.
Igbe however acknowledges that the process for the latter is not sufficiently explained
since wives in Edo land were not expected to have more than their clothing, jewellery and
142
Cohen, Law, Sexuality and Society, 17.
143
144
145
the box in which they are kept.146 Nevertheless, though the estate of the deceased parent
is distributed according to age, the principal burial rite, referred to as the ukomwen
ceremony, is assumed by the eldest son alone, even when he happens to be the last child
of the family amongst several older sisters.147
1.5.3 Social/Peer Pressure

In several African societies, building a reputation is very central. This is precisely what
David Cohen refers as ‘the politics of reputation.’148 There is a huge focus on honour and
shame through which judgments are expressed with regard to the reputation of
individuals. Within the community, “a man’s reputation depends in part on his ability to
provide adequately for his family, as a woman’s is connected to her management of the
affairs of the house.”149 Reputation might also be the basis for forming alliances for all
purposes. It might also influence the start of relationships between peers. It hinges on the
expectations of the community on how unique individuals and their equals ought to
behave.
There is a profound nexus between reputation and shame therefore. Shame, within its
own bounds relates to perceptions of having fallen below expectations in the eyes of
others and expresses itself via feelings of humiliation, defilement, exposure, unworthiness
to withstand the gaze of others, the need to ‘cover’ or hide oneself, or ensuring a defeat to
others through competition. Du Boulay therefore argues that the honour of the individual
is something that is granted him or her by public opinion. Thus, a man who is denied a
reputation for honour simply has none. As a result, avoidance of social condemnation
ranks higher than avoidance of doing wrong for reason being that it is considered more
important to be seen to be honourable than it is actually to be so.150
For the fact that honour is imputed by others and conceded by the community,
individuals tend to devote ample time and resources in constructing reputations. Cohen
has argued that “as one would expect in a culture oriented toward shame, it follows that
from this sexual dynamic that reputation depends largely upon the appearance of honour
as judged by others rather than the inner reality. For this reason a complex of practices
associated with secrecy, gossip, and lie intimately connects with the politics of
reputation.”151
From the foregoing, it becomes more apparent that the sense of community has a
prominent resonance in the African worldview and daily life. Away from the community,
the individual loses his sense of identity and place. An individual experiences the various
stages of his/her life in cooperation with others. Norms of society are often internalized
146
Sam Igbe, “Edo Custom of Succession and Inheritance,” in Edo Cultural Voyage, 128.
147
Igbe, “Edo Custom of Succession,” 128.
148
See Cohen, Law, Sexuality and Society, 54.
149
Ibid., 56.
150
Ibid., 58-9.
151
Ibid., 64.
by the individual and constantly configures his/her mind-sets and conditions his/her
actions and reactions. A sense of guilt and shame that could result in self-inflicted
punishment usually happens to those who break away from their cultural conditioning.
Typical forms of punishment include banishment and ostracization. In other words, those
who disrespect standing cultural norms like the gender structures suffer the risk of social
exclusion in extreme cases and psycho-social punishments from their peers and members
of the society.
1.6 Southern Nigerian’s Asymmetrical Configuration of Gender: Underlying

Reasons and Possible Explanations
Nancy Levit is right in declaring that “reconstructing gender requires addressing
consciously and collectively the social processes we engage in, and critically evaluating
assumptions we accept, when we create gender differences.”152 In this section, we attempt
to investigate the foundational reasoning beneath this asymmetrical gender structuring in
southern Nigeria. We seek to uncover underlying reasoning. What do these gender
structures try to protect, accomplish or avoid through this gender system?
A possible explanation for the perpetuity of this gender system is the incessant
appeal to the authority of culture and tradition. These gender structures are deeply
embedded in the culture so much so that they are referred to as the status quo. They are
regarded as the way things were, are and always will be. For example, the kola nut is a
fruit usually broken and shared to visitors or guests at important occasions, very much
similar to the Jewish breaking of bread. Since this is a traditional rite, there are also
gender regulations that go along with the hospitality ritual of breaking the kola nut.
Prayers and wishes are offered upon the breaking of the kola nut, be the one who breaks
it, usually an elderly host, before it is distributed to those present in the occasion. Another
important rule is that women are not allowed to break the kola nut. They are to only
receive a part of the broken kola nut. The deep rationale for this might not be given.
Women are expected to understand and respect it as a part of the tradition. This practice
has the unspoken authority of tradition behind it.
A subsequent question is to consider how these gender rules were constructed in the
first instance. A weighty account for these asymmetrical gender frameworks that situate
the place and role of women in lower status than men are: stereotypes. There exist
implicit gender stereotypes upon which such distinctions rested.153 Levit goes further to
state that these "stereotypes hold that the innate abilities of men and women differ
dramatically, despite a wealth of psychological, sociological, and industrial data that the
performance capabilities of women and men, on the whole, are equivalent." 154 These
stereotypes often worded as a priori, and as such stand unquestioned in the natural
152
Levit, The Gender Line, 13.
153
Graham, Making the Difference, 11.
154
Levit, The Gender Line, 21.
schema through time, and are perpetuated in the culture whereas there may be no
empirical basis for them.
From the foregoing, one might claim that in most African societies, the precepts of
culture do carry more importance than the findings of science. The asymmetry in gender
is hardly justifiable using the lens of science. To put this in perspective, let us briefly
consider the assertion of Rosemary Radford Ruether on the alleged connection between
the human biotic component and its ability for rationalization. Ruether insists that,
“There is no biological connection between male gonads and the

capacity to reason. Likewise, there is no biological connection between
female sexual organs and the capacity to be intuitive, caring, or
nurturing… There is no necessary (biological) connection between
reproductive complementarity and either psychological or social role
differentiation. These are the work of culture and socialization, not of
‘nature.’”155
Nevertheless, the plausibility of Ruether’s claim might not sufficiently dispel cultural
beliefs and practices that rest upon the presuppositions that there are necessary physical,
psychological and spiritual differences between male and female that render the male
counterpart superior to the female.
Like we have reiterated elsewhere, some African scholars are of the view that a
foundational reason for the asymmetrical configuration of gender in Southern Nigeria
must be sought in a patriarchal socio-cultural cloud. Cyril-Mary Olatunji notes that
gender discrepancy is “mostly about socio-cultural factors resulting from a patriarchal
socio-economic system. This includes ethnic discrimination, as well as the failing to
provide equality in the legal system, in education, in public political and non-political
institutions, and places of representation, employment etc.”156 Without a doubt, it would
seem an uphill task to exonerate patriarchy from this contextual problematic.
Another way of examining these socio-cultural factors that sustain asymmetry is to
explore societal definitions of the functions of men and women. One feature that stands
out is the idea of a presupposed male headship in the household, family and communities
vis-à-vis the ownership and overseeing of the affairs of women. This has enormous
consequences for the growing child as well. The little boy sooner or later develops a
towering complex in the midst of his female peers whereas the petite girl is enveloped in
an air of inferiority because later on in her life, she would be made to serve her husband.
From the foregoing, is it right to say that the female child is undervalued,
marginalised and restricted? Is the girl child less appreciated than the boy? What gender
do parents usually prefer to have? The answers to these questions are very much nuanced.
This is a sequel to the fact that these appropriations vary from one society to another. In
155
Rosemary R. Ruether, Sexism and God-Talk: Towards a Feminist Theology (London: SCM Press,
1992), 111.
156
the first place, it is held that the female child in Nigeria is more likely to face rejection
and prejudice. Gray Ejikeme affirms that some families resort to oracles and mediums to
certify the birth of male children. More concretely, the preference for sons among
Nigerians is deemed to be one of the strongest in West Africa.157 Taking this further, a
good number of Nigerian children selectively attend to the boy child in times of
emergencies and disasters. A case in point is the occurrence of the civil war in Nigeria
where some parents fled with their sons, livestock, jewellery and so on, leaving their
daughters behind.158
Conversely, men often give the impression that they are meant to protect women.
Izugbara has shown that in a variety of Nigerian ethnic societies, male control,
domination and aggression towards women are outlined as legitimate and ultimately
beneficial to women. In these terms, they are configured to reason the foolishness of
women that makes them prone to hoax, ruse and gaffe. Men who are not able to provide
checks to the presupposed irrational and childish attitude of women are very frequently
seen as not being ‘man enough.’ As a result, to qualify as a ‘good husband’ would
necessarily invoke unceasing surveillance and chastisement. Interestingly, some women
have come to believe that such punishments are reasonably necessary in checking what
are thought to be women’s ‘excesses.’159
1.7 The Creation of the Gender Index: An Import or from Within?

Debate is rife as to whether or not the discourse of gender subversion in Africa is
internally generated or motivated from the outside. Victor Ayeni supposes that the West
determines much of the aspects of the continent’s political economy. In his opinion, even
though discussions on gender have become more popular in Western circles, “it is yet to
develop into a significant intellectual movement in public administration study.”160 Thus,
Ayeni prefers to argue that administrative study in African universities has reproduced
this trend. More than that, he thinks the study of public management itself replicates the
male dominance manifest in the larger society. He subsequently faults the Weberian
bureaucratic model – the most theoretical influence in the modern study of administration
– for advancing a functionalist orientation. In his opinion, this bureaucratic model
undermines the position of women in its endorsement of the strong leader, top-down
strategy in a way that it undermines the potential role of the less influential members of
the system who often comprise the bulk of the population.161
The consequence of a functionalist orientation might be that African female students
could seem particularly unattracted to training in administration and management, which
157
Gray Goziem Ejikeme, Socio-economic and Cultural Conditions of the Girl Child (Jos: Decca
Publications, 2003). For further reading see Izugbara et al., “Women and Male Partner-dating Violence in
Nigeria,” 466.
158
Izugbara et al., “Women and Male Partner-dating Violence in Nigeria,” 466.
159
Ibid., 475. For further reading see also Izugbara, “Notions of Sex, Sexuality, and Relationships,” 63–80.
160
Ayeni, “Gender Sensitivity in Public Management Education in Africa,” 53.
161
Ibid., 53-4.
the bureaucratic model projects as the affair of strong and tough personalities – images
which the society often ascribe to the male figure. The call for a dismantling of this
bureaucratic approach in favour of more participatory, less hierarchical and flexible
institutional models is underway. 162 However, it remains to be seen whether these
alternative approaches would make gender consideration an objective considering the
interplay of power relations between gender.
Rather than ridiculing the Western Weberian bureaucratic model, Ruth Meena
identifies the disservice African scholars have done to gender studies. She thinks that
African Marxist scholars and class analysts have contributed massively to the delayed
emancipation of African women by focusing on conditions of the oppressed people in a
general way instead of zooming into the struggles of oppressed women by their male
counterparts. In Meena’s view, a competent political economy approach must make
consideration for a proper identification of the extremely heavy burden on women. 163
What she ignores is the fact that women themselves might be the subjects of oppression.
Adu-Poku has taken a little different stride. He has launched a direct critique of
colonisation for the role it played in the emergence of gender questions in the continent.
Adu-Poku contends that the degree to which gender hierarchy is manifested today in sub-
Sahara Africa is dissimilar to the way it played out in pre-colonial times. In certain
societies in pre-colonial times, the ranking of individuals was dependent first and
foremost on seniority. Indeed, the Ondo kingdom is known for practicing a hereditary
kingship to whoever was senior, either the female or the male descendant of the king. In
his thinking, colonisation played a key role in the delineation of traditional gender roles
and relations in numerous African societies. What this connotes is that a number of
‘customs’ that are present today are not necessarily rooted in ancient traditions.164
Advancing from a socio-religious viewpoint, Sabine Jell-Bahlsen contends that in
pre-colonial times, there was an avalanche of male gods and female goddesses in the
traditional religion of Africa. She however observes that during colonial times, the female
divinities coupled with their social manifestations were ignored and suppressed. 165 Jell-
Bahlsen’s thinking is motivated by her supposition that “colonial administrators and their
successors were inspired by European male-biased beliefs and power structures and, in
addition were driven by their desire to control the land and its people.”166
The impact of colonisation is indeed enormous. The colonial system of governance
was a product of the evolution of a worldview that held that there was absolute
superiority of the coloniser over the colonised. This easily extended to other categories
162
Ibid., 54.
163
Meena, "Incorporating Gender Analysis into Political Science," 40-2.
164
Adu-Poku, “Envisioning (Black) Male Feminism,” 160-1.
165
Sabine Jell-Bahlsen, “The Lake Goddess, Uhammiri/Ogbuide: The Female Side of the Universe in Igbo
Cosmology,” in African Spirituality: Forms, Meanings and Expressions, ed. Jacob K. Olupona, (New
York: The Crossroad Publishing Company, 2000), 38.
166
Jell-Bahlsen, “The Lake Goddess,” 38.
such as: the masculine over the feminine, the modern or progressive over the traditional
or the primitive, Adu-Poku reasons. These categorisations had deep roots in Western
philosophical thought which created a distinction between ‘the men of reason’ (the
thinker) and the ‘women of the body.’167 Adu-Poku therefore dismisses the attempt to
conceptualize gender in Africa using Western lenses. He argues that “by analysing
African societies through Western gendered perspectives, feminists and other scholars
have largely ignored the fact that gender categories in many African societies are neither
pre-cultural nor fixed in historical time and cultural space.”168
In all, the debate over the emergence of gender questions on the African landscape is
quite vast. Scholars such as Ali Mazrui are of the opinion that multiple factors are
responsible for this problem whereas Segun Ogungbemi and Moses Akin Makinde are
more concrete in their approach in their insistence that these problems under scope are
consequent upon contacts and relations between African indigenous cultures and
foreign/Western cultures; a position which Achille Mbembe and Sarah Nuttall have
vehemently rejected as ‘untenable’ in a way that they situate these dilemmas in
indigenous cultures themselves. Cyril-Mary Olatunji tenders a more nuanced perspective.
While not indicting external influences, nor blaming African indigenous cultures, he
prefers to locate these quandaries in what he calls a ‘corruption of the cultures.’169
From the foregoing, while not neglecting the role played by the colonial powers in
the creation of local gender systems, it is vital to declare that the pre-colonial time was
not as innocent in the delineation of gender roles in sub-Saharan Africa. Adu-Poku’s
assertion that categorizations along gender lines were mostly invisible in most African
societies is contentious. In terms of power control, pre-colonial societies that did not
manifest gender role differentiation are actually scanty. Here, one thinks of the Akans of
Ghana, the Zulus in South Africa and the Ondo kingdom of South-Western Nigeria.
Aside these sparse societies, the majority of kingdoms did not entrust the office and
power of governance to women. The Benin Kingdom, known for its practice of
primogeniture for example, did not assign hereditary status to the daughters of the King.
It is presupposed that the first male child is the ‘senior’ even when he is the last child of
the lot. When the king is unable to give birth to a male child, the immediate younger
brother of the king assumes the throne upon the demise of the king. In essence, the
majority of African societies were basically patriarchal. The point then is, colonisation
did not dislodge patriarchal systems as some might have expected, it rather confirmed it.
167
Adu-Poku, “Envisioning (Black) Male Feminism,” 160. For a detailed discussion on the creation of the
sharp distinction between men and women see Oyeronke Oyewumi, The Invention of Women: Making an
African Sense of Western Gender Discourse (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1997).
168
Ibid., 161.
169
Olatunji, “An Argument for Gender Equality in Africa,” 5. See also Ali Mazrui, Cultural Forces and
World Politics (London: James Currey, 1990); Segun Ogungbemi, Philosophy and Development (Ibadan:
Hope Publications, 2007); Moses Akin Makinde, African Philosophy: The Demise of a Controversy (Ile-
Ife: Obafemi Awolowo University Press, 2004); Achille Mbembe, and Sarah Nuttall, eds., Johannesburg:
The Elusive Metropolis (Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press, 2008).
1.8 Conclusion
In this first chapter we have attempted to situate the gender problematic in Southern
Nigeria within a socio-cultural undercurrent. Here, we have attempted a diffused
overview of the implications of gender in various facets of the Nigerian society. While
not pretending to give a full account of the gender motif in Nigeria, this chapter aids our
investigation into the realities and categories of gender-related issues in Southern Nigeria
and demonstrates the depth of gender discrimination in the last decades. We were also
interested in highlighting whether or not gender imbalances is a main feature in current
public debates in order to lay the foundation for our ethnography with married couples
whose conversations and insights are expected to continue this discussion in marital
parlance.
Accordingly, we initiated this chapter with a sociological analysis of gender in
Southern Nigeria. In order to facilitate our analysis, we made consideration for the
overriding conceptualization of gender in Southern Nigeria in order to reify discernible
modes of expressions typifying the correlation between gender and the dynamics of
power. Subsequently, we placed a magnifying lens on the implications for gender in
economics zooming into contemporary discussions on the gender wage gap. The
succeeding study of the paradigms, laid out in culture and language in their interaction
with gender, provided the basis for the palpable configuration of gender in Southern
Nigeria.
Furthermore, the ensuing examination of themes such as marriage, chastity and
home-based abuse was meant to portray the understanding of sexuality in Southern
Nigeria. This subject will be brought to the fore in the next chapter. The place of
education in the gender conundrum as well as the impact of religion were key
components of this chapter and will feature in the course of this entire dissertation as
well. Still, in attempting to postulate the origin and basis of the asymmetrical
configuration of gender, we intended to show how socio-cultural factors shape the
approach to the male-female persona. In this chapter’s end, we summarily investigated
the emergence of the gender problematic in the continent. In effect, what we have done in
this chapter is to present the foundations on which gender ideologies in Southern Nigeria
are developed.
The subsequent task in the following chapter is to examine how the sociological
underpinning of gender is manifest in practical realities of marriage and family which the
first chapter obviously excludes. We shall carry out this investigation by means of an
ethnographic study in the Catholic Archdiocese of Benin City. The aim of this study is to
aid our exploration and discussions of the most challenging aspects of male-female
relations vis-à-vis the church’s discourse on gender in the chapters that follow and to
examine in what ways both the insights of African theologians and the teachings of John
Paul II might contribute to a sustained search for a contextualised approach to the gender
question later on in our research endeavour.
CHAPTER TWO
AN ETHNOGRAPHIC STUDY OF THE GENDER QUESTION IN THE

CATHOLIC ARCHDIOCESE OF BENIN CITY
2.1. Introduction
In this second chapter we attempt a methodical and thorough examination of the
perception of the gender palaver at the grass root stratum. This carries on from the
panoramic outlay of the gender narrative in Nigeria, which was presented in the first
chapter. The current chapter therefore concretizes the first in the sense that here, we
attempt to discover what gender imbalances in Nigeria entail in praxis. It also explores
what the first chapter evidently excludes in that it relates the gender conundrum to marital
and family life and aims to show how the gender subject is addressed in basic Christian
communities taking into account the teachings and catechesis of the church at the local
level. This chapter therefore engages in conversations with 20 married couples in 5
parishes in the Archdiocese of Benin City. The prominent goal of this chapter – which
emanates from our central research question – is to arrive at a sturdy paradigm that
integrates the experiences of Southern Nigerian couples and dialogues with magisterial
teachings on the relation between the sexes.
At the start of this chapter, we intend to show why and how the choice of the
particular research method was arrived at. The procedures for conducting the empirical
study shall also be well delineated. Here we shall examine the major elements in the set-
up of our ethnography in order to identify the core principles on which the study is built
on. Which leads us to a comprehensive analysis of the interviews.
Accordingly, the methodology for the empirical research of our work is sufficiently
explained in the first section of the second chapter. The intention is to demonstrate and
substantiate the choice of methodology. First off is a presentation of the meaning and
implication of qualitative research. Contrasting between prominent methodologies –
quantitative and qualitative – leads us to consider the historical and philosophical
foundations of our elected method, qualitative. Thereafter, an explanation of the
ethnographic approach as one approach among many shall be rendered. Further, we shall
underscore the major steps of the ethnographic research that were applied. These include:
the saliency of participant recruitment, informed consent, the in-depth interview itself,
participant observation and the reflexivity of the researcher. We will end this first part by
elucidating our preferred methodology for the analysis of the interview namely, the
interpretative phenomenological analysis.
The second part focuses on the ethnographic study. Its main purpose is to identify the
couples’ convictions, experiences and practices with regard to their gendered identities
and their ways of living together as wives and husbands. We will analyse these interviews
and explore how far these grass root experiences concur with or deviate from the local
church’s teaching, catechesis and ministerial practice. This study helps us in accessing the
60 An Ethnographic Study of the Gender Question in the Catholic Archdiocese of Benin City
local discourse and perception of gender-related issues derived from the precinct of
marriage and family life in Southern Nigeria.
An Ethnographic Study of the Gender Question in the Catholic Archdiocese of Benin City 61
SECTION A: METHODOLOGY OF THE ETHNOGRAPHIC STUDY
2.2. Understanding the Qualitative Research Method

The qualitative research method is sharply contrasted from the quantitative method.
While the former focuses on describing and categorising the potentials of data, the latter
pays attention to the quantification of variables.1 In studies involving the intricate use of
language, such as in extended conversation, organisation of textual materials, studying
the convolutions of discourses in its natural setting etc. the qualitative research method is
used as in our project. The following sub-themes shall attempt an explication of the
qualitative method in juxtaposition to quantitative research. It shall also briefly trace the
historical and philosophical groundwork of qualitative research.
2.2.1. Qualitative Research

After having laid the foundation of our research project and streamed a reflection on our
research question and hypothesis in the previous chapter, the task at hand now is a
construction of a design with which to examine our hypothesis. This brings us to the
considerattion of a methodology. Drawing from Tim Sensing, “the term methodology is
the overarching paradigm the research utilizes to study a particular problem. It differs
from the word method(s), which refers to the individual techniques employed by the
researcher for data collection, analysis and evaluation.”2 Methodologies do not only guide
what phenomena we research but contain principles underlying procedures of research.3
Hence the methodology chapter duly explains the design of the venture and what
individual methods will be utilized. The place of methodology in this work therefore is
very crucial and it shall be elaborated upon in this chapter.
Larry VandeCreek et al. therefore note that the “principal purpose of a research
design is to produce objective data. The scientific approach moves beyond personal
impression in order to see its subject matter ‘as it really is’ and the purpose of the design
is to accomplish this goal.”4 It is also important to add that the best scientific designs do
not necessarily achieve complete objectivity. Sometimes, patterns of bias do factor.
Scholars detect that elements of observer bias regularly enter into the fray of scientific
activity.5 The task of the researcher however would be to limit these predispositions to the
barest minimum. In fact, it is duty of the researcher to constrain such biases in order to
prevent a destruction of the reliability of scientific findings.
1
Dennis Howitt and Duncan Cramer, Introduction to Research Methods in Psychology, 4th edition
(Harlow: Pearson, 2014), 337.
2
Tim Sensing, Qualitative Research: A Multi-Methods Approach to Projects for Doctor of Ministry
Theses (Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2011), 26.
3
Jane F. Gilgun and Marvin B. Sussman, The Methods and Methodologies of Qualitative Family Research
(New York: The Haworth Press, 1996), 3.
4
Larry VandeCreek, Hilary E. Bender, and Merle R. Jordan, Research in Pastoral Care and Counseling:
Quantitative and Qualitative Approaches (Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2008), 43.
5
VandeCreek, et al., Research in Pastoral Care and Counseling, 43.
Qualitative research is a broad umbrella term covering a wide range of techniques

and philosophies and this makes it difficult to define. Monique Hennink et al. reason that
in a broad perspective, qualitative research is an approach that invites one to examine
people’s experience in detail with the use of a specific set of research methods such as:
in-depth interviews, focus group discussions, observation, content analysis, visual
methods, life histories etc.6 However, qualitative research is not simply an application of
these qualitative methods. Rather, it is an approach that makes possible the identification
of issues from the perspective of one’s study participant in order to arrive at an
understanding of the meanings and interpretations that they give to their experiences:
behaviour, events or objects.7 For this reason, we surmise that qualitative researchers are
after meaning. In Sharlene Hesse-Biber’s words, “the social meaning people attribute to
their experiences, circumstances and situations, as well as the meanings people embed
into texts and other objects, are the focus of qualitative research. Therefore, at the heart of
their work, qualitative researchers try to extract meaning from their data.”8
Consequently, qualitative research as we will show has its own dynamics. It is
ultimately an attempt to make sense of lived experiences. It is a human science research
aimed at seeking to learn from the voices of those who have directly experienced these
realities. Therefore, we may adduce that qualitative methodologies in research is akin to
the American writer, Wallace Stevens’ notion on the ‘renovation of experience.’ 9 For
although Stevens had focused primarily on poetry, like poetry, human science research is
a richly descriptive and interpretative research that is “of and by the heart as well as by
the mind.”10 Thus qualitative research seeks to get into the world of experience of others,
to hear their voices and to empower those voices for their fullest expression. Larry
VandeCreek puts this succinctly in his assertion that “qualitative research seeks to
transfer the hermeneutical principles from scriptural studies to the understanding and the
interpretation of the experiences of the living human document. Out of the information-
rich experiences of the participants in qualitative research, the investigator seeks to
discover the meanings and to make the interpretations that are congruent with the
perceptions of the co-researchers.”11
As we have seen, the qualitative research is challenging and exciting. It makes
possible the exploration of a wide array of dimensions of the social world, including the
texture and weave of everyday life. Jennifer Mason adds that it is a highly rewarding
activity because it engages us with the things that matter, and in ways that matter coupled
6
Monique Hennink, Inge Hutter and Ajay Bailey, Qualitative Research Methods (Los Angeles, CA: Sage,
2013), 8-9.
7
Hennink, et al., Qualitative Research Methods, 8-9.
8
Sharlene Nagy Hesse-Biber and Patricia Leavy, The Practice of Qualitative Research, 2nd edition (Los
Angeles, CA: Sage, 2011), 4.
9
10
Ibid., 71.
11
Ibid., 72. The term ‘co-researchers’ mentioned at the end of this quotation refers to the participants of
the study.
with “the understandings, experiences and imaginings of our research participants, the
ways that social processes, institutions, discourses or relationships work, and the
significance of the meaning they generate.” 12 This is best objectivised/actualised with
methodologies that encompass richness, depth, context, nuance, multi-dimensionality and
inclusive of complexity.
2.2.2. Contrasting Qualitative Methodologies from Quantitative Methodology

Jennifer Mason affirms that there have been attempts to define qualitative research in the
human sciences and to determine whether or not it can or should be differentiated from
quantitative research. Still, it is difficult to reach a consensus on the subject. At best,
qualitative research is mostly associated which certain schools that we could broadly
categorize as the interpretivist sociological tradition particularly phenomenology,
ethnomethodology and symbolic interactionism.13 Yet, both qualitative and quantitative
methodologies are reliable ways for finding truth although each has its own unique logic
and path to follow. Put differently, each unearths a different kind of contextual
understanding and each has its own criteria for excellence of process. Thus in a variety of
ways, the criteria of excellence in both research approaches might be seen as opposed to
each other. With regard to its objective, the qualitative approach “does not intend to test,
prove, persuade, or argue a particular predetermined point, and it would be inappropriate
to use it for any of those purposes. Its purpose is to discover the meaning of a human
experience and to communicate this understanding to the reader. It does this through
narrative rather than through numbers, with the understanding that the narrative words
evoke the human experience attached to them.” 14 These narrative descriptions simply
serve as approximations of the human experience. Therefore, qualitative research might
not offer ‘facts’ of the reality but a reliable cue to the meaning of human experience
encountered by the participants.
Generally speaking, the purpose of quantitative research is to quantify a research
problem, to measure and count the issues involved and then to generalise these findings
by extrapolating them to a broader population. The extrapolation of findings is actualised
12
Jennifer Mason, Qualitative Researching (London: Sage Publications, 2002), 1.
13
Mason, Qualitative Researching, 2. For further reading on the delineation of qualitative research from
quantitative research see: Alan Bryman, Quantity and Quality in Social Research (London: Unwin Hyman,
1988), Alan Bryman, Social Research Methods (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001); David
Silverman, Doing Qualitative Research: A Practical Handbook (London: Sage, 2000). In the later part of
the 20th century, scholars such as A. Schutz, A. Cicourel, H. Garfinkel, H. Blumer for example have
provided critical explanations to such notions as ‘phenomenology,’ ‘ethnomethodology’ and ‘symbolic
interactionism.’ For further reading see: Alfred Schutz, The Phenomenology of the Social World (London:
Heinemann, 1976); Aaron Cicourel, Method and Measurement in Sociology, London: Free Press, 1964;
Harold Garfinkel, Studies in Ethnomethodology (New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1967); Hesse-Biber and
Leavy, The Practice of Qualitative Research, 19-20. For ‘symbolic interactionism’ see Herbert Blumer,
Symbolic Interactionism: Perspective and Method (New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1969); Hesse-Biber and
Leavy, The Practice of Qualitative Research, 17; Paul Atkinson, Amanda Coffey, Sara Delamont, et al.,
Handbook of Ethnography (London: Sage, 2001).
14
by the random sampling of respondents that serve as a study population that is

representative of the general population. So as to ensure valid generalizations therefore, a
large sample size is necessary. Furthermore, the people who make up the study
population are referred to as ‘respondents’ being that they respond to already-formulated
questions of the researcher. On the other side of the plane, as is our case, qualitative
research is aimed at understanding or explaining behaviour and beliefs as much as
understanding the context of people’s experiences. We refer to the people who make up
the study population as ‘participants’ for reasons that they are construed as participating
in the research by discussing and narrating their experiences either in the form of an
interview or focus group discussion. Consequent upon the in-depth nature of qualitative
research, fewer study participants are required.15
Qualitative and quantitative methods have different strengths and logics, and are
often best used to respond to different kinds of questions and goals. Joseph Maxwell is of
the view that a fundamental difference between the two approaches is the distinction that
exists between two approaches to explanation namely: ‘variance theory’ and ‘process
theory.’ As he puts it, “quantitative researchers tend to see the world in terms of
variables; they view explanation as a demonstration that there is a statistical relationship
between different variables. Process theory, in contrast, tends to see the world in terms of
people, situations, events, and the processes that connect these.”16
In a nutshell, here lie the strengths of our qualitative research. This is in essence is its
ability to derive appreciably from this process orientation toward the world, its accent on
an inductive approach, focus on specific situations of people, and the prominence of
descriptions rather than numbers. To put this idea into further perspective, Maxwell
continues that quantitative researchers might tend to be interested in whether and to what
extent variance in x causes variance in y. On the other hand, qualitative researchers might
be more interested in asking how x plays a role in causing y, and what the process is that
connects x and y. 17 Speaking in terms of paradigms, Hennink et al. surmise that
interpretivism and positivism are the underlying paradigms of qualitative and quantitative
research, respectively. The former is generally guided by concepts from the interpretive
paradigm and the later by assumptions essential to the positivist paradigm. 18 Going
further, these interpretive approaches are usually associated with the hermeneutic
tradition that designates the search for a deep understanding by interpreting the meaning
that interactions, actions and objects have for people.19
15
16
Joseph A. Maxwell, Qualitative Research Design: An Interactive Approach, 3rd edition (Los Angeles,
CA: Sage, 2013), 29.
17
Maxwell, Qualitative Research Design, 30-1.
18
Hennink, et al., Qualitative Research Methods, 16. For a structured outlay of these differences see
Hennink et al., Qualitative Research Methods, 16. See also Marilyn Lichtman, Qualitative Research for
the Social Sciences (Los Angeles, CA: Sage, 2014), 9-10, 16-17. For a comparison of Qualitative and
Quantitative Models of Research see Hesse-Biber and Leavy, The Practice of Qualitative Research, 9.
19
Hesse-Biber and Leavy, The Practice of Qualitative Research, 17.
Hennink et al go a step further in summarizing the basic differences between both

approaches which we find relevant fo our ethnography. In terms of objective, qualitative
research attempts to gain a detailed understanding of underlying reasons, beliefs and
motivations while quantitative research regards a quantification of data and to extrapolate
results to a broader population. Also, whereas the purpose of qualitative research is to
understand: Why? How? What is the process? What are the influences or contexts? The
task of quantitative research, on the other hand, is to measure, count, quantify or problem
but responding to questions of: how much? How often? What proportion? Who?
Furthermore, the data for qualitative research are words or textual data while for
quantitative research they are numbers or numerical data. With regard to the study
population of qualitative research, the requirement is a small number of participants or
interviewees, selected purposively whilst quantitative research requires a large sample
size of representative cases randomly selected and in addition to stratified sampling. 20
The methods of data collection for a qualitative research comprise of in-depth
interviews, participant observation, and focus group discussions although for a
quantitative design, data is collected through population surveys, opinion pools, exit
interviews etc. The analysis of the former is interpretive or narrative while the latter is
statistical. In addition the outcome of the qualitative approach is to develop an initial
understanding and also to identify and explain behavior, beliefs and actions. The role of
the researcher is reflective and key as epitomized in the case of this present study. On the
other hand, the outcome of the quantitative design is to identify prevalence, averages and
patterns in data and to generalize to a broader population. The role of the researcher is
neutral and remote/outside of the system.21
Therefore, in order to attain its core, the qualitative study is meant to engage or
participate actively in the experience rather than standing aloof from it. In the
engagement therefore, there seem to be an emphasis on rapport and trust and less on
control and manipulation. Contrasting qualitative studies, the quality of this engagement
is measured in terms of ‘depth and involvement’ not in terms of ‘how many.’ To buttress
this, a simple encounter with one individual/participant might be more fruitful and
rewarding than with large numbers. Another distinctive feature is that one should openly
acknowledge and work with the perspective or ‘bias’ of the qualitative researcher rather
than attempt to eradicate it or control it mathematically.22
20
Hennink, et al., Qualitative Research Methods, 16.
21
Ibid., 16. For a structured outlay of these differences see Hennink et al., Qualitative Research Methods,
16. See also Marilyn Lichtman, Qualitative Research for the Social Sciences (Los Angeles, CA: Sage,
2014), 9-10, 16-17. For a further comparison of Qualitative and Quantitative Models of Research see
Hesse-Biber and Leavy, The Practice of Qualitative Research, 9.
22
Put differently, the qualitative process is rather circular than linear or pre-set. The
acquisition of new insights, the developments and discoveries in the course of the study
often questions the propensity for ‘predefinitions’. Accordingly, the qualitative process,
as we shall later demonstrate in the analysis, is mainly described as ‘dialogical’ due to the
fact that there is a continuous engagement in dialogue both on the intrapersonal, thinking
level, and on the interpersonal, research/subject level.23
2.2.3. Historical and Philosophical Foundations of Qualitative Research

It is vital to note that the historical and philosophical groundwork of qualitative research
comes along with a rich narrative. Notable in this plot are scholars such as Friedrich Ernst
Schleiermacher, Wilhelm Dilthey, Edmund Husserl, Martin Heidegger, Martin Buber,
Max Weber, Hans-Georg Gadamer, Jürgen Habemas, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Amedeo
Giorgi, Adrian Van Kaam and John Charlton Polkinghorne amongst others. It was the
challenged posed by their philosophical perspectives, that brought qualitative studies to
the limelight as against the previously held notion of the natural science as the only
resourceful approach to research in the human sciences.24
The advent of qualitative research coincides in no small way with the dawn of an
increased awareness and response to the quandary of the oppressed, the marginalized and
the disempowered. More than anything else, it has been used as the basis for the
composition of social programs aimed at addressing the struggles encountered by the
oppressed whose voices are now being heard in the process of qualitative research studies
conducted among them. VandeCreek surmises this accomplishment in this way:
“Feminist and liberation theological perspectives, which challenge all of

us to listen to the voices of the oppressed, the marginalized, the
disempowered, have been supportive of qualitative research to
understand and interpret the ‘different’ voices of the world. In fact, in
some instances qualitative research has taken on a prophetic task in at
least two ways. Qualitative research has challenged ethnocentric, Euro-
American, left-brained, male-dominated ways of thinking about science,
the sources of knowledge, and the appropriate methods of human
research.”25
Perhaps, the history of qualitative research is best understood in light of the interpretive
approach (an offspring of the Verstehen tradition) that sought to disengage from the
prevalent idea of an objective-based approach to research. In a bid to explain the content
of the ‘interpretive,’ scholars such as Max Weber and Wilhelm Dilthey attempted a
clarification with the use of the word ‘understanding’ and the German Verstehen.
23
Ibid., 77.
24
For a more detailed account of scholars in this tradition see Ibid., 73. Further, it is noteworthy that
Amedeo Giorgi, influenced by Edmund Husserl and Maurice Merleau-Ponty developed the ‘Descriptive
Phenomenological Method in Psychology.’
25
Ibid., 74. Emphasis mine.
Undoubtedly, the principal focus of qualitative research is to understand behaviour,

perceptions or experiences. Yet, understanding can be viewed from two different
perspectives namely: “from that of the researcher using their own frame of reference on
the issues, which is referred to as understanding; and from those of the study population
by identifying their perspectives on the research issues, which is referred to as
Verstehen.” 26 Weber’s contention was that in order for social scientists to truly
understand the behaviour of individuals and groups, they must learn to ‘put themselves
into the place of the subject of inquiry.’27
To this end, qualitative research is much more than simply understanding social
phenomenon but to go further to achieve Verstehen. It is an understanding in light of
Verstehen in a way that it studies people’s lived experiences which occur in a particular
historical and social context, understanding the life of the people under study from their
very own perspective, in their own context and describing this in their own concepts.
Summarily, while ‘understanding’ connotes the comprehension of issues from the
researcher’s own interpretive framework or what may be called ‘the outsider’s
perspective’; Verstehen signifies comprehension of the issues from the interpretive
framework of the study population in what may be called ‘the insider’s perspective.’ 28 To
grasp this nuance is to underscore the history of qualitative research.
2.3 An Ethnographic Approach of Qualitative Study: Our Approach

There are a plethora of qualitative approaches that might serve as research strategies in
the conceptualization of methods and sources for research. These include: ethnographic
approaches, interpretivist approaches, biographical/humanist approaches, discourse
analysis approaches, psychoanalytic approaches among others. The reasoning behind
these varied approaches is to study people in their natural settings so as to identify how
their experiences and behaviours are shaped by the context of their lives. Such contexts
might consist of: the social, economic, religious, cultural or physical context in which
they live. 29 Accordingly, these approaches seek to embrace and to understand these
contextual influences on the research issues. For the purpose of our scope, the
ethnographic approach was mainly used.
26
Hennink, et al., Qualitative Research Methods, 17. Max Weber (1864-1920) extensively applied the
concept of Verstehen, a term central to qualitative research, although he derived it from Wilhelm Dilthey
(1833-1911). See also Dawn Snape and Liz Spencer, “The Foundations of Qualitative Research,” in
Qualitative Research Practice: A Guide for Social Science Students and Researchers, eds. John Ritchie
and J. Lewis (London: Sage, 2003). For a disputation on the concept of Verstehen as subjective
interpretation see George McCall and J.L. Simmons, eds. Issues in Participant Observation: A Text and
Reader (Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, 1969), 2.
27
Chava Frankfort-Nachmias and David Nachmias, Research Methods in the Social Sciences, 5th edition
(London: Arnold, 1996), 12. See also Max Weber, The Theory of Social and Economic Organization,
trans. A. M. Henderson and Talcott Parsons (New York: Free Press, 1964).
28
29
Ibid., 9.
Ethnographic approaches have been enormously influential in the development of

qualitative research in a way that many qualitative researchers refer to themselves as
ethnographers. Mason observes that the diversities present in ethnographic approaches
make the idea of adhering to an ethnographic approach as though they were only one
impossible. It is one that is grounded on a particular understanding. More than anything
else, it is mostly about the study of culture and is based on an epistemology which
recounts that culture can be known through cultural and social settings. In fact, cultural
settings are usually used as data sources. Hence in ethnographic approaches, there is an
overriding emphasis on the researcher’s ‘first-hand experience’ of a setting and
subsequent participation through observational methods. The idea of ‘immersion’ is
central to this approach as much as it is a pathway to understanding ethnography’s
ontological and epistemological orientations.30
The literal meaning of the word ethnography is ‘writing culture’ and dates back to
the late 19th century’s struggle of social reform movements attempting to provide
assistance to the society’s poor. An early brand of the ethnographic approach comes in
the form of Charles Booth’s Life and Labour of the People in London (1902). 31
Ethnography involves the description of an ethnic group. It is a research approach that
provides a description of the way of life of a culture. Ethnography is mostly prominent in
the social sciences, especially in cultural anthropology. It is basically a reliable way of
understanding a community and arriving at a holistic picture of the situation by seeking to
participate in the life of the study population.32 Therefore, establishing rapport with the
study population as we shall show in our findings is a key component of the exercise of
an ethnographic fieldwork approach. It is important to add that the ethnographic approach
is usually a mix of research methods such as: in-depth interviews, participant observation
etc.
Atkinson et al. have affirmed the importance of a ‘first-hand’ account and participant
observation in ethnographic approaches. They also insist that common features such as
interaction, dialogue and communication form a basis of these approaches in their
succinct expression:
“They (ethnographic approaches) are grounded in a commitment to the

first-hand experience and exploration of a particular social or cultural
setting on the basis of (though not exclusively by) participant
observation. Observation and participation (according to circumstance
and the analytic purpose at hand) remain the characteristic features of the
ethnographic approach. In many cases, of course, fieldwork entails the
use of other methods too. Participant observation alone would normally
result in strange and unnatural behaviour were the observer not to talk
with her or his hosts, so turning them into informants or ‘co-researchers.’
30
Mason, Qualitative Researching, 55.
31
Hesse-Biber and Leavy, The Practice of Qualitative Research, 193-4.
32
Hence, conversations and interviews are often indistinguishable from

other forms of interaction and dialogue in field research settings.” 33
In order to underline the importance of a direct familiarity, Geertz is of the opinion that
ethnography does not simply consist of a set of techniques one employs (e.g. interviews,
participant observation) but by the researcher’s ability to provide a ‘thick description’ of
the situation.34 Such description is referred to as ‘thick’ when it is aimed at explaining the
lives of people by describing the cultural meanings that inspire their actions. 35 Without a
doubt, ethnographic study is suiting for the cause of our research in exploring questions
surrounding the gender motif and women in the domain of marital and family life in
Nigeria.
2.4. Fundamental Features in the Set-up of our Empirical Research

In this section, we shall outline the fundamental steps in the organisation of our empirical
study.
2.4.1. Participant Recruitment

Monique Hennink et al. note that participant recruitment involves two stages. The first
stage is to define an appropriate study population and the second stage is to identify
strategies for recruiting participants. Defining an appropriate study population is needed
in determining how and who to recruit. Typically, the study population is defined a priori
during the conceptual design of the study, and it is often motivated by the nature of the
researcher’s research question and previous literature-study.36 This may however undergo
subsequent re-defining and refining. In consideration of its ‘appropriateness,’ the
recruitment of participants with specific characteristics that can best inform the research
question is required. The necessity of acquiring information from participants who are
willing to express themselves and capable to do so in an understandable manner is
fundamental in participant recruitment.37
Hence, “participants in qualitative research are chosen because they have particular
characteristics or experiences that can contribute to a greater understanding of the
phenomenon studied. Identifying people with specific characteristics or experiences
33
Atkinson, et al., Handbook of Ethnography, 4-5.
34
Hennink, et al., Qualitative Research Methods, 48-9. On the intricacies in relating the ethnographic
approach to the interpretive theory on culture see Clifford Geertz, The Interpretation of Cultures, New
York: Basic Books, 1973. For more detailed explanations on methods of creatively writing ethnography
see H. L. Goodall, Writing the New Ethnography (Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira, 2000); S. L. Schensul et
al., Essential Ethnographic Methods: Observations, Interviews and Questionnaires (Book 2 in
Ethnographer’s Toolkit) (Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira, 1999).
35
Ibid., 48-9.
36
Ibid., 84-5.
37
George McCall and J.L. Simmons, eds., Issues in Participant Observation: A Text and Reader (Reading,
MA: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, 1969), 4.
requires a non-random approach to participant recruitment....” 38 The point here is that

because the required participants might not be evenly distributed in the population, such
participants might be missed if random sampling is used. Hence the recruitment is
necessarily purposive. David Silverman particularly clarifies this in his reflection that
purposive sampling demands that one thinks critically about the parameters of his/her
study population and seeks out the strategy for involving them. 39 This helped a great deal
in identifying strategies/methods of recruitment.
The resident priests of the parishes we considered were of immense assistance in
selecting these respondents. The criteria for selection included the ability to communicate
efficiently, familiarity with church teachings, regular attendance in parish activities,
willingness to participate in a research. Most of the couples knew each other on parish
level but being that they were interviewed at separate times, there was little or no
communication between them with reference to the content of our ethnography. Two
couples declined to participate in the research explaining that they were not mentally
prepared for such a reflective exercise.
2.4.2. Informed Consent

There is a wide consensus among social scientists that research involving human
participants should be carried out only when the informed consent of the participants has
been verified.40 Though it was originally developed for biomedical research, requesting
the consent of participants is a vital aspect of a qualitative design project. It has been
aptly defined as “the procedure in which individuals choose whether to participate in an
investigation after been informed of facts that would be likely to influence their
decision.”41 Bruce Berg puts it slightly differently and more directly. He suggests that
“informed consent means the knowing consent of individuals to participate as an exercise
of their choice, free from any element of fraud, deceit, duress, or similar unfair
inducement or manipulation.”42 It is an assurance that their privacy and dignity will be
protected. Still, it must be made known to them that they are not by any means under any
coercion to participate in the research and that their participation is entirely voluntary. In
actual fact, they are reminded that they can pull out from the research whenever they
deem appropriate, especially when they no longer feel comfortable with the process. The
38
39
David Silverman, Doing Qualitative Research, 3rd edition, (Los Angeles, CA: Sage Publications, 2010),
141.
40
Frankfort-Nachmias and Nachmias, Research Methods in the Social Sciences, 81. See also Corrine
Glesne, Becoming Qualitative Researchers: An Introduction, 3rd edition (Boston, MA: Pearson, 2006),
132.
41
Edward Diener and Rick Crandall, Ethics in Social and Behavioural Research (Chicago: University of
Chicago Press, 1978), 34. See also Frankfort-Nachmias and Nachmias, Research Methods in the Social
Sciences, 83.
42
Bruce L. Berg, Qualitative Research Methods for the Social Sciences, 3rd ed. Boston, MA: Allyn and
Bacon, 1998, 47. On the use of informed consent in Doctor of Ministry Theses for example, Sensing,
Qualitative Research, 34-6.
researcher is to ensure that informed consent has been received from each participant,
which includes his or her right to refuse to participate in the study.43
I was obliged to provide the participants with sufficient information about the study
coupled with the procedures during the interviews/discussions. In the first instance, it is
typical for the researcher to make a self-introduction and then give a description of the
purpose of the research in which they are participating. With the use of a digital recorder
being an integral part of qualitative research for the accurate recording of the interview,
an explanation on why such recording is necessary is made to the participant.44
Anonymity and confidentiality are hallmarks of a qualitative research activity. The
former indicates that all identifiable information is removed from the transcript or
quotations in order to ensure that the participants remain anonymous. The latter refers to a
non-disclosure of information that is shared between the researcher and the participant.45
The usual practices for protecting and guaranteeing anonymity are the use of pseudonyms
or sobriquets coupled with the modification of details so that persons and places cannot
be identified although changing the location is not always possible. Therefore, in a bid to
guarantee anonymity, the participants are referred to by fictive names.
Notwithstanding, scholars seem to reason that while anonymity is possible,
confidentiality is not always completely possible being that quotations from participants
are often included in the researcher’s report of findings.46 This has led some ethicists to
question the extent to which informed consent has lived up to its promise. In fact, on
some occasions, it might be that the research subjects do not totally understand the
research project in which they are participating.47
2.4.3. In-depth Interview and Structure

In most cases, an in-depth interview is a one-to-one method of data collection. This
involves an interviewer and an interviewee conversing about specific topics in depth.
However, it might sometimes occur that in-depth interviews are conducted with two
interviewees. The interview is meant to feel like a conversation for the interviewee even
though it is not a two-way dialogue for reason being that the interviewer’s role is
basically to elicit stories while the interviewee shares their story. The interviewer asks
43
Hennink, et al., Qualitative Research Methods, 68. With regard to the voluntariness of the participants, a
code of ethics, the ‘Nuremberg Code’ was formulated after the World War II stipulating that all research
participation must be voluntary. See Hesse-Biber and Leavy, The Practice of Qualitative Research, 85.
44
Ibid., 70.
45
Ibid., 71.
46
Sensing, Qualitative Research, 36.
47
Hesse-Biber and Leavy, The Practice of Qualitative Research, 66. Another issue regarding the obtaining
of informed consent is the difficulty of obtaining consent in minors, or in individuals who do not have a
clear understanding of the language used or those who are mentally disabled or even emotionally fragile.
Also, the twists and turns of the research study as is typical by its dynamic nature might diverge in a
direction that makes participants to become quite uncomfortable or unwilling to go further. For these and
other reasons, Marilyn Licthman avows that the consent people give in advance may not really be
‘informed.’ See Lichtman, Qualitative Research for the Social Sciences, 59.
questions and also motivates the interviewee to share their insights. This interview setting
makes possible the co-creation of knowledge and meaning as well as a co-construction of
reality.48 A semi-structured interview guide is then often used to aid the interviewer in
this process. A typical interview guide consists of: an introduction, opening questions,
key questions and closing questions. They usually yield a large amount of data in the
form of interview transcripts.
In-depth interviews may be described as a conversation with a purpose. Tom
Wengraf insists that the purpose of in-depth interview is to identify: narratives about
people’s lives, the subjectivity of the interviewee and the context in which the interviewee
lives.49 Put differently, these consist of the stories shared by the participant, the identity
and background of the participant which has influenced that person’s story and the setting
in which they live. 50 Ideally, in-depths interviews are conducted in the homes of the
participants or in a place where they feel most comfortable. In our study, the majority of
the interviews were conducted in the local parish environment and a few were conducted
in the homes of the respondents. For the most part, couples were interviewed separately.
In terms of the duration of interviews, the average time for a single interview session
spanned 60 minutes. The men and the women had equal speaking time in the interview
sessions except for a few occasions where the participant was characteristically terse in
his/her response.
The questions presented to the interviewee were mostly open-ended (See Annex II).
The intention was to gain as much information as possible on the subject matter. 51 These
questions focused on the key subjects surrounding the theoretical framework of this
qualitative research. The question-selection went through a refinement process in order to
identify those sets of questions that were most apt to uncover the needed information for
the purpose of our research. When necessary, follow-up questions were raised in order to
clarify some salient points elicited by the respondents.52
Aiming at a relaxing and conversational interaction, we endeavored to accomplish an
atmosphere of discussion in order that the participants might be more free and willing to
share their stories and insights on their own terms. It was important to gain trust and
establish a rapport. Accordingly, the interview sessions typically began by ‘breaking the
ice’ with general questions and gradually moves on to more specific ones. 53 These
48
49
Tom Wengraf, Qualitative Research Interviewing: Biographic Narrative and Semi-structured Methods
(London: Sage, 2001), 6. See also Hennink, et al., Qualitative Research Methods, 110.
50
Wengraf, Qualitative Research Interviewing, 6.
51
Hennink, et al., Qualitative Research Methods, 109. See also VandeCreek, et al., Research in Pastoral
Care and Counseling, 43.
52
Wengraf, Qualitative Research Interviewing, 6.
53
Andrea Fontana and James H. Frey, “The Interview: From Neutral Stance to Political Involvement,” in
Collecting and Interpreting Qualitative Materials, 3rd edition, Norman K. Denzin and Yvonna S. Lincoln
(eds.), (Los Angeles, CA: Sage Publications, 2008), 139.
questions were generated from a broad study of literatures relevant to our research54 and
the set-up was mainly inspired by David Silverman in his explanation of the key insights
to be looked out for in interview questions.55
In order to obtain a diversity of opinions on the gender subject, the ethnography
engaged a vast strand of participants taking into consideration the following: the
geographical area (urban, semi-urban and rural settlement), number of years spent in
marital life (e.g. 2 – 50years), levels of education (literate, semi-literate and non-literate),
varied age grades, married and divorced/separated and those about to get married. The
vast majority of the couples have children. The language of communication was English
Language.
The participants were homogenous in terms of religion (Catholic-Christians) and
region (5 parishes in the Archdiocese of Benin). The participant parishes in chronological
classification were: St. Matthias’ Parish, Ologbo; St. Andrew’s Parish, Iguobazuwa;
Sacred Heart Parish, Evboriaria-Benin; St. Thomas Aquinas Parish, Abudu and St. Paul’s
Parish, Benin City. A purposive sampling56 was used to search for individual respondents
who fitted into our specification stated above in conjunction with the criteria for selection
already stated. The interview spanned through a period of four months: from January –
April 2015.
2.4.4. Participant Observation

The research method of observation assists researchers to systematically examine
people’s behaviour, actions and interactions, body language, way of speaking, social
setting etc. This gives the researcher an opportunity to familiarise with the details of the
social settings or events so as to contextualise the behaviour and actions of people within
this milieu. It is also used to understand and interpret cultural behaviour. Though it may
sound simple, the act of observation is often tedious. Also, researchers are meant to
decide what, when and who to observe. As a result, observation exists under the category
54
Svend Brinkmann has explained that sequel to the place of interviews as one of the most common ways
of producing knowledge in the human and social sciences, interview questions need to be designed in
order that they might strike at the heart of one’s research question and aided particularly by a thematic
consideration of vital concepts in the subject matter. See Svend Brinkmann, “The Interview,” in The SAGE
Handbook of Qualitative Research, 5th edition, Norman K. Denzin and Yvonna S. Lincoln (eds.), (Los
Angeles, CA: Sage Publications, 2018), 577-8. 576-599. The following books facilitated the identification
of crucial themes in marriage and family life in Nigeria: Benezeri Kisembo, Laurenti Magesa and Aylward
Shorter, African Christian Marriage (Nairobi: Paulines, 2010); Mary Kibera, Love and Conflict in
Marriage: Handling Misunderstandings (Nairobi: Paulines, 2007); John Burke, Christian Marriage:
Preparing for the Greatest Challenge in Life (Nairobi: Paulines, 2007); Pamela Kavoki Wanda, Bringing
Up Children: In a Permissive Society (Nairobi: Paulines, 2007); Jane M. Kiura, Courtship and Marriage:
How to Prepare for a Successful Marriage (Nairobi: Paulines, 2012); Jane M. Kiura, Success in
Marriage: What Every Married Couple Should Know (Nairobi: Paulines, 2012); Leonarda Besigomwe, A
Guide to a Happy Marriage: Why Do We Need Serious Marriage Preparation? (Nairobi: Paulines, 2014).
55
David Silverman illustrates the genre of interview questions capable of eliciting detailed responses from
the interviewee in his clarification on how to conduct a research interview. See David Silverman, Doing
Qualitative Research, 3rd edition, (Los Angeles, CA: Sage Publications, 2010), 194-7.
56
See Hennink, et al., Qualitative Research Methods, 84.
of the interpretive paradigm and it is a core component of an ethnographic fieldwork

approach.57
Observation may come in the form of participant observation or non-participant
observation. In the course of this project, a participant observation was carried out. This
is quite beneficial for initiating rapport before in-depth interviews are conducted and also
to identify salient norms and values in the particular cultural setting under study.
Schensul et al. defines it as “the process of learning through exposure to or involvement
in the day-to-day or routine activities of participants in the research setting.”58
Still, it would be misleading to regard participant observation as a single method.
Rather, it is a blend or combination of methods and techniques that is utilized in the study
of social systems.59 The participant observer’s role is that of a “conscious and systematic
sharing, insofar as circumstances permit, in the life activities, and on occasion, in the
interests and effects of a group of persons.”60 It is a reliable way of participating in the
life of one’s study community or participants. Concretely, this meant that I tried to
familiarise myself with them within that space of time, albeit short, and to enable me
rethink the most suitable way to approach them in order that they might be more willing
and open to sharing their insights. This also had implications in the way I attempted a
breakdown of my research question precisely in the rural locations where some of the
interlocutors were not quite educated.
2.4.5 Reflexivity and Subjectivity

Reflexivity entails the process of reflecting critically on the self as researcher. It involves
a thoughtful, more immediate, dynamic and continuing self-awareness requiring a critical
self-reflection of the manner in which a researcher’s social background, positions,
assumptions and behaviour impact on the research process.61 In effect, reflexivity makes
the researcher come to terms not only with those he/she participates with in the research
process, but with the self and with the multiple identities that represent the fluid self in
the research setting. Hence, reflexivity demands the relentless interrogation of the self
with regard to how certain binaries and paradoxes shape not only our identities but also,
how it influences our interactions with respondents and in who we become to them.62
57
Hennink, et al., Qualitative Research Methods, 170. See also Anne Mulhall, “In the Field: Notes on
Observation in Qualitative Research,” Journal of Advanced Nursing 41, no. 3 (2003): 306.
58
Schensul, et al., Essential Ethnographic Methods, 91.
59
McCall and Simmons eds., Issues in Participant Observation, 1.
60
Florence Kluckhohn, “The Participant Observer Technique in Small Communities,” American Journal
of Sociology 46 (1940): 331. See also Frankfort-Nachmias and Nachmias, Research Methods in the Social
Sciences, 282.
61
Linda Finlay and Brendan Gough, Reflexivity: A Practical Guide for Researchers in Health and Social
Sciences, (Oxford: Blackwell Science, 2003), ix.
62
Egon G. Guba and Yvonna S. Lincoln, “Paradigmatic Controversies, Contradictions and Emerging
Confluences,” in The Landscape of Qualitative Research, 3rd edition, Norman K. Denzin and Yvonna S.
Lincoln (eds.), (Los Angeles, CA: Sage Publications, 2008), 278-9.
For this reason, the sociologists Andreas Fontana and James Frey underscore the
importance of deciding how to present oneself from the first moment of meeting. Would
it be as a representative from the academia, a clergy-laity conversation or to humbly
present oneself as a ‘learner’? I made effort in epitomizing the latter and found it true that
the interviewer’s presentational self has the capacity to leave an impression on the
respondents and exerts a great influence on the success of the study (or lack thereof).63
Accordingly, I tried to set up the interview in a conversational or dialogic style in
order to encourage the respondents to participate more. The reflexive model aided me in
recognizing that my identity as a male, a priest and someone originating from the same
area as them might have some impact in the feedback I get from the respondents –
particularly the female ones who might be sensitive to a male interviewer. In order to
bridge this gap, I made conscious effort to conduct the interviews in an informal
manner.64
There is no gainsaying that reflexivity is a stimulating exercise. It required me as a
researcher to interrogate the intersubjective dynamics between me and the participants of
my research. It made me realize that though the research is co-constituted – a joint
product of the participants, the researcher and their relationship – keeping my own
preconceived ideas, personal convictions, intuitions, experiences, commitments,
judgments and emotions in check throughout the process is more than required. 65 A vivid
example is those moments where I found myself empathizing, sympathizing and agreeing
with participants. On a few occasions, I was wishing I could make things better for them.
I could tell that my presence seem to influence their responses in the sense that they
appeared open to engage in dialogue knowing that I am a priest and that they could
confide in me. Additionally, the fact that I was not their parish priest or a priest of a
nearby local community might also have implications for the way they felt at ease
speaking with a ‘stranger’. However, my clerical background might have made them
render a positive albeit superficial assessment of church teachings or refrain from being
quite critical due to the supposition that I might be more inclined to hearing positives. On
the flip side, the fact that I am a male researcher should have impacted on the women in
the sense that they might have been prone to some sort of self-censorship or show
hesitance from being elaborate as they could have been if they were in a dialogue with a
63
Fontana and Frey, “The Interview,” 131-2.
64
See Douglas Foley and Angela Valenzuela, “Critical Ethnography: The Politics of Collaboration,” in
The Landscape of Qualitative Research, 3rd edition, Norman K. Denzin and Yvonna S. Lincoln (eds.), (Los
Angeles, CA: Sage Publications, 2008), 295.
65
Ilja Maso, “Necessary Subjectivity: Exploiting Researchers’ Motives, Passions and Prejudices in Pursuit
of Answering ‘True’ Questions,” in Reflexivity: A Practical Guide for Researchers in Health and Social
Sciences, Linda Finlay and Brendan Gough (eds.), (Oxford: Blackwell Science, 2003), 40. See also Blair,
“A Reflexive Exploration of Two Qualitative Data Coding Techniques,” 18.
female researcher. On the other hand, however, my presence facilitated the research in a
way that a questionnaire would have provided mainly brief responses to the interview
questions.
Sharing the same background as the respondents in terms of origin might also mean
that they could relate well with me although it could have been a motive to recoil in the
knowledge that I am ostensibly familiar with dominant challenges faced by married
couples in the area. Furthermore, I must admit that the decision to interview partners
separately was quite rewarding. This made the individual participants more open to freely
express their thoughts without been excessively perceptive to indicting their spouse.
Reflecting further on my subjectivity, I acknowledge, however, that my stay in a
Western country for a number of years and the knowledge derived from the ethnography
itself has made a deep impression in me. I am now more aware that some women in
Nigeria do question traditional practices but are reluctantly resigned to accommodating
them. In the course of the ethnography, I became sentient too that a considerable number
of men are not advocates of male supremacy as I thought a priori. This acquaintance
made me re-examine my subjective positions and internal assumptions on issues such as
the complexity of patriarchy, the quandaries of marriage and family life on Nigerian
couples, the manner in which power and clout are constructed in male-female relations,
the struggles of women in coming to terms with the norms of Nigerian traditions and
culture. Hence, while not denying the inevitability of my own subjectivity in the research
process, consciously cross-examining it was meant to assist me in being a better
researcher and to improve the quality and framework of our research.
As regards the ethics of this ethnographic research, I am optimistic that the
participants of this ethnography will be contacted at the end of this research project and
informed about the results of our research. It is my hope that with the aid of prospective
seminars, workshops and conversations among basic local Christian communities, we
shall attempt a contribution towards the improvement of current ecclesial praxis regarding
male-female relations within the Catholic Archdioceses of Benin City. Additionally, with
reference to addressing the question of gender imbalances in Nigeria, on policy level, our
research findings, coming in the form of reflections, publications and public presentations
could provide an impetus for a sustained awareness raising, intensified advocacy for
gender equity within and outside the academia and inspire on-going discussions on this
subject in Southern-Nigeria specifically, and in the broader context, Africa.
Having identified the key contents of our qualitative study and the important steps in
conducting an ethnographic research, I will set out to provide a synopsis of the
methodological approach in which our analysis shall be studied, namely, the
interpretative phenomenological analysis.
2.5. Methodology of Analysis

This section contains the methodology of analysis we employed in the interpretation of
our empirical study.
2.5.1. Outlining the Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis

Ever since Jonathan Smith’s delineation of this ‘experience-based’ qualitative
methodology in the mid-1990s, interpretative phenomenological analysis has come to
stay. Numerous research studies show that its influence in the sphere of qualitative
research is on the increase. Although, it was initially applied in the fields of health and
clinical psychology, its scope in contemporary academia is far-reaching.66
From the terminologies, one might already deduce that interpretative
phenomenological analysis (IPA) is primarily concerned with, as Dennis Howitt and
Duncan Cramer put it “a detailed description and interpretation of the accounts of
particular experiences or phenomena as told by an individual or a small number of
individuals.” 67 What interests the most in this method is its proclivity for a reflective
engagement and picturization of what constitutes our lived world. In interpreting the
experiences of people, its intention is to generate deeper insights into recurrent
conversations emanating from everyday contact with the world. The gain of this
endeavour is that, through it, our discussions on the gender subject would become more
focus-oriented and constructive.
The concept ‘phenomenology’ is very central in the composition of IPA. Put
differently, IPA has its root in phenomenology, which in itself is a major branch of
philosophy. The phenomenological tradition is associated with existential philosophy
while also maintaining close ties with hermeneutics. According to Marilyn Lichtman, the
purpose of phenomenology is “to describe and understand the essence of lived
experiences of individuals who have experienced a particular phenomenon.”68 Basically,
phenomenology is considered as both a philosophy and a methodology. It is noteworthy,
however, that early phenomenological works were philosophical in intent rather than
research motivated. 69 On this note, I shall briefly consider the philosophical
underpinnings of phenomenology.
2.5.2. Philosophical Foundations of the Phenomenological School

The origins of phenomenology lie in the work of Austrian-born German philosopher
Edmund Husserl (1857-1976) in his work Logische Untersuchungen (1900) translated as
66
Howitt and Cramer, Introduction to Research Methods in Psychology, 430.
67
Ibid., 430.
68
Lichtman, Qualitative Research for the Social Sciences, 111.
69
Kim Usher and Debra Jackson, “Phenomenology,” in Qualitative Methodology: A Pastoral Guide, ed.
Jane Mills and Melanie Birks (Los Angeles, CA: Sage, 2014), 181.
Logical Investigations.70 In its initial phase, it aimed at actively rejecting the influential
idea of French philosopher René Descartes on his claim that there is an objective physical
world that exists independently of the mind, that is, the Cartesian Dualism.
Husserl’s attempt was to challenge the idea of an objective reality existing
independently of human experience. In order to achieve this, he tasked phenomenology
with the responsibility of studying things as experiences through consciousness. To his
mind, the only way to ‘know’ reality comes through how it is experienced by
consciousness. Therefore, to achieve this, it was deemed important to isolate the
conscious experience from our thoughts about that experience. This method in
phenomenology, which is referred to as ‘bracketing’ is used in an attempt to know what
the pure experience is.71 The question might well be how far can a researcher successfully
‘bracket’ or set aside his or her own views about the phenomenon. This thinking featured
prominently in our analysis as the study went on.
Husserl also held that we could hardly see a thing from all of its different
perspectives at once. He connoted this as transcendence. Put differently, a person’s
subjective perception is considered very important because this perception is what
motivates that person to act. In underscoring the importance of a person’s subjective
perception, his aim was to identify the key components to understanding human
experience. What stood out for Husserl was intentionality.72 As Usher and Jackson put it,
“for Husserl, intentionality is the key to understanding human experience. For him,
experience should be examined in the way it occurs, as he is interested in how individuals
come to know their own experience of a phenomenon, which allows them to identify the
essential qualities of that experience.”73 Intentionality therefore became very central in
implying the process that occurs in the consciousness and the object of that attention. As
M. Crotty remarks, it would appear that ‘consciousness is always conscious of
something.’74
Later versions of phenomenology attempted to move it from a descriptive to an
interpretative endeavour. This focus on the hermeneutic perspective, which acknowledges
that human existence is always inundated in a world of meanings, was championed by
Martin Heidegger (1889-1976). Going further, Heidegger rejects the notion of bracketing.
His contention was that interpretation occurs ‘within a background of preconceptions or
70
Nonetheless, it was not until 1913 that Husserl was used the term in a later published book, Ideen zu
einer reinen Phänomenologie und phänomenologischen Philosophie, translated as Ideas: A General
Introduction to Pure Philosophy (1962). See Howitt and Cramer, Introduction to Research Methods in
Psychology, 431.
71
72
Usher and Jackson, “Phenomenology,” 183.
73
Ibid., 183.
74
Michael Crotty, The Foundations of Social Research: Meaning and Perspective in the Research Process
(Crows Nest: Allen and Unwin, 1998), 79. For a more detailed explanation on the processes that occur in
consciousness see Usher and Jackson, “Phenomenology,” 182-3.
presuppositions from which the interpreter can never be free.’ 75 Other notable
philosophers in the phenomenological tradition include: Jean-Paul Sartre, Maurice
Merleau-Ponty, Paul Ricoeur, Hans-Georg Gadamer.
2.5.3. Further Considerations: The Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis

From the foregoing, it is important to highlight that a fundamental assumption of IPA is
that people try to make sense of their experiences and understanding. Therefore, the IPA
researcher is tasked on two fronts: (a) to describe people’s experiences effectively and (b)
to try to make sense of their experiences. 76 Quite visibly, this incorporates both the
descriptive phenomenology of Husserl and the interpretative/hermeneutic slant of
Heidegger. Put differently, IPA is an attempt to interpret the interpretations of the
individual.
In light of the above, the term lived experience is very central in IPA. It is only from
lived experience that meaning is derived. M. van Manen and C.A. Adams explain that the
term lived experience derives from the German Erlebnis, referring to ‘experience as we
live it’ and acknowledging it as ‘a particular type of experience.’ 77 Although it is
designated as Lebenswelt (lived world) by Husserl in his last work, this concept of lived
experience in phenomenology is what typically distinguishes it from other types of
qualitative research that also focus on human experience.78 The question that follows in
this exposé of IPA is: what is the position of the researcher in this given methodology?
As we will demonstrate, in IPA, it is the specific responsibility of the researcher to
‘transform’ information provided by participants as they explore particular phenomenon.
Such an approach often makes the participants ‘research partners.’ The transformation of
information provided by participants also necessitates the adoption of a reflective stance
in a bid to understand the nuances of one’s own experiences of a phenomenon. 79 To this
end, in our research, we found it important to develop thoughtful phenomenologically-
oriented questions. The ability to put participants at ease in order to ensure deep and
meaningful data collection is also crucial. As Usher and Jackson puts it, it is “necessary
for the researcher to be extremely self-aware and perceptive, to be able to recognize when
a participant is not at ease and to change the data collection process accordingly.”80
Scholars seem to agree that a central consideration in the application of
phenomenological approaches is culture. This attention to ‘culture’ is accentuated as a
result of IPA’s focus on lived experience. Therefore, in conducting our research, three
things stood out with regard to the role of culture in (1) experiencing a phenomenon (2)
75
76
77
Max van Manen and Cathy A. Adams, “Phenomenology,” in International Encyclopaedia of Education,
edited by P. Peterson, E. Baker, et al. (Oxford: Elsevier, 2010), 449-455.
78
Marilyn Lichtman, 115. See also Usher and Jackson, “Phenomenology,” 182.
79
80
Ibid., 187.
making meaning of that phenomenon and (3) telling the story or recounting the
experience of the phenomenon. Other aspects considered were: the possibility of effective
and reflective communication, clarity in speaking, active listening, allowing enough time
for participants to make their responses as full as desired, allowing some silence in a way
that participants can reflect and gather their thoughts etc. Taking cognisance of these
facets might actually make the interview session longer but detailed.81
2.6. Conclusion
So far, we have substantiated the choice of our methodology. We began by presenting the
meaning and implication of qualitative researching. Thereafter, discussing the contrast
between quantitative and qualitative methodologies we revealed the sense in which both
methods unearth different kinds of precision as well as each having its own criteria for
excellence of process. We also noted the two theories that distinguish their approaches to
explanation namely, the ‘variance theory’ and ‘process theory’ respectively.
Subsequently, we considered the historical and philosophical foundations of the
qualitative method in order to capture the origin and motivation for this trend.
It was relevant to explain ethnography as the study of culture and based on an
epistemology which recounts that culture can be known through cultural and social
settings. Scholars agree that central to ethnography is the idea of ‘immersion.’ In
ethnography, therefore, the emphasis on a ‘first-hand experience’ is usually eminent.
Going further, we outlined the major steps of our ethnographic endeavour. These came in
the form of: participant recruitment, informed consent, the in-depth interview itself,
participant observation and the reseacher’s subjectivity. In the end, we expounded our
preferred methodology for the analysis of the interview namely, the interpretative
phenomenological analysis. We elucidated the interest of IPA in analysing/interpreting
the experiences of people and that its intention is to generate deeper insights into
recurrent conversations emanating from everyday contact with the world and summed up
in the attention it pays to what constitutes our lived world.
81
For a detailed examination of ‘data generation and collection’ see Usher and Jackson,
“Phenomenology,” 189.
SECTION B: THE FINDINGS OF THE ETHNOGRAPHIC STUDY
2.7. Introduction
This section aims at an expounding analysis of qualitative data gathered from an
empirical study in the Catholic Archdiocese of Benin City. This study is based on an
ethnographic research with 20 married couples (40 participants) in 5 Catholic parishes in
the Archdiocese. The bulk of the data came in the form of in-depth semi-structured
interviews. Participant observation in the various communities in which the research took
place also played a key role. We have already outlined the steps of the qualitative data
collecting process in the previous section. The method of analysis used is the
Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). As we earlier noted, the foremost
positive of the IPA is its proclivity for detailed descriptions and interpretations of the
accounts of particular experiences or phenomena as told by an individual or a small
number of individuals intended to generate deeper insights into recurrent conversations
emanating from everyday contact with the world.82
In essence, this section features the content analysis of the data of our qualitative
study (participant observation and interviews). The overriding purpose of this study was
to identify couples’ convictions, experiences and practices with regard to their views on
gender roles and their ways of living together as wives and husbands. The exploration and
examination of the interviews that emanate accordingly inform us as to how far these
experiences concur with or deviate from the local church’s teaching, catechesis and
ministerial practice. The study has helped in accessing the local discourse and perception
of gender-related issues.
2.8. A Brief Overview of the Archdiocese of Benin City

The Archdiocese of Benin is one out of the nine Archdioceses, forty-three suffragan
dioceses and two vicariates in Nigeria. Historically, it was the first to exchange
interactions with foreign missionaries in Nigeria. As early as 1486, there was already a
missionary contact with Benin. The Portuguese Missionaries in the company of
Portuguese traders penetrated through Warri to Ughoton (near Benin). 83 It was from there
they moved into the ancient city of Benin, which is now the capital of Edo State. These
missionaries advised the Oba84 to become a Christian. In delight, the Oba at the time, Oba
Esigie accepted the proposal and further requested for some more priests who would
teach him and his people the faith. In a response to the conversion of the Benin King, the
King of Portugal sent presents to his Nigerian counterpart and thus a cordial relationship
was established. Subsequently, a number of churches were built in Ogbelaka, Idumwerie,
82
83
Catholic Archdiocese of Benin City, 2016 Directory and Liturgical Calendar (Benin City: Floreat
Systems, 2015), 12.
84
‘Oba’ is the title given to the King of Benin.
Akpakpava and Holy Cross Road. In 1504, Oba Esigie was baptized into the Catholic
faith.85
The initial success of the missionary enterprise however diminished in the coming
years as a result of the reluctance of Oba Esigie’s immediate successors. Contact with the
Portuguese missionaries became nearly absent. In a renewed effort, the Sacred
Congregation for the Propagation of Faith assigned the task of evangelizing the territory
to Spain in 1648. The Spanish Capuchin contingent witnessed even less success. By
1713, the last group of these latest missionaries had abandoned the mission.86
A new wave of evangelization however swept in in the late 19th century. In a Papal
Bull, issued on May 2, 1884, the mission territory of Benin was carved out of the
Vicariate of the Bight of Benin. The special mandate for the evangelization of Benin and
its environs was presented to the Society Missions of Africa (S.M.A.). Upon the
establishment of the Hierarchy of Nigeria on April 18, 1950, the Diocese of Benin was
created. It was raised to an Archdiocese in 1994. The Dioceses of Warri, Issele-Uku,
Auchi, Uromi and Bomadi have since been created out of Benin. The present territory has
an area of 10,856,700 sq km inhabiting 1,856,761 people with a Catholic population of
133,400. This is only about seven per cent of the population. There are about 130 priests
working in the three deaneries of the Archdiocese and the number of parishes is presently
seventy.87 A Christian Protestant population of about fifty per cent, a Muslim minority
and some adherents of African traditional religions also people the area.
The Archdiocese of Benin is characterized by an urban, semi-urban and rural
population. Therefore, a conscious effort was made to integrate this diversity in our study.
This explains the selection of two urban parishes, one semi-urban and two rural parishes.
2.9. Ethnographic Research Question and Procedural Categorizations

The broad theological-ethical research question for this project is: How should an African
Christian (Catholic) discourse on gender look like that respects the cultural heritage and
grass root experiences of African couples on the one side and goes against unjust gender
structures on the other side? However, for the purpose of this ethnographic study, our
research question is broken down as follows: How are male-female relations lived in
Southern Nigeria? In what ways does Christianity influence/motivate cultural patterns of
gender relations? What are the challenges facing marital and family life from the
perspective of gender?
85
Catholic Archdiocese of Benin City, 2016 Directory, 12.
86
Ibid., 13-4. Lamin Sanneh has provided a detailed study of the Spanish and Portuguese contingents to
Benin coupled with the role of the Propaganda Fide in ensuring the spread of the faith. He hinges the
failure of the mission not on the disposition of the Oba, which according to him was favourable, but on the
opposition of the palace chiefs who had grown in strength while trading with the Dutch and the English.
For a detailed narration, see Lamin Sanneh, West African Christianity: The Religious Impact (London:
Hurst, 1983), 44-47.
87
Ibid., 14-6.
In the development of this ethnographic research design, NVivo 11.1.1 software, was
used. NVivo is a qualitative data analysis computer software package.88 Since its creation
in 1999, it effectively aids the organization and analysis of non-numerical data; creating
allowance for users to classify, sort and arrange information. The analytical process,
which is referred to as ‘coding’ enriches this project. In a simple yet operational way,
coding aids the categorization of the qualitative data derived from interview transcripts.
In this way, the raw data is classified using descriptive categories. This is meant to
facilitate analysis. Upon the assembling of codes, we organized them into broader themes
and categories. The themes themselves were identified from the prevailing codes of the
interlocutions. Thereafter, hierarchies within the themes were created while the themes
were linked together through theoretical modelling. The coding of data was done after the
transcription of interviews.
The codes used emanated from the data itself as derived from the interviews. These
emergent codes formed the basis on which the presentation and structure of the analysis is
built (See coding scheme in Annex IV). It enabled us to code conceptually similar
narratives, actions and interactions while also constantly comparing these data and
categories.89 As a result, the theoretical framework for our analysis is developed from
within the data rather than imposed upon it.
This reliance on the data for the derivation of codes was of added benefit to their
categorization also. It made for an efficient outlining of the various codes under
prominent groupings. Indeed, categorization is the process by which codes are
amalgamated into categories. This process identifies categories that fit the codings and
vice versa.90 In light of the above, the following categorizations emerged from the data
and they form the groundwork of our analysis:
o The Cultural context
o The Religious context
o Power and Relations
o Roles and Responsibilities
o Relational interactions
2.10. The Cultural Context

As we noted in the first chapter, culture plays a crucial role in the framework of gender
reflections in Nigeria. In the study under analysis, a group of participants echoed a certain
‘culture-controlled’ society. They typify the axiom that: individuals are products of their
society. For some people, the understanding, acknowledgement and actualization of what
is referred to as the ‘demands of culture’ in Nigeria, and in several countries of sub-
88
For details on NVivo and other Computer-Assisted Qualitative Data Analysis Software (CAQDAS), see
Howitt and Cramer, Introduction to Research Methods in Psychology, 396-9.
89
See Erik Blair, “A Reflexive Exploration of Two Qualitative Data Coding Techniques” in Journal of
Methods and Measurement in the Social Sciences, vol. 6, no. 1 (2015): 17.
90
Sahara Africa, is key to their perception of what gender is about. As a result, persons of
different gender are faced with the challenge of upholding these ‘demands’ or of finding
new ways of interactions.
In conveying the influence of culture, Anthonia O. noted:
“Superiority amongst male in gender relations usually results from the

family the man comes from, his traditions and culture. The man may not
even give the idea of superiority a thought but family intrusions and the
precepts of his traditional society may make it happen.”91
There is a recognition here that the identity of individuals is shaped by their culture. This
is essentially fostered by traditional societies who serve as watchdogs to these
philosophies. Yet, the extent of this influence is rather unknown. Another respondent,
Oshiogwe A, an elderly man. provides a clue however:
“There was a time my father sent my mum packing out of the house. My
father was a very 'traditional' man who believed in masculine supremacy.
That always played on my mind. It was an experience I didn’t like. On
my part, I didn’t want to toe that line. Not at all.”92
Oshiogwe notifies that parent often transmit patriarchal ideas, although children might
respond to them in a different way. A huge facet of masculine power is directly learnt in
the home. In this ‘cultural’ melodrama, the father is often the protagonist just as the
mother is regularly the villain. The odds of this scenario are further heightened by the
realities of polygamy. 93 Optimistically, some children from such homes consciously
deviate from it when they raise their own families. They already put to question, what is
referred to as the ‘African culture.’
What are the presuppositions of an ‘African culture’?

It is to be noted that conversations over what is usually termed ‘African’ or ‘tradition’
impacts on the synergetic relationship between the sexes. This ideology seems to resonate
among the respondents. Chinasa O., a young lady, is of the view that:
“In the pre-colonial African society, men and women were not equal. In
my opinion, they are not still equal but the men shouldn’t take advantage
of that as opportunity to suppress or oppress the women.”94
91
This interview was conducted on February 13, 2015 in Iguobazuwa. Anthonia O. is an elderly woman
and grandmother. She works as a nurse.
92
This interview was conducted on February 1, 2015 in Evboriaria, Benin City. Oshiogwe A. is a middle-
aged man and has been married for about 30 years.
93
It is important to state that the practice of polygamy is prevalent in the non-Christian religions of the
area particularly among traditional worshippers and Muslims.
94
This discussion held on February 1, 2015 in Evboriaria, Benin City.
Chinasa acknowledges the existence of inequalities among couples in Nigeria. Though

she traces the origin of this trend to the prevalent culture, she doesn’t think it justifies the
domination of one gender over another. In her reasoning, husbands ought to establish
egalitarian grounds for their wives – a ground not based on tradition but on love between
the spouses. A similar sentiment of egalitarian awareness is dispatched by Anayo B., an
elderly man, who though is in no doubt that male headship is the norm as well: “I believe
they are equal though tradition says something contrary. Even as they are equal, there
should be a head between them because two captains cannot lead a ship. The husband is
the head.”95
It is noteworthy that the line between the cultural and the religious contexts is
expressly drawn in various conversations. It is mostly admitted that the religious
perspective offers a different interpretation from cultural presuppositions. In buttressing
this, Iredia O. reflects that his cultural beliefs do not necessarily align with his religious
standing and he communicates an analogous position to Anayo’s: “In the sight of God,
we are equal. But I know I am the head of the family. As a traditional man, my wife and I
are not equal and she knows and gives me my due respect.”96
What is quite noticeable is that the tension between cultural and religious principles
as noticed by the participants poses a challenge to couples. On the one hand, they feel
obliged to appropriate the teachings of the Christian religion and on the other hand, they
appear submissive to traditional expectations. Chinomso O. reiterates that egalitarianism
in gender relations has not been helped by the prerogative of tradition when he says:
“The church doesn’t really have imbalances in gender relations. It is

more like a societal issue. Once this is taken care of by the society and
the government, gender imbalance would be less present. The gender
imbalance in this part of the world is mainly due to the African
tradition.”97
Yet, what is quite striking in these conversations is that there is no reference to the
link between the church and patriarchy. Does it mean that the church is totally absolved?
While it is true that culture conveys a huge chunk of the gender conundrum, the church is
not totally absolved. In the first chapter we already pointed to the silence manifested by
early missionaries in those communities where girls were hardly allowed to attend school.
More so, in discussions centering on what is meant by the demands of the ‘African
tradition’, three key subjects were eminent:
 Cultural preference for a child’s sex
 Engaging patriarchy
95
This interview was conducted on February 13, 2015 at the premises of St. Andrew’s Catholic Church,
Iguobazuwa.
96
This interview was conducted on March 2, 2015 at the premises of St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic
Church, Abudu.
97
This is an excerpt from an interview conducted on February 1, 2015 in Evboriaria, Benin City.
 The obligation to show respect to the head of the family
a. Cultural preference for a child’s sex

The sex of children is of essence to the majority of African minds. To be clear, a faction
of respondents communicated either directly or indirectly that it mattered most to them.
Yet, it is interesting to note that the desire for male children is not only peculiar to fathers.
In actuality, mothers seem to be even more worried. The anxiety is that family intrusions
may convince the man to get married to another woman who might be able to raise male
children for him. The following extracts lay credence to this supposition. Emoshioke A.,
an elderly woman, expresses:
“My husband’s parents were advising him to go marry another wife so as

to have male children because I had only given birth to two girls but no
male child. I even left my marriage for a time and went back to school.
We didn’t officially separate. While I was in school, I kept on praying
and praying to God for a male child. I even made a vow to God, that if
he blesses me with a male child, the child is going to be a priest. As God
will have it, we had a male child – he is now a priest.”98
Emoshioke’s parents-in-law expressed strong and unveiled interests in male children. In

their agitation, they encouraged her husband to take another wife. The problem with this
approach is the assumption that the woman is responsible for the snag. Elohor R.
transmitted a similar sentiment. In her case however, the pressure from her in-laws did
not spring directly but nevertheless there was some pressure:
“Like I said earlier, I now have three girls and a boy, the boy is the one
but last child. I didn’t really experience any physical pressure as regards
the gender of my children. My husband didn’t pressurize me. I only
could notice my father in-law, though he didn’t tell me. Personally, I was
anxious to have a male child myself, and so I prayed to God for just one
and he the Lord answered my prayers.”99
Elohor’s account is not as agitating as Joan’s. Still, the heat of the pressure gets to her in
some ways. The reality of the situation is that husbands without male children might be
genuinely undisturbed by that happening in the beginning. However, the guarantee that
they would remain steadfast is wobbly. Sooner or later, the men eventually cave in to
these external pressures. An intriguing aspect of this is that societal expectations also
swell the burden of birthing a male child. It could serve as a source of irritation for those
women who are frequently scourged for not having a boy-child. For some participants,
they only became bothered when such provocations came their way. Gladys I. submits:
98
These notes are excerpted from an interview conducted on February 1, 2015 in Evboriaria, Benin City.
99
This interview was conducted on March 15, 2015 in G.R.A., Benin City.
“I have three girls and one boy. The boy is the last child. I didn’t feel any
pressure from anybody to give birth to male children. But I challenged
God to give me a male child due to what a woman told me, that I would
never have children. Even after giving birth to female children, she again
swore that I won’t be able to give birth to a male child. Otherwise, left to
me, the sexes of children do not matter.”100
In echoing the views above, Osatohanmwen I. sums up this anxiety. What is striking in
her explanation is that she would have only a relatively little qualm if she didn’t have a
daughter. She says: “I have 2 boys. If God gives me more children, of course I will
accept. If they were both females, I would have been more worried about getting male
children.”101
Yet, some women are more inspired by their religious background. They declare that
gender concern poses minimal challenge to them. Their religious background helps them
to a realization that the gender of their children is willed by the Lord. Evelyn I. puts it
thus: “I have four children, 3 boys and a girl. I like the ratio as it is, even if it were the
other way round, it would still be okay. If I had no boy, I wouldn’t worry because it’s the
will of God.”102
As we discovered earlier on, the trepidation for a male child is not only a concern for
women. Men are also nervous about it. The underlying reason hinges on the ideology that
canvasses for the perpetuation of familial or ancestral identities through the male child.
The argument is that the girl-child expectedly gets married to another family for which
she subsequently changes her family name. Ogbemudia I. conveys this apprehension
when he reveals:
“I am very okay with the gender of my children. I have 4 children: 3

boys and 1 girl. If it were the opposite, I would still be okay with it. Any
way, if all four were girls, I wouldn’t have been comfortable with it
because there wouldn’t be a continuation of the family name.”103
It is quite difficult to foretell what the response might be were the situation different as
Ogbemudia typifies. Some men might readily declare that they are happy with the gender
distribution of their children in circumstances where there is already a male-child. They
might not be so tolerant when there is no male in the children’s rank. Conversely though,
a number of men share a dissimilar opinion. They aver that the gender of their children
100
This is an excerpt from an interview conducted on March 12, 2015 at the premises of St. Paul’s
Catholic Church, Benin City.
101
Church, Abudu.
102
This is an excerpt from an interview conducted on March 3, 2015 at the premises of St. Thomas
Aquinas Catholic Church, Abudu.
103
Church, Abudu.
does not constitute a concern. Their submission is that the girl-child is as important as a
male child. Omoefe E. spells this out:
“I have a clear definition of: a child is a child, the girls and the boys will
learn to do what they are supposed to do. I won’t go by the African
mentality of glorifying the male child. If I had just female children, it’s
not going to be a problem for me. We have three children.”104
A few respondents however conveyed a nuanced opinion. They argue that the preference
for the gender of a child is not only culture-based but self-motivated as well. They simply
want to have children of both sexes.105 As Idibia I., a middle-aged man, suggests:
“I didn’t really have pressures from family although my mum was

always praying for us to give birth to a male child. After giving birth to
the three girls, my wife and I had to join hands in prayer for a male child.
If we had just males, we would have also prayed for a female child
too.”106
From the foregoing, it is perceptible that the sex of children constitutes some concern for
parents. Either way, parental apprehensions on the gender distribution of children are not
far removed from cultural benchmarks.
b. Engaging Patriarchy
It is often hinted that patriarchy is a bedrock of traditional institutions in sub-Sahara
Africa. Our empirical endeavour attempted to test this claim. A number of respondents –
especially male – re-joined that regard for male power is very much a fad. Idibia reflects:
“In my culture (and tradition), the husband and the wife do not share
equal footing. The woman is expected to kneel before the man when
presenting the food to him. In terms of property acquisition, if a man dies
without having a male child, his properties even to his wife are taken
over by his brothers.”107
Patriarchy is very often considered to mean superiority of the male. Women themselves
are sensible to this. It goes without saying that such notions are imbued in children from
one generation unto another. Emoshioke A. discloses as such:
“In the church, it is taught that both men and women are of equal status
but naturally, they can’t really be equal because, there are some things a
man can do and a woman can’t do. In saying this, it might seem that I am
104
This interview was conducted on March 13, 2015 at Sapele Road, Benin City.
105
In some parts of the world – even in the West – this phenomenon is regarded as ‘the King’s dream’.
106
This interview was conducted on March 12, 2015 at the premises of St. Paul’s Catholic Church, Benin
City.
107
City.
limiting the concept of equality to natural functions though. However, I

was raised this way by my parents.”108
Emoshioke describes the reality of gender inequality from a function-based perspective.

The reasoning behind her impression is that very important tasks are often assigned to
men. In some ways, her parents sowed the notion of male power in her. It is often held
that this capacity enables men to make the very important decisions. In such an argument,
what is sometimes neglected is that women too perform tasks that men are unable to carry
out. We therefore notice that even when the female power is acknowledged, it is often
limited to childbearing and household multi-tasking abilities as if these are not major
capacities that only the woman can accomplish. What Emoshioke also suggests is a
presupposed tension between religious teachings and cultural expectations. Anayo B.
further highlights this when he asserts thus: “The priests are meeting up to my
expectations because they talk about it very well. But the people are not listening – or
they are not living it out – because their mind will always tune back to what tradition
says.”109
This tautness between religious teachings and cultural adherence places the Christian
faithful at a crossroad. Undeniably, both sides of the coin do influence the Christian
faithful. Those who are not in support of male dominance are nonetheless very clear that
male headship is indisputable. For some reasons, they are not willing to let go of the
privileges of male headship. Ndubuisi C., a youthful man, explains:
“In the bulging eyes of tradition, men and women do not enjoy the same
standing. In my own opinion though they share equality. In the homilies
of priests, they usually emphasize on equality, but they often make the
women understand that the men are the head of the home.”110
In some situations, it is not difficult to decipher that male superiority often comes in the
guise of male headship even in those cases where it is not intended as such. As Ndubuisi
illustrates, religion’s support for male headship is open to manipulation. It is important to
state however that male folk are currently challenging the canons of patriarchy and
practices such as female genital mutilations. What might not be known, however, is how
far do these challenges go? Are there other ways in which they play out in gender
relations?
108
This passage of text is an excerpt from an interview conducted on February 1, 2015 in Evboriaria,
Benin City.
109
Iguobazuwa.
110
This is an excerpt from an interview conducted on January 20, 2015 at the premises of St. Matthias’
Catholic Church, Ologbo.
c. The obligation to show respect to the head of the family

The obligation to pay respect to the head of the family appears to be a fundamental core
of the African tradition. It refers to the respect shown to the head of a household. Wives
are expected to obey their husbands and to serve him. Edet U. admits it quickly: “My
wife is respectful and obedient and she also listens. I taught her how to cook some meals
and to clean the house.”111
In varied ways, what we learn is that some men demand total submission from their
wives. The very fact that they attempt to ‘teach’ their wives is suggestive. They might
even appeal to religion to back up this expectation. Imafidon I., a middle-aged man,
demonstrates this predisposition:
“I think some subservience is demanded of wives. In fact, even the

marriage instructors gave us advise that the man should love and cherish
the wife and the woman should be submissive to her husband and also
love and respect him. The messages were relevant because they are
helping my family in the long run.”112
For some respondents, even the belief in equality is not enough to deny respect for the
male head. Esohe O. a middle-aged woman and Erhauyi N. a man advanced in years
affirm therefore:
“Esohe O.: My husband and I are equal as we were taught. My husband

is the head. The woman shouldn’t take the equality for granted; she
should give her husband the desired respect. Still, in the traditional
setting, male and female are not equal.”113
“Erhauyi N.: I believe that the husband and wife are of equal status. That
doesn’t mean that the woman shouldn’t respect the man.”114
Admittedly, much is said about respect for the male head. Nevertheless, Esohe and
Erhauyi both convey that the acknowledgement of spousal equality does not exclude the
observance of respect on the part of the woman. By this is meant that the woman
recognizes the husband as the head of the family and on the basis of that, assents
submissiveness to him. The question however is: is such respect reciprocal?
Having explored these discoveries at the stratum of culture, it would be interesting to
see also how religion influences or inspires gender delineation.
111
Iguobazuwa.
112
113
Church, Abudu.
114
Church, Abudu.
2.11. The Religious Context

The interaction between religion and gender might be described as a subtle one. More
than anything else, the Nigerian people are a religious bunch. In fact, it is hard to point
out which part of the country is more religious. Owing to this religious trend, identities
are often marked by religious affinities. Put differently, along with culture, religious
precepts are supposedly concrete identifiers of a person’s peculiarities. The key-role
played by religion is to shape the belief-system of the individual and then to translate it
into relationships with people. In the course of our ethnography, we noticed keenly that in
relation to religion and gender, respondents referred to two major surfaces of association
namely: faith-life together with its influences on gender and the correlation between
gender and church.
2.11.1. Faith-life and Gender

We noted earlier on that reference to God and the church is commonplace in
conversations regarding social interactions in Benin City and several parts of Southern
Nigeria. Among the Christian people, the tendency is to display an outright
submissiveness to the Divine either in the shape of prayer, wish or yearning. In reality, it
is mostly believed that relationships are built and established by God and that the fruits of
that union – either in the form of children or in wealth acquisition – are handed on by the
creator himself. As a result of this, people are often disposed to a reliance on divine
sustenance. Oghogho E. explains that the search for a life-partner relies not simply on
individual efforts but on divine approval. In illustrating the significance of one’s faith-life
to gender relations, she avers that intending couples are admonished to get a person of
faith as a marriage partner in order to establish a solid religious background for Christian
families. She postulates thus:
“They (intending couples) should get prayerful for a good life-partner.

They should try to build up their faith and make their faith a foundation
for the marriage. They should try to plan together and execute their plans
together.”115
What Esohe shows is that individuals do not exclude the religious context when they
make crucial decisions. If at all, for the most part, religion provides a foundation for their
resolutions. Therefore, intending married couples tend to search for spouses who share
the same faith. A young man, Chinomso O. acquiesces in this way:
“My advice for younger people is simple: they should marry whom they
love and know; someone that they understand and someone who
115
Iguobazuwa.
understands them too. It’s more beneficial for them to marry someone of
the same faith as they.”116
The manner in which gender relations are shaped by religious inclinations resonates also
in the pre-marital preparations of couples. Faith plays a key role in their search for
solutions amidst challenges. Omoefe E. echoes this affinity. According to him, a surfeit of
fundamental considerations he had to nurture regarding marriage was hinged on his faith-
life. He and his wife were actually willing to defy medical propositions not minding the
risks involved. He recounts:
“The relationship I share with my wife is based on blind trust. We both

have the AS genotype and we knew even before marriage. In fact, the
priest after seeing the result called us to ask if we knew the implications.
We agreed before marriage to have just 3 children no matter the sexes.
With God so kind, we don’t have any child with the SS genotype. We
have two daughters and a son.”117
The extent to which individuals rely solely on the Divine is still unknown. This of course
varies from one person to another. What they specify, however, is the consideration of
three key subjects with regard to faith-life and gender. These are: relationship with God,
prayer and perseverance in commitment. We shall discuss these briefly in the lines that
follow.
a. Relationship with God

Fostering a relationship with God is prevalent among Nigerians. This disposition cuts
across various parts of the country. The outlook is not different in Benin. Respondents to
our ethnological query divulged in due course similar beliefs in keeping with this
practice. A participant noted as follows:
“I do usually advice younger chaps who want to marry to ensure that

they know God. They should be prayerful, marry someone with the same
faith. They should be patient with each other, try to pray together as a
family. I regularly admonish my children on this subject also.”118
The above reference is an excerpt from an interview with Emoshioke A., a middle-aged
grandmother and mother of five. She argues that a deep knowledge of God is needed in
raising a home. While this is obviously expected due to her Christian background, it is
interesting to see that she is insistent on this whenever her children plan marriage as she
116
This interview was conducted on February 1, 2015 in Evboriaria, Benin City.
117
These notes were excerpted from an interview conducted on March 13, 2015 at Sapele Road, Benin
City. The SS genotype represents the sickle cell anemia disease which is typically inherited from a
person’s parents.
118
This conversation with Olise O. held on February 6, 2015 at the premises of Sacred Heart Catholic
Church, Evboriaria, Benin City.
points out. For some, divine support provides a sturdy pillar on which to rest on when in
the future, they are faced with turbulence in marriage. The anxiety is usually that
marriage with a non-believer may leave them fighting the ‘battle’ alone. Chinasa O., a
young lady, expresses it so:
“I knew before getting married that marriage is not a bed of roses. I had
so many suitors. I had to pray to God to help me choose the right one;
someone who share my faith and can journey along with me on my
spiritual path.”119
The idea that usually resonates from spouses is that the erection of a Christian family is
somewhat simplified when they study God’s word and take a cue from it. This explains
why Christian parents are often quick to counsel their children on its importance as
illustrated by Edet U., a young married man: “My suggestion is for young men and
women to hold tight to the word of God and practice it daily. They should love, respect
and understand themselves.”120
From the above, it goes without saying that Divine involvement occupies a huge part
of the discerning mind of a Catholic Christian in Southern Nigeria. In setting the tone for
marital relationships, it is quite common for young people to adopt a religious approach
in their everyday lives. Prominent among this approach is prayer.
b. Recourse to prayer
We note keenly that intending couples frequently identify prayer as a mainstay
component of their relationship. For them, this is the only way to foster a relationship
with God and also a means to solidifying the marriage to their spouse. More so, church
marriage instructors in pre-marriage preparatory programs very often convey this
message. Emoshioke A. narrates:
“They (marriage instructors) also advised us to learn to pray together as

a family. It was actually from the classes then that I heard this saying
“the family that prays together stays together.”121
As we observe in the above extract, an additional dimension to the practice of the

observance of prayer is the idea that uniting together to offer prayers as family indirectly
brings everyone together at the same time. This is what is meant by the statement, ‘a
family that prays together stays together.’ Similarly, it is also believed that the joining of
hands by each member of the family when they pray symbolizes the acceptance of each
other’s strength and weaknesses. For this reason, a newly wed – Osamudiamwen E. is
119
120
Iguobazuwa.
121
adamant that the unity of prayer impacts on the relationship between spouses with regard
to forbearance with one’s partner thus his assertion that: “Young couples should
understand themselves a lot and always be prayerful; it is important that they unite to
pray, be faithful to one another and always try to tolerate each other’s excesses.”122
c. Perseverance in commitment
Being tolerant to one’s spouse is regarded as an acknowledgement of a person’s unique
attributes. Undoubtedly, each person – male or female – brings along his/her strength and
weaknesses to marital union. The challenge is usually tedious during the early years of
marriage as both parties still get to understand one another. Still, the question as to how
long a person might endure the excesses of another remains unanswered. Nevertheless,
tolerance, patience and endurance are emphatically proposed to young couples in their
relationship to each other. Based on their religious convictions, the hope of better times in
the future is recurrently harbored. Ndubuisi C. exemplifies this well: “Marriage is for life.
Therefore endurance and patience with each other is quite crucial. Definitely, the difficult
moments will pass but love is very much likely to remain.”123
Indeed, the hope of a better tomorrow seems to be chronic in young couples. This
also, is linked to the idea that the first years of marriage usually come with the peculiar
challenge of getting to know each other. However, the reality is that advanced couples
also face such challenges. Hence it is difficult to discern the extent to which couples
might endure the traits of the other. In the orientation of some respondents, this
occurrence is attended to by the connection between a habitual disposition to commitment
between couples and the nurturing of love. Noredia O., an elderly woman, suggests that
“young couples should remain committed and dedicated in their loving relationship.
When the wind of discord blow, love will keep them safe”.124
The impression that Noredia gives is that the effect of the topsy-turvy moments in
marriage is superseded by the loving presence of couple. It is also a reminder of the
problematic exchanges in marriage and the fact that couples are not always on the same
wavelength. She appears quite optimistic that those situations do not always linger.
Emoshioke shares such optimism in her assertion that the vivid illustrations of those
women in the bible who remained faithful to their spouses and persisted resolutely to
complex situations are often an inspiration to contemporary women. This message is
regularly communicated in pre-marital preparatory lectures as recounted by her: “The
marriage instructors repeatedly gave us examples of virtuous women and wives in the
bible and advised us to look up to them as our models.”125
122
Iguobazuwa.
123
This interview was conducted on January 20, 2015 at the premises of St. Matthias’ Catholic Church,
Ologbo.
124
125
In making reference to correlated Scripture passages, the intention of marital tutors is

to show that women are not alone in these hurdles. The tutors seek to underscore the
benefits of perseverance in relationships as a recipe for a long-lasting married life. The
goal is to offer encouragements to wives when they are confronted with major hitches in
their relationship with their husbands and to admonish men to follow the examples of
venerable husbands and fathers in the Scripture. Conversely though, the reality remains
that not every couple is able to endure these challenging moments. In addition, the socio-
cultural situation of the Jewish women in the bible and women in Southern Nigeria in
contemporary times is not similar.
The preceding discussion brings us to the exchange between gender and church. How
does the church perceive gender? Does it take the gender-question seriously? What steps
do the clergy and pastoral workers take in assisting couples that face gender-related
entanglements? What pastoral approaches are often in vogue? How responsive are
couples to ecclesia proclamations?
2.11.2. Gender and Church

The correlation between gender and church is best seen in the manner in which the church
makes adequate or – inadequate – considerations to people of different gender. This
association of gender and church covers, however, a wide range of discussion that can
hardly be completed on the pages of this project. Yet, we attempt an exploration of this
subject from a perspective hinged on the working relationship between the local church
and women and men who participate in its membership.
There are disagreeing voices with regard to the church’s contributions to the gender
subject. A cluster of couples is of the impression that church leaders have sufficiently
taken up the gender question and have appropriated church teachings to the benefit of
spouses in their relations with each other. A constellation of spouses thinks otherwise.
They are of the view that either church teachings are grossly inefficient or that pastoral
workers are not adept in the gender problematic. Omoefe E. lays it plainly:
“I believe the church's discourse on marriage, family and gender is

grossly insufficient. Also, we belong to a church where we do not have
the opportunity to ask the priest questions after the homily. We therefore
need to interact more with others and ourselves in the church.”126
Indeed, it should be of concern that strands of Christian faithful do not feel a sense of
involvement in pastoral approaches to marriage when in actuality they are the major
players on the field. Omoefe’s apprehension is that the voices from the pews are not
heard or that when they are heard they are not heeded to or properly engaged. Some
couples give a more nuanced estimation in their assertion that although a good amount of
effort is being put into good use, more needs to be done. Tamara U., a young mother
126
This interview was conducted on March 13, 2015 at Sapele Road, Benin City.
conveys the opinion that some improvement is needed on the part of pastoral workers.
She asserts:
“The priests are doing their best but they still need to improve. The
church needs to show more pastoral care to families. Families need to
feel a sense of belonging. The defining moment in the pastoral care of
marriages is: taking into account the often forgotten details of what it
means to live as a husband or a wife in a new home.”127
Tamara’s assessment is quite frank. She does recognize the exertion utilized by priests
and pastoral workers but she thinks about enlarging the perspective in a way that includes
more experts who could be of good assistance. Her concern is that the daily experiences
of couples must be taken into account when questions apropos to family interests are
discussed among the members of Christ’s faithful or raised from the pulpit. Idibia I. adds
that it might be more helpful for the priests to “try to cite instances in order to buttress
their points.”128 Such illustrations are usually more effective in reinforcing the message.
Conversely, however, a group of Christian faithful is adamant that the gap in the
address of gender discourses does repose on priests and pastoral workers. They rather
clamour for a sincere effort in its implementation among couples. Philip O., an elderly
man, estimates that the problem is partly from couples who do not pay attention to the
frequent explanations from the pulpit. He puts it this way: “In terms of the assimilation of
the constant teachings of the church, I must say everybody isn’t the same. In my opinion,
the priests are doing their best. They give enough advice canvassing for egalitarian
relationships but not everyone heeds the advice.”129 The concern expressed by Philip is
that a lacuna is bound to exist if couples refuse to adhere to the lessons of their pastors.
What he advocates for is an acceptance of the church’s teaching by couples vis-à-vis its
application. The question is: how are these messages passed across and do they take into
account the responses of couples? Are they communicated in a way that is outlandish to
them?
Contemporaneously, there seems to be a novelty in pastoral approaches to gender,
marriage and family life. This includes the incorporation of a well-diverse curriculum of
activities focused mainly on the information, interaction and development of couples in
ecclesia communities. Gladys I. distinguishes that Christian communities have – in recent
times – provided avenues for engagement and dialogue between couples. She suggests
that that church teachings on gender is hardly to be regarded as insufficient when she
points out thus:
127
Iguobazuwa.
128
This is an excerpt from an interview conducted on March 12, 2015 at the premises of St. Paul’s
129
Iguobazuwa.
“From the ones I have listened to so far, the priests are doing okay when
they teach about marriage, sexuality and gender. I feel the teachings are
sufficient. In my parish, we go as far as organizing couples’ day where
couples come together to learn family values.”130
The attempt in bringing couples together to deliberate on issues that affect them is
laudable. Creating such possibilities is a principal model of receiving feedback from
couples and of reminding them of their responsibilities. The trouble though is that this
practice is not widespread. Only a few parishes create this environment. Omosede E., a
young lady, detects this setback while asserting that “the catechists and the priests can’t
do it alone. For instance, in my parish, on the first Saturday of September, a couples’ day
is organized. Other parishes should emulate. Couples should avail themselves because it’s
an avenue to learn”.131
Gladys I. and Omosede E. point to the impact of having a day set aside for
interaction between couples. They also similarly ascribe to the regularity of such events.
One problem – as identified by Omosede – is that a huge attendance is not always
guaranteed. My involvement in a participant observation of parishes afforded me a clearer
picture. Attendance rates dwindle. Some couples seem unwilling to participate. While
some refer to time constraints a few others hint that the activities are usually too jam-
packed leaving them enervated. However those who indicated to frequent participation
admitted to an improved relationship with their spouses.
The positive (or negative) reception of the instructions issued to couples by pastoral
workers often depends on how such messages are packaged. The constructive
presentation of lessons geared towards the intimation of crucial information and
recommendation to couples function as a vital tool to their assimilation and retention. Put
differently, the fruitful execution of church teachings on the part of Christian faithful is
symbiotically related to the manner in which they are presented. For this reason, the
impact of priests and catechists to the development of marital unions is not to be taken for
granted. In the following themes, we shall examine the quality of the messages relayed to
couples by pastoral workers and scrutinize the impact made by them.
2.11.3. An Assessment of Pastoral Messages to Couples from Clergy, Catechists and

other Pastoral Workers
The administration of pastoral care to couples usually touches on a wide range of
subjects. Respondents of our ethnographic survey hinted that the diversity of themes is a
reoccurring characteristic. These themes centre on explanations on the understanding of
marriage and of how people of different gender might live together in a harmonized
relationship. Examples include: a detailed description on the meaning of marriage,
130
City.
131
This is an excerpt from an interview conducted on March 13, 2015 at Sapele Road, Benin City.
pastoral approaches to marriage, the pulpit as a means of catechizing, observance of the

pre-marital preparatory lessons, scriptural illustrations of expectations and responsibilities
of wives and husbands, the disposition of pastors towards ‘career women’ and so forth.
a. A comprehension of marriage, family and relationships

The understanding of marriage, family and gender relations is a recurrent theme in
homiletical presentations and dialogues in the course of marriage preparations. They
usually contain recommendations for living together as couples. The homiletical
messages come during the celebration of the Sacrament of Matrimony or in the regular
parochial Sunday Masses. They might also appear on those days specially assigned for
couples. There are also other moments of exchanges between marriage instructors and
intending couples. These sessions are often dialogical. They create a space for interactive
communication among participants. Either way, these episodes embody the pastoral
education of couples. It needs to be said, however, that the majority of these marriage
instructors are male and admittedly, this might have some impact in the way they address
male-female relations, which could, in some way, be from an uncritical masculine
viewpoint.
In the course of my engagement in a participant observatory exercise, these moments
exuded a certain form of schooling in an archetypal parish setting. In similar terms,
respondents of our qualitative survey were in no doubt as to how important these
occasions were. An elderly woman, Tosan O. puts it this way: “The marriage instructors
taught us the importance of having a communion of love and the necessity of honesty and
understanding. These have been the bedrock of our living together.”132 Tosan attributes
the attainment of her 50-year-old marriage to the well-drilled information sessions she
received prior to her marriage. Like many, she notes too that she too has become
something of a relationship instructor to her children and grandchildren.
Suffices to say heretofore that for homiletical and catechetical instructions to be
regarded as useful they must be constructive, illustrative and detailed. The style of
presentation also has to be engaging and dialogical. The content ought to be realistic. Bibi
O. registers her impression of these instructions and the assistance it offered her in putting
a home together. Even when some of the messages serve as reminders for what is already
known, that they are frequently underscored by the clergy seem to add intensity to it. Bibi
concedes:
“The priests’ teachings made me understand that marriage is not a bed of

roses and so whenever I am faced with any difficulty I always remember
those words and move on. The priests’ teachings made me understand
marriage life and they have been helpful.”133
132
This text is excerpted from an interview conducted on March 14, 2015 in G.R.A., Benin City.
133
This conversation held on January 19, 2015 at the premises of St. Matthias’ Catholic Church, Ologbo. It
was the first in the series of interviews I had.
The importance of church lessons on gender, marriage and family to aspiring couples
cannot be underrated. Knowledge of what it means to live together as man and wife is not
easily attainable from the social sphere. Hence there are a number of couples who rely
mostly on the example of their parents. This itself is faulty, considering the point that
setting ‘good examples’ for their children might not be the strength of some partners. In
other words, a child is as well likely to copy the good and the bad relationship traits of
parents. This is further exacerbated by the fact that young couples do not always get the
opportunities of consulting marriage counsellors before or after their wedding. In reality,
it is either that marriage counsellors are few or that they charge exorbitant rates. Either
way, from what I observed, it is not commonplace to find couples who employ the
services of marriage counsellors. The low level of literacy especially in the rural areas
only helps to exacerbate the conundrum.
Having established the importance of homiletical and catechetical lessons from the
clergy and pastoral workers respectively, it remains to be seen what the content of these
lectures might be. Here, we refer to the quality, practicality and efficiency of these
discourses. One thing is sure, they do attend to a wide-range of issues ranging from
complementarity, the essence of companionship, marriage as a communion of love,
cooperation in household chores, fidelity to one’s spouse, tips for a happy living-together
etc. Kikanwa O., a recently married lady gives a hint: “The marriage instructors
elaborated on the necessity of faithfulness, truthfulness and understanding one another.
We were also taught how to be good wives and husbands.” 134 A cursory look at
Kikanwa’s statement not only reveals the goal of those lessons but also their practicality.
Noredia N. concurs further as such: “The marriage instructors taught us the importance of
having a communion of love and the necessity of honesty and understanding. These have
been the bedrock of our living together.”135
The demand of marriage life is indeed enormous. In traditional Southern Nigerian
societies, household chores are stringently assigned to the woman in addition to her role
as mother and wife. Laudably, this challenge has not gone unnoticed among pastoral
workers in their recommendation to spouses. Idibia I. affirms that the “marriage tutors
regularly advised couples to always be faithful, love and understand each other. They
advised couples to always assist each other and never give allowance to be bounded by
tradition”.136 Such acknowledgement of cultural demands coupled with the openness to
challenge them is indeed noteworthy. In like manner, pastoral workers are no less
demanding of men’s work at home as Esezobor A., a man advanced in years, alludes to
when he says: “The marriage instructors strike on this (the duties of a husband) a lot.
134
This conversation held on February 6, 2015 at the premises of Sacred Heart Catholic Church,
Evboriaria, Benin City.
135
136
City.
They say being a good husband is a practical way of leading by example. I find this
absolutely true. Though I fall short sometimes, I make good effort to actualize this.”137
From the foregoing, one could say therefore that religious institutions serve as
watchdogs to the cultural context in some ways. It also strives to issue reminders to
couples – a reminder of the virtues possessed by each spouse. An elderly catechist,
Fabian O. insists that respect for the other is as important as being a good spouse.
Furthermore, he instigates the question of equality when he says: “As a catechist, I do tell
couples that they hardly have rewarding choices than to be a good husband or a good
wife. The profound qualities of a good husband or wife are to show care, love and respect
for one’s spouse. There are no ‘Lords’ in marriage.”138
In catechetical circles, the question of equality of the spouses as well as
complementarity is often linked together. The argument that is frequently projected is that
there is a function proper to each gender which when appropriately dispatched,
contributes to the growth of the family in a manner that is no less important than the
other. Put differently, no role is more important than the other. They are rather
complementary. Bibi O., a young woman, is of the thinking that the complementarity-
equality subject can only be a positive step for marital relationships. She discloses as
follows:
“The subject of complementarity is very much stressed during homilies

and in marriage preparatory classes. The preachers tend to address it
from the viewpoint of roles, that is, the essential roles each of the
spouses is meant to carry out. For me, this tends to ascertain the
traditional responsibilities of man and woman in the family and at the
same time, it might be interpreted to mean that one is not more important
than the other, in other words, both are equal.”139
Bibi’s assertion challenges us to once again examine the complementarity-equality

debate. Is spousal complementarity a solid argument for equality? Or it simply serves to
offer some assurances that no one is less important? Are spouses quick to seeing each
other as equally indispensable from a functional perspective or from a cultural angle? Is
functionality a justifiable measure for equality? We shall examine these questions in the
next chapter. For the moment, let us evaluate the proficiency of pre-nuptial preparatory
lessons to conjugal relationships.
b. An evaluation of pre-marital programmes

The relevance of pre-marital interactions with couple is important for their relationship.
As we earlier noted, the quality of the educational formation of a couple with respect to
137
This conversation held on January 19, 2015 at the premises of St. Matthias’ Catholic Church, Ologbo.
138
These notes are excerpted from an interview conducted on February 7, 2015 in Evboriaria, Benin City.
Fabian O., an elderly man is a parish catechist.
139
their conjugal relationship with each other plays no small part in their nuptial union.
Participants of our studies did render from their experience, the proficiency of these
courses. Whereas some were quite upbeat, there were other negative responses as well.
Esezobor A. communicates his affirmative understanding of those moments. It was for
him a first-hand exposure to the fundamental features of married life. He quips that it also
gave him a chance to lecture his wife on the teachings of the church. He specifically
mentions that mutual support of one’s spouse was a recurrent theme at the time adding
that they have helped in no small way in making his relationship with his wife a cordial
one. Esezobor reasons:
“Our marriage preparatory class was very interesting. I had a direct

exposure to the rudiments of marriage life. Our tutors then were quite
experienced. At that time, my wife was just about converting to
Catholicism. So I was for her, a tutor also especially with regard to the
doctrines. There was also a strong slant on equality in the message
communicated by the marriage instructors. To pass this message across,
they made use of scriptural notes especially the creation account. Some
catechesis teachers develop deep analysis over it. For those who might
hold much to equality, they might just speak about it in a passive way.
Mutual support in household chores was a recurrent part of their lectures.
They stressed that taking a share of responsibilities helps to fuse the
bond between couples. From my experience, I find this very true.”140
Indeed, young couples see the pre-marital instructional courses as an opportunity to gain
knowledge on what is usually taken for granted, namely, the raising of a new family. Just
as Esezobor recounts, it exposes them to the immediate challenges they might encounter
in marriage. Often times, these instructors tend to be well versed and experienced in
marriage life in general. In effect, couples are hesitant in skipping classes so as not to
miss out on specific topics. In addition, Omoefe E. speculates that couples who follow
these sessions devotedly are better equipped in their relationship:
“The messages in the marriage-preparatory lectures we had, for me, were

pointers for an effective marriage life. You have a choice to obey them
and a choice not to, but for me I can’t remember not attending a single
class. We also read books together concerning marriage. Those teachings
and messages are to one’s best interest and it’s a good thing I
attended.”141
For sure, an appraisal of a regimented pre-marital lesson schedule should take note of the
diversity of its subject-matter. Do they focus mainly on the religious aspect of sexual
relationships? Do they address crucial issues that distress the family as well or simply
ignore them? Oshiogwe A. renders an optimistic assessment of these sessions and their
140
141
This passage of text is excerpted from an interview conducted on March 13, 2015 at Sapele Road,
Benin City.
foresight in tackling important topics. According to Oshiogwe, “the marriage preparatory

classes were of immense help. We had different tutors taking different courses. We had
the medical unit, family planning unit, and the spiritual unit. They taught us important
subjects ranging from raising the kids in the fear of God, the demands of a woman during
pregnancy and including ante-natal information”.142
Although it might be debated that the scope of these lessons are emphatically beyond
what could be referred to as ‘religious’, the derivatives of the programme seem to offer
support for its continuance. Oshiogwe is not alone in his comments. Omosede E.
similarly corroborates this impression: “The messages from the marriage instructors were
very relevant and are still relevant. My marriage class lasted for six months and we had
different tutors and counsellors. We had a family planning unit taught by a doctor, a
prayer and spiritual unit taught by the priest and the catechist.”143
It must be noted nevertheless that participation in these lessons is not widespread. In
some communities these activities are not present while at other times attendance proves
difficult. Elohor R., an elderly woman, recounts the difficulties she underwent before her
marriage – difficulties which snowballed into her non-participation in those meetings.
Explaining further she informs: “Incidentally, we didn’t go to the church immediately we
got married. We wanted to but my father-in-law was opposed to it because he believed
that his first son shouldn’t marry in the church because he shouldn’t marry only one
woman”.144 In Elohor’s case, some form of uncertainty foisted her nonappearance. While
lamenting her predicament, she continues that they were actually a setback for her: “we
sacramentally ratified our marriage ten years after getting married. And so we were not
very exposed to church teachings on marriage.”145
Tosan expressed a similar experience of a catechetical dearth. In her instance, it was
predicated upon the location she was at the time: “When my husband and I got married,
we were not Catholics, we were Anglicans. We attended our marriage classes in the
United Kingdom and they don’t really talk much on marriage there as compared to in
Nigeria.” 146 From her immediate experience, Tosan applauds the Nigerian church for
taking up the challenge in supporting young couples through practical instructions.
Undeniably, the place of communication in the fostering of relationships is immense.
Therefore it is fitting for the local church to consider verbal transmission as a key aspect
of her ministry. The reality of a partially literate Nigerian society makes it even more
imperative. Having swotted pre-marital lessons, let us turn to another important channel
of communication: the pulpit.
142
This text is excerpted from an interview conducted on February 1, 2015 at Evboriaria, Benin City.
143
This is an excerpt from an interview conducted on March 13, 2015 at Sapele Road, Benin City.
144
145
Ibid.
146
This is an excerpt from an interview conducted on March 14, 2015 in G.R.A., Benin City.
c. The pulpit as an avenue for vocal transmission

What do priests refer to when they address relationship issues? What do they focus on in
their homilies? How practical are these homiletical lessons in combating eminent
challenges? Firstly, it must be noted that the homily is the distinct means of
communication intended to explain the practical and ethical implications of a particular
scriptural passage within the context of the liturgy. It features in the liturgy of the word
and is often centred on the theme of the day’s celebration. In some situations, it might
also serve as an important outlet of addressing parochial concerns. The platform from
which this homily/sermon is delivered is the pulpit or ambo.
It is quite typical for pastors to attend to questions apropos to family life. They
manage to do so in their attempt to appropriate scriptural passages to practical realities.
This often comes within the context of Sunday’s celebration of the Eucharist or the
celebration of the Sacrament of Matrimony. In my observation, the level of satisfaction
on the part of the faithful is commendably high. Engaging in conversations with the
people only served to offer some corroboration. The indication of Imafidon I. is striking.
In his opinion, homilies during Masses have had its fair share of positive effects in
homes. He explains:
“The priests are doing okay with respect to reflections about marriage
and family life. It’s a good thing they talk about it most times, because
they have actually attempted by their messages in bringing families
together and from my observation, I can only say that it has been largely
successful. Within the context of wedding homilies, they refer to the
importance of being a good and loving husband and father. We recall
these reflections as a family at home. It has really been helpful to me in
my roles as a husband and father.”147
It goes without saying therefore that these reflections ought to make consideration for the
brand of audience if it is to remain meaningful to them. From Imafidon’s viewpoint,
preachers have hardly undermined the necessity of delivering practical and relevant
messages to couples. A salient point, which he also raises, is that these discussions are
carried over to the homes. Such continuances are usually points of reminders for
members of the household. However, as is to be expected, such receptivity differs from
one household to another. This is the point affirmed by Ireti N., a middle-aged woman,
when she elucidates that: “The priests frequently talk about marriage; they do well in this
regard. The problem is that couples don’t practice what they are taught especially when it
doesn’t suit their lifestyle. That is the problem!”148 But how does one curb pockets of
individual disinterest?
147
148
Church, Abudu.
A separate concern expressed by a distinct respondent hinges on the duration of the

homily. According to Oshiogwe A., the time scheduled for homily is insufficient in
responding to these issues in good detail. He therefore calls for the set-up of additional
parochial events outside the milieu of liturgical activities: “The time for homily is quite
short for the priests. Maybe the church should organize a weeklong marriage seminar in
order teach on morality, bringing up the children, ideals of marriage etc. This might make
up for the conciseness of the homily.”149
Notwithstanding of the brevity of homiletical reflections, the attention it pays to
often-neglected issues is noteworthy. More often than not, they show specific interests in
the contribution of the Christian family to the society. To buttress this, they tend to show
particular support to the professional careers of women as well. Esezobor A. recalls that a
collection of homilies in his parish community has encouraged the participation of female
folks in the professional space of society with arguments drawn from the “psychological,
intellectual and social benefits women benefit from when they work outside of their
home.”150 In some situations though, the homilies are unwilling to create allowance for
the professional careers of women in those cases where its harmonization with household
duties proves toilsome as affirmed by Chinasa O.: “The priests do encourage women to
work in public places so as to assist their husband and also to build themselves up.
Although, in the case where the work is taking most of their time, it is not encouraged.”151
Interestingly, the fact remains that the combination of professional and household duties
often comes along with manifold elements of toil.
The question then is: at what point can the demarcating line be drawn? Also, what
practical illustrations are offered when women are encouraged in their desire for public
work and on what basis is such an assertion made? Is it made from the perspective of the
overall development of women or as a means of offering financial support to the
household? Either way, the implications are enormous. On the other hand, what are the
reasons for discouraging women from engaging in a professional career? Does it stem
from the idea of the ‘house-wife’ or from a concealed anxiety that women might become
too exposed to alluring societal challenges? More immediately, is the homily an ideal
channel in responding to these broad questions?
Bibi O. offers a further reflection on the content of homilies. She gives the
impression that a wide range of topics does emanate from the pulpit. In her detailed
claim, these questions range from: the discussions on equality of spouses, complementary
responsibilities of couples, respect between the sexes, the avoidance of external
influences in marriage etc. These subjects shall be deliberated upon in subsequent themes.
Bibi narrates:
149
150
Ologbo.
151
“The message I get from homilies and sermons on marriages is that they
discourage third party influence in homes and urge married couples to
always hold on to God. Yes, there is a strong emphasis on equality of
men and women. In their homilies, they usually say male and female are
equal in the sight of God. Though the wife should always respect the
husband and the husband should not trample on the woman because he is
the head of the home. The man is the head of the home while the woman
is the co-head. The topic of complementarity is very much stressed
during homilies and in marriage preparatory classes. The preachers tend
to address it from the viewpoint of roles, that is, the roles each of the
spouses is meant to carry out. For me, this tends to ascertain the
traditional responsibilities of man and woman in the family and at the
same time, it might be interpreted to mean that one is not more important
than the other, in other words, both are equal.”152
Concretely, several interlocutors were of the opinion that among the churches faithful,
messages issued from the pulpit tend to have a more forceful appeal than communications
made elsewhere. As I duly observed, the reflections issued by the priests occupy a unique
place in the minds of the people. That it is typically a monologic presentation might help
to underscore the rapt attention it might enjoy from listeners. Yet, this could also be a
drawback. As we have noticed, a one-way verbal interaction is hardly a means of
receiving feedback from the congregation.
d. Emerging themes from pre-marital lessons and cues from the pulpit
As we have seen, a number of issues are addressed in the preparation for marriage. The
understanding is that intending couples are often neophytes in the domain of marriage.
Therefore, in a bid to ensure the formation of these young men and women in order to
have a proper disposition towards marriage, a number of themes are elaborated upon.
These range from the mettle to endure in difficult moments, the admonition in the
management of ‘third-party’ influences, respect for one another, submission of one
spouse to the other, the love of a husband for his bride and vice versa, the dialogical
communication between couples, the education and training of children and so forth. We
shall discuss these themes briefly.
i. Cultivating endurance
It is typically conveyed that endurance is power. The ability to forge ahead in the most
unpleasant situation or in a difficult moment is highlighted as a sign of inner strength and
growth by pastoral workers. To this end, the practice of patience, tolerance and
forbearance are often advised. A middle-aged man, Chinomso O. puts it this way: “during
152
These notes are excerpted from an interview conducted on January 19, 2015 at the premises of St.
Matthias’ Catholic Church, Ologbo.
the marriage preparatory courses, the question of tolerance was majorly emphasized. The
messages have really been helpful.”153
Similar sentiments are shared by a collection of women in our study. Their account is
relatively more striking and obdurate. A woman advanced in years – Victoria B. –
declares that from her immediate perception and coupled with the admonition she
receives, that marriage itself is almost synonymous with endurance. In her view,
differences among couples should be negotiated and tolerated. According to Victoria,
“marriage is endurance. Quarrels should be settled amicably between the couple. They
should apologize whenever they are wrong.” 154 Victoria’s testimony resonates in the
response earlier delivered by Stephanie I. Stephanie uses a more marital-liturgical
terminology in her reference to the reality of marriage as ‘for better and for worse’. She
puts it thus: “I was taught by marriage experts and counsellors to be a good wife. I learnt
that marriage is for better, for worse and that it should be endured. They also emphasized
on faithfulness and fidelity in marriage.”155 The question however remains: to what extent
can one remain tolerant of a spouse?
The theme of endurance in marriage is closely linked with love for each other. The
stance, which is often taken by marriage instructors, is that the love couples express for
each other provides a sturdy foundation for enduring the difficulties they both encounter.
Ndubuisi C. is in no doubt as to the efficacy of this understanding. Taking it further, he
notes that the memorization of those lines serve as checks in moments he intends to act
otherwise.
“The marriage instructors made us understand at the time that marriage

life is not a bed of roses, that there will be ups and downs but the couple
should be able to persevere in their chosen vocation. They admonished
us to love our spouse as we love our self, and that’s the only way love
can linger on in the home. The messages have been so relevant because
anytime I want to do anything contrary to what they taught me, I usually
use to have a flashback and remember the words of this priest. This has
been helpful in the long term in keeping my home.”156
Ndubuisi’s account gives the impression that the words of pastors and pastoral workers in
general in relation to marriage are weighty in the formation of married couples. His
supposition gives room to an over-arching approach of endurance as a recipe for a lasting
marriage. A similar connotation is conveyed by a woman, Oyemwen A. as follows: “the
marriage instructors made us understand that once a woman is tolerant, patient,
153
154
Iguobazuwa.
155
Ologbo.
156
supportive, and submissive, that she will definitely enjoy her marriage.”157 She notes that
the vocabularies used in addressing the men are slightly different.
ii. Tackling ‘external’ influences

Couples are often advised to be wary of third-party involvement. These external
interferences do come from parents, parents-in-law, siblings, extended family and friends.
The reason for admonishing couple to eschew these interventions is that even when there
is a chance of support from these relatives in the improvement of marital relationships,
they might also pose a threat to the union of couples. Ireti N. explicitly advises that
“young people shouldn’t involve a third-party in their family issues. They should always
learn to manage and understand their spouse. They should love their spouse and stick
with their spouse.” 158 Ireti’s response emanates from the trend wherein such
interpolations are seen as damaging to the union in the long term. A repeatedly cited
reason is that these family members tend to take sides with one party and that some
relative or friend might actually turn out to be a foe in disguise.
It is interesting to note that parents too are categorized as ‘external interferences.’
The reason for this is likely related to the mention we made above – aligning with their
particular children. In which case rather than a resolution of differences, the extent of
their differences is even more plainly revealed. In lieu of the pastoral counsels she has
received in the past, Emoshioke A. therefore supposes that a more efficient way to arrive
at solutions is to make resolve by focusing on each other. According to Joan, “the
marriage instructors admonished us to not take our problems, challenges to other people,
not even our parents; that we should settle the quarrel, misunderstanding, amicably
between us. I find this especially effectual.”159
There are, however, a group of couples who find it convenient to trigger up
discussions with their parents when they are faced with marital difficulties. Kikanwa O.
admits that in the initial years of her marriage, she found such conversations with her
parents quite convenient. Then as time progressed, she went in a different direction
explaining thus: “initially, I meet my parents whenever I had problems. Anytime I am
faced with such challenges, I do not discuss it with people except the priest.” 160
Kikanwa’s testimony corroborates with the previously itemized presupposition on the
role and authority of the priest in spousal unions. It appear couples might be more
comfortable revealing the discords in their homes before a priest due to a consistent
perception of neutrality in the priest’s mediation.
157
This interview was conducted on January 22, 2015 at Obaretin Estate.
158
This conversation held on March 2, 2015 at the premises of St. Thomas Aquinas’ Catholic Church,
Abudu.
159
160
This discussion held on February 6, 2015 at the premises of Sacred Heart Catholic Church Evboriaria,
Benin City.
The sensitivity to what is referred to as ‘third-party influences’ is indeed weighty.

Taking it further, some parents are keen to disentangle themselves from such
interpositions with their children when they come of age. Osamudiamwen E., a middle-
aged man, is adamant that parents should be willing to allow their children some space in
their matrimonial relationship. According to Osamudiamwen, “the pastoral ministers
advised against third-party influences. In my eyes, this suggestion has been quite helpful
to our union. In the same way, I do not expect my children to always run to me anytime
they have issues in their homes. They should settle amicably with their wives or
husbands.”161 For a few, such amicability consists in the ability to show forgiveness to the
offending spouse as quickly as possible.162
iii. Respect for the ‘other’

The obligation to show respect to each other is a fundamental core of any egalitarian
relationship. The attitude of showing respect to the ‘other’ is mostly seen as an
acknowledgement of the dignity of the person and the appreciation of the differences of
the ‘other’. While this runs through for most relationships in Southern Nigeria, the
challenge in identifying symmetrical and reciprocal gestures remain unabated in some
ways. Osamudiamwen presupposes this trend as follows: “Yes, I believe husband and
wife are equal. The man should treat the wife as himself and also the wife is expected to
treat the husband as herself, as the preacher says. This is the ideal. Yet, it might not
always be like that. It differs from home-to-home anyway.”163 Osamudiamwen’s honest
assessment of this reality gives room for further probe into the responses of priests and
religious workers into what is usually regarded as ‘respect for the other’.
It is noteworthy to state that though respect is thought to be reciprocally accorded,
the popular slant is from wives to husbands. Indeed, there is a connection between this
movement and the concept of the man as ‘the head of the house.’ This tone is observable
in the words of Chika C. when she says, “a good wife is usually the bedrock of the home,
the preachers say. She should respect and be submissive to the husband. She should also
161
This is an excerpt of an interview conducted on February 14, 2015 at the premises of St. Andrew’s
Catholic Church, Iguobazuwa.
162
Tamara Edet is of the view that procrastinating in forgiveness leaves couple vulnerable to external
influences. She speaks of ‘an active and swift response to the discord among couples’ aimed at a resolution
of the challenges and differences they encounter. This idea was conveyed in a conversation with Tamara
on February 13, 2015 at the premises of St. Andrew’s Catholic Church, Iguobazuwa. Taking a similar
position is Esezobor A.. He reasons that differences are better resolved between couples due to the
understanding they already share. His argument hinges on a position that the shared ‘good of the spouses’
is often displayed and epitomized by the spouses themselves and hardly through interferences. According
to him, “married couples should never let a third party interfere in their lives. They should try and settle
their quarrels amicably.” This interview was conducted on January 21, 2015 at the premises of St.
163
This discussion held on February 14, 2015 at the premises of St. Andrew’s Catholic Church,
Iguobazuwa.
cater for the family. A good husband shouldn’t be involved in wife battering.” 164 From
Chika’s immediate contemplations, priests often capture the respectful wife as a model of
a good wife. The respectful wife is also one that reduces or eradicates the possibility of
spousal battering. With regard to the ambivalence of respect for each other, Tamara U.
thinks different. According to Tamara, the invitation to show respect is often cited to both
spouses irrespective of the gender. She reflects: “I have forgotten most of what I was
taught. But for the few I can remember, we were told to be loving, caring and respectful
to each other.”165 We shall explore this further in the theme below.
iv. Submissiveness to one’s spouse

The leitmotif of submissiveness is a recurrent one in pastoral approaches to conjugal
unions in Southern Nigeria. The extent to which this inclination is culturally influenced is
yet unknown. What is rather identifiable is the immutable and irreversible submission of
wives to husbands. Quite frequently, women are enjoined to show some servility to their
men. Ireti N. conveys it this way: “the marriage tutors advised us to be submissive to our
spouse, to love our spouses, take good care of them. They also advised us as to pray
together, eat together and play together as a family.”166
As we noted above in our discussion on ‘respect for the other’ the asymmetry on
submissiveness seem to be well documented. More than that, women are updated that
being submissive is a characterization of a good wife and a symbolization of an efficient
home. Stephanie I. points this out when she says that, “marriage instructors typically
speak on submissiveness as a role of a good wife. They tell us, women, that we are the
heart of the home, that without us, the house won’t be a home. They also tell us, that we
are like the neck that we are to support our husband, who is the head of the home.”167
While these analogies are quiet interesting and innovative, it remains to be seen whether
this stipulation appears interesting to women. Yet, one might ask if submissiveness
necessarily entails giving up their right to speak freely. Or is it simply a limitation of such
right when the husband shares a differing opinion?
For a number of pastors, it seems the tendency is to refer to the Pauline portrayal of
connubial relationship in Ephesians 5:22-24. The overriding exegetical representation is
that women should be ‘subject to their husbands in the same way as to the Lord.’ Simply
put, women should submit to their husbands as they – women – submit to the Lord.
Extrapolated further, women are admonished to see their husband as their head in the
same way that she sees the Lord as her head. A clear testimony emerges from a
164
Ologbo.
165
This was in a conversation with Tamara Edet on February 13, 2015 at the premises of St. Andrew’s
166
This dialogue held on March 2, 2015 at the premises of St. Thomas Aquinas’ Catholic Church, Abudu.
167
Ologbo.
conversation with Bibi O.: “They always refer us to the book of Ephesians which talks
about being submissive to your husband because he is the head of the home. They also
advise us to always take all our problems to God in prayers. Some of them usually
recommend this book ‘power of a praying wife’ to us.”168
The concept of ‘submissiveness’ is liable to diverse interpretations. Where there is a
penchant for underscoring the importance of the submissive woman as the bedrock of a
peaceful and loving home, the tendency is habitually that men seem to construe it as a
confirmation of masculine dominance over one’s spouse. Imafidon I. retains not a
smidgen of uncertainty in his admittance of feminine servility to male headship. He
points to biblical injunctions in his justification of the cultural stance on male-female
relationships. He ruminates:
“I think some subservience is demanded of wives. In fact, even the

marriage instructors gave us advise that the man should love and cherish
the wife and the woman should be submissive to her husband and also
love and respect him. The messages were relevant because they are
helping my family in the long run. For the woman, she should follow the
directive of the bible and the church for marriage; she should always be
submissive and respect her husband. They should never get annoyed as
to denying their husband of his right - I mean sexually - because they are
encouraging the men as such to go search for succour outside of the
home.”169
Admittedly, Imafidon’s drives it quite far in his assertion that a lack of submission might
pave the way for the establishment of another relationship outside of the home. However,
the overall posture he takes testifies to the corroborative locus between pre-existing
cultural practices and a religiously-defined injunction – the submissiveness of women to
men.
2.12. Power and Relations

Having investigated major themes from the cultural and religious contexts, it is important
to explore how these realities have influenced male-female relationships. Often linked
with authority, our use of the term ‘power’ connotes the capacity to direct or influence the
behavior of others or the ability to act in a particular way. Ogbemudia I. offers a clue to
this in disclosing that he finds it difficult to regard the promptings from his wife but
nevertheless finds it unbearable when she disregards his instructions as he asserts: “No, I
168
This was in a conversation with Bibi O. on January 19, 2015 at the premises of St. Matthias’ Catholic
Church, Ologbo.
169
This is an excerpt of an interview conducted on January 19, 2015 at the premises of St. Matthias’
don't heed to what my wife says! If she tells me not to do anything, I might not adhere to
it. If I tell her not to do something, she obeys but only after challenging me.”170
In conjugal unions, the notion of ‘power’ is closely linked to the question of (in)
equality. There seem to be a correlation between the understanding of spousal equality
and the exercise of power. Put differently, the more a spouse considers himself or herself
more preeminent, the more asymmetrical the relationship is. This hypothesis is reflected
in Edet U’s summation:
“On the power and equality discussion, I have two contrary ideas; men
and woman are equal and they are also not equal. My wife and I are
equal in the sense that I treat my wife the same way I treat myself. We
are not equal because I have to let her know that I am the head of the
family. I am superior to her and that makes me her husband. I shoulder
most of the responsibilities.”171
Edet’s use of the term ‘superiority’ is meant to place him above his wife. It is also
interesting to note that he connects his impression of ‘superiority’ to the fact that he takes
up a huge amount of familial responsibilities. In surveying his estimation, it might seem
that his provision for his family justifies his authority and dominance. From the foregoing
then, power and relations in male-female relationships might evoke questions such as:
Who makes the key-decisions in the household? Is decision-making a product of a
dialogical process or is developed in a monologue? Who’s the one responsible for the
major developments in the family? What is the connection between power and headship?
How does financial capability inspire the exercise of power? In what ways are egalitarian
relationships actualized or undermined?
In order to survey these and more questions it would be helpful to examine such
subjects as the understanding of autonomy, (in) dependence, (in) equality, and
complementarity. In terms of what these might mean in the long term, we will scrutinize
the occurrence of domestic violence, other physical fights between couples, the separation
of couples and the complete breakdown of relationships.
2.12.1. Between Autonomy and (In) dependence

There is a certain conviction that asymmetrical relationships are fuelled by the utter
dependence of a spouse on another. Such comprehensive dependence has been identified
as a major factor in the dominance of one gender over the other. In clear terms, many
regard financial dependence as a mitigating factor to the existence of egalitarian relations.
Often times, such dependence slopes from the woman to the man. Stephanie I. insists that
“when a woman depends on her husband for almost everything, she tends to lose some
170
This discussion held on March 2, 2015 at the premises of St. Thomas Aquinas’ Catholic Church,
Abudu.
171
This conversation with Edet U. occurred on February 13, 2015 at the premises of St. Andrew’s Catholic
Church, Iguobazuwa.
ounce of worth in his eyes. I advise the women who intend to get married, to struggle for
themselves; they shouldn’t depend on their husband.” 172 Francis, Stephanie’s husband,
corroborates this in his admission that “my wife is running her own business. I usually go
to her shop to pick her and the children up in the evenings. I think she can gain financial
independence from this.”173
It must be said that the above account of the Imafidons is suggestive of a conscious
effort of either party – or mostly the woman – to address lop-sidedness in financial
obligations. Elohor R. employs the term ‘usefulness’ in her explanation of the mutual
dependence of couples. According to Elohor, “women should make themselves useful so
as to be treated fairly by their husbands. The woman should also try to assist with the
finances in the home. The roles of husband and wife are not independently exclusive;
they need each other to perform their responsibilities.”174 Yet, what is quite clear from
these accounts is that there needs to be a mindful determination of both parties to
contribute to the sustenance of the home in a manner evocative of mutual support and
interdependency. Further, Philip O. recounts: “I knew marriage was quite challenging so I
had to prepare myself for it and braced up for the tasks ahead. I built-up myself in a way
that I could be autonomous if the need arose.”175
2.12.2. Decision-Making Process

Making key-decisions in the household is a major function of parents. Couples are tasked
with this duty for the good of their union and for the products of their union – children.
However, our attention is drawn to the fact that the decision-making process might differ
from place to place. The overlap between a one-sided approach to matrimonial
resolutions and one that is dialogical in both form and content is noticeable. While some
admit of accepting counsel from their spouses before taking a decision, others are
adamant that such guidance is unwanted. Iredia O., a middle-aged man, favours a more
interpersonal approach to the decision-making process in a manner that is suitable to both
parties:
“As for me, if my wife tells me to do anything, I will first weigh the
implications and then if the implications are negative, I will explain to
her why I cannot do it. If she insists, I will involve her in the process. In
the end, she comes to see the reason for my initial hesitance. If it’s the
other way round, say I tell her to do something, she can also tell me no,
if she sees it has negative implications and it’s not a problem for me.”176
172
Ologbo.
173
This interlocution was on January 19, 2015 at the premises of St. Matthias’ Catholic Church, Ologbo.
174
175
This discussion held on February 13, 2015 at Iguobazuwa.
176
Abudu.
A number of men do admit of an inter-relational disposition to spousal counsel. Philip O.

shares this strand of thought, though he is quick to insist that the definitive resolution
emerges from him. He divulges in this way: “As the man of the house, I know I am the
head of the family. I discuss plans with my wife and I take the final decisions. Most
times, I initiate plans but my wife can also initiate.”177 In Philip’s estimation, it is the
man’s responsibility to implement decisive matters due to his position as the head of the
household. There is a similar resonance in Omoefe E’s disclosure that “when it comes to
decision making, we – my wife and I – make the decisions together but I enforce it.”178
In the estimation of some female interlocutors, the acceptance of feminine counsel by
husbands is subject to intense scrutiny. Only when the counsel yields a positive effect
does an appreciation supervene. Gladys I. notifies: “I advise my husband when it is
necessary. He takes my advice sometimes. He appreciates the advice given to him by me
whenever it works out, although he doesn’t like to show it. In my own case, I do
appreciate his advice in words.” 179 On her part, Ireti N’s imagines that the hesitance
shown by men in the acceptance of women’s perspective emerges from two factors: self-
esteem and a perception of women as incapable of making critical decisions. In Ireti’s
visualization, “most men are very difficult. Even in marriages, some men have difficulty
sharing experiences and secrets with their wives because they see her as a weaker
vessel.” 180 While it is arguable that Ireti is guilty of a generalization in her usage of
‘most’ it is notable that she does not appear comfortable with such a trend.
Nevertheless, it must be said that experiences differ from place to place.
Undermining female counsel is not as widespread as it might seem. Undeniably, some
couples allude to a mutual interdependence in the process of decision-making. Tosan O. –
one of the oldest participants of our survey with about fifty years of marital experience –
discloses that the rapport she shares with her husband is a reciprocated convention.
According to Tosan, “as a wife, I take things as they come along. There are certain things
I have to do and discuss with him. My husband gives me a free hand to do things for
myself and for the home. I support him in whatsoever way he needs backing. I advise him
just as he advises me.” 181 Rather than a demonstration of ‘masculine ego’ in Tosan’s
explanation, in the way Ireti intimates above, there appears to be some form of
understanding and collaboration in the experiences of some couples. Chinomso O., a
newly married man, refers to such mutual collaboration as a facet of the complementarity
of man and woman. Chinomso suggests thus: “Complementarity might also be at play in
the decision-making process of the family. This would mean that the woman also has a
177
This interview was done on February 13, 2015 at the premises of St. Andrew’s Catholic Church,
Iguobazuwa.
178
This is an excerpt of an interview conducted on March 13, 2015 at Sapele Road, Benin City.
179
City.
180
Abudu.
181
contribution to make in the ideas of the man pertaining to the family. They are meant to
work together.”182
2.12.3. Complementarity
What key features are identifiable in the understanding of the complementarity of the
spouses? In what ways are couples often referred to as ‘complementary’? What are the
hindrances to a positive understanding of spousal complementarity? While we shall
discuss these questions in a broader way in our conversation with theologians in the next
chapter, it is important to already examine the notion of ‘complementarity’ among
couples in Southern Nigeria.
The expression of complementarity among the participant-couples of our
ethnography come in the form of shared responsibilities. As a result, there is often an
acceptance of the notion of complementarity in male-female relationships irrespective of
previously held cultural beliefs of male dominance and headship. Oshiogwe A. retains
this understanding when he asserts that “in modern times, the woman ought to play a
complementary role because that’s what she was created to be, to complement the
husband as Eve complemented Adam.” 183 His use of ‘modern times’ is clearly an
interruption from the culture of utter dependence of Africa’s yesteryears. He goes on to
recommend that such complementarity should exceed fiscal affairs in order to attain
comprehensiveness. He offers: “younger men should aspire to get married if they aren’t
celibate. The woman complements the man emotionally, socially, financially,
economically, bodily and otherwise. I must say marriage is really a beautiful thing.”184
The notion of complementarity is sometimes conveyed in terms of head-neck
relationship. 185 Using this analysis, it is meant to underscore the importance of both
parties even when it is admitted that one is on top of the other. In which case, the top-
position occupied by one spouse over another does not render the other spouse less
significant. Temituoyo O. – one of the oldest participants of our study – succinctly
conveys this understanding. He explains it this way:
“As husband, I have never looked to the fact that I had such
responsibilities (the responsibilities of a husband). To me, I have a sister
and a girlfriend in one package in the house. We take good care of each
other. As father, the care of my children was always under my auspice in
close collaboration with my wife. My children are grown up now. They
182
183
This conversation held on February 1, 2015 in Evboriaria, Benin City.
184
This conversation held on February 1, 2015 in Evboriaria, Benin City.
185
This analogy is posted by Omosefe E. in her assertion that, “he bible says the man is the head. My
husband is the head and I am the neck. We are both equal in the sight of God that doesn’t mean we
shouldn’t respect each other.” This is an excerpt from an interview conducted on March 13, 2015 at Sapele
Road, Benin City. A similar allegory has been tendered earlier by Stephanie I. in her explanation on being
submissive to one’s spouse.
are not in the country now except for my first daughter. They are now on
their own.”186
In the course of my participant observation, couples who enjoy cordial relationships tend
to accentuate a complementarity-equality deportment. Like Temituoyo, they are quick to
credit the fruitfulness and success of their marriage to this posture. It is in this same mode
that Omoefe E. speaks of the challenge posed by the differences that exists between his
wife and him; a test which is resolved by mutual respect founded on their understanding
of spousal equality. He avers: “The major challenge I have with my wife is timing. She
doesn’t meet up with time, but that’s mainly because she has to prepare the kids, herself
and myself. We support each other in every way possible. I really appreciate the efforts of
my wife.”187
2.12.4. The Notion of Spousal (In) equality

It is interesting to see that complementarity claims do not necessarily translate to the
equality of both parties. Debates on the egalitarian character of matrimonial relationships
are often inspired by cultural and religious beliefs. The traditional practice of patriarchal
control and authority makes it difficult to reason beyond the lines of male headship or
dominance to a symmetrical union where both parties operate on identical pedestal
notwithstanding their sexual differences. Imafidon I., a middle-aged man, typifies this
trend:
“Before God we are all humans but I cannot really say that we are equal.
The man is the head of the house and the woman is the neck supporting
the head, though I can say that she is the co-head with the man, but out
of two leaders, there is a general leader who supersedes the other. Even
while growing up, I lived with my father and mother before starting my
own family, I could even see then that man and woman are not equal, the
man is more superior, he gives orders and the woman and children
comply.”188
The struggle between religious injunctions and cultural stipulations is as expected, a

tensed one. There is repeatedly a conflict of ideas between what is taught by the church
and what has been handed on in oral and written traditions. This is pithily captured in
Victoria B’s supposition that “before God, my husband and I are equal. However, in my
opinion, we are not equal. Tradition tells me so.” 189 Her difficulty in transcending
traditional proviso is not uncommon. There is a subtle suggestion that not even
catechetical instructions could offer a novel route. In light of this, a middle-aged woman,
186
187
This conversation held on March 13, 2015 at Sapele Road, Benin City.
188
These notes are curled from an interview conducted on January 19, 2015 at the premises of St.
189
This is an excerpt of an interview conducted on February 13, 2015 at the premises of St. Andrew’s
Oyemwen A. asserts in a similar tone: “I do not agree that men and women are equal,
because the man is the head of the home as tradition demands. However, in the messages
of the priest, they made us understand that men and women are equal in the sight of
God.”190
In the catechetical instructions of couples, there is often a strong emphasis on the
equality of men and women. In the homilies of pastors on nuptial occasions, the
elucidation of male and female as equal in the sight of God is often rendered. Taking it
further, though it is mostly elaborated that wives should constantly show respect to the
husband they are wary that the man do not trample on the woman’s right simply because
he is the head of the home. To resolve this conundrum, they tend to refer to the woman as
the co-head.191 Kikanwa O., a young lady, is of the view that the equality of man and
woman is achieved by virtue of marriage as evident in the biblical affirmation: ‘the two
shall become one.’192
It is instructive to indicate that the bulk of participants who regard the church’s
catechetical recommendations on spousal equality tend to be as eager to establish a
platform for egalitarian relations. Temituoyo O. admits that due to his religious
formation, he does not retain any qualm in considering his wife as a person similar in
dignity and worth. He puts it this way: “I never saw any difference between husbands and
wives. I see my wife as a sister and a girlfriend. I never really saw my wife as inferior to
me. The women have more strength and I feel the woman is more in control. As the man
and woman get older, the control by the woman gets sturdier.”193 Temituoyo’s assessment
that women gain enormous powers at the later stages of their union is striking. By this he
hints that familial authority and control is never permanent. Indeed, the question of power
and authority is quite subtle in bonds where each party recognizes the worth of the other.
In truth, Temituoyo’s account is very much a re-echo of his wife’s response in an earlier
session. The detailed assessment provided by Tosan O. helps us to examine the place of
mutual respect in marital ties:
“As an African, I will treat this question on the equality of men and
women from various scopes. In the African tradition, men and women
are not equal. In the Christian setting, a wife is to submit to her husband
and so they are not equal also. In another dimension, if friends get
married, they won’t have issues with equality. If couples see themselves
as friends, the issue of equality won’t be relevant. Marriage is not about
190
This interview was conducted on January 22, 2015 at Obaretin Estate.
191
These are notes taken from a participant observation of a liturgical celebration of marriage on February
20, 2015 at Sacred Heart Catholic Church, Evboriaria, Benin City.
192
In a session with Kikanwa O., the recently married lady discusses the importance of the biblical
injunction on spousal oneness as a sturdy basis for advancing the complementarity-equality model of male-
female relations. In her opinion, marriage provides a platform for both parties to enjoy egalitarian
relationship. However, she is quick to add that just might simply be the ideal and not necessary
widespread. The interview session with Kikanwa O. was conducted on February 6, 2015 at the premises of
Sacred Heart Catholic Church, Evboriaria, Benin City.
193
give and take; it is about love. If they love each other, the man is not
likely to claim superiority. For my husband and I, my claims on equality
are contradictory because I see us as equal and I also see us as not equal.
There are certain things or at certain times, I left him to make decisions
and there are also times that he makes the decisions without seeking my
opinion or asking for my consent. There is no power tussle between
us.”194
It must be noted that not everyone shares in such a seemingly positive perspective of
spousal relationship. In the opinion of these protagonists, the exhibition of interpersonal
negotiations and concessions are but a façade concealing male dominance in prenuptial
moments. Ebinehita A. outlines her impression as follows: “I can’t really remember the
exact content of our marriage preparatory lectures on the equality debate as it is already a
long time ago now. But in my own opinion, men enslave women, there’s no equality at
all. I feel men pretend a lot especially before marriage, so once they get married, the
domineering spirit of the men then comes out.”195 From our investigation earlier on, it is
difficult to extricate Patricia’s thought from pre-existing cultural tendencies. Such
inclination, for example, transpires from the Benin indigenous tradition where women are
not meant to be public speakers. As Philip O. asserts, “in the Benin tradition, men and
women are not equal. The women are to be seen and not to be heard, hence they use
white handkerchief to cover their mouth in public places. In some traditional homes, this
is still practiced.”196
2.12.5. Acute Challenges to Male-Female Relations

It is indubitable that relationships carry with them some foundational challenges. These
encounters are not specific to a particular phase of marriage life. They feature through the
entire duration. However, it is observed that a fleet of hitches in these relationships often
occurs in the initial years of marriage. These drawbacks range from family intrusion to a
mutual lack of understanding among partners, from apportioning financial responsibilities
to a willingness to return back to one’s family by way of a separation. Anthonia O. gives
a detailed illustration of what these glitches could mean for couples. Taking a hard-hitting
stance, she is adamant that those experiences exhibited the potentials of guaranteeing a
terse relationship with her husband in a way that exposes both parties to what she referred
to as ‘the biting realities of marriage.’ She avows:
“The challenges I had earlier on in marriage included intrusions from

both family and friends. Also, while my husband went back to school,
there were incursions from girls over there who attempted to befuddle
194
195
These notes are curled from an interview conducted on January 19, 2015 at the premises of St.
196
This interview was done on February 13, 2015 at the premises of St. Andrew’s Catholic Church,
Iguobazuwa.
him away from the family. In the years of marriage, the whole financial
responsibility rested on me. A time even came when he withdrew from
doing anything for the family. I actually contemplated separation then,
because the whole burden rested on me. In that period, the attitude of my
husband changed towards me. At the time, I thought I should leave him
for good.”197
Challenges in marriage often have snowballing effects. Issues that are mostly considered
‘little’ also possess the tendency to become magnified in a typically escalating matter.
Participants are of the impression that when these challenges are not immediately
resolved, the menaces they pose are enormous. Such hazards do not exclude, domestic
violence, physical fight between couples, separation and a complete breakdown in
relationships. I shall examine these themes below.
a. Domestic Violence
Domestic violence typically refers to violent or aggressive behaviour within the home. It
mostly involves the vehement abuse of one spouse by another. Domestic violence
incorporates physical assault, battering, sexual assault, wilful intimidation, emotional
torture and other abusive behaviours. We shall pay attention to physical fights in the next
sub-theme. Couples are generally wary of domestic violence. The tendency to strike at a
partner is habitually avoided in relationships. However, this is not always the case. The
ability to restrain from a predisposition to domestic abuse is overtly remote in some
matrimonial unions. “I have experienced domestic violence. It happens always. My
husband usually starts it”198 is the testimony provided by a participant.
The rate of domestic violence varies from one household to another. Whereas some
couples have reported a severe proportion of domiciliary mistreatment, a portion admits
of a decrease in such experiences. Ebinehita A. informs: “I have personally experienced it
and that was in the early years of my marriage. They were usually quite severe. They
arose due to misunderstandings. For now, domestic violence is much reduced.” 199 Pressed
further, Ebinehita hints that it still occurs but “once in a while”.200
Testimonies to domestic violence are quick to demonstrate that misgivings constitute
a vital core of these debacles. In those discussions where domestic abuse is
acknowledged, the question of power and authority are cornerstones for those spectacles.
At other times, it may be as a result of an ignored demand from a spouse – for the most
part, a financial turndown. Whereas it is arduous to ascertain in what way these
misapprehensions are settled by violence, it is noteworthy that provocations from either
or both spouses concoct the combustibility of the crisis. Ndubuisi C. has alluded to
197
198
This interview with Stephanie I. was conducted on January 20, 2015 at the premises of St. Matthias’
199
200
This interlocution held on January 19, 2015 at the premises of St. Matthias’ Catholic Church, Ologbo.
financial reasons as a major source of incitement in these watershed moments. Although

he unveils that such breakpoints with his wife have occurred ‘only once’ he discloses that
among his peers, the burden of financial onus and support are catalysts for domestic
abuses. “I do recollect I have beaten my wife only once and I regretted it afterwards. The
cause was finance. My friends tell me that it sometimes happens in their homes. Maybe
not too frequently too. They tell me that financial situations play a huge role. To avoid
domestic violence, the man should be very tolerant.”201
To those who engage in domestic abuse, aligning it with financial reasons sounds
convenient. “In some homes, domestic violence is usually the order of the day. They say
it arises from financial disputes,”202 Harrison O. submits. His continuation centres on a
resolution to never engage in matrimonial violence: “I have never and will never hit my
wife. Though, we have misunderstanding at times, but it never results to wife-
battering.” 203 Whereas Harrison’s admittance to self-control is laudable, studies show,
however, that financial impulses are not the only causes of familial abuse. In asserting
this claim, Bibi O. offers an illustration of several factors side-by-side the extent of
aggressive abuse. “I have never experienced domestic violence. I am happy for that. Yet,
I know of some cases from friends. I can relate the cause to money, infidelity, wrongful
reportage, power tussle and so forth. It could be very severe at times; some can even do it
in the presence of their children, inflicting injuries upon themselves, destroying
properties.”204
b. Physical Fights
Unmistakeably, there is a correlation between domestic violence and physical fighting.
They are both products of vehemence. Imafidon I. quips: “fights sometimes happen,
especially after a heated exchange. The cause is sometimes monetary, speculative
accusations and superstitious beliefs. They are not very severe, because I cannot beat up
my wife to the extent of inflicting injuries on her.”205 Indeed, just like domestic violence,
the causes of physical fights are enormous (the causes of both domestic violence and
physical fights often overlap). Still, they are mostly traceable to pecuniary disputations as
well. Ireti N., a middle-aged woman, recounts: “We fought a lot as young couple. I
201
Ologbo.
202
203
204
Ologbo.
205
Imafidon I. notifies further that “things are not as rosy as they use to be. We quarrel and fight all the
time.” This conversation held on January 19, 2015 at the premises of St. Matthias’ Catholic Church,
Ologbo. However, for some participants, physical fight is quite minimal. Esezobor A. recounts that “it
occurred only once; a year after our marriage. I will never forget it.” This interview with Esezobor A. held
on January 20, 2015 at the premises of St. Matthias’ Catholic Church, Ologbo.
usually start it certain times though. It usually happens when he doesn’t give me money
to feed the family.”206
The triggering of these fights is hardly monopolized. As Ireti testifies, it could be
activated by either spouse. Omoefe E., a middle-aged man, offers his assessment stating:
“Fights do happen. Anyone can instigate it but the woman prompts it most times. It is not
usually severe and no one gets physically hurt. I try to ignore her when I sense it.” 207 It
might appear that a counter solution to physical fights is to ignore the other partner. But
in how far can such a snubbing last? For some, therefore, the strategy is to demonstrate a
subsequent apologetic disposition. Chika C., a young lady, suggests: “Yes o, there have
been fights several times of which I am usually the cause. The quarrels really do not last
long because my husband does usually come around to apologize.” 208 Despite the
sensitivity-approach of Sandra, it is notable that not every partner enjoys immediate
resolutions to conflict.
When fights occur, some couples are unwilling to admit guilt. They claim innocence
straight away. Ogbemudia I. recalls certain moments he fought with his wife and how
vicious it could be even though he quickly apportions the blame to her. “I will not lie; we
fought at the early years of marriage. She is usually the cause, she talks and hits me and
then I will retaliate and turn her to a punching bag. Now that the children are grown, we
do not fight anymore.”209 A statement that is later countered by his wife, Osatohanmwen
I. saying: “My husband usually fights. He normally starts the fight. It has happened a few
times in the presence of the children.” 210 Conversely, irrespective of the individual to
which the blame is directed, it is annotated that these conflicts are a mainstay in certain
homes.
c. Separation and divorce

From our immediate observation, separation and divorce are somewhat infrequent among
married individuals in Benin. The impulse to initiate separation arises no doubt but for a
number of reasons, it appears the flame is rapidly doused. While some are of the
viewpoint that the good of the children ensures the avoidance of such actions, others refer
directly to the experiences derived from their observation of single parenthood. Ebinehita
A. is an exponent of this proposition in what she refers to as the ‘privations of solitary
parenthood’:
206
Ireti’s narrative on the causes of rapid provocations raises an awareness that some women are not
comfortable with the meager provision offered by their men with regard to the running of the family. This
conversation held on March 2, 2015 at the premises of St. Thomas Aquinas’ Catholic Church, Abudu.
207
This interlocution held on March 13, 2015 at Sapele Road, Benin City.
208
209
This interview was conducted on March 2, 2015 at the premises of St. Thomas Aquinas’ Catholic
Church, Abudu.
210
This is an excerpt of an interview conducted on March 2, 2015 at the premises of St. Thomas Aquinas’
Catholic Church, Abudu.
“I have never thought of separation as a solution based on my past

experience where my father rejected my mum. I got a first-hand
experience of the privations of solitary parenthood. I wouldn’t want that
to happen to my children and me. My mum was always using her
situation to pray for me then and up till now. So anytime I am faced with
a difficult challenge, I always pray as my mum taught me.”211
The good of children is therefore a serious consideration when thoughts of a separation or

divorce are flirted with. It is not uncommon to find someone say, “I usually rebuke
contemplations of separation because of my children.” 212 Parents themselves often
manage to tutor their children on the avoidance of separation. Anthonia O. refers to the
dangers of a breakdown in relations as a jeopardy in the upbringing and development of
children. In her words: “I expect my children to not separate or divorce because a broken
home is not good for the spouse and the children. I expect them to endure
life’s/marriage’s challenges.”213
Anthonia is not alone in her proposal of endurance and tolerance as a barricade to
separation from one’s spouse. Chika C. offers a similar perspective in her hopeful
anticipation of accord at the end of every storm. She clarifies: “Separation? I have never
thought of separation or divorce whenever I am faced with difficulties because I believe
marriage is to be endured for life and that things will definitely get better even after the
difficulties. I do not think it is an alleyway to solving marital problems.”214 Conversely, in
reality, not everyone is as positive as Sandra especially in terms of asking spouses to
‘endure for life.’ Some are unable to adopt long-term endurance.
2.13. Questions Regarding Roles and Responsibilities Among Spouses

Subjects regarding familial duties, tasks, capacity, functions and management are major
spotlights in matrimonial relations. This is also not unconnected with previously
discussed themes such as authority, control, power and influence. Whose responsibility?
Whose duty? Who functions as what? Who bears the mantle of household supervision
and management? These are some of the queries that arise.
Some are of the viewpoint that offering support to their spouse is a linchpin of their
relationship.215 Others refer to ‘progeny provision’ and spousal recompense as the basis
211
Ologbo.
212
This conversation with Stephanie I. held on January 20, 2015 at the premises of St. Matthias’ Catholic
Church, Ologbo.
213
214
This interlocution was conducted on January 20, 2015 at the premises of St. Matthias’ Catholic Church,
Ologbo.
215
Ndubuisi C. presents an illustrated account of mutual support. “As a father, I provide for the family and
ensure most of their needs are met. As a husband, I had to arrange a place for my wife to sell her goods
and also make some money to support herself and take care of herself. My wife returns these gestures in
her own way. Her care for me and our children is enviable.” This interview was conducted on January 20,
2015 at the premises of St. Matthias’ Catholic Church, Ologbo.
of their responsibility. 216 For a huge group however, the roles are much-more
encompassing and insist that roles between spouses are ideally intertwined.217 The major
reference for a bustling number is a maximal availability for family acquaintances.
Ogagavwodia R., an elderly man, typifies this filament in his narrative of vintage
recollection:
“As husband, I provide for my wife, I care for her, I protect her and
project her. I summarize my duties to her in 3 Ps: provide, protect and
possess. I married my wife immediately after she finished her secondary
school. I made sure she went through the university. I provided her
needs, and ensure she is happy at all times. If I were to marry again, I
will still marry my wife. I am what I am today because of my wife.
Because of her, I look younger than my age. I protect her by not
allowing her to be harmed.”218
Quite effusive of his wife’s contributions, Ogagavwodia admits that things were made
easier as a result of a synergetic patronage. Nevertheless, it would seem that often times,
responsibilities are explained and delineated along gender lines. Functions are rapidly
assigned – consciously or unconsciously – in terms of masculinity and femininity. Roles
are subtly apportioned on the basis of one’s sexual frame/configuration. In our discussion
of spousal responsibilities and roles, we shall explore themes such as household chores,
financial onus, access to career, fatherhood and motherhood concepts. We shall also
examine the notions of ‘home maker’ and ‘bread-winner’.
2.13.1. Household Chores

Household chores refer to the routine tasks carried out in the home. They constitute a
major responsibility of parents in the organization of their family. The hypothesis that is
216
Idibia I. embodies this position. In his explanation, he refers to financial provisio for his household as a
vital part of his spousal and parental duty. He reasons: “The major challenge is finance because I am the
one carrying the major financial load and so some times the money may not go round to meet all the needs
of the nuclear and extended family.” This conversation held on March 12, 2015 at the premises of St.
Paul’s Catholic Church, Benin City. Ndubuisi C. offers a similar rhetoric. “As a father, I provide for the
family and ensure most of their needs are met. As a husband, I had to arrange a place for my wife to sell
her goods and also make some money to support herself and take care of herself.” This interview was
conducted on January 20, 2015 at the premises of St. Matthias’ Catholic Church, Ologbo.
217
Ogagavwodia R notably champions an intertwining-duties position. In advancing his viewpoint, he uses
the complementarity argument as a primordial platform. “Men and women complement each other. In the
family, they need each other. Their roles are intertwined.” This interview was conducted on March 15,
2015 in G.R.A., Benin City. Esohe O. gives a nod to this perspective. She asserts thus that “the major
challenge is the combination of one’s household duties and work. My husband and I have to wake up early
to prepare the children and also prepare the meals. We do these chores in unison.” This interlocution held
on March 2, 2015 at the premises of St. Thomas Aquinas’ Catholic Church, Abudu. Idibia I. conveys a
similar position while insisting though that spousal roles are clearly defined. “In the management of the
home, the husband and wife have their various roles and responsibilities. However, when I am not around,
she does my responsibilities.” This conversation held on March 12, 2015 at the premises of St. Paul’s
218
These notes are excerpted from an interlocution conducted on March 15, 2015 in G.R.A., Benin City.
mostly re-echoed is that women perform more housework responsibilities in the home
(even when they have done a full day in the office or at work). Confronted with this
assumption, there were sufficient responses of confirmation and counter-confirmation.
For the majority of the women, while there is a recognition that men are supportive in the
execution of household chores, there is a slight suggestion that the bulk of the
responsibilities rest on the woman’s shoulders. Chika C. hints: “My responsibilities are
quite tasking, because I do the household chores, run a business, perform my duty as a
wife. Combining all this is very stressful. My husband assists in house chores though.
Sometimes, when I come late from the market, he prepares food for me.”219
Nevertheless, a number of men are adamant that their contribution to household
obligations is noteworthy. While they do not claim to operate on a similar scale as their
wives, they relate that a volume of technical and manual charges is within their domain.
Admitting his weak points, Omoefe E’s intention is centred on underscoring the efforts he
manifests when it is apparently impossible for his spouse to undertake her supposedly
routine engagements. He explains: “I assist my wife in performing house chores, though I
know am lazy compared to my wife. When it comes to the electrical things in the house I
do it. I cook once in a while though especially when my wife is ill or incapacitated. Our
union is wonderful.”220 Still, a few more insist that both parties effectively carry out the
partitioning of stipulated household charges. Idibia I., a middle-aged man, maintains: “I
assist in the house especially in manual labour. On Saturdays, I do my laundry. If the
grasses and flowers are grown, I trim them. That’s how I was trained.”221
It suffices to affirm therefore that in a number of families, roles are predetermined.
Though wives are entrusted with more domestic duties, their husbands’ backing comes in
the physical demands. Hitherto, for a few though, most support came during the early
years of marriage. From the moment the children became grown or when relatives were
readily available, the support from the husbands declined.222
219
Ologbo. In an affirmation to Chika’s position, Harrison O. reasons that the household responsibilities
carried out by women are enormous and bears even more difficulty in the absence of spousal support. “For
my wife, taking care of the home is stressful, especially when she has to do most things with little or no
assistance because the children are still very young, she wakes up as early as 2am at times to start doing
the chores. I assist her at times to do some little things. My wife is very meticulous; she likes everything to
be in order. It has really been challenging though, but the grace of God is sufficient for us all. Due to my
busy schedule, I am not always at home to help her out with the chores and taking care of the children like
bathing them in the morning and getting them ready for school.” This conversation held on January 20,
2015 at the premises of St. Matthias’ Catholic Church, Ologbo.
220
221
This conversation held on March 12, 2015 at the premises of St. Paul’s Catholic Church, Benin City.
222
Esezobor A. is assertive in declaring that he was more active in the early years of marriage adding also
that his help is seldom declined by his wife when he offers. He reflects: “Even without anybody telling me,
I always try to assist her in performing house chores especially in the early years of marriage, I never saw
it as a problem though at times, she declines my help.” This conversation held on January 21, 2015 at the
premises of St. Matthias’ Catholic Church, Ologbo. In a similar orientation, Elohor R. recounts that her
husband was quite assisting in domiciliary responsibilities until the need elapsed. “My husband assisted in
house chores at the time when we were alone without anybody staying with us but when we had people
2.13.2. Financial Onus

Financial responsibility constitutes a huge facet in male-female relations. The weight of
finance is mostly a shared obligation. However, unlike suppositions surrounding
household chores, financial responsibility is assumed to be the onus of the husband. The
woman serves to support. Esohe O. accentuates this position. She reasons that financial
provision for the home is the prerogative of her husband whereas she too supports him
correspondingly. She submits that “as a husband, he is doing his best. He gives me money
to provide for the family. If the amount is not enough, I add mine to it. As father, he pays
the children’s fees and corrects them whenever they are wrong.”223 Also, in cases where
the man is a pensioner, the financial burden is usually vested on the wife.224
Nevertheless, some men reason that their wives are as financially capable as they are.
From their experience, women are not as inept as often painted. Philip O. shares this
assessment. In outlining, the responsibilities of his wife, he credits a certain dexterity to
her in a way that makes her financially adroit. According to Philip: “I see my wife as a
man. I do not give my wife feeding money. She is very industrious. My wife is a nurse.
She prepares the meal, takes care of the home.” 225 Still, no matter how dexterous a
woman might be, when she does not possess the space to fend for herself and the family,
such skills are quiescent. Canvassing for an activation of dormant financial proficiencies
therefore, Chika C. calls for an improvement in opportunities for women to work while
not diminishing the amount of effort they put in at home. She returns: “In my own
opinion, women need to work so as to help make ends meet in the home, but she
shouldn’t fail in her duties at home.” 226 Here lies a major contention: how does the
woman attend to the chores in the home and at the same time sustain a focus in her
career?
2.13.3. Access to Career

Access to career opportunities is quite a heated topic in matrimonial sceneries. The
question mostly centres on the working career of women – not men. Thus the basic
question is often: do mothers have to work outside of the home? If the response is
affirmative, what is the extent to which they should work? Or does the capacity of – and
the attention to – her career job diminish the supposedly expected amount of time in the
home? Should there be a limitation to the careers of mothers?
staying with us, there was really no need for him to assist in home chores.” This interview was conducted
on March 15, 2015 in G.R.A., Benin City.
223
Church, Abudu.
224
Oyemwen A. has explained that the level of support differ depending on the income of the spouse in
question. She reveals that for her: “The most challenging thing now is finance. Since my husband is
retired, most of the financial burden now rests on me, but God has been helping us.” This conversation
held on January 22, 2015 at the Obaretin Estate.
225
This discussion held on February 13, 2015 at St. Andrew’s Catholic Church, Iguobazuwa.
226
Ologbo.
It is arguable that the emergence of women in professional work is a novelty in

Southern Nigeria.227 Until modern times, cultural and legal practices restricted women’s
entry into specific careers such as medicine and law. The earning of a salary and the
economic contribution of women were particularly alien and this was further guaranteed
by women’s lack of access to higher education which consequently ensured a relatively
poor socio-economic status. This narrative seems to have shifted in the contemporaneous
era owing to the fact that access to education is more assured and professional jobs do not
require heavy labour, as was the argument of the past. Still, the wages of women are
impacted upon due to what is perceived as women’s partial attention to career duties as
opposed to men.
The acknowledgement and acceptance of career-mothers is ambivalent. Such
indecisiveness or hesitance spans from home to home. With regard to the school of
thought who demands the working prospects of mothers, there is often a citation to the
psychosocial development of the woman. Others point to the financial advantage of
career jobs to family support especially in difficult financial situations. Still more attest to
the learning curve they are confronted with in their encounters with other mothers. For
the anti-career strand, the major argument is that mothers are meant to be homebound in a
way that they are sufficiently able to cater for the children and for the home. Their
presupposition emerges from an understanding that encouraging mothers into career jobs
yields one major aftermath – decreased attention to home affairs. To this group, mothers
are better suited to cater for the home no less than fathers are appropriated with the
financial provision for the family.
Arguably, the debate on working-class mothers amasses momentum more than ever
before. This debate is mostly fostered by exposure to assorted practices in sundry parts of
the world. This heterogeneity is also expressed in the reasoning of individuals. According
to Gladys I., being up-to-date with societal events is a motivation for work. She notes: “It
is helpful for a woman to work because it’s tough to sit at home without doing anything.
It also helps to keep the woman abreast of the happenings in the society, helps her to meet
people and share ideas.”228 In a similar vein, Anthonia O. is assertive that women’s work
outside of the home is helpful because it “ensures that they don’t become lazy”. 229 In lieu
of the above, a question that comes to mind is: If mothers sit at home ‘without doing
anything’ or they ‘become lazy’ by being at home, what then is the rationale for asking
them to remain at home in the first place after all?
227
Harrison O. has spoken of the difficulty in continue the stay-at-home-housewife practice. In his
admittance, he maintains that “in this modern dispensation, women cannot be confined to the home. Most
of them want to work or do some things outside. Though the stress is much on them but they will want to
work.” This interview was conducted on January 20, 2015 at the premises of St. Matthias’ Catholic
Church, Ologbo.
228
229
This discussion held on February 13, 2015 at St. Andrew’s Catholic Church, Iguobazuwa.
Those who refer to the entire development of the woman seem to tender a more
nuanced position. Ebinehita A. contends that “mothers working outside of the home are
actually helpful for the home and also helpful to the mother emotionally and
psychologically”. 230 However, she cautions that mothers have to make provisions for
children despite their work. This position is accentuated by Oyemwen A’s call for the
appreciation of women’s public careers in a way that certifies her development while at
the same time placing her household chores in perspective:
“The practice of women working outside of the home is very much

encouraged. By that they will be able to assist in finance. A woman who
is working should always create enough time for her family. Working
also helps in the psychology of the woman, because she will be able to
think properly and meet different people rather than sitting at home all
day.”231
A faction of individuals has referred to a more orthodox notion of the challenges faced by
women in the public sphere. In the eyes of this bloc, the participation of women in career
jobs exposes them to undue pressure. Even though he assents to women’s work, Imafidon
I., a middle-aged man, underscores the importance of the woman’s “consciousness of
temptations” when she works outside of the home.232 This ideology synchronizes with an
elderly woman, Elohor R’s perspective on the need for the woman to “be very disciplined
and to not misuse her opportunity to work outside the home. Exposure is the biggest
education one can get, so it’s good for a woman to work so as to gather experience and
share ideas with others.” 233 But why is access to career seen as an ‘opportunity’ for
women and what is the guarantee that ‘temptations’234 do not befall ‘housewives’ as well?
Exponents of contra-career mothers are unrelenting in their arguments. They insist
that the primary responsibility of the woman is to be a ‘home-maker’. Ogbemudia I.
identifies with this conventional archetype. According to him, “it is not right for a woman
to work because she is supposed to concentrate on the domestic aspect of the family while
230
Ologbo.
231
This interview was conducted on January 22, 2015 at Obaretin Estate. Kikanwa O. has included another
dimension arguing that rather than a stay-at-home-wife, professional career pursuits “give women a sense
of belonging and also a sense of pride, seeing how useful she is to herself and the home.” This interview
was conducted on February 6, 2015 at the premises of Sacred Heart Catholic Church, Evboriaria.
232
233
234
Philip O. posts a similar analysis to the question of career women. Accentuating the significance of
women’s pshyco-social development, he questions the housewife’s mentality. Philip argues: “Well, to
assist in finance women's work outside of the house is very essential. Everything depends on trust. Even if
a man decides that his wife shouldn’t work and that she should remain at home, what does he think
happens when he is not at home? I prefer a woman to mix up with people and work, so as to keep her busy
and help her develop mentally and otherwise.” This discussion held on February 13, 2015 at St. Andrew’s
the man focuses on the financial piece.”235 Tamara U. supports this conservative trend. In
her assertion, economic constraint is the only impetus to her job. Where it not for such
constrictions, her preference is to be a housewife. She admits: “if finance is settled, I
wouldn’t have loved to work. I would have loved to be a full time housewife. Financial
constraints and economic hardship make this impossible.”236
It seems also that men are willing to accommodate women’s career disposition to the
extent that it does not impact on the attention in the home. Omoefe E. specifically argues
that some job demands make it almost impossible for mothers to fulfil their matrimonial
obligations. He contends: “My wife works as a midwife. It’s important for women to
work. It exposes her psychologically, relieves boredom, it gives her room to exchange
ideas with others and also help to boost her confidence. But the nature of the job is
equally important. I do not subscribe to women working in banks.”237 Idibia I. conveys a
similar experience. He refers to a lack of ‘domestication’ in those situations where the
woman undertakes a tedious career. As he declares: “It is helpful for the woman to work
in public places in terms of finance but the commitment to the home will suffer, because
the women will not be so domesticated. For those working in the banking sector, they
drop their children in the crèche and won’t pick them up till late in the evening. It might
be detrimental to the kids.”238
It is noteworthy that the difficulties in combining household chores and career job
are affirmed by mothers themselves. Whereas Omosede E. cites the advantage afforded
her by her job “in interacting with other women and exchanging ideas with them on how
to care for the home”239 she discloses that the downside is that she is not able to produce
the attention required in her home. Omosede muses: “Attention is a major challenge,
since I am a working-class mother, I am usually tired on returning home in the afternoon
after work. At that time, my husband and my children would need my attention. It is
really not easy.”240 For some others, the opportunity to work is simply limited.241
235
Church, Abudu.
236
This discussion held on February 13, 2015 at St. Andrew’s Catholic Church, Iguobazuwa. Emoshioke
A. discloses a similar pattern. In her estimation, though having a career job makes economic sense,
catering for the children is more beneficial. She declares: “To some extent, it’s helpful for a woman to
work in the economic sense so as to support the husband, but in a case where everything is available, I
won’t work so that I will be able to take care of the children and the home.” This conversation held on
February 1, 2015 in Evboriaria, Benin City.
237
238
City.
239
240
241
Noredia O. is supportive of this perspective even though she admits being limited by opportunities: “It
is good for a woman to work outside the home. Although, I do not work, I’ll gladly take that opportunity
when it comes.” These notes are excerpted from an interview conducted on February 3, 2015 in
From the above, it is arguable that discussions on the public career of women
connect largely with what is understood as the roles of mothers (and fathers) in the home.
For this reason, it might be helpful to zoom into the concept of ‘motherhood’ and how it
is practiced in Southern Nigeria. As a prelude to this, we shall first examine ‘fatherhood’.
2.13.4. The ‘Fatherhood’ Concept

Fatherhood is generally regarded as the state of having children, spending time with them
and getting to know them. The understanding of fatherhood slightly differs from one
place to another. For some, it involves an all-encompassing involvement in the life of the
child(ren). Harrison O. is of the opinion that fatherhood includes a close relationship with
children so as to know them and attend to their essentials. He indicates: “As a father, I am
very close to my children, I ensure I know whatever is happening in their lives. By the
grace of God, I try to attend to their needs.”242
There are others who clearly specify that the primary understanding of fatherhood is
to ensure the moral education of their wards. Ogagavwodia R. argues that the first and
most crucial step in fatherhood is to guarantee the education of children. He asserts that,
“as a father, my first responsibility is to form the children morally, I provide their needs,
care for them, ensure they are well educated. By the grace of God, they are all married
now and doing very well in their various homes and careers.” 243 Taking this argument
further, it has been suggested that the manifesto of fatherhood leaps from moral education
into showing keen interest in the activities of progenies. As Esezobor A. explains: “as a
father, I have over the years, developed interest in the activities of my children. Yes, I
was happy to see them at the moment where they were born. Particularly now that they
are maturing, I keep a close watch on them and try to educate them as much as I can. In
my eyes, not being close to them is not even an option.”244
The concept of fatherhood from the woman’s perspective is not so different. Chika
C. is of the thought that fatherhood is inclusive of the provision of extramural schoolings.
She asserts in her own words: “My husband is doing his best in his responsibilities as a
father to the children. He motivates them, encourages them and prepares them for the
future. He is very tolerant and tries to avoid misunderstanding. He ensures there’s always
peace in the home.”245 Noredia N. concurs that the concept of ‘fatherhood’ conveys a
deeper meaning of respect and appreciation for her husband. According to Noredia, the
242
243
244
This text is an excerpt of an interview conducted on January 19, 2015 at the premises of St. Matthias’
Catholic Church, Ologbo. Osamudiamwen E. shares a similar perspective. Although, his experience of
fatherhood is relatively miniscule, he uncovers that: “Fatherhood entails safeguarding an educational
foundation for children. I am happy to be a father. My wife just gave birth a few hours ago; our second
child.” This conversation held on February 13, 2015 at the premises of St. Andrew’s Catholic Church,
Iguobazuwa.
245
Ologbo.
disparity in age between both certifies the extension of fatherhood even to her. She notes:
“My husband is very hard working. He is a father to all of us, which includes me. The age
difference between us is much. But aside age, he deserves my respect for the disposition
he keeps.”246 However, for most marital sceneries, age disparity is not overly huge. In
these instances, it might be impossible to broaden the ‘fatherhood’ idea to wives as well.
With regard to the ‘fatherhood’ concept, one thing is quite palpable though and that
is, that some women are eluded of a positivistic reading of the term. In their opinion, the
schedule of the man makes his ‘fatherhood’ tasks unbearable. Bibi O. affirms: “My
husband is doing his best both spiritually and physically in performing his roles as father
and husband. He is very disciplined. Though he is not very sexually active. He is very
busy and doesn’t usually have time for the children because of the nature of his work; he
leaves home as early as 5am to go to the church.”247
2.13.5. The ‘Motherhood’ Concept

The question ‘what does motherhood entail?’ is paramount in parenting discussions.
What constitutes the primary responsibilities of mothers? Do mothers encourage a more
assimilative and interactive trend in their children? Do they speak to their children in a
way that is better suited for very young children to understand speech (than fathers)?
What are the expectations of motherhood? In all of these, it is informative to assert that
social roles and experiences of motherhood tend to vary according to location.
Motherhood in sub-Sahara Africa tends to be all-engrossing. Taking Southern
Nigeria as a case study, the concept of motherhood invokes a total commitment and
supervision of a woman to her children. Bibi O. provides a hint: “As a mother of four
children, it’s been God’s grace. I wake up as early as 3 am to cook for the family, both
breakfast and lunch, later wake the children and get them ready for school. After which I
take them to school and head to my bookshop for the day. I bring them back from school
late afternoon, prepare dinner for them and check their assignments.”248 Evidence of the
‘sacrifices’ of motherhood are well documented in local communities. Esezobor A. has
insisted that mothers often display a diversely oriented innate strength that men are not
capable of. To his mind, women’s abilities in nurturing children dwarf men’s. Simon A.,
a middle-aged man, declares:
“My wife is very diligent. She has a very high sense of responsibility.
The children are always under her immediate supervision. I could say
she sacrifices for them more than I do. I admit that sometimes I stress her
a lot but she responds in love. However, sometimes too, she could be
246
247
248
very stubborn. It is not so difficult for us to go into loggerheads. But we

try to resolve as soon as possible.”249
For certain women, the responsibilities of motherhood entail facilitating morals, instilling
discipline and raising up children in a religious way. Esohe O. has averred that
motherhood is the first contact a child has with the church. She claims that: “As mother, I
teach my children the doctrines and teachings of the church. I teach them their
responsibilities as children which include good manners and performing house chores.”250
Yet, more than providing the first religious contact, Tosan O. argues that motherhood
places a demand on women in a way that makes them lead by example. Her
understanding is that women communicate better to children in deeds than in words:
“As a mother, I have three children comprising of a boy and two girls. I
brought them up in the way any good mother will want to bring up her
children. I brought them up in the fear of the Lord. I was always there
while they were still growing up. My role with them was more or less by
example. I didn’t have to talk much because they could learn from me.
They are all quite grown up now.”251
Nevertheless, despite the glowing tributes to motherhood, it needs to be said that the
understanding and expectations of motherhood in sub-Sahara Africa tend to exert a strain
on women. As Stephanie I. confesses: “As a mother, I take care of the children, prepare
meals for the family and then take care of the home. Hmmm…combining both
responsibilities is really challenging. The children may do some very annoying things and
at times, they are stubborn. So one needs to be stronger than them.”252
The challenges of ‘motherhood’ as identified above by Stephanie is debatably
interconnected with the expectations of women in sub-Sahara Africa. To be precise, the
major undertones seem to suggest mothers as ‘home makers’ and fathers as
‘breadwinners’. What this might mean is the subject of our next discussion.
2.13.6. The Notions of ‘Breadwinner’ and ‘Home maker’

Simply put, a breadwinner is the one who makes financial provision for the family. Such
a person provides the ‘daily bread of the family’. As we noted in the preliminary chapter,
the one who makes this happen, as understood in traditional African socio-cultural plots,
249
Ologbo. Omoefe E. has acknowledged the sense of ‘sacrifice’ that accompanies motherhood. According to
him, the selflessness exhibited by his wife leaves him confounded. He admits: “My wife is a person that
any man would dream of having as spouse. She is trustworthy, selfless and caring. As mother, she sees to
the health of the children because she is a medical personnel. She places the children and I first before
herself. At times, I wonder the sort of energy given to the woman by God because my wife never gets
tired.” This interlocution held on March 13, 2015 at Sapele Road, Benin City.
250
Church, Abudu.
251
These texts are excerpted from an interview conducted on March 14, 2015 in G.R.A., Benin City.
252
This discussion held on January 20, 2015 at the premises of St. Matthias’ Catholic Church, Ologbo.
is the man of the house. Holding this ‘economic key’, he is expected to exemplarily
illustrate his manliness by delivering his responsibilities promptly and adequately. On
occasions though, as circumstances permit, the wife and children are physically
supportive of his estate in their own ways.
While it is arguable that the breadwinner practice is outmoded in contemporary
cultures, the philosophy remains present in a subtle way. For the most part, families still
depend on the financial strength of men. Chika C. is assertive thereof: “My husband
provides for the family. I usually do not have complaints. He ensures the family doesn't
lack basic needs. He is very hardworking.” 253 Certainly, the demand placed on men
necessarily infers that they have to be industrious enough to meet family necessities.
Esezobor A. puts it this way: “As husband, I ensure all her needs her met. Even while I
was working in the outstation, every weekend while returning home, I make sure I get my
wife what I know she likes.”254
On the opposite side of the ‘breadwinner’ coin is the image of a ‘home maker’. This
is effectively the woman. In clear terms, being a homemaker obliges her to cater for the
house. Suffices to note therefore that the ‘home maker’ notion does not differ much from
the ‘house wife’ practice. In relation to her husband, she ensures that she “prepare his
meals, wash his clothes, clean the house and I try to always make him happy.” 255
Regarding her children, she “teaches them, check their books when they return from
school and attend to their needs.”256 Ebinehita A. continues: “I spend more time with the
children, even while I work, I close from work at about the same time with the children. I
enjoy spending a lot of time with my family because it encourages family unity.” 257 For
some women, the ‘home maker’ role is effectual. Unquestionably, it might also demand
they become paradigmatic icons to their children.258
While not denying the productivity of the model, some women are agitated that such
a consideration effectively ensures that they carry the burden of progeny upbringing all
by themselves. Emoshioke A. is therefore critical of an untamed understanding of the
responsibilities of a ‘home maker’. In her view, such a disposition might give the
impression that the man’s absence – even when necessity warrants – is the norm.
Emoshioke reasons: “A major challenge I faced was that my husband was never around
because his job required him to be outside the state. And so, I was all alone taking care of
253
These texts are excerpts of an interview conducted on January 20, 2015 at the premises of St. Matthias’
254
255
This interview with Ireti N. was conducted on March 2, 2015 at the premises of St. Thomas Aquinas’
Catholic Church, Abudu.
256
This discussion with Ebinehita A. held on January 19, 2015 at the premises of St. Matthias’ Catholic
Church, Ologbo.
257
258
Oshiogwe A. is a protagonist of the concept of the mother as an exemplary representation to her
children. Illustrating her characteristics further, he discloses that: “To the children, she is a model, she
admonishes them and takes care of them. As a wife, she cautions me on what to wear, what to say and on
many other things. This interview was conducted on February 1, 2015 in Evboriaria, Benin City.
the children. After all, I was meant to cater for the home.” 259 Besides, Emoshioke’s
anxiety resonates with Tosan O’s experience in the training of children: “During the
growing years of the children, I was the one mostly with the children because my
husband’s job required him to travel a lot. But thanks to the almighty God, who gave me
the wherewithal to cope and train the children to fear Him.”260
Surely, the practice of ‘home maker’ is as cumbersome as the exercise of a
‘breadwinner’ or even more. This is in consonance with the fact that mothers are
sometimes expected to combine their professional careers with home-catering obligations
as opposed to fathers whose ‘breadwinning’ function principally requires them to provide
finance. Bibi O. willingly provides a snapshot of her events:
“As a wife, I try as much as possible to carry out my duties although it is

not an easy function attending to my children’s desires, my husband’s
needs, his family’s needs, even my own parent’s requests all at the same
time. I try to use a scale of preference to attend to the most important
ones at a particular time. I had to stop teaching at a time when the stress
became too much for me and I had to concentrate on my family and the
bookshop. As a mother of four children, it’s been God’s grace. I wake up
as early as 3am to prepare the meals for the family; both breakfast and
lunch. Later on, I wake up the children and get them ready for school.
After which I take them to school and head to my bookshop for the day’s
business.”261
2.14. Significant Aspects of the Relational Interactions of Spouses

Having examined the dimension of power vis-à-vis its implications for male-female
obligations to matrimonial routines, we shall consider how power and asymmetrical
configurations influence the mutual interactions of partners. Still, more than the
disproportionate possession of power, we shall review how hitches in matrimonial
relations are shaped and reproduced in everyday experiences. These range from
unmatched desire for intimacy 262 to the ‘distractions’ from children, 263 from
259
260
These notes are excerpted from an interview conducted on March 14, 2015 in G.R.A., Benin City.
261
Ologbo. Harrison O. concurs to the strenuousness of the ‘home maker’ practice. In his honest assertion he
declares that for his wife: “Taking care of the home is stressful, especially when she has to do most things
with little or no assistance because the children are still very young, she wakes up as early as 2am at times
to start doing the chores. I assist her at times to do some little things. My wife is very meticulous; she likes
everything to be in order.” This interview was conducted on January 20, 2015 at the premises of St.
262
Couples attest to disparities in the demand for attention and intimacy. Oshiogwe A. has disclosed that
couples tend to crave intimacy in uneven proportion; a subject that is capable of activating a relationship-
breakdown. He submits: “As husband, I try to find out what my wife needs. I also try to support her. We
try to be intimate when we desire. At times, she may not desire intimacy. At such times, I will let her be
and not disturb her.” This interview was conducted on February 1, 2015 in Evboriaria, Benin City.
263
While it is scarcely doubtful that couple desire and enjoy the presence of children, some are unable to
handle the unease produced by children’s demand for attention vis-à-vis keeping up with one’s partner. As
Chinomso O. highlights, “there are not many challenges we face as a couple other than, some times I
understanding the intricacies of living with someone of different background 264 to a

lifetime endurance of one’s incompatible partner.265
In order to zoom into these challenges properly, we delineate between pre-marital
and post-marital realities in conjugal discussions. In the former, we are confronted with
discussions on the importance/non-importance of the age differentiation between spouses,
the question of compatibility in the identification of one’s spouse, issues surrounding
courtship and dating, pre-marital expectations of potential partners and proposals for
prospective couples emanating from interlocutors’ personal experiences. In examining
post-marital realities we shall navigate through the snags and rips of spousal
communication, obstacles to qualitative home-time mindfulness, ‘unsolicited’
interventions from family members, and the support – or a lack of it – offered to one’s
partner.
2.14.1 Pre-marital Considerations

Several factors are considered in the preparation for relationships; more so for the
eventual evolution into marriage. Besides the frequent citations to attraction towards the
other, preference and friendship, there is the heavily detected proclivity for compatibility.
How attuned, harmonious and synchronized can couples be and become? What must be
sought and unearthed when initiating relationships? For Harrison O., several
distinguishing traits are demanded:
“One thing intending couples should know is that they should get to
know themselves very well in terms of character. Compatibility is quite
important and they should look beyond wealth, physical appearance and
others when choosing a mate. Secondly, they should try to marry
someone from the same culture and tradition.”266
It is striking that Harrison isolates compatibility as the key to a sustainable conjugal

relationship although he takes it quite far to include ‘cultural compatibility’. Still, the
might want to be with my wife alone, without the children being around but that is usually not possible
because I can’t chase my kids away. So a typical challenge is the demand for attention, time, and resources
by the children.” This interview was conducted on February 1, 2015 in Evboriaria, Benin City.
264
Gladys I. shares insight on the problematic of partnering in her disclosure: “By the grace of God, my
expectations of marriage have been met. Though everything hasn’t always been rosy right from the start,
because we are two people from different backgrounds and so will need time to understand ourselves. It
might even be more challenging when they are of different ethnic affiliations.” This conversation held on
March 12, 2015 at the premises of St. Paul’s Catholic Church, Benin City.
265
In carefully delineating between ‘enjoying marriage’ and ‘enduring marriage’, Omoefe E. argues that
the chances of a lasting endurance to marriage are grander in unions founded on ‘less love’. “For me, one
should marry who she/he loves otherwise one would be in prison. Love covers a multitude of sin and
conquers all. If there is less love or if you don’t marry who you love, then be ready to endure your
marriage from start to finish.” This interlocution held on March 13, 2015 at Sapele Road, Benin City.
266
Ologbo.
details he concedes seem to lay a sturdy basis for the identification of peculiarities,
personae and attributes that are often considered in seeking a partner.
a. Compatibility
Compatibility refers to the ability of living together in harmony – with minimal problems
or conflicts. In truth, it is difficult to rule out conflicts between people but the capability
to marginalize these debacles point to compatibility. In Benin City – as in most locations
in Southern Nigeria – the pursuit of relationships takes compatibility into consideration.
Ndubuisi C. has argued that compatibility makes matrimonial unions less susceptible to
misgivings. In his assertion, the importance of this facet necessitates that the search for
one’s partner should be painstakingly carried out. According to Ndubuisi, “I didn’t marry
early because I needed to look for a peaceful woman to marry. My expectations of
marriage have been met. It was in the early years of marriage, that we usually had
misunderstandings. I wanted someone who shared the same ideals with me.” 267
Ndubuisi’s account aligns closely with the expedition for a ‘dream partner’ as described
by Esezobor A. For Esezobor, it was always a dream to find someone outstandingly
compatible whom he describes as a ‘soul-mate’. He ponders: “When growing up, I had
very tall dreams about marriage. I wanted a ‘soul-mate.’ I mean someone with whom I
could build a new home together and lovely children emanating thereof.”268
The challenge however is that the learning period is sometimes short for some
partners. Unlike Ndubuisi (and Esezobor), not everyone is patient enough before
initiating the marriage process. Secondly, there is the idea that partners are not often open
to each other in the moment of dating. This in itself is capable of hindering the learning
process. Idibia I. shares a similar perspective. He reasons that being pretentious to one’s
partner is a setback in the learning curve of relationships. Jacob notes: “Young people
should study themselves very well both socially and spiritually before getting married.
They shouldn’t pretend and hide any secret from each other. They should be open to each
other. They should understand themselves and know that marriage is a forever thing with
little room for separation and divorce.”269
The key-point for arriving at compatibility seems to be, to my mind, a recourse to
quality time before marriage in a bid to get to know one another. This moment, mostly
referred to as dating and courtship, shall be briefly discussed.
b. Dating and Courtship

It must be said that no time is sufficient enough to know and understand someone else in
total. The limitation of establishing understanding between one another is actually carried
267
Ologbo.
268
269
over onto marriage. Yet, the willingness and effort to achieve some form of amity and
bond is of essence. Some have suggested that intending couples need to be ‘friends’ in the
first place before they forge ahead to marriage. Indeed, it is a mountain-task for two
strangers to declare themselves as partners. As Esezobor A., an elderly man, affirms,
“marriage is not something to be rushed into. It requires a deep level of commitment.”270
Undeniably, a major challenge young people face is the pressure that comes with the
knowledge of associates or colleagues tying the knots. This agitation is partially
responsible for hasty decisions towards matrimonial life. Ndubuisi C. cautions that such
anxiety does no good in the long term. In his clarification, “young people should not
marry simply because everyone is getting married around them. As they court, they
should study their partner very well and also the family of their spouse. They should
ensure they are patient.”271
Accordingly, for reason of learning more about one’s future companion in detail,
courtship time is encouraged. Such a moment provides opportunities for nurturing
friendship. As an experienced catechist – Fabian O. – puts it this way: “Intending couples
are frequently admonished by me to marry their friends and try to understand the man and
woman they want to pitch their tent with. There should be adequate time for courtship.”272
Though it is hard to estimate what could be classified as ‘adequate’, the dating and
courtship period must be taken as an important phase of marital relations.
Tosan O. refers to this importance in her analogy of marriage as a school. In her brief
illustration, she argues that the preparation for such an important decision as marriage
behoves even a supplementary distinguished groundwork. Tosan explains: “I will say
marriage is a school. Before young people embark on marriage, they should understand
and study their spouse. This is the pre-school or the ‘nursery’. They should study their
spouse’s behaviour to others. They should study their spouse’s character. Be very
prayerful for God’s guidance.273 However, a pre-marital reality that participants do not
directly refer to is the recourse to premarital intercourse for the sake of ‘testing’ the
fertility of the woman, which has implications for both the dignity of women and for
procreativity.
Nevertheless, despite the helpfulness of courtship and dating as foundations for
nuptial unions, there is not a hint of guarantee that scruples or apprehensiveness will be
any less for some couples. For a few, human attributes and psychological patterns are not
easily known until they both begin to live under the same roof. Although he takes a one-
sided approach, Imafidon I. points to this trend in what he refers to as a pretentious
element in humans. “Dating and courtship is valuable. However, during the early years of
270
271
Ologbo.
272
273
relationships, women pretend a lot. Then after the marriage, the woman changes and
becomes inconsiderate. Before marriage, I expected to have a friend, companion and
supportive wife.”274
c. Marital anticipations
For the most part, there is a huge amount of expectation among prospective partners.
Imafidon’s demonstration shown above is a revealing indicator of the considerations
young people enthusiastically display when they reflect on connubial relationships. The
reality they encounter, however, is dissimilar. For some, the dream is to have a supportive
partner paired with obedient children. 275 For others, the vision is to marry a wealthy
partner and thus lead a good life.276 As Fabian O. puts it, is not uncommon for young
people to construct a ‘world of fantasy’ with reference to prospective partners.277 Such
‘fantasies’ also find correspondence in the ambience of one’s upbringing. Bibi O.
conveys her affirmation of conceivable influences in her revelation centring on her
maiden exposure. Bibi recounts: “I wanted to live large, especially because of where I
grew up as I grew up in a large city like Lagos. But the reality is somewhat different.
Well, people normally say it back in Lagos that ‘a husband’s house is a place where you
learn’. So both partners discover something new every day.278
For a number of interlocutors, marital expectations were firmly rooted in their own
personal experiences. Those occurrences in turn facilitated the cultivation of subsequent
motivations. Ebinehita A. has shared her experience of the impetus of her pre-marital
aspirations. She avows that the traits she noticed in her father inspired her to wish
something different from her future partner. Ebinehita alleges: “I come from a family
where I was rejected by my father, and my dad wasn’t caring and passionate. I really
prayed to marry a man who will love my children and me and always be there for us,
caring and passionate.”279
Prospective spouses are however advised to retain some caution when it comes to
marital expectations. This is hinged on the revelation that marriage is a different drill
274
Ologbo.
275
Stephanie I’s aspiration particularly hinged on marrying “a God-fearing man, a beautiful marriage,
loving and obedient children.” This discussion held on January 20, 2015 at the premises of St. Matthias’
276
Marital expectations in the imaginative world of Chika C. hovered around the riches of a lifetime
partner. In reality, such expectations have been notably dashed. She discloses in her own words: “The
expectations I had were to marry a rich man, have a good life. The expectations were not met.” This
conversation held on January 20, 2015 at the premises of St. Matthias’ Catholic Church, Ologbo.
277
Fabian O. has disclosed that whereas the reality did not align with his fantasies, he is no doubt as to his
contentment of his nuptial union. He admits: “As a young chap, we lived in a world of fantasy, we had big
dreams then, but it hasn’t been like the way we dreamt about it, but so far, it hasn’t been entirely bad. I am
a fulfilled man, I am very happy.” This discussion held on February 3, 2015 in Evboriaria, Benin City.
278
Ologbo.
279
altogether from dating. It also accentuates the delineating contour between pre-marital
and post-marital realities. In the opinion of Omosede E., the key to avoiding
disappointments in real life situations is to lower one’s expectation of marriage. However,
whether such a take is practicable is copiously debatable. Omosede narrates:
“I am the type that doesn’t expect too much so as not to be disappointed.

We read a lot of books concerning marriage together and we both knew
what to expect. When we entered into marriage, it wasn’t as we expected
or read in the books. For instance, I expected my husband to be with me
in the kitchen so that while I prepare the meals, he does the dishes and
then we can get chatty. I didn’t know that when the children come it will
be a different scenario.”280
d. The age-differentiation argument

The question of age differentiation in relationships is central in Southern Nigeria. The
reasons for this concern are numerous. This ranges from the anxiety for maturity to the
desire for respect from one’s spouse. Opinions on age differentiation are mostly
divergent. 281 A few are adamant that such considerations mean nothing when partners
truly love each other. However, others are of the opinion that the demand for respect by
men makes it even vital for the man to be older. Ebinehita A. is a proponent of this strand
of thought. She is resolute that respect for male headship is easily achievable when there
is a wide age demarcation. Ebinehita muses: “The age difference between my husband
and I is about eight years. The man should be older than the wife because the woman, if
older, can become disrespectful. Since the man is the head of the home and to assume that
position well, he has to be older.”282 Taking a similar position, Imafidon I. raises the bar
even higher. According to him, the more the difference in age, the more the respect
shown: “The age difference between my wife and I is just five years. To me, I advise that
the age difference be more, the man should be older with at least ten years so that there
will be respect for the man by the woman.”283
From the above, it would seem that men’s crave for respect is responsible for the
importance accorded age differentiation among couples. This might be true. It might also
be factual that the mental and physical developments of both sexes differ. As Harrison O.
asserts, a demand for respect coupled with the rapid development of women has made age
280
281
The Alius – Emoshioke and Oshiogwe – maintain divergent views on age demarcation. For Emoshioke,
the age gap issue should not be a worry for couples and if it is, such gaps should be minimal. She
recommends: “In my case, age difference was about ten years. I will recommend about five years
difference, though age doesn’t matter that much.” Oshiogwe thinks differently. He reasons that age gap is
as important as its clear demarcation between spouses. Oshiogwe notes: “For us, the age difference is ten
years. My wife used to say the age gap was too much that it should be three to five years. But to me, three
to fifteen years difference is okay.” These interviews were conducted on February 1, 2015 in Evboriaria,
Benin City.
282
Ologbo.
283
differentiation necessary. Harrison concedes: “Maybe a good amount of age gap might
help in ensuring respect from the woman. Also, people think women develop faster
mentally and reach an older appearance faster too. So a gap in age might help.”284
Conversely, there are those who attest to the non-importance of the age appeal. To
these persons, issues of respect with regard to male-female relations are not prominent
when couples are in love. Esezobor A. refers to it as a ‘secondary issue’. According to
Esezobor, “some say age is simply a number. For two persons deeply in love that should
be remotely secondary. If you press me on to give you a range, I’d say ±7.” 285 An
intriguing aspect however, is that whereas some couples such as Simon A. attest to the
non-importance of the age concern, they still do make reference to what might be seen as
the ideal age delineation.286 Omoefe E. displays this tendency too. Though he avers that
the demand for age distinction is obsolete, he willingly proposes what the archetypal
distinction might be. Omoefe relates accordingly: “The age difference between the two of
us is only two years. To me, age is not a factor to be considered anymore when it comes
to marriage. Putting the ideal age difference between couples within a range, I will say
between ±5.”287
It seems therefore that the consideration for age demarcation between spouses is
conventional. However, individual spouses are bequeathed with the option of
discontinuing such conventionalities. Tosan O. champions this discontinuance. For her,
issues of age as well as ethnicity and race are ‘undue’ barriers to matrimonial unions.
Tosan contends that “age should not be a factor because true love transcends all barriers.
Age, ethnicity, race etc. are simply limitations. With regard to age difference, my
husband is senior to me with about five years. It mostly depends on individuals.”288
Having scrutinized pre-marital sensibilities that are nurtured before marriage, we
shall briefly explore the challenges to the relational interactions of spouses as they occur
within conjugal unions.
2.14.2. Post-marital Realities

In the successive themes, we shall navigate through certain conduits in which power and
asymmetrical configurations influence the mutual interactions of partners. We shall
284
Ologbo.
285
286
Ologbo.
287
288
Esezobor A’s and Noredia O’s experiences are similar to Tosan’s. Esezobor notes that the age difference
of eighteen years that lie between his spouse and him is not in anyway a hindrance to their relationship.
Esezobor explains thus: “In my own case, it’s eighteen years difference. To me, age doesn’t play any role,
it should be decided by the couple.” This conversation held on January 21, 2015 at the premises of St.
Matthias’ Catholic Church, Ologbo. For Noredia, her relationship with her husband is not in any way
limited by age: “My husband is about fifteen years older than me. I’ll say it’s not an obstacle to our union.”
investigate how glitches in connubial relations are lived in everyday experiences. Such
themes to be confronted include the challenges to spousal communication, barriers to
qualitative home-time schedule, ‘spontaneous’ interventions from family members, and
the valuation of reciprocated support between partners. A cursory illustration from
Ebinehita A. gives a cue:
“When we were still young in the marriage, we spent a lot of time

together, did things together and took care of the kids together. But now,
things are changing. Due to lots of responsibilities, we do not really have
time together. He comes back from work tired and I may also be
tired.”289
a. A gap in communication?
It is not infrequent to find partners who are alarmed at the incessant crevices and breaches
in their interaction with their spouses. The reality is that these fissures can be as a
consequence of even the most token of causes. As much as its origin might be traceable to
an unyielding devotion to one’s career or the aftermaths of physical fights, it could as
well be an upshot of focusing stark attention on the children to the detriment of one’s
partner. To the latter instance, Chinasa O. relays her honest appraisal: “I experience the
challenge of being so attached to the children that one won’t even have time for the
man.” 290 In truth – just as Joy testifies – the level of attentiveness to one’s spouse is
hardly the same when children are born and nurtured. The dilemma seems to be that
women are torn between responding to the needs of the husband as they previously did
and catering for the little child. Striking a balance between the satisfaction of her
‘recipients’ and understanding from one’s partner is of essence.
Furthermore, cracks in communication might simply arise from the sparse amount of
time couples spend with each other in the home in those instances where they are both
devoted to a career. When this is not adequately managed, the ensuing sequence of this
trend does not exclude the possibility of normalizing the limited bodily contact between
spouses. In some ways, the home might become just that space to catch some sleep for
the night. A similar experience has been posted by Stephanie I. According to Stephanie,
the need to have some financial security for the family retains the capability of producing
alterations to the undercurrents of nuptial interactions. She avers: “I usually close my
shop at about 9pm. My husband and I see each other for like two hours in a day. I am not
okay with it, but there’s nothing one can do, because we need the money as well.” 291 To
289
290
291
Ologbo.
unearth couples who are uncomfortable with such situations of physical distance is a no-
brainer.292
The importance of communication between persons in a relationship is not to be
underestimated. As Elohor R. puts it: “Communication is very important in the home to
the extent that couples should always try to communicate frequently with one another.
They should understand each other and study each other completely – or make attempts
to do so.”293 Though it is difficult to estimate what might be characterized as ‘frequent’,
the idea is to spend as much time together as possible. It could also help that couples are
able to reflect on the day’s activities together.294
b. Negotiating a qualitative home-time pattern

As we discussed in the preceding subject, there is an unremitting correlation between the
amount of time spent in the home and the communication vogue between spouses. This
link is interminable. Whereas there is no guarantee that a good amount of home time
translates into progressive connubial communication, it does help in the attempt to bond
with the other in a way that household chores are also attended to. From testimonies, a
major drawback of a lack of qualitative home-time presence is that the burdens of
household responsibilities are frequently laid upon the shoulders of one spouse.
Undoubtedly, to share one’s time with a partner is a means of offering support.
Harrison O. argues that couples who develop such considerations are well placed to
develop more intimacy. In Harrison’s view, “spending more time at home is very
important. When the man is at home, the wife is usually less frantic. Since the man is the
chief security officer of the home, he is actually supposed to spend quality time with the
family.”295 Harrison’s deposition points to a rather inclusive-model of relationships where
partners create time for each other amidst hectic schedules. In fact, the idea is to make
qualitative home time a part of the daily agenda. This approach resonates in Omosede E’s
reception of the effort conveyed by her husband in this regard. According to Omosede,
her husband deserves applause because: “He is always there for the children and I. The
little time he has, he gives to his family. My husband and I spend quality spells together. I
appreciate that a whole lot.”296
292
Ebinehita A. displays displeasure at the communication drawback with her husband. She admits in
nostalgia: “As a wife, I really miss those times when my husband and I were very close.” This
conversation held on January 19, 2015 at the premises of St. Matthias’ Catholic Church, Ologbo.
293
This discussion held on March 15, 2015 in G.R.A., Benin City.
294
Evaluating the day’s activity at the close of the day is one way of stabilizing the rapport of couples.
Harrison O. has revealed that from his immediate experience, such an exercise is invaluable. He goes on:
“As a husband, I know my wife needs constant attention and a listening ear, I ensure I am there for her
despite my busy schedule. Even when I come back late from work, we try to discuss about the day’s
activity before going to bed.” This interview was conducted on January 20, 2015 at the premises of St.
295
Ologbo.
296
In the observance of characteristic leanings, it would appear that women are more
willing to admit of the importance of home time. Bibi O. and Ebinehita A. share a solitary
perspective on what this importance means to women. Bibi clarifies that ‘busy schedules’
are often the excuse offered by the default partner. She challenges thus: “I spend more
time with the kids than my husband does. My husband doesn’t spend much time at home
because he is usually busy. He usually comes back home late and the next thing is to eat
and sleep. I don’t fancy it.” 297 In a similar vein, Ebinehita’s contention is that the
sentiency of ‘family unity’ is a sufficient stimulation for the adoption of this practice.
Ebinehita ruminates: “Even while I was working, I close from work at about the same
time with the children. I spend more time with the children. I enjoy spending a lot of time
with my family because it encourages family unity. For my husband, at the early years of
marriage, he spent more time as compared to now.”298
The dispositions of Bibi and Ebinehita above do give the impression that mothers are
regularly challenged to give up or limit a portion of their career to ensure that families are
well-managed. This might sometimes spiral into stepping onto the brakes of one’s career
– at least for some time – when such sacrifices need to be made. However, the question
is: are these ‘sacrifices’ mutual or one-sided? Temituoyo O’s response is quite revealing.
According to her, the bulk is likely to fall at the woman’s table:
“In the early years of our marriage, we were in the UK and it wasn’t
really easy then. We were both working and so didn’t really have time.
When we gave birth to our first son, we had the option of leaving him
with the nanny during the day while we go to work. My son couldn’t
cope with a nanny, he was always crying. We had to work things out
between us. For a time, I had to stop work to take care of him.”299
Emphatically, some men point to the idea that though they realize the importance of home
time, their pragmatic disposition ensures that they would rather prioritize the financial
security of the family. This ideology is closely linked with the notion of the husband as
the ‘breadwinner.’ Imafidon I. explains: “I do not really spend time at home. I usually get
home at 5pm. However my work schedule may warrant me to leave the house again later
in the evening. I spend more time outside than at home. I would love to spend more time
at home, but my source of income will be greatly affected.”300
c. An examination of spousal support

There is an implicit association between a home time awareness practice and the support
of one’s spouse. Affording time to one another for the good of matrimonial union is
297
298
299
300
Ologbo.
noteworthy. Even more, the offer of emotional and physical backing is commendable
also. In terms of showing support, a few interlocutors point to the establishment of
financial succour as a fundamental avenue of spousal support301 just as some more reveal
that it was in culinary responsibilities without demanding for a reimbursement that they
found support from their partners.302 For some others, spousal support comes in the form
of guaranteeing sexual satisfaction 303 or from a gracious willingness in accepting the
progeny from a previous union.304
A number of spouses are adamant that developing a professional career is not a
limitation to the constant affinity of partners. These contend that the attention they pay to
their occupations is not tantamount to a stumbling block for their basic marital
responsibilities. Omosede E. has decried such notions of career conceptions as false. In
her supposition, the duties required of her in her workplace as well as in her home are
well delineated. Omosede’s contention is that: “As a wife who is in the working class, it
does not affect my duty to my husband. I make sure I attend to my husband’s needs
physically, materially, emotionally.”305 Her aim is to ensure that such misconceptions do
not prevent parents from taking up professional responsibilities. In analogous terms,
Oshiogwe A. hints that spousal support for one’s profession constitutes a stalwart pillar in
the developmental actualization of career success. This is contained in Oshiogwe’s
illustration: “As father, I provide for my children with a heavy support from my wife. My
career has been successful thanks to her. Thank God my children were obedient and were
good in school. For now, my two eldest daughters are married and my son is a priest.”306
However, there is a lamentation from some couples that the experience of living
together at the beginning of their connubial union is not quite the same when the years
301
Oyemwen A. is in no doubt as to the backing rendered by her husband in the demanding challenge of
household responsibilities: “As husband, he encourages me a lot either in the job I do or the work I do at
home. He’s very supportive. As a father, he still does his best financially for the home. Though he is
retired now, but with the little pension he receives, he still tries to meet up the financial needs of the
family.” This discussion held on January 22, 2015 at Obaretin Estate, Benin City.
302
It is Erhauyi N. who has identified gastronomic dexterity as a mode of nuptial support from his wife.
He argues that his wife’s provision for the family in this regard is a key-point of the support he enjoys. In
his submission: “My wife has so many responsibilities that I can’t start mentioning all. She is God-sent.
She makes sure she provides at least two square meals for the family without demanding a dime from me
for that.” This conversation held on February 13, 2015 at the premises of St. Andrew’s Catholic Church,
Iguobazuwa.
303
Chinomso O. transmits the idea that his wife’s attention to his sexual gratification is a channel of
support for him. According to Chinomso: “As a wife, she does all she can to ensure that I am happy as her
husband. She also ensures that I am sexually satisfied.” This discussion held on February 1, 2015 at
304
It has been judged ‘commendable’ by Fabian O. the disposition of a partner to accept the offspring of a
previous union. To his mind, the level of understanding displayed by his wife is a typical example of
spousal support. Fabian avows: “My wife does her best. She is very understanding just as she doesn’t
bother me when I am not able to provide for her. As mother, my wife is the best. Our marriage hasn’t be
blessed with children but she accepted my children from my first wife and treats them as her own. This is
commendable” This conversation held on February 3, 2015 in Evboriaria, Benin City.
305
306
This interview was conducted on February 1, 2015 at Evboriaria, Benin City.
roll bye. Ebinehita A. is a proponent of this string of opinion. She is of the view that the
mutual support she enjoyed at the early phase of her marriage is simply a point in history
now. Ebinehita confesses: “Even my husband too, during the early years of marriage, we
were very close, always together and helping each other out, but those things don't
happen anymore.” A similar experienced shared by Imafidon I. discloses that pecuniary
motives are a reason for a less rapport. Imafidon’s alleges therefore: “At the early years
of marriage, my wife was very supportive. But for now, now that my expenses became
more and I am not able to meet her own needs (though she is running her own business
too), she is no more supportive as she used to be. She’s probably getting a clue from
somewhere.”307
d. Interferences from extended relatives

In Southern Nigeria, it is hardly uncommon to discover templates where members of
one’s extended family wield enormous influence in the affairs of couples. However, these
intrusions are mostly vast to the extent that the couples themselves allow them. More
often than not, they come in the form of parental advice or siblings’ caution or
recommendation. Whereas it is difficult to discredit their positive impacts on occasions,
the fruits of these interventions are not always upbeat.
The recurrent supposition is that extended families tend to require too much from
their child’s partner than from their progeny. It is difficult to ascertain whether this is a
subliminally protective step or an attempt to undermine the upbringing of the ‘other’.
Imafidon I. has affirmed that families are sometimes hesitant in accepting the qualities of
an in-law. Admitting to his experience, he discloses that “it is quite common that family
members are not always satisfied about the woman being married.”308
A bulbous facet of this intervention enigma is the voices within the family that might
encourage separation from one’s spouse in those instances were the relationship has
become rocky. Kikanwa O. points out that there were pressures from family and friends
to separate, which made her attempt to put a distance between herself and those folks.309
In like terms, Bibi O. has admitted the impact of such ‘pressures’ when they are given
considerations. According to Bibi: “Friends and relatives at times can influence
separation, and can at times get into the mind of the couple. There was a time, when my
sister who lives abroad came back, telling my mum that I am not living well and enjoying
my marriage. That got to me though, I felt abandoned then by my husband and by
307
Ologbo.
308
Ologbo.
309
In Kikanwa’s own words, “there were pressures from family and friends to separate, so I try to put a
distance between myself and those people.” This conversation held on February 6, 2015 at the premises of
Sacred Heart Catholic Church, Evboriaria, Benin City.
God.”310 Certainly, the influence of these counsels depends to a huge extent on the way
they are accepted by the recipients.
2.15. Critical Discussion

This empirical study has contributed to our research question in a number of ways. A
major aim was to identify the manner in which male-female relations are lived in
Southern Nigeria. We also wanted to investigate from the domain of the gender subject,
the challenges encountered in marital unions and family life. Furthermore, we intended to
show the ways in which Christianity has influenced and shaped cultural patterns of
gender relations. These aspirations were in view of formulating a theological-ethical
response to the gender question in African Christian discourse – one that takes into
consideration the grass root elementary experiences of African couples in its search for a
dismantling of unjust gender configurations.
For a start, the role of culture in male-female relations has been identified in the
course of this ethnography. With the experiences and stories that interlocutors share, they
isolate the fact that individuals are socialised and shaped by the culture within which they
exist. To this extent, they spoke of a ‘culture-controlled’ society where shades of cultural
influences are transmitted from parents to their children on what the expectations of both
sexes are. In a milieu where male headship is concrete, respect for the father of the house
is a given. Along these lines, obedience, servitude and subservience from wives were
common features. The reciprocity of these characteristics from the male counterparts was
not reported. In terms of the gendered identities of children, parents tend to show a
predilection for boys in analogy to girls. Women feel some anxiety that there is a cultural
provision for a husband to get married to another wife not only if she is incapable of
bearing children but if she is unable to birth a male child particularly in those societies
where the perpetuation of familial or ancestral identities through a male child is
prominent. Admittedly, this agitation is sometimes justified and at other times it is only
an imagined possibility. For other categories of women, the trepidation for a male child is
non-existent. In all, Christian families find themselves at a crossroad as to whether to
adhere to cultural expectations or to cling to religious teachings.
Expectedly, the religious context was conspicuously referred to in our conversations.
Religious affinities – along with culture of course – was a prominent marker in the
identities of individuals. It is observable therefore that the belief-system of the individual
is translated into relationships with people. As a result, church precepts had a bearing on
gender configuration pari passu with faith-life. For example, it was characteristic to
display consummate submissiveness to the Divine via the channels of prayer, wish or
deep yearning particularly as people think that God establishes marital unions. Besides,
the fruits of conjugal unions, whether children or wealth acquisition, are understood to be
310
bequeathed from God. Definitely, the religious perspective is taken into consideration
when major decisions regarding relationships are to be made.
Notably also, interlocutors admit that male-female relations are a mainstay in the
day-to-day themes addressed by priests and pastoral workers. However, the result is
ambivalent. While a number of these speakers advocate for the establishment of
egalitarian relations, others use scripture to buttress the point that wives are expected to
be obedient and submissive to their husbands. Participants were nevertheless unanimous
in declaring that the instructions they received from speakers in the form of homiletical
and catechetical lessons as preparation for their marriage and the interactions they shared
with other couples in the Christian community were of utmost benefit to their burgeoning
union. They thought that the relationship between gender and religion is summed up in
the complementarity-equality nexus.
Meanwhile, the cultural and religious contexts tend to have implications for the way
power is conceived among couples as shown in annex IV. Participants of our research
commonly spoke about the superiority of the male folks as organised by culture and as a
result, female participants referred to the fact that the decision-making process, even
when it developed as a dialogue, was habitually a perquisite of husbands. On the one
hand, they were instructed by the church to promote complementarity and equality
between themselves and on the other hand men were typically assured that the eminent
responsibilities rested on their shoulders based on the cultural dictate that they were the
head of the household. Nevertheless, their Christian background seemed to mediate their
cling on household power in a way that makes them advocate respect and love for their
partners.
Taking the theme of responsibility further, concepts such as ‘fatherhood’ and
‘motherhood’ are directly linked with the notions of ‘breadwinner’ and ‘home maker’.
These notions define the contours of household responsibilities were men/fathers are
anticipated to spearhead the financial provision for the family whilst women/mothers are
expected to keep the home. The consequence is that men are more likely to develop
careers in their chosen field of interest whereas the professional careers of women are
stunted for the fact that they are represented as home makers who attend to the needs of
their babies and their husbands. Ethnographic feedback demonstrates however that the
need to complement financial responsibility means that the rate at which women advance
their careers is on the increase. An improvement along the lines of educational attainment
among women also provided an index to women’s increased presence in the socio-
economic sector.
Furthermore, this study brought the theme of community into perspective. To admit
that the Southern Nigerian society is built on the idea of community is verifiable.
Notwithstanding the positives such as solidarity, inspiration and support which
community brings to relationships, the African notion of community also contributes in
disempowering couples on those occasions where the interferences from familial relatives
threatens the stability of couples. Evidenced by this current study, unwarranted intrusions
from relatives are partly responsible for the disintegration of families in Southern Nigeria.
This study has demonstrated that the gender problematic in Southern Nigeria is real.
The patriarchal structuring of marriage and family finds concrete expression most
particularly in the context of power and relations among couples. The fact that
respondents comfortably affirm male headship – male and female – in a plethora of
families testifies that masculinity assumes more power than femininity. The consequence
of male headship for the most part is that wives are demanded to be submissive to their
husbands and show loyalty to him. In response to her submission, men attest to the care
and affection they show to their wives. What is quite intriguing is the claim raised by
some men that they had to ‘teach’ their wives her responsibilities in the household.
However in these cases, we observed that the women under scope had a rural background
and the most who ‘learnt’ from their husbands were relatively uneducated.
We derived from the undertaken survey also that the equality-inequality subject did
not seem to be of much interest to the majority of respondents. Some female participants
asserted that the subject was not up for debate due to the fact that they had been brought
up to understand that the asymmetry in relationships is a ‘norm’ and seeing that their
mothers had no qualms about it in their childhood days, it was hard for them to rationalize
whether the manifestation of gender inequality is demeaning to women or whether it
simply establishes male-headship. Other female interlocutors had no ambivalence in their
impression of gender inequality assessing from their categorical positions that asymmetry
in relationships is ideal for the smooth running of the family since there are “no two
captains in a ship”. In truth, it was surprising that women readily accepted lop-sidedness
in relationships, although others apparently felt handicapped with regard to effecting a
change. For the men who resoundingly repudiated the idea of gender inequality, male
headship appeared non-negotiable all the same.
Whereas it was expected that female subservience, loyalty and obedience to men be
culturally inspired, we exhumed that their religious education played a part also. To
buttress this, we had the perception, during the course of our participant observation, that
priests and other pastoral workers tend to frequently refer to Scripture in their explanation
that men are under obligation to show love and care to their wives just as women have the
responsibility of displaying obedience to their husbands. A logical fallout from this
counsel is that it confirms an already subordinating disposition that is contained in
traditional cultures. As a consequence, a group of women attest that they are at a loss
when they engage in dialogue with their husbands because all too frequently, men tend to
ignore their inputs in making grave household decisions. A category of women was quite
positive though. For these, conversations were mostly dialogical and their canvassed
positions were appropriately considered in the jurisdiction of decision-making. In
corroborating the former, some men attested that the views of their wives were rather
suggestive than deliberative.
It was striking that women were more than willing to sacrifice their professional
careers with the aim of spending more time with the children and managing the
household. Even when they admitted that they would prefer to advance their professional
careers so as to develop their psychosocial abilities and on a more practical level
contribute to the financial responsibility to the family, the subtle hint we received was
that they prioritised household management and child development and were only willing
to give this up when they had a caregiver for the children. Notably, the stay-at-home mom
seemed to have deep implications ranging from lack of financial resources leading to an
utter economic dependence on their spouse, participating in a smaller social network and
a shortage of update on current societal matters that are often consequences of being a
‘housewife’. It was also surprising to hear a number of men acclaim that if they had a
stable means of income, they would prefer their wives to remain indoor rather than seek
professional employment in order to keep them protected from external aggression and
undue pressure.
2.16. Conclusion
Sequel to our investigation into the interplay between gender and society in the first
chapter, we have attempted in this chapter, an interrogation into the local discourse on
gender nuances in marriage and family life in Southern Nigeria. This was aided by an
investigation into couples’ convictions, experiences and practices with regard to their
gendered identities and their ways of living together as wives and husbands. Going
forward, this helps us to identify the challenges of male-female relations and to inspect
whether or not African theology has incorporated these experiences and whether John
Paul’s theology of the sexes takes this into account.
In order to optimise the findings of our ethnographic research, the interview scheme
took the following into consideration: the geographical area (urban, semi-urban and rural
settlement), the number of years spent in marital life, the levels of education (literate,
semi-literate and non-literate) and varied age differences. This was to safeguard an
assortment of opinions. Concomitantly, it’s homogeneity lies in the fact that only
Catholic-Christians were cross-examined. A purposive sampling method for the
recruitment of participants was ignited at the start. The participants were members of five
parishes in the Archdiocese and the average time for a single interview session spanned
60 minutes.
The use of the NVivo software in the development of this research design, aided our
organization, analysis of non-numerical data, sorting and the classification of information.
The coding progression that emanated thereof was of immense help in the categorization
of raw qualitative data derived from interlocutions. Further benefits of the coding process
lay in the facilitation of analysis pari-passu the organization of data into broader
categories and themes. Upon the creation of themes, they were swiftly linked together
through theoretical modelling.
In the analysis of this qualitative research, the emergent categories systematically

developed were in this order: the contexts of culture and religion and the ways they
influenced one another. This paved the way for an examination into how these major
premises influence authority, power and control in male-female relationships which was
subsequently trailed with the questions of spousal responsibilities, individual roles, duties
and functions as seen in Annex IV. Lastly, we scrutinized what is considered as ‘key
points’ on the relational interactions of spouses.
Against the backdrop of the emerging themes of our empirical study, it appears that
Southern Nigerians find themselves somewhere in between, first, the remnants of an
indigenous patriarchal culture and tradition, which still seems to exert its influence
subcutaneously. Second, a Christian discourse which seems to emphasize expressively
the equality of husbands and wives while implicitly conveying the idea of male headship
and superiority (and thus easily to connect with the traditional culture). Third, a personal
conviction stemming from the influences of modern life which values a reciprocal
interaction at equal footing and one based on mutual loving. Indeed this inference offers
us a viable podium for critically exploring how African theology has addressed the
gender impasse in its content, the position of women in African theologies and John
Paul’s complementarity theory.
Therefore, the next part of the dissertation encapsulates a study of African
theologians’ and John Paul II’s gender ideologies. This part is therefore structured along
two lines. In the first section we will review how indigenous African theologians have
taken up issues of gender identity and relations over the past decades. We will present
and critically analyse the main voices in this field, starting from the first feminist critiques
of African male theology over critical investigations into the patriarchal roots of African
culture up to more recent approaches. In the second section we will analyse John Paul II’s
theology of the complementarity-equality of the sexes from the primary sources. Here, we
shall particularly examine John Paul’s Theology of the Body and his cognate magisterial
reflections in order to assess their implications for male-female relations in Southern
Nigeria. We will also study some of the main (western) critics of this position, which
might help us to remain alert to its possible shortcomings with regard to realizing equal-
regard relationships between women and men.
CHAPTER THREE
A SYSTEMATIC INVESTIGATION INTO THE GENDER QUANDARY AND

THE POSITION OF WOMEN IN AFRICAN THEOLOGY AND IN THE
THEOLOGY OF JOHN PAUL II
3.1 Introduction
African societies in general and African Christianity in particular struggle with the issue
of gender and how to achieve more egalitarian and just relations between women and
men both in the public and private sphere in a quest for an all-round development of
African societies. It is held that the male dominant view has gained legitimacy and
paramount importance because it has not been seriously challenged. Traditional
prejudices about women as being less capable than and inferior to men underlie this view,
and such biases have worked to consolidate and protect men’s dominance within the
family and in the society at large. Also in the Roman Catholic tradition like in most
Christian churches – with the exception of some independent churches led by women –
prevails a male-dominated attitude and discourse.1
The goal of this chapter is to critically analyze the main voices in the ‘gender field,’
beginning from the first feminist critiques of African male theology and leading up to
investigations into the patriarchal roots of African culture up to contemporary
approaches. We intend to inspect whether or not African theology has incorporated the
experiences of married couple in its outlay and how African women theologians have
sought to accommodate these experiences – especially those of women – into African
theology. To facilitate this, we shall succinctly investigate the main trends of African
theology such as inculturation and liberation theologies, and thereafter, the reconstruction
paradigm in African theology. We shall then examine how the criticism of these main
trends leads to a distinct class that advocates for the entrance of the gender discourse in
African theology prominently championed by the African women theologians.
Additionally, it is pertinent to state that the mainstream approach of African
theologians to the gender subject is often considered a segment of a global (pro)feminist
academic discourse that is embedded in Western Enlightenment thought, with central
values such as equality, freedom and autonomy. However, this does not frequently concur
with the stance of a number of African women who do not share the feminist negative
assumption about male headship as a deleterious feature of patriarchy. Rather similarly,
John Paul II does not elucidate an ‘emancipatory approach’ to gender but piquantly
1
Mercy Amba Oduyoye, “Acting as Women” in African Theology Today, ed. Emmanuel M. Katongole
(Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2002), 176. Relatedly, Elizabeth Schüssler Fiorenza speaks of a
‘patriarchalization’ of church and ministry in In Memory of Her: A Feminist Theological Reconstruction of
Christian Origins (New York: Crossroads, 1983), 288-294. For a delineation of the features of the
Independent Churches, see Kenneth Enang, Nigerian Catholics and the Independent Churches: A Call to
Authentic Faith (Freiburg: Neue Zeitschrift für Missionswissenschaft, 2000).
150 A Systematic Investigation into the Gender Quandary and the Position of Women in
African Theology and in the Theology of John Paul II
advocates the equality of both sexes while at the same time insisting on gender-specific
albeit complementary traits and roles of women and men respectively.
In the first section, we will begin with an investigation into African theology and its
implication for African culture. Subsequently, we shall analyze the central themes of
inculturation and liberation theology cum the theology of reconstruction, examining their
content and reviewing the nitty-gritty of these projects. The aim of this extensive analysis
is to show that earlier underpinnings of African theology – and indigenous African
theologians – have not sufficiently included the gender discourse in their agenda. We
shall next present and critically evaluate the main voices in this emergent field of gender
studies, starting from a study of African women theologians and reviewing their
contributions to African theology. In the second section we will scrutinize John Paul II’s
theology of the complementarity of the sexes from the primary sources in order to
examine whether his theological vision could provide a platform for a symmetrical male-
female relations. We will also study some of the main (western) critics of this position,
which will help us to remain alert to its possible shortcomings with regard to realizing
equal-regard relations between women and men.
A Systematic Investigation into the Gender Quandary and the Position of Women in 151
SECTION A: SITUATING THE GENDER QUANDARY IN AFRICAN THEOLOGY
3.2 African Theology: Its Origins and Orientations

African Christian theology as it is today started as a theological reflection on the dialogue
between the Gospel and African reality. Its initial focus was on the meeting of the Gospel
with African religious-cultural and ancestral heritage. Thus African inculturation
theology emerged out of the criticism from African scholars placed against old
missionary adaptations that existed in continental Africa. 2 It represents the efforts of
black Africans to establish continuity with Christianity received from its European
counterpart while at the same time indigenizing the clergy, liturgies and music. Other
notable arenas of interest include: ethical codes, worship, spiritual practices, theological
thought, church structures and so forth. For this reason, African theology is referred to as
a theology of indigenization or, more specifically, africanization. In some quarters it was
construed as a ‘theology of adaptation’. 3 The underlying argument is that the
effectiveness of African theology would depend on how indigenous it is.4
The earliest modern expression of African theology has been credited to the 1948
publication, La Philosophie bantoue, by Placid Tempels. Tempels, a Belgian Roman
Catholic priest and Franciscan missionary, who had his missionary work among the
Baluba ethnic society of the Democratic Republic of Congo (previously referred to as
Zaire or the ‘Belgian Congo’). Tempels’ Bantu Philosophy focused on force vitale. Force
vitale is a representation of the Aristotelian ‘Great Chain of Being’ which alleges that all
entities partake in a vital force with a potency proportionate to their position in an
ontological hierarchy. This means, humans who are on the upper echelon of the pyramid
conjure more force than lower primates, and so forth. In Tempels’ view, the major theme
of Bantu culture is ‘life, force, to live strongly, or vital force’. 5 Tempels then pushes that
the only way in which the missionaries’ Christianization of the Bantu would be
accelerated is for missionaries themselves to become aware of the African valorization of
2
Francis A. Oborji, Trends in African Theology since Vatican II: A Missiological Orientation (Rome:
Leberit Press, 2005), 2.
3
Josiah U. Young, Black and African Theologies: Siblings or Distant Cousins? (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis,
1986), 1. Young has explained further that his usage of the terms ‘africanization’ and ‘indigenization’ in
parallel is to underscore the effort of African theologians to make distinctly African the Christianity that
was brought into the continent via colonization. Kwesi Dickson however objects to the term
‘indigenization’. For Dickson, the term potentially raises some inhibitions since by its usage it is assumed
by some – consciously or unconsciously – that it refers to the normative character of Christian thought as
developed in the West. Dickson reiterates that such an understanding which merely identifies African
theology as a translation of Christian theology is misleading. See Kwesi A. Dickson, Theology in Africa
(Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1984), 7. Another misleading understanding of indigenization would be the idea of
a gradual replacement of foreign missionaries with African personnel in order to portray the ecclesiastical
structure of the Church in Africa as having an ‘African face.’
4
Gwinyai H. Muzorewa, The Origins and Development of African Theology (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis,
1985), 18.
5
Josiah U. Young III, African Theology: A Critical Analysis and Annotated Bibliography (London:
Greenwood, 1993) 19.
‘force’ and using the same model to convince the Bantu of the superiority of Christianity
as the superlative force. His perception therefore is that the only way Christianity can
completely extirpate Bantu culture is for Christianity to simulate the fundaments of the
Bantu thought and adapt to the idea of the ‘vital force’.6
Relatedly, Tempels was of the impression that the Bantu are not capable of
articulating what was covert in them as he rationalized their inadequacy in formulating a
philosophical treatise established on satisfactory vocabulary. For this reason, he
proceeded that it was the job of the Europeans to advance such systematic development. 7
In Tempels’ view then, “the Bantu can be educated if we take as a starting point their
imperishable aspiration towards the strengthening of life. If not they will not be civilized.
The masses will flounder, in even greater numbers, in false applications of their
philosophy; that is to say, in degrading ‘magical’ practices.”8 In elevating a Eurocentric
consciousness, Tempels’ intention was to lead the black person along the road to
civilization although it has been argued that in doing this, Tempels did not give to the
African the state of being able to devise creativity nor the state of being human.9
It is unsurprising then that Tempels’ work has been greeted with suspicion. Valentin-
Yves Mudimbe dismisses it as a key component of an arrogant framework of a colonial
conquest meant to last for a protracted period10; a work whose vestiges remain disturbing
to African thinkers in the last half century. Yet, a major positive from Tempel’s literature
is that it stimulated African theologians to step up to the challenge by providing coherent
and analytical arguments to the dynamism of their faith and of their ability. It provided
the foundation for a new current that attempted to present a picture of theology as it is
done by Africans and particularly led to the publication of Des prêtres noirs s’interrogent
published in 1956 aimed at locating African culture and history within Christianity.11
Des prêtres noirs s’interrogent, which translates as ‘Black Priests Question
Themselves’ is a seminal work in that it marked the formal emergence of African
theology. Eleven black priests from Africa and the Diaspora following a survey
conducted in Paris by the Présence Africaine Review championed the book. In this book,
these young black priests in the face of the political and cultural process of decolonization
posed themselves some questions regarding the future of the church’s mission in Africa.
In the frontline were the likes of Vincent Mulago, Meinrad Hebga, Alexis Kagamé,
6
See Josiah Young, African Theology, 117. See also Placid Tempels, Bantu Philosophy (Paris: Presence
Africaine, 1959), 117. This work first appeared in Dutch in 1945.
7
Placid Tempels, Bantu Philosophy, 15. See also Manas Buthelezi, “Toward Indigenous Theology in
South Africa” in The Emergent Gospel, eds., S. Torres and V. Fabella (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1978), 59.
8
Ibid., 120.
9
See Valentin Dedji, Reconstruction and Renewal in African Christian Theology (Nairobi: Acton, 2003),
15.
10
Valentin-Yves Mudimbe, The Intervention of Africa: Gnosis, Philosophy and the Order of Knowledge
(Indiana: Indiana University Press, 1988), 136.
11
Dedji, Reconstruction and Renewal, 16.
Albert Abble and others.12 The authors contend: “for too long, others have thought about
our problems for us, without us and even despite us. The African priest must also say
what he thinks about his church and his country in order to advance God’s kingdom.”13
Their views represented a pro-independence reflection on Christianity. Although they
were cautious in assuming the negritude movement due to the imprecision of a generic
term as ‘negritude’, they conceded that black countries, irrespective of their geographical
location are bonded together.14
The négritude, which is a form of cultural nationalism is mostly associated with the
writings of the West Indian Aimé Césaire and the Senegalese Leopold Senghor. As they
were at the forefront of nationalist movements for independence, their aim was to
advocate for the importance of a Pan-African racial identity among people of African
descent around the globe.15 They therefore sought to pursue what they referred to as the
‘African Personality’ by inventing positive myths about race and the black personality. In
effect, it was meant to be a revolt against Western imperialism with particular reference
to the French policy of assimilation toward African cultures.16
It has been suggested that the négritude movement of the previous decade,
spearheaded by Léopold Senghor, had set-off the awakening of universal black
consciousness to the extent that the awareness of African heritage and traditions united
black people around the world. Conversely, while negritude signalled the move towards
cultural autonomy within Africa, African theology embraced the attempt to drift Africa
away from the Eurocentric expression of the Christian kerygma.17 Mulago summarizes
that it is a Pan-African discourse, which provides a telling contribution of the rich insights
of what could be termed ‘African personality’ to the collective consciousness of Africa.18
12
Rosino Gibellini, “African Theologians Wonder,” in Paths of African Theology, ed. Rosino Gibellini
(Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1994), 6. See also Dedji, Reconstruction and Renewal, 14-15.
13
Albert Abble, et al., Des prêtres noirs s’interrogent (Paris: Les Éditions du Cerf, 1956), 16, translation
from Josiah Young, African Theology, 14. Soon after the publication of Des prêtres noirs s’interrogent,
there was an important meeting of African philosophers and theologians during the Second Congress of
Black Writers and Artists held in Rome in 1959. This consultation aimed at promoting African thought and
critical theological research. As a follow-up, there was a study pool of African Christian intellectuals in
1962 while the Vatican II Council was in session. This yielded in the publication of reflections in the
volume, Personnalité africaine et catholicisme (African Personality and Catholicism) in 1963.
14
Josiah Young, African Theology, 14.
15
Ibid., 13.
16
Valentin Dedji, Reconstruction and Renewal, 12-13. Alex Quaison-Sackey defines the ‘African
personality’ as the attempt of the African to “understand who he is, whence he came; and since he knows
that no personality can be fully and effectively realized except in the open air of freedom and
independence, he wishes not only to obtain these conditions for himself but to recover what his ancestors
once had before they finally succumbed, through conquest, bribery, treachery, and bad faith, to European
power.” See Alex Quaison-Sackey, Africa Unbound: Reflections of an African Statesman (New York:
Praeger, 1963), 39-40. The term, which is initially credited to Edward Blyden and was mostly developed in
Anglophone Africa, is used to exemplify that Africans have a unique cultural genius.
17
G.E. Gorman, ‘Foreward,’ in African Theology: A Critical Analysis and Annotated Bibliography, Josiah
U. Young III (London: Greenwood, 1993), x-xi.
18
Vincent Mulago, Un Visage Africain du Christianisme: L’union Vitale Bantu face à l’unite Vitale
Ecclésiale (Paris: Présence Africaine, 1962), 417.
As Benezèt Bujo remarked, it was important that Christianity showed to Africans that
being truly Christian and being truly African are not opposed to each other.19
African theology represented a form of evangelization that included the translation of
the Christian message into a form that is willingly absorbed by the peoples of Africa. In
some way, it could be regarded as a theological counterpart to decolonization, which
paved the way for indigenous people to respond to the Christian message in a way
comprehensible by them. The guiding principle was not to re-invent Christ into an
African but an attempt to demonstrate that Christ is equally present in African history,
tradition, society and culture. Succinctly espoused, it embodies Africa’s effort in
contextualizing theology.20
Kwesi Dickson adumbrates that the goal of African theology is to allow faith in
Christ to intermingle and influence with African life-experience. He suggests that rather
than a mere response to social and economic inequalities imported from the West,
African theology is founded on the resources of traditional African culture.21 It grew out
of the response to missionary Christianity whose penchant for a western cultural matrix
guaranteed the mixing up of Westernism and Christianity leading to a coterminous
tendency for using Western civilization as a yardstick for Christianity. The mark of a
‘saved’ African became whether or not he or she had integrated certain elements of
Western civilization and culture.22
It could be said then that African theology emerged in the context of African
independence for which African Christians were in the vanguard of that movement. At
the time, mission schools had produced an elite from whose ranks leaders of African
nationalism sprung forth.23 African theology at the time dealt with concepts and themes,
most of which had been raised by African nationalists.24 Aside to the materialization of
nationalism, African theologians were trained overseas at the time when African theology
was not on the map. Authors have argued that while the theological perspectives of these
19
Benezèt Bujo, African Theology in its Social Context (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1992), 84.
20
G.E. Gorman, ‘Foreward,’ xi.
21
Kwesi A. Dickson, Theology in Africa (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1984), 8. See also G.E. Gorman,
‘Foreward,’ x. Bolaji Idowu’s call for the resourcefulness of traditional African culture and religion is well
documented. He presents a strong appeal for the reconciliation between Christianity and African traditional
religion in order to guarantee the preservation and continuity of traditional life and the Christian faith for
Africans. See Bolaji E. Idowu, African Traditional Religion: A Definition (London: SCM Press, 1973) and
in his earlier work Oludumare: God in Yoruba Belief (London: Oxford, 1962).
22
Authors such as Bolaji Idowu and T. Price have explored these Westernized trends of the early
evangelizers to Africa. For detailed discussions see T. Price, “The Missionary Struggle with Complexity,”
Christianity in Tropical Africa, ed. Christian G. Baeta (London: Oxford, 1968), 108. See also Christian
Baeta, ed., Christianity in Tropical Africa: Studies Presented and Discussed at the International African
Seminar, University of Ghana, April 1965 (London: Oxford, 1968), 425 and Muzorewa, The Origins and
Development of African Theology, 26, 33.
23
Young, Black and African Theologies: 24. For a methodological analysis of African theology see
Charles Nyamiti, African Theology: Its Nature, Problems and Methods, Gaba Pastoral Papers, no. 19.
Kampala: Gaba Publications, 1971 and Nyamiti, The Scope of African Theology, Gaba Pastoral Papers, no.
30. Kampala: Gaba Publications, 1973.
24
Muzorewa, The Origins and Development of African Theology, 53.
African theologians were broadened, it also came with a challenge that they were not
adequately prepared to do what would be most beneficial for the church in Africa,
namely, the production of an indigenous theology. For this reason, theological concepts
remained in ‘foreign shells’ for the African people as theologians felt comfortable in
‘rehashing’ the insights of Euro-Americans.25
From the foregoing, it is palpable that the initial phase of African theology can be
characterized as a ‘theology of adaptation’ in that the earlier scholars of African theology
attempted a modification of theology that would suit the African. In the ensuing years
however, a new class of theologians who questioned the adaptation approach emerged.
This group which included John Mbiti, Charles Nyamiti and much later, Emmanuel
Katongole, sought to re-orientate African theology towards its pivotal foundations. Their
assessment of the adaptation approach and their analysis of the major constitutive
elements of African theology laid the groundwork for a renewed African theology that
initially focused on inculturation and liberation.
John Mbiti26, one of the first African scholars to have engaged in an African theology
identifies three main belts of African theology as: written theology, oral theology and
symbolic theology. He explains written theology as that carried out by a select few
Christians who have had considerable education and are able to articulate their
theological reflections by way of publications. He clarifies subsequently that oral
theology is exhibited in the fields – by the masses – via song, sermon, teaching, prayer
and conversation. He refers to it as ‘theology in the open’; often unrecorded and generally
lost to libraries and the academia. The third strand he highlights is symbolic theology,
which is expressed through art, sculpture, drama, symbols, rituals, dance, colours,
numbers and so forth.27
Accordingly, Mbiti affirms that African theology relates with the presence and the
experience of the Christian faith among African people. For this reason, he encourages
that African theology be developed and expressed via recognizable African fundamentals
such as symbols, colour, art, music and sculpture. His contention is that since theology is
not done in a vacuum, it must employ an African cultural matrix in order to discover
those insights that are valuable and original. 28 Mbiti appears to favour oral
communication in African theology, due to its relevance for both the literate and the
25
See Ibid., 2 and Edward W. Fashole-Luke, “The Quest for an African Christian Theology,” The
Ecumenical Review 27 (July 1975): 260.
26
John Samuel Mbiti is a Kenyan priest of the Anglican Church. He was born on 30 December, 1931.
Having studied in Uganda and the United States, he subsequently obtained a doctorate in biblical theology
from the University of Cambridge, United Kingdom in 1963. As a foremost African Christian philosopher,
Mbiti has authored a host of publications in African Philosophy, African Religions and African
Christianity. See Mbiti, African Religions and Philosophy (London: Heinemann, 1969).
27
Mbiti, “The Biblical Basis for Present Trends in African Theology” in African Theology En Route, eds.
Kofi Appiah-Kubi and Sergio Torres (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1979), 84.
28
Mbiti, “African Theology,” in All Africa Lutheran Consultation on Theology in the African Context
(Oct. 1978): 33.
illiterate, particularly in the face of a poverty of formal education. In Mbiti’s assessment,

the dignity and worth of the millions of people who cannot read and write would be better
served through the channel of oral communication rather than being positioned at the
periphery of society.29 In light of this peculiar reality, he thinks that oral communication
still retains great potentials and influence in African theology.
Mbiti attempts to juxtapose the Bible with African traditional religion on the subject
of eschatology. This parallel is underlined by the correlation between the biblical concept
of the ultimate destiny of humanity and the African concept of life-after-death. To Mbiti’s
assessment, African theology interprets the ‘raw materials’ of tradition in light of the
gospel in order to relate the bible to concrete instances of the African worldview. Going
further, Mbiti finds important links between the biblical world, African heritage and
contemporary life. In his proximate intuition, African Christian hymns are often a
reflection of biblical knowledge and teaching in the same way that theological views are
expressed through song and dance.30 Establishing that the Bible is a primary source for
African theology, he argues that even when theologians search for a special hermeneutic
to produce a theology that speaks to the African people, such biblical theology will have
to reflect the African situation and understanding, he cautions. 31 Certainly, such a
cautious approach is necessary because not every scriptural passage necessarily speaks to
the African situation.
Mbiti is insistent however, that as the development of African theology has quickly
realized and has allowed the Bible to shape much of its growth both explicitly and
implicitly, “any viable theology must and should have a biblical basis” 32 as there can be
no substitute for the Bible in theology. To this end, Mbiti disparages trends in African
theology that make sparse relations to scriptural references. Singling out liberation
theology as faulty in this regard, Mbiti makes a bold claim that any theology is Africa that
does not require the biblical basis for theological discussions in Africa is bound to lose its
credibility.33 He suggests even further that as long as African theology keeps close to the
Scriptures, its relevance to the life of the church in Africa and its enduring links with the
theology of the universal church is guaranteed. 34 What Mbiti does not respond to,
however, is the place of the Bible in concrete life situations in Africa. What role does the
29
Mbiti, “The Bible in African Culture,” in Paths of African Theology, ed. Rosino Gibellini (Maryknoll,
NY: Orbis, 1994), 31.
30
Mbiti, “The Biblical Basis for Present Trends in African Theology,” 87-88. See also Muzorewa, The
Origins and Development of African Theology, 92. Jesse Mugambi has since developed also the theology
of eschatology in relation to African thought. See J.N.K Mugambi, African Heritage and Contemporary
Christianity (Nairobi: Longman, 1989).
31
Mbiti, New Testament Eschatology in an African Background: A Study of the Encounter between New
Testament Theology and African Traditional Concepts (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991), 189.
32
Mbiti, “The Biblical Basis for Present Trends in African Theology,” 90. Elsewhere, Mbiti makes
allusion to the ‘long association’ between Africa and the Bible. He notifies that not only did some key
events of the Bible take place in Africa, the first translation of the Bible into the Greek language, the
Septuagint, held in Alexandria. See Mbiti, “The Bible in African Culture,” 27.
33
Ibid., 89.
34
Mbiti, “The Biblical Basis for Present Trends in African Theology,” 91.
Bible play in the tangible experiences of Africans? And should it be the essential
preoccupation of African theology to safeguard uniformity with the theology of the
universal church?
The idea of community in African theology as espoused by Mbiti is quite profound.
He finds parallel between the concepts of communion and community in the Bible and in
African culture. Zooming into the concept of community in the Old Testament, Mbiti
asserts that it revolves around early notable figures highlighted in the genealogical roots
beginning with Abraham, Sarah, and Hagar and winding through Isaac, Jacob (Israel) and
the twelve tribal ancestors. He mentions other notable features such as: the covenants
(with Noah, Abraham, Moses, and in Sinai), the land, the Exodus (liberation) event and
so forth. He admits however that unfortunately, patriarchal dominance ensured that the
equally important role of women in the biblical history and life of Jewish society is
ignored.35
On the other hand, in identifying the prominent role of community in African culture,
Mbiti draws attention to various points of reference such as blood and marital kinship,
land, tribal and clan roots, rituals (especially that of initiation) and so forth. Hanging on
these commonplace features of African life, he summarizes the African community
orientation as ‘I am, because we are; and since we are, therefore I am’.36 Going further, he
explains that the understanding of community in Africa is both vertical and horizontal.
The former includes the departed, the living, and those yet unborn whereas the later refers
to neighbourliness and kinship playing their roles, which sometimes could result in
conflicts and tensions. He thinks that the Bible is often understood along these lines.
Using the Fifth Commandment, “Honour your father and your mother” as an example, he
reckons that this injunction resonates in the African traditional life where honouring one’s
departed parents is an obligation.37
In outlining the undertakings of Africa theology, Mbiti reasons that its major task is
that of understanding, interpreting, articulating and in some cases applying the meaning
of the gospel in Christian Africa. 38 Referring to what is conveyed in the African
Weltanschauung (worldview), he insists that the gospel needs to penetrate into the depths
of the African worldview with particular reference to its concept of salvation, the
meaning of life, symbolism, healing, eschatology, and so forth. To set the motion rolling,
he thinks that the parallels between the world of the Old Testament and the African
background might be a good starting point.39
35
Mbiti, “The Bible in African Culture,” 35.
36
Ibid., 36.
37
Ibid.
38
Mbiti, Bible and Theology in African Christianity (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1986), 229.
39
Mbiti, Bible and Theology, 156-7.
Charles Nyamiti 40 has discussed the various ‘approaches’ to African theology and
subsequently questions the approach of the ‘theology of adaptation’ that characterized the
earlier developments of African theology. In his treatment of African themes, he thinks
that the theology of adaptation has been a trend among the early scholars of African
theology where they basically adopted African elements into Christian theology. Nyamiti
explains that first the authors choose a number of themes from the African situation
which can serve their purpose. This is done by identifying the central themes in African
cultures and finding their Christian parallels. Examples of such analogies are: ancestral
cult and the cult of saints, communal solidarity and the Mystical Body of the Church and
so forth.41 Other prevalent cultural themes in African communities that are often cited are
the spiritual view of life, the sense of family, initiation rites, belief in spirits which are
subsequently linked to the communion of saints, the sacraments of initiation (baptism,
confirmation, Eucharist), sacramentals and the Holy Spirit.42
The second step identified by Nyamiti is the introduction of African values into
theology. To accomplish this, the ‘erroneous’ elements to be rejected are isolated from
the positive values compatible with Christian teaching. The ‘adoption’ of these positive
values is carried out by accentuating the African themes and their Christian parallels. This
would mean that those African themes that do not resonate in the Christian tradition are
thrashed out. 43 Here lies a major problem of limitation in that the African theologian
limits his/her attention to only a few cultural themes that shed light on his/her Christian
faith instead of having a total overview of the African culture so as to make meaning out
of them in light of the gospel.
At the foundation of the theology of adaptation is the notion of compatibility.
Nyamiti detects that in their treatment of these themes, the authors particularly confine
their interest to the ‘positive’ themes. which in their assessment, are compatible. The
evident result is that it neglects ‘negative’ factors such as superstition, magic, polygamy,
40
Charles Nyamiti is a Catholic priest from Tanzania. He studied theology at the University of Leuven and
obtained a doctorate in systematic theology in 1969. He later studied cultural anthropology in Vienna
where he earned a second doctorate. Nyamiti taught in a number of seminaries in East Africa in addition to
the Catholic University of Eastern Africa, Nairobi where he is reputed to be one of the ‘founders’. He is
widely regarded as one of the foremost African inculturation theologians particularly in the domain of
Christology in African theology exploring also the traditional concept of ‘ancestor’. See Nyamiti, “The
Doctrine of God,” in A Reader in African Christian Theology, ed. John Parratt (London: SPCK, 1997), 58;
See also Nyamiti, Jesus Christ the Ancestor of Humankind: An Essay on African Christology, Studies in
African Christian Theology, vol. 2 (Nairobi: CUEA, 2006).
41
Charles Nyamiti, “Approaches to African Theology,” in The Emergent Gospel: Theology from the
Underside of History, eds. S. Torres and V. Fabella (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1978), 36. It is notable that
those who canvass for the theology of adaptation dream of a church of African colour, or rather, a
Christianity with an ‘African face’. This in fact, is the title of a book by Vincent Mulago one of the
foremost promoters of African theology: Un visage Africaine du Christianisme [An African Face of
Christianity] (Paris: Présence Africaine, 1965). For a separate analysis of a ‘theology of adaptation’ other
than Nyamiti’s see Ngindu Mushete, “An Overview of African Theology,” in Paths of African Theology,
17-20.
42
Nyamiti, “Approaches to African Theology,” 36-37.
43
Ibid., 37.
tribalism, disease and ignorance. In Nyamiti’s evaluation, this omission is a ‘serious

pastoral deficiency’ since the themes cited by the authors are meant to be proposed as
deserving meticulous attention. Nyamiti’s worry is that the task of the African theologian
is not limited to investing the synchrony between the positive values of their culture with
revelation but also to combat the so-called inadequacies and inaccuracies in their
communities. For sure, negative themes can also contribute to the development of
theology as we observe in the historical development of doctrines of the Trinity, grace,
sacraments and so forth, which owes partly to the errors opposed to those teachings. 44 In
addition, African theology cannot afford to overlook insightful themes as liberation,
African socialism, personalism, gender discrimination and tribalism.
Furthermore, a major hitch of the previously widespread theology of adaptation is its
lack of rudimentary employment of cultural themes and the narrowness of its approach to
the features present. In elucidating on the deficiency in employing cultural themes,
Nyamiti argues that the African ideas were used as “a mere propaedeutic providing
exterior illustrations or subjective preparations, but do not enter internally into the
theological elaboration of revelation so as to form an organic part of it.”45 He is adamant
that the neglect of the non-Christian aspects of the African theme and the subsequent
amplification of Christian analogous realities reduce the project of African theology to a
comparative meeting-point rather than allowing both worlds – African and Christian – to
coincide in order to form a theological unity. 46 Taking the disregard of the thematic
interests of Africa further, he estimates that African theologians who employ the Marxist
philosophical tool in doing liberation theology as adopted from Latin America are plainly
inauthentic in responding to the African challenge. Admitting his theological approach as
that of inculturation, he however signifies that liberation theology in Africa can only be
genuinely African and truly thrive when it makes judicious use of African philosophy.47
Therefore, in raising the question, Can African Christianity be ‘saved’? Emmanuel
Katongole 48 uses the socio-constructive orientation of African theology in offering a
response to Nyamiti’s anxiety on the future of African theology. Katongole underscores
that Christianity’s potential role in the social transformation of Africa is to a great
44
Ibid., 37-38
45
Ibid., 41.
46
Ibid.
47
Nyamiti, “The Contribution of African Cultures and African Theology to Theology Worldwide,” in The
Shifting Ground of Doing Theology: Perspectives from Africa, eds. Emmanuel Wabanhu and Marco
Moerschbacher (Nairobi: Paulines, 2017), 35.
48
A Ugandan Catholic Priest, Emmanuel Katongole was born on 27 November 1960. He had his initial
degrees in philosophy and theology from the Makerere University, Kampala. After his ordination to the
priesthood, he undertook studies at the Catholic University of Leuven from where he obtained a doctorate
in philosophy. He has taught in Uganda, South Africa and presently in the United States where he is
associate professor of theology and peace studies at the University of Notre Dame, Indiana. His area of
expertise includes a theology of reconciliation and political theology amongst others. See Emmanuel
Katongole ed. African Theology Today (Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock 2002) and Emmanuel Katongole, A
Future for Africa: Critical Essays in Social Imagination (Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2005).
measure a pointer to the future of African theology. He gives the impression that despite
the current shortcomings associated with the development of an exhaustive African
theology, African theology can play a key role in the positive transformation of Africa not
simply by sticking to the present formulation of her social role but through the task of
social imagination.49 Katongole is buoyant that despite the drawbacks and skepticism of
Christianity in Africa, owing to the ambiguous role Christianity has played in the
continent, particularly in more recent situations like Rwanda, the future role of
Christianity in Africa lies in the presentation of a formidable African theology50 in a way
that African theology might offer an account of hope.51
Admittedly, Katongole’s alertness to the potentials of social imagination in the
domain of African theology does not relegate the social telos of the church. He rather
delves deeper into identifying what it means for African Christians to be socially formed
in a bid to offer alternatives to the current narratives and typology of social formations in
Africa. 52 Katongole takes it further that for constructive social imagination to be a
possibility, “it must involve, and, in fact, begin with, a critical and thorough evaluation of
some of the assumptions which have greatly shaped the church’s social mission generally,
in Africa in particular.”53 One such key assumption in Katongole’s view is the conception
of the ‘social’ and ‘religious’ as two distinct spheres. 54 He thinks this gap should be
bridged if African theology is to remain relevant to the social transformation of Africa.
Indeed, Tharcisse Tshibangu identifies a similar pragmatic approach to African
theology 55 . Locating this approach in the social commitment of African theologians,
Tshibangu points out that in order for African theology to address the existential
challenges of Africa, African theologians would need to seek involvement in their
community and be as active as possible in their social participation in order to gain a
deeper grasp of the cultural innuendos posed by their communities while at the same
time, having an investigative acquaintance of the living conditions of their generation.56
In Tshibangu’s view, this practical approach to African theology is essential in order to
render due attention “to the questions raised by the appearance of new values in a given
49
Emmanuel Katongole, “Mission and Social Formation: Searching for an Alternative to King Leopold’s
Ghost,” in African Theology Today, 126-8.
50
Katongole, “Mission and Social Formation,” 127.
51
Katongole, “‘How Long Oh God?’ The Cry of Theology in Africa, Or African Theology as Prophetic
Theology,” in The Shifting Ground of Doing Theology: Perspectives from Africa, eds. Emmanuel
Wabanhu and Marco Moerschbacher (Nairobi: Paulines, 2017), 204.
52
Katongole, “Mission and Social Formation,” 127.
53
Ibid., 128.
54
Ibid.
55
Tharcisse Tshibangu Tshishiku is a Catholic bishop from the Democratic Republic of Congo. Born on
23 April 1933, he studied at the Faculty of theology in Kinshasa and subsequently became the Rector of
the University of Zaire. He has written extensively in French and is considered one of the leading
exponents of African Catholic theology. See Tharcisse Tshibangu, “The Task and Method of Theology in
Africa,” in A Reader in African Christian Theology, ed. John Parratt (London: SPCK, 1997), 37; Appiah-
Kubi and Torres, eds., African Theology En Route, 214.
56
Tshibangu, “The Task of African Theologians,” in African Theology En Route, 75.
society, by its characteristic perception and conception of things and events (that is, its
typical epistemological viewpoints), and by the facts and events related to its socio-
cultural evolution and development.”57 The underlying idea is that if African theology is
not wholly involved in the on-going process of the African society, it can hardly claim to
be ‘authentic’.
From the foregoing, it is important to point that while the term ‘African theology’
can be misleading since it might well be argued that there is no one African theology, but
distinct works by several African thinkers and schools of thought, still it is difficult to
neglect the phrase which is mainly descriptive.58 In addition, as Jesse Mugambi detects,
Africans are not analogous in their ideas, customs, and histories.59 Despite this snag in
terminology, nonetheless, the near-homogeneity of the African value system makes it an
important building block for a meaningful presentation of African theology.60
From the foregoing, we have established that the initial phase of African theology
can be characterized as a ‘theology of adaptation’ instigated by the array of Tempels,
Mulago and Idowu. However, this approach has been succinctly analyzed and criticized
by authors such as Mbiti, Nyamiti and Katongole. Their remarks have laid the
groundwork for a renewed African theology focusing subsequently on inculturation,
liberation and reconstruction, which we shall discuss afterwards. 61 Owing to the
importance of culture in these major trends of African theology, we shall first examine
the meaning of culture and its place in African theology.
3.3 The Interaction Between Culture, Christianity and African Theology

In this segment, we intend to investigate the implications of culture for an African
theology. We begin by identifying the connotation of culture and its role in the
57
Ibid., 75.
58
For further reading on the dilemma of the nomenclature ‘African theology’ see Young, African
Theology, 1. A similar explanation of the related religious identity of sub-Sahara Africa summing up to
what might be distinguished as a unified African Religion is provided in Malcolm J. McVeigh, God in
Africa: Conceptions of God in African Traditional Religion and Christianity (Massachusetts: Claude Stark,
1974), 5.
59
J.N.K. Mugambi, African Christian Theology: An Introduction (Nairobi: Heinemann, 1989), 5.
60
Aylward Shorter in African Culture and the Christian Church: An Introduction to Social and Pastoral
Anthropology has traced the structural and organization change in modern Africa and has provided a
platform for a study of the particularity of the African value system. See African Culture and the Christian
Church: An Introduction to Social and Pastoral Anthropology (London: Geoffrey Chapman, 1973), 14-22.
61
For a detailed analysis on the emergence and development of these trends see André Karamaga,
Problems and Promises of Africa: Towards and Beyond the Year 2000 (Nairobi: AACC Publications,
1991). For a rigorous analysis of the approaches of inculturation and liberation to theology in Africa see
Emmanuel Martey, Inculturation and Liberation (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1993). For a digested account on
the movement from African liberation theology to the African theology of reconstruction see J.N.K.
Mugambi, From Liberation to Reconstruction: African Christian Theology after the Cold War (Nairobi:
East African Educational Publishers, 1995). For pertinent discussions on the new hermeneutics and
paradoxes for these major trends in African culture see Agbonkhianmeghe E. Orobator, Theological Re-
imagination: Conversations on Church, Religion and Society in Africa (Nairobi: Paulines, 2014) and also
Emmanuel Katongole, The Sacrifice of Africa: A Political Theology for Africa (Grand Rapids, MI:
Eerdmans, 2011).
establishment of Christianity in Africa. The central questions shall be: Was culture an
important element of consideration in the missionary enterprise of the implantation of
Christianity in Africa? Was its meaning properly understood by Church representatives or
was it hastily bypassed?
3.3.1 The Meaning of ‘Culture’ vis-à-vis the Earlier Challenges of the Transmission of
the ‘Good News’ in Africa
Clifford Geertz explained culture as “an historically transmitted pattern of meanings
embodied in symbols, a system of inherited conceptions expressed in symbolic forms by
means of which [men] communicate, perpetuate, and develop their knowledge about their
attitudes towards life.” 62 Geertz’s interpretation of culture is both historical and
emblematic and as a result, culture is linked to the varied ways individuals convey these
cyphers. In keeping with the transmissive understanding of culture, it refers to a
convoluted whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, laws, customs, abilities
and habits acquired by people as members of a society. 63 Hence it is reasoned as the sum
total of what an individual acquires from their society.
Louis Luzbetak draws attention to the dynamism of culture. For Luzbetak, even
though culture is largely a tradition and an embodiment of history, culture is not only
something of the past but also of the present. Therefore, to think of culture solely in terms
of ‘social heredity’ is misleading.64 Culture, while it makes allusion to the past refers also
to the here-and-now and to the future. Those who hold on to a culture, the members of a
given society are alive and operational. Their operationality gives rise to an adaptation
into new ways of conceiving reality. Even when transformations and adjustments appear
slow, they do occur notwithstanding. As it is said, the only completely static cultures are
the dead ones.65 Culture then is rightly regarded as a continuum.
Culture lies at the very heart of a society’s collective consciousness and identity.
Eboussi Boulaga therefore avers that culture should have a more human face. Boulaga
muses that culture is “the human being as process of communication, exchange and
transformation of things into objects and signs.”66 For the fact that cultural ways could
62
Geertz, The Interpretation of Cultures, 89.
63
Louis J. Luzbetak, S.V.D., The Church and Cultures: New Perspectives in Missiological Anthropology
(Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1988), 134. Luzbetak has compiled several anthropological definitions of culture.
In his work, he summarizes varied definitions of culture such as those of Edward B. Tylor, the father of
modern anthropology, Robert H. Lowie, Alfred L. Kroeber, Ralph Linton and Felix Keesing for whom
culture is regarded as ‘the behavior acquired through learning’. See Ibid., 134.
64
Luzbetak, The Church and Cultures, 170-1. Luzbetak’s earlier work, The Church and Cultures: An
Applied Anthropology for the Religious Worker had underscored the importance of the need for clarity in
the conceptualization of culture. According to Luzbetak, “nothing could be more fundamental than a
proper understanding of the term [culture]. A failure to grasp the nature of culture would be a failure to
grasp much of the nature of missionary work itself.” See Luzbetak, The Church and Cultures: An Applied
Anthropology for the Religious Worker (Techny, IL: Divine Word, 1970), 59.
65
Ibid., 170-1.
66
Eboussi F. Boulaga, Christianity without Fetishes: An African Critique and Recapture of Christianity
(Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1984), 166.
become a second habit to the individual person, Christian theology ought to pay attention
to cultural habits and the way in which the Christian message might permeate it. It must
pay attention to the possibility of conflicts between a person’s cultural upbringing and the
transmission of a message that conveys an unfamiliar content. This aligns well with
Gaudium et spes’ advocacy for a proper development of culture. The Council Fathers in
recognizing the sociological and ethnological senses of culture admit that it is only
through culture that the human person realizes full humanity. They thus plead that the
intimate connection between nature and culture be respected. 67 Furthermore, an
awareness of at least the theoretical distinctions between broad cultural groups and
subcultural groups is essential for the effective communication of the Gospel in basic
communities.
Laurenti Magesa has supplied an argument for the perspicacity of culture in Christian
thought. Magesa insists that culture convokes a crucial theological significance as far as
Christianity is concerned for it touches the very core of Christianity namely: the mystery
of the incarnation of Jesus, where God took flesh and became a human person in Jesus
Christ. Magesa enunciates that the very fact of Jesus becoming human is an indication
that Jesus became a cultural being, a Jew, vast in the knowledge of the peculiar traditions
of the Jewish people, using examples and patterns from his own Jewish culture. To
maintain then that a major implication of the incarnation is Jesus’ need for a culture to
proclaim the Gospel is not far-fetched. 68 What then is the allusion of culture for the
African theological project?
Africa as a continent conglomerates varied religious, social, economic, political,
racial and cultural identities. Hence it is no surprise that multiple theologies abound as
Kwesi Dickson notifies.69 Yet, however distinct these terrestrial locations might be, the
sense of the religious and sacred permeates. David Power argues that though divergent
ethnicities abound, “African cultures are impregnated with the sense of the religious and
the holy, so that in Africa attention to culture and the encounter of the Christian religion
with other religions go together.”70
So the question needs to be asked: did the evangelizers of Africa take time to
understand the African culture or did they act on preconceived notions? For good
measure, there is the discussion referencing the arrogant attitude of the early missionaries
to African culture. The delineation of the continent’s culture as barbaric and crude is well
noted. What is often ignored is that the resentment of some Africans to the message of
‘Good News’ presented by the missionaries was a reaction to such a caustic disposition to
67
Vatican Council II, “Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, Gaudium et Spes,” 7
December 1965, in Decrees of Ecumenical Councils: Trent to Vatican II, ed. Norman Tanner, vol. 2.
London: Sheen and Ward, 1990.no. 53.
68
Laurenti Magesa, Rethinking Mission: Evangelization in Africa in a New Era (Eldoret: AMECEA
Publications, 2006), 116.
69
Dickson, Theology in Africa, 131.
70
David N. Power, O.M.I., ‘Forward,’ in Celebrating Jesus Christ in Africa: Liturgy and Inculturation,
Kabasele F. Lumbala, (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1998), x.
the African ways of life.71 Some missionaries assumed that Africans had not heard of God
and it was therefore their task to remedy this defect. Some held that either Africans had
no religion at all or their religion was not true. If there was a religion at all, it was of the
Devil. However, they were staggered that Africans had in fact heard of God, described
Him most eloquently, and maintained proper attitudes of reverence and worship towards
God.72 Conversely, Lamin Sanneh contends that rather than appreciate the willingness of
Africans to embrace the ‘Good News’ that was previously unknown to them, the
missionaries appeared to have been stupefied, even antagonized by deeds of fidelity,
generosity and clemency shown by the Africans.73
More so, as Dickson fronts, it is to be noted that African culture is not merely about
drumming and dancing, as some foreigners who have visited Africa might think. While
drumming and dancing have rightly become easily marketable and exportable through
cultural exchanges to North America and Europe, major aspects of the culture that is
encountered in festivals, songs, folklores, drama and art are palpably contemporaneous.74
Power however judges that such harmony in African cultural philosophy is threatened by
the fast-paced developmental demarcation of rural and urban Africa – as is evident in
other parts of developing continents – where in the process of urbanization, the reception
of ‘values’ from other continents challenges the integrality of African cultural disposition
so that major ritual expressions seem more folkloric than real.75
71
Dickson, Theology in Africa, 133. It is important to note that missionary activities in Africa were led by
a number of European and American societies in varied denominations. However, due to the weak
resistance to disease that intermittently ensued many societies were forced to indigenize its mission. For
details of the several missionary groups and their outlined strategy see Muzorewa, The Origins and
Development of African Theology, 26-30.
72
Lamin Sanneh, Translating the Message: The Missionary Impact on Culture (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis,
1989), 158-9. Sanneh argues that whereas the “God’ of missionary preaching was a jealous God who
forbade reverence to other deities, as jealousy exemplified in the religious history of the West in the
exhibition of wars and other forms of religious intolerance, ‘God’ in Africa was a hospital deity. See
Sanneh, Translating the Message, 160. Bolaji Idowu is of the thinking that the missionary presentation of
Christianity came in the form of ‘a religion with a prestige value’ that brought salvation of the soul through
evangelization and a salvation of the mind via literacy. See C.G. Baeta, ed., Christianity in Tropical
Africa: Studies Presented and Discussed at the International African Seminar, University of Ghana, April
1965 (London: Oxford, 1968), 424. See also Muzorewa, The Origins and Development of African
Theology, 33-34. Ogbu Kalu also underscores the yawning difference in worldview between the
missionaries and the Africans that led to conflict with African cultures. See Ogbu Kalu, “Church Presence
in Africa: A Historical Analysis of the Evangelization Process,” in African Theology En Route, eds. Kofi
Appiah-Kubi and Sergio Torres, (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1979), 19.
73
Sanneh, Translating the Message, 158-9. Mbiti, too, has summarized that mission Christianity was at the
onset neither prepared for a serious engagement with the traditional religions and philosophies in Africa
nor with the modern changes taking place in the continent at the time. See Mbiti, African Religions and
Philosophy, 232.
74
Dickson, Theology in Africa, 134. Laurenti Magesa has raised doubts as to the sincere appreciation of
what can be termed an ‘African culture.’ In Magesa’s opinion, the historical dominance in the colonial
sense of African peoples and culture have ensured the relegation of African cultures in academic thought
to the sphere of non-cultures. See Magesa, Rethinking Mission, 128.
75
Power, ‘Foreward,’ xi.
3.3.2 The Inculturated Gospel and Its Development in African Theology

Africans themselves have stoutly rejected the missionary approach of previous centuries.
Cardinal Maurice Otunga had surmised in the 1977 Bishops’ Synod in Rome that the
missionaries approached African religious and cultural heritage as a ‘preparatio
evangelii’ that would be ignored once the trend of evangelization was in swing.76 More
so, for the most part, the African traditional system was rejected rather than engaged as a
solid foundation for evangelization. The impression for the majority of African bishops
was that Christian life was insufficiently incarnated in African ways and customs. They
failed to see any link between Christianity and the authentic values of traditional
religions. Therefore, instead of a so-called ‘theology of adaptation’ that was lived merely
at the surface, they called for the adoption of “the theology of incarnation” where the
local church is truly a church incarnate in the people, springs out of the people and is
considerably native.77
Eugene Hillman argues that the perceived tenacious failure to incarnate the Christian
faith in African cultural worlds might be due to the fear of innovation at the grassroots
level. To Hillman’s estimation, a major drawback to the attempt of a thorough
Africanization of Christianity in Africa is due to the hesitance of the Roman hierarchy in
attempting a new orientation.78 Explaining further, he notes that such “general failure to
apply earnestly and systematically the incarnational principle is certainly due in some
measure today, as in the past, to a congenital and chronic ethnocentrism at the highest
level of ecclesiastical management.” 79 The opinion Hillman puts forth is that the
centralized bureaucracy of the church’s administration makes it difficult to implant new
or different ways of expressing faith that might run contrary to the previously known
‘European’ idea.
It is pertinent to observe that the cynicism in the call for an Africanized Christianity
has been challenged over the years. Pedro Arrupe – at the time the Jesuit Superior
General – while addressing the 1977 Synod of Bishops in Rome, disavows the conscious
effort of the imposition of certain foreign cultural patterns to indigenous people as if it
were the only unique prospect for the expression of faith. Arrupe’s argument is that such
ethnocentrism might hinder the progress of inculturation or even smother it. He therefore
76
Eugene Hillman, C.S.Sp., Toward an African Christianity: Inculturation Applied (New York: Paulist,
1993), 39.
77
Hillman, Toward an African Christianity, 40. See also “Statement of the Bishops of Africa,” African
Ecclesial Review, vol. 17, no. 1 (1975), 56-58. Justin Ukpong has developed a critique of the missionaries’
attempt at evangelizing Africa. In Ukpong’s view, Christianity came to Africa as a highly spiritualized
religion founded on the European secularist stand that insisted on the demarcation of religion from the
secular life sphere. For this reason, the missionaries did not make much considerations of the social
dimension of the life of the people. See Justin Ukpong, “Towards A Renewed Approach to Inculturation
Theology,” Journal of Inculturation Theology 1, no. 1 (April 1994): 12-13.
78
Ibid., 41.
79
Ibid. Some authors make allusion to the undue ‘Westernization of the Church’s ritual’ regardless of its
original cultural origin. See Ralph E.S. Tarner, Transition in African Beliefs (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis,
1967), 220.
contends that since Christ saves only that which he assumes, it is of importance that all
cultures be assumed by Christ, or put differently, that all peoples be assumed by Christ
through their own culture since faith as a way of life cannot be lived unless it is
incarnated.80
Taking up Arrupe’s view further, Hillman reasons that there are several reasons why
Christian communities should be allowed to innovate new ways of expressing faith using
their own known cultural patterns. He observes that a number of church practices,
religious ceremonies, styles and social structures initially derived from Mediterranean
culture do not anymore speak to the minds and hearts of people even in Europe and North
America. For Hillman then, the experience drawn from such exercises now tagged
‘obsolete’ should offer a clue as to the effects of the exportation of cultural patterns.81
However, Avery Dulles identifies a cautious step to the call for a new orientation. While
affirming the importance of indigenous modes of faith expression, he muses that such
novelty is not a replacement of the Gospel. According to Dulles, “new doctrines,
institutions, and ceremonies must be devised, not in order to replace the Gospel, but to
keep it alive and bring it to bear on the problems of the present age.” 82 What we see in
Dulles, however, is rather a superficial adaptation based on contemporaneous needs and
not a sincere attempt aimed at a dialogue between the gospel and African culture in order
that they might enrich one another.
3.4 Major Trends in African Theology

In contemporary discussions, three main trends of African theology are classified,
namely: inculturation, liberation and reconstruction. We shall discuss them below. In
doing so, we shall watch out for whether or not they pay attention to the gender discourse.
3.4.1 Inculturation and African Theology

Mariasusai Dhavamony explains that inculturation as a theological term is used both by
the Magisterium and by theologians in order to clarify the identity of the Christian faith as
well as to capture the internal coherence between the Christian faith and other cultures
and religions in the Church’s quest for expansive evangelization. Dhavamony insists that
the process of inculturation is hinged on the model of the redemptive incarnation, which
places Christianity at the heart of the human person and culture.83
Inculturation, as defined by Pedro Arrupe, is
80
Pedro Arrupe, S.J., “Catechesis and Inculturation,” Teaching All Nations 15, no. 1 (1978): 21.
81
Hillman, Toward an African Christianity, 41.
82
Avery Dulles, The Survival of Dogma: Faith Authority and Dogma in a Changing World (New York:
Doubleday Image Books, 1973), 154.
83
Mariasusai Dhavamony, “The Christian Theology of Inculturation,” in Inculturation, Gospel and
Culture, ed. Franco Imoda (Rome: Editrice Pontificia Università Gregoriana, 1995), 1.
“The incarnation of Christian life and of the Christian message in a

particular cultural context, in such a way that this experience not only
finds expression through elements proper to the culture in question (this
alone would be no more than a superficial adaptation), but becomes a
principle that animates, directs and unifies the culture, transforming and
remaking it so as to bring about ‘a new creation.’”84
In seeking for elements proper to the particular culture, inculturation aims to avoid being
a mere shallow acclimatization but a true experience originating from what is already
known. Arrupe’s supposition then is that whereas inculturation is a solution to the
problem of the real influence which faith has on culture, its absence is as well a major
obstacle to evangelization. The underlying theological principal of inculturation is that
Christ is the one and only Saviour and that he saves only that whom he assumes to
himself. For this reason then Christ assumes in his body the Church, all cultures which he
himself purifies by eradicating those things contrary to his spirit while at the same time
saving them without destroying them. The indication is that faith touches the human
person in his/her most profound life’s experiences as to influence his manner of thinking,
feeling and acting under divine inspiration.85
Although the term ‘inculturation’ had been present during the 29th “Semaine de
Missiologie” of the University of Leuven in 1959 in the discussions regarding “Mission et
cultures non chrétiennes”86, Aylward Shorter argues that the very first recorded use of the
word in a theological sense was by Fr. Joseph Masson of the Society of Jesus at the
Gregorian University Rome in 1962 where he invited Catholicism to become inculturated
in egregious ways.87 Nevertheless, the entrance of the term ‘inculturation’ to the official
Magisterium of the Church was not until John Paul II’s address to the Pontifical Biblical
Commission on April 26, 1979. 88 Using inculturation in the same way as
‘acculturation,’ 89 he underlined the idea of the cultural insertion of divine revelation.
However, he explains the approach and method of inculturation in a cautious way.
84
Pedro Arrupe, S.J., Jesuit Apostolates Today (St. Louis: Institute of Jesuit Sources, 1981), 173. See also
Pedro Arrupe, S.J., “Letter to the Whole Society on Inculturation,” Studies in the International Apostolate
of Jesuits (Washington: Jesuit Missions, June 1978): 1-9. For further expository discussions on the subject
of inculturation see important bibliographical materials such as: Robert J. Schreiter, Constructing Local
Theologies (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1985); Aylward Shorter, Toward a Theology of Inculturation
(Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1988); Louis Luzbetak, The Church and Cultures; Peter Schineller, S.J., A
Handbook on Inculturation (New York: Paulist Press, 1990), David J. Bosch, Transforming Mission:
Paradigm Shifts in Theology of Mission (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1991).
85
Arrupe, “Catechesis and Inculturation,” 21-24. See also Dhavamony, “The Christian Theology of
Inculturation,” 3.
86
Dhavamony, “The Christian Theology of Inculturation”, 1.
87
Shorter, Toward a Theology of Inculturation, 10.
88
Dhavamony, “The Christian Theology of Inculturation”, 4.
89
“Acculturation” is often used in Social Anthropology to designate the phenomena of cultural contacts or
interactions between two cultures. As a theological term, it means the conveying of a pre-existent body of
revealed truth to another culture. Therefore, for the purpose of communicating the Gospel message, the
Church adopts the language and other expressive forms of a particular culture. Dhavamony notes however
that whereas the contact between gospel and culture is vertical as in inculturation, in acculturation this
In bringing the power of the Gospel into the heart of culture – and cultures, John Paul
II discloses two aspects to be kept in mind. On the one hand, he explains that the Gospel
message cannot be purely and simply isolated from the culture in which it was first
inserted, namely the biblico-cultural milieu in which Jesus existed. On the other side of
the plain, the power of the Gospel everywhere transforms and regenerates in a manner
that when it enters into a culture, it rectifies several elements. Conversely, the goal would
be defeated, if it were the Gospel that had to change when it came into contact with the
cultures.90
Inculturation is therefore understood as an active dialogue between faith and culture.
For the Christian message to be meaningful, it needs to be transmitted in ways easily
understood by the recipient. John Mary Waliggo puts it well:
“Inculturation means the honest and serious attempt to make Christ and
his message of salvation evermore understood by peoples of every
culture, locality and time. It means the reformulation of Christian life
and doctrine into the very thought-patterns of each people. It is the
conviction that Christ and his Good News are even dynamic and
challenging to all times and cultures as they become better understood
and lived by each people. It is the continuous endeavour to make
Christianity truly ‘feel at home’ in the cultures of each people.”91
However, referring to inculturation as merely a ‘feel at home’ theology is overly

simplistic. It has to go even deeper. Indeed one can feel at home but still not be a part of
the home. It engages the integration of the Christian experience of the local Church into
the culture of its people in a way that innovates the culture and enriches the Church.92
Two principles are therefore paramount in inculturation, namely: compatibility with
the Gospel and communion with the universal Church. Hence, when the Church comes
into contact with cultures, she is meant to welcome what is compatible in these traditions
contact is horizontal. For further reading Dhavamony, “The Christian Theology of Inculturation,” 4.
Dieudonnë Ngona has identified the weakness of acculturation. Ngona displays that its pitfall lies in the
possibility that acculturation could become merely superficial when the contact between the Church and
various cultures is simply a profound insertion wherein the Church is supposed to be a part of those
cultures. See Dieudonnë Ngona, “Inculturation as a Face of African Theology Today,” in Faces of African
Theology, ed. Patrick Ryan (Nairobi: CUEA Publications, 2003), 136.
90
John Paul II. Apostolic Exhortation, “On Catechesis in our Time, Catechesi Tradendae,” 16 October
1979. AAS 71 (1979), no. 53.
91
J.M. Waliggo, “Making a Church that is Truly African,” Inculturation: Its Meaning and Urgency, J.M.
Waliggo et al. (Kampala: St. Paul Publications – Africa, 1986), 12.
92
Patrick C. Chibuko, “Inculturation as a Method of Evangelization in the Light of the African Synod,”
Journal of Inculturation Theology, vol. 3, no 1 (April 1996): 33. For an extended reading of the impacts of
inculturation see also Ngona, “Inculturation as a Face of African Theology Today,” 144. Luke Mbefo has
argued for the adaptation of African Traditional Religions to Catholicism in ways that makes the Church
more at home in Africa, and Africans to become more at home in the Church. See Luke N. Mbefo,
Towards a Mature African Christianity (Enugu: Spiritan Publications, 1989), 5.
so as to convey the riches of Christ to them and to be enriched by the nations also. 93 This
means that particular cultures not only learn from the Gospel but the Gospel is itself
enhanced by the contact with these cultures. By this, inculturation becomes truly an
integral part of African Christianity. As Bolaji Idowu notes in reference to Nigeria, it
would mean that “the Church in Nigeria should be the Church which affords Nigerians
the means of worshipping God as Nigerians; that is, in a way that is compatible with their
own spiritual temperament, of singing to the glory of God in their own way, of praying to
God and hearing His Holy Word in idiom which is clearly intelligible to them.” 94 In the
terrain of inculturation, it is not uncommon to find several African themes or categories
chosen for the purpose of Christological elaboration. Such themes include: ancestor,
chief, elder-brother, hero, healer, life, initiation and so forth.95
Carl Starkloff has warned, however, that the term ‘inculturation’ might be
susceptible to oversimplification, misinterpretation and eventually to a cessation if the
theological and historical problem represented by the word is not accounted for. 96
Starkloff insists that inculturation necessarily involves a conversation between two
partners – the universal Gospel or fundamental ‘Good News’ and the cultural
distinctiveness of each context in which that message is relayed and heard.97 Thus Luke
Mbefo demands that since it is acclaimed that ‘grace builds on nature,’ so also revealed
Christian religion should build on the natural religions of Africa that until the advent of
Christianity was the singular channel of the transcendent.98
Attention is therefore drawn to the healing disposition that inculturation must
assume. It is expected that it contributes to the healing of the cultural alienation
experienced by the African. In addition to bridging the gap between life and faith, it is
meant to unravel what Chibuko refers to as “instances of spiritual ‘schrizophrenia’ and
double life afflicting many of our people.”99 Thus while some African authors call for the
Africanization of Christianity before it can be of influence to Africans, others purport that
a Christianization of the African Cultures is what is needed. 100 In any case, the
93
Dhavamony, “The Christian Theology of Inculturation,” 4-5. Some authors describe the operational
principle of inculturation as a ‘give and take’ thereby underscoring the symbiotic mutuality that is meant to
exist between the Gospel and culture.
94
Bolaji E. Idowu, Towards an Indigenous Church (London: Oxford, 1965), 11
95
Nyamiti, “Contemporary African Christologies,” in Paths of African Theology, 65. See also Nyamiti,
Christ as Our Ancestor (Gweru: Mambo Press, 1984) and Nyamiti, “African Christologies Today,” in
Jesus in African Christianity: Experimentation and Diversity in African Christology, eds. J.N.K. Mugambi
and L. Magesa (Nairobi: Initiative Publishers, 1989), 17-39.
96
Carl F. Starkloff, S.J., “Inculturation and Cultural Systems,” (Part 1) Theological Studies 55 (1994): 66.
97
Starkloff, “Inculturation and Cultural Systems,” 69.
98
Mbefo, Towards a Mature African Christianity, 24.
99
Chibuko, “Inculturation as a Method of Evangelization,” 35. See also Dieudonnë Ngona, “Inculturation
as a Face of African Theology Today,” 154.
100
Kwasi Sarpong is an advocate of the former. He invites the Africanization (indigenization) of
Christianity as a meaningful exercise in the encounter with African Christians whereas for Charles
Nyamiti, Christianity must aim to make African cultures Christianized. See Peter K. Sarpong, “Christianity
Should be Africanized Not Africa Christianized,” AFER 19 (1975): 325 and Charles Nyamiti, “My
expectation of the Church’s hierarchy is that these attempts at stimulating inculturation in

local churches must keep in mind the fostering of communion with the universal Church.
From the foregoing, it could be rightly asserted that the underlying supposition
instigating the conceptualization of inculturation and its publicized historicity is deeply
rooted in the inclusive approach of the earthly Jesus. In light of this, inculturation could
therefore be regarded as the logical consequence of effective evangelization as Aylward
Shorter resounds. 101 Subsequently, the fact that the Christian Gospel admits to the
validation of a change of heart in those to whom it is addressed, it is important that the
inculturated Gospel transcends the mere cultural form of Christianity in order to
challenge deeply established cultural hegemonies in Africa. Mbiti’s argument that
Christian theology has no interest in reading liberation into every text, arguing that
African theology grows out of the joy of the African experience of the faith, is countered
by Muzorewa in that if liberation, or the salvation for which Christ came into the world is
not central to theology, what is the reason for rejoicing?102
In light of this, Manas Buthelezi faults the attempt to establish an ‘indigenous
theology’ against the backdrop of an endeavour which proceeds to first ascertain what the
African worldview is and then translating the Gospel into African thoughts and forms.
Buthelezi’s contention is that this approach is unsatisfactory where indigenization is
conceived as “a mechanical programme in which objectively identifiable motifs of the
African worldview are used to indigenize an already existing church which is un-
indigenized.”103 This would be feigning in his opinion.
In a similar vein, critics of inculturation concede that it has failed to produce a
sufficiently sharp cutting edge in addressing the development of unjust structures that are
found dominating of which the gender poser is prominent. They are of the distinct view
that in order for African theology to be relevant to the needs and aspirations of Africans,
it must be in dialogue with the African political world in order to satisfactorily articulate
concepts such as freedom, human equality and liberation. They argue that it must
disassociate with the trappings and paraphernalia of a past colonial era in order to survive
a post-colonial and revolutionary Africa.104
Approach to African Theology,” African Christian Studies 7, no. 4 (December 1991): 40. For further calls
to Africanize Christianity see J.N. Amanze. “Reading and Understanding the Bible as an African,” in
Biblical Studies, Theology, Religion and Philosophy: An Introduction for African Universities, eds. J.N.
Amanze et al. (Eldoret: Zapf Chancery, 2010), 129-130.
101
Aylward Shorter, “African Traditional Religion and Inculturation” in Social and Religious Concerns of
East Africa: A Wajibu Anthology, eds. Gerald J. Wanjohi et al. (Washington, D.C.: Paulines, 2005), 26.
Michael Muonwe has argued that since faith is always lived in a cultural milieu, any effort to consolidate
the faith without making due reference to the cultural nature of the human person is bound to fail. See
Michael Muonwe, Dialetics of Faith-Culture Integration: Inculturation or Syncretism (London: Xlibris,
2014), 219.
102
See Muzorewa, The Origins and Development of African Theology, 97. See also Mbiti, “An African
Views American Black Theology,” in Worldview (August 1974): 44.
103
Manas Buthelezi “Toward Indigenous Theology in South Africa,” in The Emergent Gospel, 61.
104
Buthelezi “Toward Indigenous Theology in South Africa,” 62-63. See also Muzorewa, The Origins and
Development of African Theology, 55.
For this reason, Agbonkhianmeghe Orobator speaks of the failings of inculturation in

addressing multiple life-situations. He is of the impression that inculturation as an integral
process ought not to limit itself to a single facet of life, but is meant to cover all aspects of
life. He pushes further that a prime reason why some theologians have questioned the
relevance of inculturation emerges from the perception that it could sometimes appear
superficial. 105 In Orobator’s purview such a critique is justified particularly when one
“considers the elements that have been labeled as authentic inculturation in Africa. For
some people, inculturation has to do simply with using local African colors, songs and
musical instruments. One gets the impression that Africans have only songs and dance to
contribute to the message and practice of the Christian faith”.106 However, the reality is
that inculturation should be a lot more. Though songs are dance are important for
establishing the mutuality and comprehension between faith and culture, there is another
layer of inculturation that is expected to encapsulate the African understanding of the
gospel in a view to translating it according to the African experience and situations.107 An
authentic African Christianity, one that responds to concrete life situations cannot afford
to ignore the gender discourse.
3.4.2 Liberation Theology in Africa

Liberation theology begins its scheme with the identification of the inadequacies of the
theologies that came before it. Referring to their involvement in political realities, it
decries this as either deficient or at worst non-existent. What liberation theologians
therefore stress is that theology should be experiential, placing concrete human situations
in the vanguard of the Church’s pastoral outline. This explains why liberation theology is
usually developed within a framework of a new political consciousness. This meant that
people became aware of their own situations by gaining a new consciousness of
themselves, first of all, of where they were and of the political, social and economic
subtleties in their situations. When they started to wholesomely understand their situation,
they began to ask those questions they had never asked before.108
Dickson Kwesi explains that at the backdrop of liberation theology is a persistent
consideration of the exploitation and domination experienced by the developing countries
in the hands of the colonialists.109 In Dickson’s view, liberation theology “places a great
105
Agbonkhianmeghe E. Orobator, Theology Brewed in an African Pot (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 2008),
130.
106
Orobator, Theology Brewed in an African Pot, 130.
107
Ibid.
108
Allan Boesak, “Liberation Theology in South Africa” in African Theology En Route, eds. Kofi Appiah-
Kubi and Sergio Torres (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1979), 169.
109
Dickson, Theology in Africa 124-5. Dickson explains that liberation theology adopts analytical methods
often engaged in by non-Christians. He identifies such method of analyzing reality as historical and
materialist and in a huge way inspired by the thoughts of Karl Marx. See Dickson, Theology in Africa, 125.
For important bibliographies on liberation theology in Africa see Kofi Appiah-Kubi and Sergio Torres,
eds., African Theology En Route (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1979); S. Torres and V. Fabella, eds., The
Emergent Gospel (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1978); Allan Boesak, A Farewell to Innocence: A Socio-Ethical
deal of emphasis on praxis or practical action as the primary reference of political

thought; it advocates a shift from orthodoxy to orthopraxis, because it proceeds on the
basis of the conviction that faith divorced from practice is not worth the name of faith.”110
In light of its practical orientations, liberation theology is thought to be tremendously
experiential.
For exponents of liberation theology therefore, a fulcrum of deliberation is to locate
the function of theology. Does Christianity merely serve as a vocalization of Christian
thought aimed at providing spiritual enlightenment rather than physical and material
welfare or does it serve to create awareness on the need for persons to be regarded with
dignity? For liberation theology, the latter function is the satisfactory one. 111 Thus a
preponderant argument is that contextual liberation theology in Africa would therefore be
a reminder to the African mind that God is always on the side of the oppressed rather than
the side of the oppressor who re-enact the experiences of slavery, colonialism,
domination and alienation in Africa. 112 This idea reverberates in Jean-Marc Éla’s
assertion: “God is not neutral”113 in his vindication of a God who hears the cries of the
afflicted as shown in Exod. 3:7 and Ps. 34:18-19.
The pivot of liberation theology resonates well in Desmond Tutu’s analytical
assessment. In Tutu’s view, more than any other kind of theology, liberation theology
materializes out of the crucible of human suffering and anguish. Hence he asserts that
questions such as ‘Oh, God, how long?’ and ‘Oh, God, but why?’ lie at the basis of this
theology.114 Explaining liberation theology as a theodicy in some sense, Tutu underscores
that it seeks to justify God and his ways to a downtrodden and confounded people in
order that they might find inspiration to actively address their situations. Tutu’s
evaluation of liberation theology as a theodicy is based on his assumption that those who
suffer from oppression do not doubt that there is a God who is good, loving and powerful
but are doubtful that the same God is responsible for their affliction hence they try to
overturn the structures that are detrimental to their wellbeing.
Going forward, Tutu does not think that the cause of perplexity of the oppressed is
the traditional form of the problem of evil such as ‘Why is there suffering and evil in the
universe of a good God?’ He contests that rather than the ‘Why is there suffering?’
question, the more imperative questions in liberation theology is ‘Why do we suffer so?’
‘Why does suffering seem to single us out because of our race?’115 Tutu elucidates that in
Study on Black Theology and Black Power (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1977); J. Miguel Bonino, Doing
Theology in a Revolutionary Situation (Philadelphia: Fortress: 1975) and the pioneering work of Gustavo
Gutierrez, A Theology of Liberation (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1973).
110
Dickson, Theology in Africa, 125.
111
Ibid.
112
Young, African Theology, 2.
113
Jean-Marc Éla, “Christianity and Liberation in Africa” in Paths of African Theology, 145.
114
Desmond Tutu, “The Theology of Liberation in Africa,” in African Theology En Route, eds. Kofi
Appiah-Kubi and Sergio Torres (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1979), 163.
115
Tutu, “The Theology of Liberation in Africa,” 163.
raising these critical questions surrounding human suffering, therefore, liberation

theology attempts to understand the concrete situations of the subjugated especially when
they are occasioned by organized oppression and exploitation coupled with the treatment
they receive as if they were less than what they truly are: human persons created in the
image of the Trinity, redeemed by the one Saviour Jesus Christ and sanctified by the Holy
Spirit.116
Allan Boesak accentuates the importance of the liberation message of theology.
Boesak affirms this awareness in his assertion that liberation is not merely to be seen as
only a ‘part of’ the gospel or as ‘consistent with’ the Gospel, but as the Gospel of Jesus
Christ.117 In Boesak’s view, the theology of liberation is not a new theology. It is rather
the proclamation of the Age-old Gospel, which to his thinking has been taken away from
the mighty and powerful and made useful to the situation of the oppressed, Boesak
surmises. In order to achieve its goals then, liberation theology places the gospel at the
centre of its discussions and seeks to reclaim it as the ‘gospel of the poor’.118
Arguing for the bible as the principal source of liberation theology, Boesak contends
that the God of the Bible is the God who ensures liberation rather than oppression; a God
who serves justice rather than injustice; a God who advocates for freedom rather than
subservience; a God of love and righteousness rather than hatred and exploitation. 119
Applying these parallels, Boesak intends to demonstrate the thrusts of freedom, justice
and healing in liberation theology and to show that liberation theology is a fruit of a faith
community’s experience of history with God. In examining the requirements of
reconciliation, Boesak’s argues that the liberation of the oppressed also necessitates the
liberation of the oppressor.120
Another feature of liberation theology is that it questions the historical role of the
Christian churches in the struggle for freedom. It does so by reclaiming the Christian
heritage and reinterpreting the gospel in light of Christianity’s call to witnessing. Hence
in order to ‘rectify’ the errors of the past, liberation theology seeks to identify with a
church that serves the poor not simply with an ounce of compassion but with due
attention to justice. In order to ensure this, such a church would need to discover
situations of poverty and oppression; engaging theology not simply for what it says about
the oppressed, but what it does for them.121
Gwinyai Muzorewa supports Boesak’s argument for the biblical basis of liberation
theologies. Muzorewa’s assertion that the bible provides a source of inspiration for the
oppressed people in the continuance of their struggle is stringed with the belief that the
116
117
Allan Boesak, “Coming in out of the Wilderness,” in The Emergent Gospel, eds., S. Torres and V.
Fabella (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1978), 76.
118
Boesak, “Coming in out of the Wilderness,” 77.
119
Ibid.
120
Young, African Theology, 38.
121
Boesak, “Coming in out of the Wilderness,” 90-91.
God who liberated the people of Israel from Egypt will also liberate people from today’s
oppression. For this reason, theologians advocating the theme of liberation are deeply
committed to their faith and to God who alone can deliver them from oppressive
shackles.122 Thus, Christ the Liberator is a central feature of liberation theology.
Furthermore, theologians of the liberation paradigm use Scripture to tell the story of
God’s love and power to safeguard the liberation of the oppressed. They hang on to the
belief that God who liberated Israel will liberate them too. Due to the active presence of
God in their lives, liberation theologians are of the conviction that God will always
participate in history. Because Christ the Liberator represents both vicarious suffering and
liberation, he conveys a message that brings light to suffering and dehumanized people.123
Muzorewa draws a relationship between liberation theology and mainstream
theology. Whereas they are dissimilar in that the latter regards Christ as Lord not because
he is a Liberator, but because he saves from sins, and the former emphasizes the role of
Christ in the struggle for the liberty of oppressed people; they are parallel in their ultimate
objective. In Muzorewa’s thinking, this affinity is in the relation between liberation and
salvation. Arguing that they both originate from the power of Christ, he explains that
Christ the Liberator died on the Cross in order that sinful humanity might be saved from
inhuman conditions such as oppression, dehumanization, exploitation and poverty.124
Nyamiti has distinguished two brands of liberation theology in Africa. One is the
(South African) Black theology centring mainly on racial or colour factors (apartheid),
which was initially popularized in North America by James Cone as a critical review of
racism as a global phenomenon. The second is African liberation theology, established in
vast sections across Africa, which has a broader perspective than ‘Black theology’ due to
its proclivity for integrating the liberation theme in Africa’s cultural matrix. For the latter,
liberation is not confined to the socioeconomic and political arena but to other forms of
oppression including disease, poverty, hunger, illiteracy, the subjugation of women and
so forth.125
With regard to the beginnings of liberation theology in general, Victor Cole testifies
that it originated in South America as a response to centuries of socio-economic and
122
Muzorewa, The Origins and Development of African Theology, 104.
123
Ibid., 108-9.
124
Ibid., 109.
125
Nyamiti, “Contemporary African Christologies,” in Paths of African Theology, 65-66. See also
Mushete, “An Overview of African Theology”, 22-23. Further, Mbiti’s delineation of African theology
from Black theology is according to him, in the sense that while the latter emerged from the pains of
oppression, African theology grew out of the joy in the experience of the Christian faith. Of its own then,
African theology does not have an ideology to propagate. For further discussions on the differentiation
between African theology and Black theology see Mbiti, “An African Views American Black Theology,”
43. For further reflections and works on Black Theology see also Tutu, “Black Theology/African
Theology: Soul Mates or Antagonists,” Journal of Religious Thought, vol. 33, Fall 1975; Tutu, “Church
and Nation in the Perspective of Black Theology,” Journal of Theology for Southern Africa, no. 15,
(1976): 5-11 and Dickson, Theology in Africa, 128. For a detailed articulation of Black theology see James
H. Cone and G. S. Wilmore, eds. Black Theology – A Documented History (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1979)
and James H. Cone, A Black Theology of Liberation (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1990).
political oppression. He intervenes that in liberation theology, the God of the Exodus is
understood as the God of history and of political liberation. Thus the Exodus experience,
encountered by the people of Israel, is regarded as vital to and having contemporary
relevance for liberation theology.126 It marked a notable page in the history of the struggle
for emancipation as people sought to understand their suffering in light of what God had
done in the past, what he does in the present, and what he could do in the future.
Hence it could be said that liberation theology, as with many local theologies,
expresses two major yearnings. First, the longing for a contextualization of the Gospel in
basic ecclesial communities and secondly, a genuine thirst for a Christianity that is vitally
relevant to cultural, socioeconomic, and political situations.127 This view reverberates in
Tutu who portrays liberation theology as one that takes seriously the socio-political
dimensions of reality. 128 Furthermore, he insists that liberation theology places a
challenge upon churches everywhere to “be true to their calling to exercise a prophetic
ministry in speaking for the dumb, the voiceless, for those too weak to speak up for
themselves, to oppose oppression, injustice, corruption, and evil wherever these may be
found.”129 Tutu’s insistence is that in becoming part of a people’s struggle for liberation
and helping victims of oppression to assert their humanity, liberation theology attempts to
offer an effective remedy to God’s suffering people rather than palliatives. Therefore, as
we shall discuss later on, the disinterest of liberation theology to the gender problematic
is seen as a major pitfall of liberation theology.
In spite of the contributions of liberation theology to African theology in general, a
major disillusionment is that it failed to incorporate the gender discourse and the struggle
for the emancipation of women in its extensive outline. In the liberation theology
movement in Africa, critics seem to be particularly disappointed by the fact that the
content of liberation which could have been a sturdy platform for the sexual emancipation
project paid no heed to the yearnings of the female folks preferring to focus rather on the
erection of a new era of liberty from Africa’s colonized past. Yet, women - the ‘doubly’
or ‘triply’ oppressed, as Musa Dube puts it, have hardly been given a look in.
In a nutshell, the question as to the intrinsic reason why both inculturation and
liberation theologies, and likewise the theology of reconstruction, as we shall see in a
moment, do not include the gender subject in Africa remains unanswered. Was this
omission simply a blind spot due to the historical context they were operating in or was it
a deliberate attempt originating from their uncritical endorsement of the positives of the
African traditional culture?
126
Victor Cole, “Africanising the Faith: Another Look at the Contextualization of Theology,” Issues in
African Theology, eds. Samuel Ngewa et al. (Nairobi: East African Educational Publishers, 1998), 16.
127
Luzbetak, The Church and Cultures, 108.
128
129
Ibid., 168.
3.4.3 The Reconstruction Paradigm in African Theology

The theology of reconstruction is traceable to the ‘All Africa Conference of Churches’
(AACC) 130 symposium in Mombasa in November 1991 on the ‘Problems and Promises
of the Church in Africa in the 1990s and Beyond’. The symposium was largely appraised
as an opportunity for exchanging ideas and a chance for self-criticism that was deemed
indispensable for the survival of the churches in Africa. Valentin Dedji argues that owing
to the far-reaching changes occurring in the continent at the time, the adoption of new
strategies aimed at consolidating the work of the Christian churches in a changing society
was requisite.131 Decidedly, it was an occasion to re-evaluate African values in light of
the lessons of the immediate past. It was at this juncture that the theme Theology of
Reconstruction was launched with Jesse Mugambi132 as its chief protagonist.
In his paper, the ‘Future of the Church and the Church of the Future in Africa’,
Mugambi proposed the shift from the paradigm of the Post-Exodus narrative upon which
theologies of liberation build, to a novel Post-Exile imagery using reconstruction as the
resultant theological axiom.133 In his paper, Mugambi vouched that the 1990s boomed as
a decade of reconstruction in several forms spanning from socio-political and economic
confrontations such as acclaims for national conventions, constitutional reforms and
economic regeneration. Mugambi therefore proposed that the imminent 21st century
should be one of reconstruction in Africa, erected on old foundations, which though
sturdy, may warrant renovation.134
Dedji contends that the launching of the ‘Theology of Reconstruction’ at the
Mombasa symposium was a landmark in that it marked a major shift in theological
discourse in Africa. In light of this initiative, the key lexis in African theology for the 21st
century was delineated as ‘reconstruction’ and ‘social transformation’. It is important to
recall that during the 1960’s up until the 80’s, African Christian theology had emphasized
‘liberation’ which was apt at the time for disentangling from its colonial vassalage. This
meant however that the imperative of social transformation and reconstruction was
130
The ‘All Africa Conference of Churches’ (AACC) was formally created in April 1963 in Kampala. At
the same time, precisely a month later, a similar institution with a political objective, the ‘Organisation of
African Unity’ OAU – which has since metamorphosed into the ‘African Union’ (AU) – would be created
in Addis Ababa by sovereign nation-states which had just emerged from the heaps of colonial domination.
See Dedji, Reconstruction and Renewal, 43.
131
Dedji, Reconstruction and Renewal, 36-37.
132
Jesse Ndigwa Kanyua Mugambi is an Anglican lay theologian born on 6 February 1947. He is currently
a professor of philosophy and religious studies at the University of Nairobi, the institution from which he
obtained his doctorate on Ludwig Wittgenstein in 1983. His areas of interest include: missiology, eco-
theology, applied theology, liberation theology and reconstruction theology. He has written extensively on
the subjects of philosophy of religion, the biblical basis of evangelization in Africa, the theology of
reconstruction in African theology amongst others. See Dedji, Reconstruction and Renewal, 88.
133
J.N.K. Mugambi, From Liberation to Reconstruction: African Christian Theology After the Cold War
(Nairobi: East African Educational Publishers, 1995), 5. Mugambi’s inaugural paper on reconstruction in
the 1991 Kampala symposium is published as “The Future of the Church and the Church of the Future,” in
The Church in Africa: Towards a Theology of Reconstruction, edited by José B. Chipenda et al., (Nairobi:
AACC, 1991).
134
See Mugambi, “The Future of the Church,” 47. See also Dedji, Reconstruction and Renewal, 37.
neglected, as the church was relatively silent on these formidable issues. The
materialization of a new paradigm therefore aimed at reorienting not only the African
countries and cultures ravaged by colonization but also to revamping incongruous socio-
ecclesial structures.135
Impending questions, which arose from the origination of the reconstruction theme,
include: what are the fundamental principles upon which such a ‘paradigm shift’
operates? What does this paradigm shift look like? Does the entrance of the novel
‘reconstruction’ paradigm in the African theological forum attest that older trends in
African theology such as ‘liberation’ and ‘inculturation’ theologies have subsequently
become obsolescent? In what ways does the reconstruction model intend to fill in the
loopholes of previous theologies?136
Mugambi begins with a discussion into the already established theologies of
liberation and inculturation. He raises awareness that both have hitherto been taken as the
most basic expressions for an innovative African Christian theology. Mugambi explains
that the former has been closely allied with Anglophone Protestant theologians and has
initially been popularized by Latin American and African-American theologians. He
associates the latter notion of inculturation with African Catholic theologians and locates
its popularity in Catholic missionary scholars, notably Aylward Shorter.137
In proposing reconstruction as a new paradigm for African Christian theology,
Mugambi intends to situate the task of social reconstruction within the context of the
aftermath of the Cold War. Admitting that ‘reconstruction’ is a concept within the social
sciences, particularly of interest to sociologists, economists and political scientists, he
reckons that the multi-disciplinary appeal of the concept makes it functionally useful as a
new thematic focus for reflection in the continent for subsequent decades.138 Mugambi
does not however discuss the direct consequence of the Cold War in the social
transformation of Africa. He rather optimistically speaks of a ‘new world order’ upon
which the premises of reconstruction will be built.
Mugambi first zooms into liberation theology in order to sufficiently take the
spotlight away from it. He examines that the theme of liberation as used in Christian
theological reflection is a derivative of the Exodus narrative of the Old Testament.
Sufferers of colonization and other forms of domination have analogously employed the
significance of Israel’s deliverance from the Egyptian bondage under the divinely
inspired leadership of Moses. Hence the Israelites and Moses naturally became symbols
of emancipation for victims of imperialism and heroes of the independence respectively.
135
136
Some of these queries are also raised by Dedji. Dedji, in fact, questions whether it is legitimate to see
the emergence of the reconstruction theme as a ‘paradigm shift’ in African theology. See Valentin Dedji,
Reconstruction and Renewal, 38.
137
Mugambi, “From Liberation to Reconstruction,” in African Theology Today, ed. Emmanuel Katongole,
190. A significant portion of this chapter in Katongole’s publication also appears in Mugambi’s book,
From Liberation to Reconstruction: African Christian Theology After the Cold War.
138
Mugambi, “From Liberation to Reconstruction,” 190.
For this reason, the Exodus motif was particularly potent as a clarion call for Catholic
theologians and even social scientists in the advocacy for social change – at the peak of
the dictatorial regimes of the 1960s and 1970s in Latin America spearheaded by the
Peruvian Dominican Priest, Gustavo Gutierrez.139
Demonstrating that by the 1970s the dominant theme for social transformation in
Latin America had shifted from developmentalism to liberationism, Mugambi fronts that
the North American divide also had its fair share of the emancipation impetus epitomized
in civil rights activists Martin Luther King and Malcom X, although the accent was on
social equality. Thus when African theologians took up the liberation leitmotif, they
quickly realized that the emphasis and perspectives between African, Asian and Latin
American theologians varied. In fact, while African theologians were motivated to
discuss cultural and racial domination, their Asian counterparts were troubled by the
repression of the castes and vedic traditions and therefore conceived liberation in terms of
the chase for freedom from the imprisonment of the oriental heritage.140 As previously
shown, race and culture were of marginal interest to Latin American theologians.
Mugambi questions the role of Catholic theologians in the liberation venture of
African Christian theology. He detects that whereas in Latin America Catholic
theologians championed the liberation narrative, protestant ministers had been the
strongest advocates of liberation, particularly in South Africa. So, were Catholic
theologians insensitive to the experience of oppression in Africa? Or was liberation
theology in Africa rather the upshot of dominant expatriate writers on Catholic
theological reflections during the 1960s and 1970s?141 The latter appears more probable
in that there was still a paucity of indigenous African contributions to theology as late as
the dusk of 1970s.
In his critique of liberation theology, he thinks therefore that the Exodus motif in
liberation theology is now obsolescent given that the historical, cultural and ideological
distances between the Israelite world and Africa make such a parallel impracticable. He
contends that the correlations drawn between the Exodus and the African decolonization
process have been rather contrived and far-fetched. First, he observes that the Israelites
were in bondage in the second millennium before the Christian era whereas the African
colonial experience had occurred in the second millennium within Christianity. Second,
whereas the Israelites had immense affinity with the peoples of the Mediterranean region,
such a correspondence is sparse within the African-European encounter. Thirdly, he
reckons that significantly, the physical movement of the Israelites from Egypt across the
Sinai to Canaan does not tally with the African experience whose populace remain in the
same geographical space.142
139
Ibid.
140
Ibid., 191-2.
141
Mugambi, From Liberation to Reconstruction, 9.
142
Ibid., 14.
Hitherto, away from the subject of racial supremacy and cultural encumbrances,
Mugambi reasons that Africa’s Renaissance and Reformation could commence via a
process of Africa’s reconstruction. Identifying the tendency of African Christian
theologians to polarize themselves in support of either Liberation or Salvation, Mugambi
argues that such a divide hinges on their appreciation of the role of the Gospel in social
transformation. He tenders however that both are neither mutually exclusive nor mutually
incompatible, for Christ himself had been dynamically and synchronously involved in
both personal and social reconstruction having mobilized his followers for social change
through his call for attitudinal change toward themselves and the world. For this reason,
instead of opting for either the liberational or the salvational approaches, Mugambi would
rather have theological discourses in Africa adopt an integral approach to the Gospel; one
which incorporates core perspectives.143
Mugambi introduces the theology of reconstruction as an ‘integrative’ and
‘proactive’ project which he predicts would be of interest for African theologians of
various doctrinal persuasions. A specific characteristic of Mugambi’s theological
reflection is his openness to the internal dynamism of African realities. This is disclosed
in his inclusion of the religious, cultural and socio-political realities that outline the daily
lives of African peoples. He reckons that the task of social reconstruction in Africa cannot
be restricted to the religious or denominational sphere owing to the variegated human
tragedies that have littered the space and time of the continent.144
Quite significantly, Mugambi submits that reconstruction is only undertaken when an
existing complex becomes dysfunctional and its usage is still required for some reasons.
Establishing new specifications while retaining some aspects of the old in the new, the
intention is to ensure the optimal performance for which the project has been initially
constructed.145 In using the engineering analogy, Mugambi intends to restore the place of
African theology in the search of a new society with particular reference to its potentials
in social transformation. He then discusses three major levels of reconstruction as
personal reconstruction, cultural reconstruction and ecclesial reconstruction.
Explicating on personal reconstruction, Mugambi underscores that the starting point
of every social reconstruction is the individual. He cites Jesus’ rendition of the Publican’s
confession and the parallel Pharisaic conceit in Luke 18 in a bid to illustrate the key role
of the appropriate disposition of the individual members of the community concerned
with the pursuit of social transformation. Regarding cultural transformation, Mugambi
143
Ibid., 5-7. In his earlier work, African Christian Theology: An Introduction, Mugambi had stressed that
total liberation should be the primary objective of African Christian theology since economic liberation
and political liberation are as significant as spiritual devotion. Mugambi uses this parallel to stress that the
neglect of the material has a direct consequence upon the spiritual, namely, the distortion of the spiritual.
Similarly, in the African context and in the Bible, he reasons that salvation as a theological concept is
incomplete without the socio-political concept of liberation. See African Christian Theology: An
Introduction, 12-14.
144
Valentin Dedji, Reconstruction and Renewal, 47.
145
Mugambi, From Liberation to Reconstruction, 12.
shows awareness of culture as the collective product of people’s activities in the various
aspects of their lives. He asserts then that reconstruction is intermittently necessary in
order to ensure the modification of structures so as to meet people’s needs. Components
such as politics, economics, religion and ethics are located in this level of reconstruction.
Ecclesial reconstruction identifies the Church as the organizational framework within
which a people’s worldview is represented and celebrated. Identifying mythological
reformulation, doctrinal teaching, social rehabilitation, ethical direction and ritual
celebration as essential dimensions of the church, Mugambi advocates for theologians to
be catalysts for ecclesial reconstruction so as to facilitate the Church’s adjustment to new
social demands in a society to which its members belong.146
He is of the persuasion that it is only by means of the reconstruction paradigm that
the church can truly re-discover and recover her opportunity to fulfill the entirety of her
pastoral ministry. He thinks the events of the African people at the close of the century
accosts the church with new challenges as civil societies in Africa are even more willing
than ever before to identify the church’s position on issues such as individual and social
morality, politics, economics, culture, education and so forth. Hence the multidisciplinary
appeal of reconstruction makes for a proper starting point as Mugambi suggests.147
It is important to state that Mugambi is quite optimistic for his theology of
reconstruction project. He reasons that it can offer all stakeholders in Africa a winner-
winner chance in which all participants are eager for future reconstruction having learnt
from the errors of their past involvements. 148 He posits that for African theology to
partake in re-awakening the socio-cultural and religious awareness of the African people,
her theology would need to be:
“Reconstructive rather than destructive; inclusive rather than exclusive;

proactive rather than reactive; complementary rather than competitive;
integrative rather than disintegrative; programme-driven rather than
project-driven; people-centred rather than institution centred; deed-
oriented rather than word-oriented; participatory rather than autocratic;
regenerative rather than degenerative; future-sensitive rather than past-
sensitive; co-operative rather than confrontational; consultative rather
than impositional.”149
Mugambi’s all-action approach is due to his perception of the church as a social

institution in Africa and the most accessible channel of communication due to her
peculiar feature as the bridge between the past and the future. 150 He then beckons on
theologians to increase the presence and influence of the Christian mission in African
146
Ibid., 15-17.
147
Dedji, Reconstruction and Renewal, 47-48.
148
Mugambi, From Liberation to Reconstruction, ix.
149
Ibid., xv.
150
Ibid., 50.
urban centres.151 Mugambi surprisingly pays less attention to rural societies owing to the
fact that local communities are a main feature of the continent.
Keen on re-interpreting old cultural myths, Mugambi endorses the African sense of
community. Similar to Mbiti, he showcases that individuals in the African communities
are themselves defined in terms of their relationship with others. Therefore, he
summarises the African sense of identity in the Kiswahili proverb: Mtu ni watu which
literally states that ‘a person is persons’ which is quite similar to Mbiti’s ‘I am because
we are, and because we are, therefor I am’ which we previously explained. In Mugambi’s
estimation, this inclusive sense of identity helps everyone – including strangers – to feel
at home in African communities.152 Taking it further, it also assists married couples to
seamlessly fit into their newly assimilated families. However, as I shall explain in the
next chapter, it could play a role in the vulnerability of their relationship.
Katongole critiques Mugambi’s outline of a theology of reconstruction. He points out
that Mugambi’s description of the challenges facing African Christians does not
sufficiently delineate the nature and reality of the church. He thinks this development of
the church is lacking in Mugambi’s analysis. Katongole reasons that the major problem
with Mugambi is that the fact that “when it comes to offering recommendations for the
future of African theology, he shifts his reflection away from the church and her
practices, and instead suggests a ‘theology of reconstruction’ whose main protagonist and
beneficiary is the African nation-state.”153 He does not think that Mugambi captures the
nitty-gritty of the Church’s mission.
Arguing for a re-evaluation of Mugambi’s optimistic approach to the emergence of a
‘new world order’, Katongole thinks rather that Mugambi pays no attention to providing
the concrete insights into the mechanisms of this so-called new world order. He reckons
that such a sanguine view of a new world order rests on an uncritical assumption that
Africa could benefit from a fresh ideology. He contends that Mugambi does not even
question whether for many Africans there is anything ‘new’ within the new world order
or whether it is methodical at all. Katongole evaluates that rather than the benign
promises of a new world order, at the base of that ideology is a postmodern philosophy
which inclines towards frivolous superficiality that threatens to plunge Africa into worse
forms of dependence and marginalization.154
With regard to the role of the church in the social transformation of Africa,
Katongole contends that Mugambi neglects to question the Constantinian idea of church-
state relations where at the centre of this arrangement is an institutional church, with no
social-material agenda of its own though, but whose task is to provide legitimation and
support for the empire. Underlining Mugambi’s call for the church’s relevance in
151
152
Ibid., 67.
153
Katongole, A Future for Africa, 166.
154
Ibid., 167-8.
addressing the needs of Africa’s people, Katongole avows that the source of Africa’s
distressing social-material conditions is to a great extent, dependent on the way nation-
state politics has defined and shaped the social-material processes. 155 Essentially,
Katongole is not as optimistic that the church can actively participate in whole scale
social reconstructions. He thinks the most the church could do is to provide pastoral
succor and amelioration to the victims of social maladies or to rehabilitate individuals
who would have been so affected.
It is important to state also that another significant advocate for reconstruction and
renewal is the Congolese philosopher and theologian, Kä Mana156. In the use of the term
imaginaire which comes close to the English ‘imagination’, Kä Mana pleads for an
African social imaginaire equipped with models of rational, ethical and spiritual
convictions in order to actualize the theology of reconstruction in Africa. Kä Mana is
adamant that Christian identity will rightly assume a venerable platform only when it
aims at nurturing an adequate social transformation.157
Interestingly, Christian ethics is central to Kä Mana’s theology of reconstruction. He
is of the view that Christian ethics, particularly through its representation of the human
person, constitutes the best chance for an in-depth transformation in the Africa of today
and for the future. He makes specific reference to the ethics of dialogue and encounter as
a means of renewing the Christian faith in Africa. He thinks reconstruction could be the
foundation of Africa’s yearning for a ‘new pattern’ of theological innovation where
actions, creativity, a sense of responsibility and inclusivity are prominent. He therefore
disagrees with Mugambi’s attempt to re-create myths as a means to remodel Africa’s
antique image. He thinks such an approach is irrelevant in so far as myths create an
illusive sense of confidence and security.158 Kä Mana proposes differently that rather than
limiting itself to ‘African traditional heritage’, African Christian theology must aim to be
more creative in identifying and dialoguing with new methodologies of human
endeavours, whether present in the continent or existing in territories such as Latin
America and Asia.
155
Ibid., 169-70.
156
Kä Mana is a philosopher and theologian from the Democratic Republic of Congo. He taught Ethics at
the African Institute of Mission Studies, Kinshasa He obtained his doctorate degree in philosophy from the
Université libre de Bruxelles and a second doctorate in theology from the Université de Strasbourg. He
was also pastor of de l’Église réformée africaine (ERAF), that is, the African Reformed Churches, Paris.
He is currently the president of the Pole Institute, Goma where he lectures. His area of interests spans
through the question of reconstruction in Africa, the re-formulation of Christ of Africa and the socio-
cultural cum ethical dimensions of African theology. He took up the name ‘Kä Mana’ as a pseudonym for
his original name Godefroid Mana Kangudie. See Dedji, The Ethica Redemption of African Imaginaire:
Kä Mana’s Theology of Reconstruction,” Journal of Religion in Africa 31, no. 3 (2001): 255-6; Dedji,
Reconstruction and Renewal, 154.
157
Kä Mana, L’Eglise Africaine et la Théologie de la Reconstruction (Genève: Bulletin du Centre
Protestant d’Etudes, 1994), 39. See also Dedji, Reconstruction and Renewal, 94-95.
158
Kä mana, Foi chrétienne, crise Africaine, et reconstruction de l’Afrique (Lomé: HAHO, 1992), 130.
See also Valentin Dedji, Reconstruction and Renewal, 119, 152.
From the foregoing, we recall that inculturation and liberation theologies have been
challenged to be more socially transformative. Critiques of these earlier trends resound
that the cultural consciousness instigated by inculturation and the neo-colonial awareness
raised by liberation theology do not sufficiently address the yearnings of contemporary
Africa. According to these authors, both inculturation and liberation theology were a
response to eons of ecclesiastical and colonial bondage that are less visible today. To this
end, African theologians of the current epoch are eager to incorporate a vital component
of African worldview into theology. In particular, the theology of reconstruction advocate
for the establishment of a ‘proactive’ theology of re-invention as opposed to the ‘reactive’
inculturation and liberation paradigms.
However, a major deficiency of the reconstruction paradigm is that its outline is
rather broad. The result is that it is deficient in zooming into details of particular
discourses across the continent’s spectrum. Its failure in incorporating the gender subject
is even more alarming since it speaks of a social transformation of Africa without a
reference to one of the main features of the African society. For this reason, critics are
alarmed that this recently envisioned theology of reconstruction ignores the trendy themes
of African theology today. Hence, the search for a new hermeneutics for African theology
continues. African women theologians have aptly activated this search.
3.5 The Contributions of African Women Theologians and their Input in the
Gender Impasse
African women theologians have championed the discussions for the incorporation of the
gender discourse in African theology. No longer content with the mainstream orientations
of theology in Africa, they have decidedly re-imagined an African theology that notably
incorporates the experiences of women. First we shall examine the emergence of women
theologians in Africa and then scrutinize their involvement in African theology today.
3.5.1 Tracing the Emergence of African Women Theologians

The gathering of theologians from several third world countries in 1976 in Tanzania led
to discussions captioned, “The Ecumenical Dialogue of Third World Theologians”. From
the proceedings of this convergence, a group of scholars of theological orientation known
as ‘The Ecumenical Association of Third World Theologians’ was formed. It thus became
an organization of theologians from Asia, Africa, Latin America and some other sections
of the globe that considered themselves part of the third world. EATWOT offered room
for varieties of third world theologians to give expressions of theological revelation based
on their experience.159
159
Loreen Iminza Maseno-Ouma, Gendering the Inculturation Debate in Africa (Saabrücken: LAP
Lambert, 2011), 31. The title ‘EATWOT’ was not well received by a group of theologians since they felt
that the term ‘Third World’ carries a derogatory slice. Ursula King admits that the term is even more
problematic than ever before given the profound transformations and economic upheavals in recent years.
Issues regarding women were first tabled on the agenda of EATWOT in the 1980’s
and since then it has been a major schema for consideration. From its inception,
EATWOT assembled a strong contingent of women in its ranks. The 1986 convocation of
Third World women under the aegis of EATWOT in Oaxtepec, Mexico, led to one of its
most important publications, With Passion and Compassion: Third World Women Doing
Theology. In their own words they designated thus: “our voices were not being heard,
although we were visible enough. It became clear to us that only the oppressed can truly
name their oppression. We demanded to be heard.” 160 This led to the creation of a
Women’s Commission within EATWOT. EATWOT then started to support a
development by which Third World women could contextualize their own theological
reflections in their national and regional circumstances. 161 This emergence of Third
World women doing theology by contextualizing their experience has been termed by
Mercy Amba Oduyoye as “the irruption within the irruption” in a bid to accentuate the
novel appearance of women issues within the scope of the convocation of theologians
from the Third World, which at the time was also fairly recent. Also, it represented the
attempt to locate the important role of women in Church and society as an essential part
of the voice of the earth’s voiceless majority seeking to penetrate into unjust structures.162
In August 1986, African women theologians gathered for the first time on the
African continent at Yaoundé, Cameroun, as ‘Women’s Meeting for Francophone Africa’
to deliberate on themes they considered vital for the development of African theology. In
making recourse to African anthropology, the women theologians considered the human
person as bi-dimensional: man and woman, male and female. They pointed to the
complementarity of human persons as male and female and the equality of men and
women in Christ. Furthermore, they attempted to identify the role of women in the
theological research of modern Africa while at the same time confronting discriminatory
trends towards women in the continent. The following topics were discussed: (1) the
woman and the church; (2) the woman and the Bible; (3) the woman and theology; (4) the
Referencing the ‘First World’ of Western capitalists democracies and the ‘Second World’ of Eastern
communist countries, she notes that the Third World of the so-called developing countries are profoundly
affected by the changes of the developed countries. Furthermore, the talk of a ‘Fourth World’ is now on
the offing with reference to the poor in all countries or to those who lead Third World lives in First World
Countries. See Ursula King, ed., Feminist Theology from the Third World: A Reader (Maryknoll, NY:
Orbis, 1994), 2. Despite the discrepancies, the term ‘Third World’ is still retained by EATWOT since these
countries so delineated have had similar experiences – especially the experience of oppression and
subjugation.
160
Virginia M.M. Fabella and Mercy A. Oduyoye, eds., With Passion and Compassion: Third World
Women Doing Theology (Maryknoll, NY.: Orbis, 1988), x.
161
Rosemary Radford Ruether, “The Emergence of Christian Feminist Theology,” in The Cambridge
Companion to Feminist Theology, ed. Susan Frank Parsons (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
2002), 6-8.
162
Oduyoye, “Reflections from a Third World Woman’s Perspective: Women’s Experience and Liberation
Theologies,” in Feminist Theology from the Third World: A Reader, ed. Ursula King (Maryknoll, NY:
Orbis, 1994), 24-25.
woman and Christology; (5) the woman and the struggle for liberation; and (6) the
woman and spirituality.163
At the end of the consultation, some recommendations were made. These include: re-
affirming the awareness of the equal responsibility of men and women toward dominion
over the earth and educating children along this consciousness, asserting the important
role of women in agricultural and economic development. They also recommended the
active presence of women in Christian communities and called for the churches to play a
prophetic role in societies especially those peopled by the thirsty and marginalized.164
As a follow-up to EATWOT, these women theologians established the “Circle of
Concerned African Women Theologians”. It was a contemporary network of women
from across Africa, some of whom lived outside the continent. The initial organizing
caucus was comprised of ten prominent African women theologians, namely: Mercy
Oduyoye, Elizabeth Amoah, Teresa Okure, Rosemary Edet, Rose Zoe-Obianga, Musimbi
Kanyoro, Nasimiyu Wasike, Nyambura Njoroge, Mary Getui and Teresia Hinga.165 The
inaugural conference of the Circle was convoked in September 1989 in Ghana and the
second took place in 1996 in Nairobi. A core feature of the Circle is its willingness to
embark on the development of women’s theological contribution in churches, schools,
colleges, universities and in society at large so as to become agents of change and
transformation. Emphasis is placed on the effect of religion and culture upon African
women vis-à-vis the reconstruction of a cultural and religious praxis of sexual equality.166
3.5.2 African Women Theologians: In Search of a Constructive Response to the Gender

Motif in African Theology
African women theologians have asserted their distinctive voice by stringing together the
themes of inculturation and liberation. In doing so, they critique the romanticisation of
traditional African cultures, identifying particularly their oppression of women. 167 They
also question the sexism of the Christian tradition paired with its coalition with
colonialism although in the Christian tradition they do find helpful resources for the
emancipation of women. In lieu of African traditional practices, African women
theologians consider a wide range of decisive subjects such as: marriage, polygamy and
163
K.C. Abraham, ed., Third World Theologies: Commonalities and Divergences (Eugene, OR: Wipf &
Stock, 2004), 55. See also Francis Anekwe Oborji, “Inculturation and African Theology: The Paradoxes of
the Paradigm Shifts,” AFER (African Ecclesial Review), vol. 43, no. 3 (2001): 19.
164
V. Fabella and M. Oduyoye, eds., “Final Statement,” in With Passion and Compassion: Third World
Women Doing Theology (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1988), 60-63.
165
See C. Pemberton, Circle Thinking: African Women Theologians in Dialogue with the West (Leiden:
Brill, 2003), 15. The writings of some of these African women theologians are found particularly in The
Will to Arise: Women, Tradition and the Church in Africa (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis: 1992) and in V. Fabella
and M. Oduyoye, eds., With Passion and Compassion.
166
Maseno-Ouma, Gendering the Inculturation Debate in Africa, 33. See also Teresia Hinga, “Between
Colonialism and Inculturation: Feminist Theologies in Africa,” in Feminist Theology in Different Contexts,
ed. Elizabeth S. Fiorenza (London: SCM, 1996), 31.
167
Klinken, Transforming Masculinities in African Christianity, 27.
menstrual taboos, sexuality, reproduction, family life, women’s work roles. Others
include inheritance and the treatment of widows, the scapegoating of women as witches
in times of misfortune, attitude towards women education and so on.168 Further thematic
considerations are: poverty, the legacy of colonialism, neo-colonialism, the eternal
generation and regeneration of humanity and others.
In examining the venture of African women theologians, Loreen Maseno-Ouma
pleads for a re-invigoration of the inculturation project rather than a replacement. She
notes that since inculturation is an on-going process and since cultures are not static,
African women theologians might be able to incorporate new perspectives to
inculturation that will utilize feminist analysis of women’s subordination. Nevertheless
Maseno-Ouma maintains that since the earlier presentations of inculturation by African
male theologians are deemed insufficient, African women have taken up the gauntlet by
providing new perspectives, having understood the need to contribute to this on-going
process. 169 Taking their cultural context seriously, these women according to Maseno-
Ouma have attempted to integrate “a strategic and social understanding of women as a
distinct group, thereby inculcating women’s cultural experience and including a
commitment to the emancipation of women into inculturation.” 170 She uses the term
‘gendering inculturation’ to underscore her stance.
A major aspect of inculturation is the celebration of local cultural practices. African
women theologians are opposed to such uncritical elevation of culture especially with
regard to those that seem to bear a negative impact on women. The Circle coordinator,
Musimbi Kanyoro reiterates the perceived lacuna in inculturation and African liberation
theology in light of its neglect of African women’s experiences. She vouches that,
“In coming late to the scene, African women theologians are caught in
the dilemma of disagreeing with the presentation of inculturation as the
basis for African liberation theology. While affirming the need for
reclaiming culture through the theology of inculturation, we African
women theologians make the claim that inculturation is not sufficient
unless the cultures we reclaim are analysed and are deemed worthy in
terms of promoting justice and support for life and the dignity of
women… Pursuing a theology of inculturation from a gender and
feminist perspective is a new step forward.”171
The impression Kanyoro gives is that the account of the lives and experiences of women
have been invisible in inculturation even when blatant subservience of the female folk dot
168
Ruether, “The Emergence of Christian Feminist Theology,” 15.
169
Maseno-Ouma, Gendering the Inculturation Debate in Africa, 2. For a further examination on the
continuation of inculturation as an ongoing process see Oduyoye, Hearing and Knowing: Theological
Reflections on Christianity in Africa (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1986), 73.
170
Maseno-Ouma, Gendering the Inculturation Debate in Africa, 2.
171
Musimbi Kanyoro, “Engendered Communal Theology: African Women’s Contribution to Theology in
the 21st Century,” in Talitha Cum! Theologies of African Women, eds. N. Njoroge and M. Dube
(Pietermaritzburg: Cluster, 2001), 167, 169.
the pages of Africa’s cultural chronicle. At other times, when these experiences are
disclosed, they are subsumed far too easily under the male’s category of human
experience, a direct consequence of the ‘male-as-norm’ philosophy. 172 Owing to this
trend, Maseno-Ouma insists that inculturation has been “tacitly gendered from a male
perspective since traditionally, an analysis of women’s subordination has not been
integrated in the task of inculturation.”173 Therefore, the challenge for inculturation is to
take into account not only the presuppositions and reflections of African males but also of
African females.
Women theologians admit that despite the shortcomings of inculturation and
liberation theology, both are essential for an African theology.174 But more than that, they
acquiesce on the need to incarnate Christian theology into African culture, aiming to
transform the culture by overcoming oppressive elements. Taking it even further, they
aim at the evolution of a new cultural and socio-political future devoid of the heritage of
racism, poverty and gender discrimination inherited by African societies across history.175
It remains to be seen though how realistic this attempt is judging from the crawling rate
of progress made today.
African women theologians also attempt to make a distinction between two notions
of culture: a classicist and an empiricist notion. The classicist notion of culture conceives
the person of culture as one who has imbibed the great human and intellectual
development of the West. In essence, the classicist notion depicts that there is only one
culture, which is universal and perpetual. It is ethnocentric in the sense that it tends to
illustrate a particular groups’ culture as ‘better’ and one that should therefore be
emulated. It neither appreciates ‘the other’ nor admits diversity. The empiricist notion of
culture is however flexible. It recognized the variedness of culture and takes note of the
influence that times and conditions have on culture. It imagines that culture involves sets
of meanings and values that convey a specific way of life and concedes that, aside from
the social dimension of culture, the role of the individual who decodes from his or her
own particular perspective and thought process is fundamental.176
Critiquing the classicist notion, Rosemary Ruether asserts that the negative view of
African culture by European missionaries as ‘worthless’ and ‘fetish’ which needed to be
172
In the first chapter, we discussed the ‘male-as-norm’ ideology. This philosophy assesses reality from
the masculine perspective and draws consequences for male and female folks based on the
findings/knowledge obtained from men. In explaining the ‘male-as-norm’ ideology, Lisa Isherwood and
Dorothea McEwan assert that “the woman’s problem has always been a man’s problem”. See Lisa
Isherwood and Dorothea McEwan, Introducing Feminist Theology, 2nd edition (Sheffield: Academic Press,
2001), 14.
173
174
Although there is a disputation among African theologians – including women theology that the major
trends of African theology such as: inculturation and liberation theology have insufficiently tackled the
challenges of African culture, there is a recognition that both inculturation and liberation theology are
necessary. See Emmanuel Martey, African Theology, 121-36.
175
Ruether, Women and Redemption: A Theological History (London: SCM Press, 1998), 258.
176
Maseno-Ouma, Gendering the Inculturation Debate in Africa, 9-10.
expunged in order for the people to be Christianized and integrated in the culture of the
colonizers had a double negative impact on women. Ruether posits that African women
obtained a double version of these negative views that were shaped by a combination of
European racism and sexism. For this reason, the African woman, who was perceived as
highly sexed needed to be ‘tamed’ and at the same time needed to be protected from the
practices of polygamy and clitoridectomy. Confining the African female to domestication
in a perpendicular representation of the housemaid model in the European space, higher
education – believed to be beyond the stretch of African women – was extended to the
African male.177
In appropriating an empiricist notion of culture, African women theologians are
reclaiming African traditions that are empowering for women. The authority of women in
traditional culture as cult leaders, healers, craftswomen as well as liberators in myth and
folk story is underscored by African women theologians. 178 Although authors have
disagreed as to the place of women in traditional African societies, they do not oppose
that women in Africa’s religious tradition held a substantial position. 179 Susannah Herzel
concurs that before the advent of colonialism and Christianity in Africa, gifts of African
women such as healing, exorcism, prophecy were recognized in African religion just as
the exercise of those gifts were honoured. This assumed special significance in light of
the importance of prophecy in Africa where the voice of God translates into the voice of
the people.180
For this reason, these women held positions of leadership in ethnic communities. As
a case-point, Flora Edouwaye Kaplan reviews that there was no exclusion for priesthood
based on gender just as it was not a consideration when ranking was carried out. Kaplan
narrates that “priests in Benin may be either males or females, but are not otherwise
ranked, except by popular reputation and renown for their personal powers and
demonstrated efficacy.” 181 Women theologians in Africa also underscore the positive
177
Ruether, Women and Redemption, 255-6.
178
179
A biblical reading on the role of women in Africa’s religious tradition is illustrated by the postcolonial
biblical scholar Musa Dube in “Go Therefore and Make Disciples of all Nations: A Postcolonial
Perspective on Biblical Criticism and Pedagogy,” in Teaching the Bible: The Discourses and Politics of
Biblical Pedagogy, eds. Fernando Segovia and M. Tolbert (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1998), 226.
180
Susannah Herzel, A Voice for Women: The Women’s Department of World Council of Churches
(Geneva: WCC, 1981), 67-69. In concomitance, Maseno-Ouma debates that the appreciation of the gifts of
African women and their leadership in rural communities changed upon the coming of Christianity when
missionaries favoured the formal education and training of males for the church and the colonial bureaus to
the exclusion of women. Thus she contends that Christianity in Africa reinforced patriarchy and
androcentrism by its approval for the training of African males only who in turn enforced a strictly
patriarchal view of the church ably supported by their interpretation of scriptures. These gifts of African
women were then denigrated as ‘strange gifts’ by the missionary churches. See Maseno-Ouma, Gendering
the Inculturation Debate in Africa, 18.
181
Flora Edouwaye S. Kaplan, “Some Thoughts on Ideology, Beliefs and Sacred Kingship among the Edo
(Benin) People of Nigeria,” in African Spirituality: Forms, Meanings and Expressions, ed. Jacob K.
Olupona (New York: The Crossroad Publishing Company, 2000), 132. Sabine Jell-Bahlsen has delivered
an analogous presentation of the existence of goddesses and the presence of priestess in Ibo culture. See
roles of women as mothers, economic producers, farmers and market associations through
which African women have provided sustenance for their families. However, they are
wary that realities such as polygamy, female genital mutilation and domestic abuse might
contribute to sufficiently undermine the effort made at concretizing the corresponding
respect due to women.
In addition, African women theologians claim the Christian tradition of the equality
of all persons made in the image of God. They thus understand Jesus as ancestor and
liberator who accompanies the poor and the oppressed. They intend to show that the Jesus
of the Gospels comes across as a friend, healer, advocate and a source of transformation
as well as ‘boundary breaker’ of which the African society is in dire need of.182 Hence,
they see the church as continuing the healing mission that Jesus the Christ offers to every
creature. While celebrating their healing and those of others, they make analysis of
advocacy and reconstruction that attempt to draw healing by utilizing the latent power of
their faith conviction as Christian and specifically, as Africans.183
The resources for African women theologians are located in traditional sources for
African studies, African cultural history, religion and spirituality. Others include
Christian sources such as Scriptures and the language of oracles, prayers, symbols and
rites in African religion and culture.184 They rely on the Bible but reread it in light of
postmodern hermeneutical scholarship.
For the purpose of our research, we shall concisely zoom into the works of three
prominent African women theologians in order to synopsize what the concerns of African
women theologians are. My criteria for considering these theologians is that in as much as
they are pioneers of theology among African women, they also reproduce major themes
in gender studies in Africa. Additionally, the fact of their divergence in terms of their
varied socio-cultural backgrounds aids our study.
a. Mercy Oduyoye
Born in Ghana in 1934, Mercy Amba Oduyoye studied at the University of Ghana and
furthered at Cambridge University. She once served as Deputy General Secretary of the
World Council of Churches in Geneva, between 1987 and 1994. She became the first
woman lecturer at the department of Religious Studies, University of Ibadan where she
taught Church History and Christian Doctrine and later taught at Harvard University. She
has been a major coordinator of the promotion of African women’s theology and is
Sabine Jell-Bahlsen, “The Lake Goddess, Uhanniri/Ogbuide: The Female Side of the Universe in Igbo
Cosmology,” in African Spirituality: Forms, Meanings and Expressions, 38-53.
182
Ruether, “The Emergence of Christian Feminist Theology,” 16. See also Oduyoye, “African Feminist
Theology,” in Dictionary of Feminist Theologies, eds. Letty M. Russell and Shannon J. Clarkson
(Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox, 1996), 113.
183
Mercy Oduyoye, “African Feminist Theology,” 114.
184
Ibid., 113.
fondly known as ‘the Mother of the Circle’. She also operated as the Director of the
Institute of Women in Religion and Culture at Trinity College Legon, Ghana.185
Oduyoye stimulates a discussion on whether women have been regarded as an
integral part of humanity or merely appendages to the male. She suggests that women
themselves are dissatisfied with their often-secondary roles or non-roles in a number of
African cultural practices. Highlighting cultural events, Oduyoye resounds that making
women participate in dancing and cooking for festivals does not equate to being major
participants in African traditional proceedings. Additionally, she alleges that the
limitations placed on women’s participation in these religio-cultural practices are
intensified by the perplexing fear of blood.186 Her worry is that a basic feminine feature
such as the natural flow of blood associated with procreation is used to discriminate
against women. Here, it is Oduyoye’s intention to underscore that traditional religion is
no less discriminatory than Christianity and Islam in their attitude towards women.
Oduyoye then uses an explicit anthropological prescience that aids her theological
effort in proffering healing for the brokenness between men and women. Whereas she
emphasizes mutuality between male and female, dissimilar to the dualism of Greek
metaphysics, her anthropological stance does not admit of a duality between male and
female, a division in which one modality is regarded as superior to the other or more
human than the other, or more close to the divine than the other. Expending her
anthropologico-theological foresight, she critiques the androcentric and male-controlled
[mis] representation of the feminine modality of humanity by reclaiming in theological
terms what it means to be truly human.187
For this reason, Oduyoye has developed a keen interest in Christological models of
African theology. She initiates this by surveying the language of African Christian
women about Jesus who correspondingly build up an understanding of Jesus in their
Christianity. She does this with the help of oral Christology and written Christology. She
finds the link between both Christologies because in her view, the majority of what is
185
Ruether, “The Emergence of Christian Feminist Theology,” 16. See also Maseno-Ouma, Gendering the
Inculturation Debate in Africa, 53. Oduyoye’s major works include: Daughters of Anowa: African Women
and Patriarchy (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis: 1995) and The Will to Arise: Women, Tradition and the Church in
Africa (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis: 1992). She co-edited the latter with Musimbi Kanyoro. Other works
include: Hearing and Knowing: Theological Reflections on Christianity in Africa (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis:
1986) and co-editor with Virginia Fabella of With Passion and Compassion: Third World Women Doing
Theology (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1988).
186
Oduyoye, “The Value of African Religious Beliefs and Practices for Christian Theology,” in African
Theology En Route, eds. Kofi Appiah-Kubi and Sergio Torres (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1979), 112. See also
Oduyoye, “In the Image of God: A Theological Reflection from an African Perspective,” Bulletin de
Théologie Africaine 4, no. 7 (1982): 52. In Daughters of Anowa, Oduyoye explains that some community
rituals actually required male cooks due to the blood taboo. Only women who had passed the child-bearing
age could participate by fetching water or the white clay frequently used in rituals. See Daughters of
Anowa, 117.
187
Dedji, Reconstruction and Renewal, 29. See also Oduyoye, “Feminism: A Pre-condition for a Christian
Anthropology,” Africa Theological Journal 11, no. 3 (1982): 193-208.
written by African women began as oral inputs to study groups. 188 Accordingly, Oduyoye
identifies two major trends in Christologies in Africa, namely the inculturationalist and
the liberationist. While the former consciously seeks to appropriate Africa’s traditional
experience of God, the latter underscores the advocacy and saving acts of Jesus.
Oduyoye admits that women’s Christology falls within the bracket of the liberationist
model. Therefore, she acquiesces that African woman perceive Jesus as “the brother or
kin who frees women from the domination of inhuman husbands. They relate more easily
to the Christ who knew hunger, thirst, and homelessness, and see Jesus as oppressed by
the culture of his own people.”189 By describing their belief in Jesus, African women have
used cultural paradigms particularly the ones that are also liberative. More than that, Jesus
the liberator paradigm is employed as a critique of culture.190 Accordingly, she maintains
that Christ is the liberator of the African woman from the burden of disease and from
those taboos that unmistakably restrict women’s participation in their various
communities. She specifically claims that, in a continent where little room is created for
women’s visibility, it is important to listen to the stories of those women who write from
the continent.191
In discussing the questions some women do ask of the Jesus-story, Oduyoye
highlights the queries raised by the Nigerian theologian Rosemary Edet: Who is Christ to
the Nigerian Woman? What type of Christ does she know? How does she relate to this
Christ? She concludes that the spirituality of a bulk of these women bears indications that
it is the personality of the one about whom the Gospels speak about; the one that draws
prayer and praise from them. When they sing about the royalty of Jesus, they do underline
His redemption, restoration and his disposition to reformation. They recall His
inclusiveness of women using the example of giving women the mandate to ‘Go and Tell’
of the resurrection as recorded in Mark 16.192
188
Oduyoye, “Jesus Christ,” in The Cambridge Companion to Feminist Theology, ed. Susan Frank Parsons
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002), 151. For detailed analysis on models of African
christology see Enyi Ben Udoh, Guest Christology: An Interpretative View of the Christological Problem
in Africa (New York: Peter Lang, 1988); Mugambi and Magesa, eds., Jesus in African Christianity:
Experimentation and Diversity in African Christology (Nairobi: Initiatives Ltd., 1989); John S. Pobee,
Exploring Afro-Christology (New York: Peter Lang, 1992).
189
Ibid., 152. The ‘Christus Victor’ analysis plays a prominent role in the Christologies of theologians
such as Emmanuel Milingo and John Mbiti. See Emmanuel Milingo, The World in Between (Maryknoll,
NY: Orbis: 1984) and John Mbiti, “Some African Concepts of Christology,” in Christ and the Younger
Churches, G.F. Vicedom (London: SPCK, 1972), 54.
190
Ibid., 152. Using the Akan perspective Oduyoye intimates that the Akan title Osagyefo, ‘the one who
saves the battle’ is accorded to Jesus so that there is a dependency on him to win life’s battles – including
women’s battles. No matter the situation, Jesus has the last word. See Ibid. 154.
191
Oduyoye, Introducing African Women’s Theology, Introduction in Feminist Theology 6 (Sheffield:
Sheffield Academic Press, 2001), 55.
192
Oduyoye, “Jesus Christ,” 155-6. For a presentation of extensive investigatory analysis on interrogations
expressed by Nigerian women see, Rosemary Edet, “Christ and the Nigerian Womanhood,” in Life,
Women and Culture: Theological Proceedings of the National Conference of the Circle of African Women
Theologians 1990, eds. Rosemary Edet and Meg A. Umeagudosu (Lagos: African Heritage Research and
Publications, 1991), 177.
In effect, Jesus becomes the liberator by countering misogynist culture; the one who
delivers women from infirmity and suffering. The touch of the ‘bleeding woman’,
Oduyoye argues, is therefore an important imagery not only for healing, but also for total
liberation from all that oppresses women culturally. This, according to her, makes Jesus
Saviour par excellence.193 Admittedly, we have noted that this is vital for a breakdown of
the walls sustaining taboos and interdicts for women in Africa as it was in the Ancient
Near East – Jesus who recognizes and respects the humanity of women. Employing the
liberationist model therefore, Oduyoye contends that Jesus requests African women not to
passively accept their hardships and pain but to strive at eliminating them in order to
create a suitable place for all.194
Evaluating patriarchy, and its consequence on African Christianity, Oduyoye thinks
that the prominent ‘disease’ in human relationships is deeply situated in the pertinacious
patriachalization of life.195 She thus insists, “do not let African men tell you that African
women do not need to speak of oppression, nor define what is the real source of
oppression for African women”196 adding that the expected servant-hood, servility and
self-abasement of African women are demeaning to women’s humanity and humanity in
general. 197 She reasons that there ought to be a separation of men’s interests from
women’s interests. Making use of an Akan proverb that she subsequently translates into
English, she resounds that it is the person who sleeps by the fire that knows the force of
the heat. 198 This obviously has implications for the way women submit to culturally
stipulated norms – as we discovered in the results of the ethnography – which were
themselves originated from men.
Hence in her trendy work, Daughters of Anowa: African Women and Patriarchy,
Oduyoye mounts a constructed attack on patriarchy. She adopts a widespread Fante
nomenclature, Anowa whom she declares to be Africa’s Ancestress. She employs ideas
from folk-tales coupled with the myths of formidable women leaders within the Asante
culture of Ghana and the Yoruba culture of Nigeria. Oduyoye posits that the symbols of
Anowa display how to use one’s neglected resource to one’s advantage, specifically the
resource of folk wisdom. Anowa, a mythical figure is opposed to slavery and slave trade
193
Ibid., 158. See also Térèsa Souga, “The Christ Event from the Viewpoint of African Women: A
Catholic Perspective,” in With Passion and Compassion, 24. Another important imagery of Jesus
prominent in the writings of African women theologians is the image of Jesus as the suffering servant –
Jesus who identifies with the suffering of humanity especially women. See Oduyoye, “Jesus Christ,” 160-1
and Edet, “Christ and the Nigerian Womanhood,” 185.
194
Oduyoye, Introducing African Women’s Theology, 62.
195
Oduyoye, “Feminist Theology in an African Perspective,” in Paths of African Theology, 177. See also
Klinken, Transforming Masculinities in African Christianity, 31.
196
Oduyoye, “Christian Feminism and African Culture: The ‘Hearth’ of the Matter,” in The Future of
Liberation Theology, eds. M. Ellis and O. Maduro (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1989), 442.
197
198
and she symbolizes all that is life-protecting and life-sustaining.199 For Oduyoye’s intent,
while Anowa is a great Ancestress, Africans become ‘children of Anowa’ while African
women are the daughters of Anowa.
Oduyoye raises a crucial point in terms of the stability of the woman in Africa. She
claims that the fact that it is the woman who moves from one community to the other –
after marriage – indicates that there is no real power in the hands of the woman. She
laments that young women in Africa today continue to see themselves and are seen by
African males as somehow owned by the men who reciprocate by supporting them.200 She
argues further that the placement of the African woman at the lower levels of the
hierarchies of patriarchy does harm to the autonomy of women in many African societies.
She cites the practice of the exchange of nuptial gifts in traditional marriage where the
husband’s family often gives these refundable gifts to the wife’s family, which is
frequently referred to as the ‘bride price’/dowry. She thinks the handing on of a woman
from one family to another symbolized by the ‘gifts’ furnishes the erroneous impression
that a commercial transaction is taking place. 201 Perhaps, this explains why some men
think they ‘own’ their wife after embarking on a tremendous ‘gifts’ presentation and a
lavish spending at the moment of matrimonial rites.
In response, Oduyoye critiques the Western interpretation that African daughters are
sold and wives are bought. According to Oduyoye, a Western researcher reading Elechi
Amadi’s The Concubine might retain an impression that in ancient Nigeria, a wife was
regarded as the husband’s property who became his as soon as the man paid a certain
amount as bride price.202 Nevertheless, she points out that the researcher would not have
known that in other traditional societies such as the Akans, the wives’ fathers specifically
say, “we are Akan. We do not sell our daughters. If they are unhappy or do not prosper in
the marriage we reserve the right to dissolve the marriage”.203 However, Oduyoye is not
oblivious of the fact that in both cases, the woman has no say although in the latter case,
she remains in the marriage out of her own volition and not because she is a belonging of
her husband’s family.204
For this reason, Oduyoye contends that gifts must be treated as gifts and that no
refund should be demanded of ‘used’ articles. Maintaining her stance, she insists that the
very idea of ‘giving away’ a human being needs to be obliterated. According to her, this
was rampant in pre-modern times where girls are reported to have been ‘married off’ by
199
Oduyoye, Daughters of Anowa, 8-10. See also Maseno-Ouma, Gendering the Inculturation Debate in
Africa, 54.
200
Oduyoye, Hearing and Knowing, 122.
201
Oduyoye, Daughters of Anowa, 133-4. In buttressing her position, Oduyoye argues further that in
situations of divorce, the bride price is refunded although it could be discounted after taking into
consideration the number of children produced in the marriage and the number of years that the marriage
lasted as if to indicate that the woman has paid some part of her ‘dues’. See Daughters of Anowa, 149.
202
203
Ibid.
204
Ibid.
men in order to pay off family debts or when young boys and girls were wagered so as to
save families. Regarding these realities as past history, she upholds that a bride is not a
commodity to be sold but a gift.205 However, the drawback in Oduyoye’s assertion is that
even when the bride is proclaimed as a gift and not a commodity, presenting her as a
‘gift’ means that she is the one who is given to the male and it is typically another male
who produces the material possessions in appreciation of “the gift”. 206 Either way, the
avoidance of a woman’s transfer from one man to another seems culturally unavoidable.
Similarly, Oduyoye critiques the practice of widow inheritance in certain patrilineal
societies in Africa. She is adamant that the re-assignment of widows within her husband’s
patrilineage is belittling and dehumanizing to women. In these traditional settings, a
widow is typically seen as a ‘temporary label’ for women based on the knowledge that a
widow is characteristically inherited by the heir of the deceased husband as part of his
estate.207 This ‘heir’ is usually a brother of the deceased. If a widow declines to remain
married to the family of the deceased husband, her family must return the bride price to
her husband’s family. When the widow is sent away, the bride price is not returned since
the breaking of the marital contract did not originate from her. For a few other cultures
such as the Yorubas, an old widow is expected to remain in her husband’s house as an
honorary wife with protection and means of sustenance due to her for having spent a huge
chunk of her youth in the service of her husband and his family. Oduyoye is unrelenting
that despite the benevolence towards widows, there appears to be a perception of a
woman as a minor who must be protected and provided for by males, either from her own
family or her husband’s.208
A major thrust of Oduyoye’s reflection is her discussion on motherhood. She
uncovers that in several African folktale the revering of women as mothers was a
common feature and in real life situations, African children prominently esteem their
mothers. Following a qualitative study, she claims that it is commonplace to find Nigerian
students naming their mother as the most trusted person in their lives. In the same vein,
Oduyoye postulates that African male students abroad tend to talk a lot about ‘doing
something for mother’. Additionally, she augments that motherhood for the African
woman is not an arena for measuring one’s reward or power or prestige. In this sense, a
mother’s gratification is not only expressed in terms of whether her children do well but
also in the fact that she is able to contribute to the beautiful work of creation. She nuances
her stance in adding that even when the affirmative accomplishment of her children is not
forthcoming or when she has no children at all, a woman’s psycho-religious achievement
is complete in itself.209
205
Oduyoye, Daughters of Anowa, 136.
206
Ibid., 136.
207
Ibid., 137.
208
Ibid.
209
Ibid., 142-3. It is quite prevalent to discover widespread narratives in African societies that draw a link
between the steadfastness of women and the accomplishments of their progeny often described as
Oduyoye is unrelenting that preceding male theologians have exceedingly

romanticized culture by giving it a positive representation so as to establish the need for
the interaction of Christianity with the African culture. She examines that the ritual of
naming a child in traditional societies which is usually the prerogative of the father with
less input from the mother has been largely overlooked by the inculturation project.
Likewise, she is adamant that the mourning rites of a widow which is markedly different
from the mourning rites of widowers in terms of the duration period and stigmatization of
the former demands adequate redress. 210 On the other hand, notwithstanding, she
postulates that the women-liberating elements in African culture such as women’s
leadership of shrines and cultic centres in African tradition, the conspicuous
responsibilities of Queen-Mothers in Africa coupled with women’s prominent role in
food production and the market economy could serve as a reference point on which
women’s visible participation and contribution in key decision-making processes could
be expounded.
Regarding bodily purity, Oduyoye claims that there is a certain duplicity in African
men’s disposition to female purity. Highlighting purity as the measuring rod of patriarchy
in its delineation of women into ‘good’ and ‘loose’, she thinks the demand for a ‘pure
woman’ is largely for the benefit of the man and little to do with concern for her physical
well-being and her spiritual health. She illustrates via her observation that a man could
guard his wife with his life and yet demand sexual relationship with his neighbour’s wife.
Similarly, a man could protect his sister’s virginity with a knife while attempting to
experiment with his best friend’s sister on a separate occasion. This nurtures Oduyoye’s
allegation that a number of ‘cultural’ stipulations are but a man’s game of competition
skillfully played on the field of women.211
A major aim of Oduyoye’s project is to deconstruct the notion that a woman’s
identity is wholesomely constructed in relation to others. The underlying though
unspoken assumption that a woman must be married in order to gain identity underscores
this thought in African societies. She illustrates that this thinking is epitomized in the
exercise of the marriage ritual where emphasis is placed on the transfer of the woman
from the spiritual power of the father to that of the husband. 212 To say that a young
woman’s identity is fully realized in marriage is to give little room for development in the
unmarried. Additionally, Oduyoye is of the impression that society seems to be against
women who decide to individualize in order to achieve personal improvement and goals.
She thinks that women are therefore made to fulfill cultural expectations even when these
roles tend to prove oppressive and particularly when they do not find fulfillment in
‘reaping’ the fruits of motherhood. See Omogiate, “Towards a Theological Response to the Gender
Problematic in African Christianity,” 193.
210
See Oduyoye, “Women and Ritual in Africa,” in The Will to Arise, 12, 15.
211
Ibid., 173-4. In addition to the categorization of women as ‘good’ or ‘loose’, there were also the loyalty
tag
212
Oduyoye, “Women and Ritual in Africa,” 13.
carrying them out.213 This sums up the reason as to why liberation is notably crucial in
Oduyoye’s contemplation.
b. Teresa Okure
Teresa Okure, a Catholic sister of the Society of the Holy Child Jesus, obtained her
doctorate in Scripture from Fordham University in 1984. She is currently a professor of
New Testament and Gender Hermeneutics at the Catholic Institute of West Africa
(CIWA) in Port Harcourt, Nigeria. She served as the vice-president of EATWOT as well
as Academic Dean at the aforementioned Catholic Institute of West Africa. She is also a
member of the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission (ARCIC III). Okure
has authored several publications.214
True to her biblical orientations, Okure underscores the prominent roles of women in
Scripture. Beginning from the significance of Eve in the creation story as the ‘mother of
all the living’, Okure traces the poor standing of women in Jewish society. Admitting
though that the Jewish disposition to women is not entirely negative, she detects that the
negative temperament dominates literature and has been a major influence in society’s
disposition toward women. She contends that even the positive valuations of women in
both biblical and rabbinic literature have been considered from the standpoint of their
relationship with men.215 Admitting the woman’s share of the sinfulness of the world, she
acknowledges not just the guilt of Eve, but also of Adam, and distinguishes that unlike
Adam, Eve was humble enough to concede that she had been deceived. Eve’s guilt does
not however hinder Okure from recognizing the woman’s role in God’s scheme of
creation and redemption. She rather uses the two faces of Eve to portray women in the
Bible: on the one hand, Eve, the instrument of life exemplified in women such as Judith
and Esther as God’s instrument of salvation for the nations and on the side of the divide,
Eve, an agent of sin and death portrayed by such women as Jezebel and Athaliah.216
Turning to African theology as such, Okure’s presentation of inculturation is done
within the incarnational model. She asserts that “the primary resource for promoting
inculturation lies in the knowledge that inculturation is already a known fact; in virtue of
creation, incarnation and redemption. Moreover, we believe that God is personally at
work in us, in our history and cultures.”217 Her understanding is that the knowledge of
Christianity’s illimitable sense of mission is an impetus for inculturation. However, it is
213
Oduyoye, “Daughters of Anowa,” 121. See also Nyengele, “African Women’s Theology,” 63-64.
214
Maseno-Ouma, Gendering the Inculturation Debate in Africa, 59. Okure’s acholarly works include:
“Women in the Bible,” in With Passion and Compassion; “Biblical Perspectives on Women: Eve, ‘the
Mother of all the Living’ (Gen. 3:20),” in Voices from the Third World 8, no. 2 (1985): 17-24; “The
Significance of Jesus’ Commission to Mary Magdalene,” The International Review of Mission 81, Iss. 322
(1992): 177-88; To Cast Fire Upon the Earth: Bible and Mission Collaborating in Today’s Multicultural
Global Context (Pietermaritzburg: Cluster Publications, 2000).
215
Okure, “Women in the Bible,” 50.
216
Ibid., 51-52.
217
Okure, “Inculturation: Biblical/Theological Bases,” in 32 Articles Evaluating Inculturation of
Christianity in Africa, Teresa Okure, Paul van Thiel, et al. (Eldoret: AMECEA Publications, 1990), 78.
important to note that her insistence on the effectiveness of inculturation is inextricably

tied to the involvement of African women as co-workers. She testifies that the church of
Nigeria today, as in many other parts of Africa is moved to share in the same mission of
Christ, as the Early Church Christians did, through the process of inculturation.218
Accordingly, the identification of Jesus as the major resource for inculturation is
undertaken by Okure; Jesus who was exuberant in carrying out the mission of liberating
truth from His Father to His own people and the rest of humankind. 219 In her estimation,
the non-discriminatory and all-embracing nature of Jesus’ mission is the chief cornerstone
for erecting the emancipation project. 220 According to Okure, Jesus’ significance for
humanity is extended and appreciated within the understanding of God through terms that
are familiar to human persons. Marginalized men and women across the globe in seeking
to receive Christ, locate in the Gospels their own circumstances and personal experiences
that correspond to the terminology for expressing their faith in Him.221
To this end, Okure extends her argument by drawing a vociferous juxtaposition
between the idea of God in African male academics and African women theologians. She
highlights that whereas the former refers to Jesus as an Ancestor with God being the proto
Ancestor, the latter discover Jesus as a friend, liberator, husband of widows, life-giver
and an inspirer for a new humanity.222 It is observable, just as we saw in Oduyoye, that
African women tend to capture an image of God that ministers to their particular needs
and concerns while the dominant male voice refers to God using mainstream cultural
correspondence.
Whereas Oduyoye has vested interest in Christology, Okure goes a step further to
develop the profound significance of Mariology. From an African perspective, Okure
reconstructs an inculturated Mary. She portrays Mary as spirited and steadfast – a woman
who takes initiatives. She thus locates the motherhood of Mary and her role in the
ultimate phase of salvation history within the context of a deep appreciation for the life-
giving capacity of women. She highlights the fact that a woman as mother, just like Mary,
provides the womb and the body from which the human person draws life. 223 This
218
Okure, “Inculturation: Biblical/Theological Bases,” 70.
219
Ibid., 64.
220
Okure, “Enkindling Fire in the Mission: Spirit and Scope of the BISAM Project,” in To Cast Fire Upon
the Earth: Bible and Mission Collaborating in Today’s Multicultural Global Context, ed. Teresa Okure
(Pietermaritzburg: Cluster Publications, 2000), 5.
221
Okure, “The Global Jesus,” in Cambridge Companion to Jesus, ed. M. Bockmuehl (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 2001), 242-3.
222
Okure, “The Global Jesus,” 243.
223
Okure, “Feminist Interpretations in Africa,” in Searching the Scriptures, ed. E. Schüssler Fiorenza
(London: SCM, 1993), 55. See also Okure, “The Mother of Jesus in the New Testament: Implications for
Women in Mission” in Journal of Inculturation Theology 2 (1995): 198. Okure reflects that Mary could be
literally and rightly called a co-worker with God in the decisive plan of bringing to birth the great mystery
of Christ. She further asserts that Jesus’ physical connection and dependency on the flesh and blood of
Mary in conception, birth, breastfeeding is nothing short of a hundred percent. See Maseno-Ouma,
Gendering the Inculturation Debate in Africa, 61.
accounts for the reason why Okure thinks women stand at the centre, not the periphery of
divine activity.
Referring to what she terms ‘liberative elements’ of the Bible, Okure senses that God
manifests a deep respect for women by regarding them as individuals in their own right.
She explains that God deals directly with the majority of women in the bible instead of
first passing through their husbands, as was the socio-cultural construct of the day.224
Zooming into Mary again, she recounts that whereas in the Jewish society the consent of
the woman in marriage was not ordinarily sought – except as a formality – God
“respectfully asks a maiden from Nazareth for her consent to be the mother of God’s Son
and waits for her reply”225 in the Annunciation narrative. She illustrates further that the
next person to learn of this plan is Elizabeth at the time when Joseph himself was in the
dark. Okure also names the biblical episodes of Jesus’ compassion for widows, his
respect for sinful Jewish women, as in the woman earmarked to be stoned to death, and
particularly the Samaritan woman, to buttress her stance on God’s admiration and respect
for women.226
Similarly, Okure conceives of the evangelical role of women in Christianity through
a depiction of the biblical narrative. She illustrates a courageous and committed Mary of
Magdala who through her singular devotion becomes the first person to be commissioned
by Jesus after his resurrection. Of particular interest to Okure is her understanding that
Mary, receives personally from Christ, the Easter message regarding the new status of
believers.227
Okure radically links the development of Africa to the empowering of women. She
claims that unless the women folk, the bearers of life arise to the challenge, Africa will
not rise from her shambles. Rereading the biblical narrative of Jairus’ daughter, she
laments the dependency of women on men as husbands and fathers and questions such
helplessness. 228 This has consequences for the dominant trend that recognizes men as
‘breadwinners’ and women as ‘homemakers’ as we shall discuss in the following chapter.
c. Teresia Hinga
Teresia Mbari Hinga is a Kenyan lay Catholic. She has her Bachelor and Masters degree
in Education in English Literature and Religious Studies respectively. She obtained a PhD
in Religious Studies with a focus on gender in African Christianity from Lancaster
University, United Kingdom. She has taught in Kenya and the USA where she currently
teaches at Santa Clara University. She specializes in African religions, feminist theologies
224
225
Ibid., 54. See Lk. 1:26-38.
226
Ibid., 54. See Lk. 7:11-17; Mk. 12:40; Mt. 23:14. For Jesus’ dialogue with the Samaritan woman, see
Lk. 4:1-42.
227
Okure, “The Significance of Jesus’ Commission to Mary Magdalene,” 185.
228
Okure, “The Will to Arise: Reflections on Luke 8:40-56,” in The Will to Arise, 230.
and contemporary ethical issues. A founding member of the Circle, Hinga has published
numerous articles.229
Hinga focuses on the two faces of Christ predominant in African Christologies. The
first was the colonial Christ who is a warrior-king, epitomized by the singing of ‘Soldiers
of Christ arise’ by his followers in the battle against other religions, cultures and races,
and the Imperial Christ under whose banner (the cross) new territories were to be fought
for, annexed and subjugated. 230 The other was the Christ of the missionaries who did
battle for Africa on the missionaries’ behalf as Africa was the treasure to be looted for
Christ. This latter face of Christ, Hinga demonstrates, was readily embraced by Africans
as a means of gaining social and economic progress and subsequently led to huge
conversions in several parts of the continent.231 Hinga has asserted that African women
were the first to observe the emancipatory disposition of Christianity and subsequently
turned to it.
According to Hinga, the two faces of Christ presented by the early missionary period
in Africa displayed on the one hand, Christ the conqueror who stimulates the domination
of people and their cultures and on the other hand, Christ who endorsed the liberation of
peoples from the subjugation generated by their environment. Put simply, it was a mix of
Christ the conqueror legitimizing subjugation and a liberator. She thus intimates that
Jesus as presented by the missionary exercise in Africa was couched in ambiguity and
intensified complexity to the scenario.232 Consequently, Hinga judges that the impact of
Christianity in the lives of African woman is two-fold, namely: one that participated in
the suppression of women in its legitimization of colonialism, racism and slavery; and
one that enables African women to appropriate the Gospel for themselves by means of
Christianity’s proclamation of liberty.233
The image of Christ, Hinga argues, that women search for is the one who is actively
involved and concerned with victims of injustice and the disassembling of unjust social
structures. The conclusion she reaches is that Christ would then be expected to be on the
side of women as they struggle for the eradication of sexism in society; a society that has
been oppressive to them from time immemorial. In her opinion, women would need to be
229
Maseno-Ouma, Gendering the Inculturation Debate in Africa, 72-73. Her works include: “Between
Colonialism and Inculturation: Feminist Theologies in Africa,” in Feminist Theology in Different Contexts,
ed. E. Schlüssler Fiorenza, 26-34 (London: SCM, 1996); “Violence Against Women: A Challenge to the
Church,” in Pastoral Care in African Christianity: Challenging Essays on Pastoral Theology, eds. H.
Kinoti and D. Waruta, 137-55 (Nairobi: Acton, 1994); “Jesus Christ and the Liberation of Women in
Africa,” in Feminist Theology from the Third World, ed. Ursula King, 261-88; “The Biblical Mandate for
Social Transformation: A Feminist Perspective,” in Moral and Ethical Issues in African Christianity: A
Challenge for African Christianity, eds. J. Mugambi and A. Nasimiyu (Nairobi: Acton, 1999) and others.
230
Hinga, “Jesus Christ,” 263.
231
Oduyoye, “Jesus Christ,” 156.
232
Ibid., 156-7. See also Hinga, “Jesus Christ,” 265.
233
Hinga, “Between Colonialism and Inculturation,” 31.
on the alert, and to be critical of any ‘versions’ of a Christology that seeks to ensconce
lopsided gender relations.234
In Hinga’s purview therefore, Christ was rather a personal saviour and a personal
friend; the one who accepted people as they are and attends to their needs at a personal
level. She therefore explores the theme of Jesus ‘friend of the lonely’ and ‘healer of those
who are sick whether spiritually or physically’. This title ‘friend’, she says, is of great
importance to women because of their need in times of grief, loneliness and anxieties.
Christ becomes even more meaningful in the emancipatory scheme inspiring hope for the
wearied and giving them confidence.235 This view, she portends, is the relevant one for
the Christology of African women in their pursuit and hope for a better appreciation of
humanity. The main gist for Hinga is that women become agents of social transformation
rather than objects or recipients of mercy and kindness.
In a nutshell, these African women theologians under scope have critiqued a wide
range of themes in the African gender discourse. Oduyoye has particularly highlighted
what she terms a ‘secondary role’ for women as far as several religio-cultural practices
are concerned. She advocates mutuality rather than superiority for male-female
relationships especially geared at healing a fractured relationship between the sexes. In
particular, she discusses the central ideas of community, marriage rites, widow-
inheritance and motherhood as illustrative leitmotifs representing the manner in which
African societies are gendered. She critiques the inculturation model for paying little or
no attention to African culture’s inherent patriarchal makeup and for ignoring prevailing
cultural patterns like male ownership over females. Relying on the Christological models
of African theology, a major element in her theological methodology is her accent on the
liberation approach.
Okure on her part relies both on Christology and Mariology. Whilst Jesus is for her
the main resource for inculturation especially with his treatment of the vulnerable and the
marginalized, she judges that Mary’s prominent role in the salvific event of redemption
demonstrates why women are not at the fringes of divine activity but at the centre.
Utilizing her biblical background, she is insistent that the negative connotation of some
women in Scripture is slightly responsible for the society’s undesirable disposition
towards women today. She cites the representation of Eve, Jezebel and Athaliah as
illustrations. She would rather the ‘liberative elements’ of Scripture such as Jesus’
compassion for widows and his disposition to sinful Jewish women are accentuated in
order to underscore a deep appreciation for women.
On the other hand, Hinga’s approach is mostly Christological. This makes her assert
that Christ’s noticeable endeavour to side with the oppressed testifies to his attempt at
dismantling unjust social structures and providing succour for victims of injustice. Hinga
234
Hinga, “Jesus Christ,” 267-8.
235
Ibid., 266 and Oduyoye, “Jesus Christ,” 157. See also Hinga, “The Biblical Mandate for Social
Transformation,” 37.
claims, therefore, that Christ’s persona enables the women of Africa to relate with him as
‘friend’, ‘healer’ and ‘saviour’ precisely in wearied moments of anxiety and tension.
From a sociological perspective, she advocates for women’s involvement in the socio-
economic polity in order to become agents of transformation instead of being merely the
recipients of compassion and kindness.
Going forward, of major consideration to African women theologians is their
intention to respond to feminism. Oduyoye, for instance suggests that there is an
ideological strand emanating from Africa that seeks to render feminism a non-issue for
Africa. According to this philosophy, African women are not oppressed and feminism is a
notorious import from the West.236 She cites that whereas African men are mostly behind
this thinking, woman scholars have also exhibited this orientation of isolating Africa from
the sexism debate. 237 In Oduyoye’s opinion, though feminism is originally a Western
import, the realities of modern Africa make feminism even more relevant for African
societies in order to amplify the yearnings of women. Oduyoye pushes further that the
call for the dismissal of feminism as ‘unwarranted radicalism’ and the subsequent call to
the African woman to be ‘African’ is essentially a male propaganda where being an
‘African women’ connotes submissiveness.238
Furthermore, Oduyoye claims that the expression ‘feminist theology’ has sounded
like some kind of heresy to some, even when it was clearly occasioned by women’s
experience in a condition where they were required to be content with being subsumed.239
Admitting that feminism in Africa has been given a ‘bad press’, she somewhat thinks that
what is called feminist theology is rather the theology of women and men who are keen to
acknowledge and subscribe to a conscious application of their experiences in
reflections.240
We now turn to investigate briefly the major fundaments of feminism, leading onto
the content of feminist theology and a scrutinization of whether or not African women
fall into the genre of feminist theologies; detecting also in how far they have been
influenced by Western academia.
3.6 African Theology meets Feminism: Are African Women Theologians

Feminists?
In this section we intend to inspect the intersection between African theology and
feminism. Where does African theology traverse with feminism? What is feminism?
Furthermore, we aim to explore the goals of feminism and to examine whether African
women theologians could be labeled ‘feminists’.
236
237
Oduyoye, “Reflections from a Third World Woman’s Perspective,” 32.
238
239
240
Oduyoye, “Feminist Theology in an African Perspective,” 166-7.
3.6.1 Explaining Feminism

Val Webb in Why We’re Equal: Introducing Feminist Theology explains that in many
circles, feminism is a ‘dirty word’. According to Webb, some respond with a hesitant
phrase, ‘I am not a feminist, but…’; they do believe in the issues confronting women and
promote them in their own way. Yet they do not want to be associated with ‘bra-burning,
angry radicals’ whose interest is to deconstruct societal harmony, destroy the family and
the ‘natural’ order of things. She goes on to allege that the “negative appreciation of
feminism” connects with the prevalent habit of naming the “other” – the opposition or
enemy – as bad.241 According to Webb, such a label that treats feminism as if it were a
collective homogenous package typified by unsettling stereotypes of certain women or
behavior has made “some folk uncomfortable, others down-right defensive, others
vitriolic, as if any who associate with the label are automatically evil.”242
Conversely, it needs pointing out that feminism does not entail homogeneity owing
to the fact that there are several feminist movements who sometimes are in conflict with
each other. It is an array of movements along the course of history that has advocated that
women should have equal rights to those of men, not just those assigned to them over
men. Second, any attempt to change the word might be a disservice to the history of the
women and men who have proudly associated themselves with the movement.
A feminist therefore, male or female, is an advocate or supporter of feminism. The
Encyclopedia of Feminism has captured this point in an illuminating way:
“We may call feminist anyone who recognizes women’s subordination

and seeks to end it, by whatever means and on whatever grounds. This
includes every shade of political thought along the scale from liberal
feminists who believe their demands for equality can be met without
otherwise changing the structure of society… Anti-sexist men are
included herein, revolutionaries, reactionaries, scholars, artists, activists,
and even women who say ‘I am not a feminist, but…’”243
241
Webb, Why We’re Equal 1-2. Webb observes that some very learned women even disparage feminism
as if it were some ‘highly contagious disease’. Kate Ott gives a nuanced response to the ‘feminist’ tag. She
explains that even though she prefers the identifier ‘feminist’ to include everyone whose aim is to
denounce the unequal treatment of women, she recognizes that the term still needs a modifier when used as
an identity, not a movement. See Kate M. Ott, “Feminism and Justice: Who We Are, What We Do,” in
Faith, Feminism and Scholarship: The Next Generation, eds. Melanie L. Harris and Kate M. Ott
(Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011), 38. Sarah-Jane Page adds that the negative attitudes towards
feminism have very frequently connected it with radicalism, man-hating and women’s superiority. See
Sarah-Jane Page, “Feminist Faith Lives? Exploring Perceptions of Feminism Among Two Anglican
Cohorts,” in The Faith Lives of Women and Girls, eds. Nicola Slee, Fran Porter and Anne Phillips
(Farnham: Ashgate, 2013), 62.
242
Webb, Why We’re Equal, 3.
243
Lisa Tuttle, Encyclopedia of Feminism (New York: Facts on File Publications, 1986), 7. Tuttle later
defined the ‘I am not a feminist, but…’ pattern as “the mental state of women who have become aware that
sexism exists, that they suffer from it, and that feminism – or something exactly like it but preferably with
a different name – must be necessary, yet are afraid of being mistaken for one of the ugly, humorless,
dogmatic, man-hating lesbians who are labeled feminists.” See Tuttle, Encyclopedia of Feminism, 153.
Although such categorization as seen above is arguably shouldering and broad, it

underlines the identification of a feminist as an active participant in the quest for
emancipation, equivalence and impartiality – even when they do not intend to associate
with the movement.
As to the origin of feminism, Malinda Berry traces its development across Four
Waves. She dates the First Wave to the mid-nineteenth century of Western Europe and
North America. The 1848 Seneca Falls Women’s Rights Convention and the 1920
passage of the nineteenth constitutional amendment, which approved women’s full
enfranchisement, were the peak moments of the first wave. It coincides also with the
animating of a movement recognizing women’s inherent value with men denoted by the
right to vote. The Second Wave is credited to Sara Evans’ historical work including her
analysis of the civil rights activism in the 1950s and 1960s. This turned out to be the
cornerstone for the women’s liberation movement. Aided by the United Nation’s (UN)
1967 “Declaration of the Elimination of Discrimination against Women”, it marked the
beginning of liberal, cultural, radical and socialist feminism.244
The Third Wave pays tribute to the proclamation of “UN’s Decade for Women” from
1975 to 1985. It represents the extension of women’s experience beyond the
industrialized West. During this period, it became apparent that the experience of women
in Europe and America differed from those of other racial and ethnic groups whose
history incorporated slavery and colonization. Little wonder this wave is characterized by
the pluralization of the word ‘feminism’. The Fourth Wave is an attempt to resolve the
rupture between the experience of women in the developed countries and those of
developing countries especially those who carry the pains of colonial subjugation. This
wave is marked by the interactions of women across global communities and faith
groups.245
In its early dawn, feminism according to Frascati-Lochhead sought to render an
account of sexual difference, gender, woman’s experience, and the woman’s situation that
would be valid for all women and to provide a viewpoint that intended to speak for
244
Malinda Elizabeth Berry, “Pastoral Agency at Work,” in Faith, Feminism and Scholarship: The Next
Generation, 56-57. See also Mary C. Grey, “European Feminist Theologies,” in Dictionary of Feminist
Theologies, eds. Letty M. Russell and Shannon J. Clarkson (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox,
1996), 103-104. Rosemary Ruether offers a similar account of the history of feminism in “The Emergence
of Christian Feminist Theology,” 6-8. For an explanation on strands of feminism such as: liberal feminism,
radical feminism, black feminism, ecofeminism, lesbian feminism and postmodern feminism see Ruether,
“The History of the Centre for Women and Religion,” in Feminist Theologies: Legacy and Prospect, ed.
Rosemary Radford Ruether (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress, 2007), 18-21. Carol S. Robb delineates social
feminism in “A Framework for Christian Ethics,” in Feminist Theological Ethics: A Reader, ed. Lois K.
Daly (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox, 1994), 25-26. She highlights also that radical feminists
suggests that eventually women will have to take power away from men in order to establish a truly
egalitarian society for egalitarianism is only possible via matriarchy. Ibid., 19-20.
245
Berry, “Pastoral Agency at Work,” 57-58.
women.246 However, such an attempt has been heavily criticized for what is perceived as
the promotion of an essentialist view of women. They argue that such essentialist feminist
theories have trivialized the differences between women themselves.
Interestingly, justice has been identified as an anchor of feminism. Lisa Isherwood
and Dorothea McEwan have claimed that if equality is to be advanced, the structures
which impede equality would have to be identified, singled out and named. Second, there
needs to be an identification and promotion of positive strategies to enhance equality.247
Kate Ott does not dispute. She specifies that feminism signifies the search for justice
through its promotion of the full inclusion of women together with men in the full
realization of God’s creation. Taking it further, Ott claims that feminism is not simply a
theory but an activity. While Ott does not theorize feminism, she does posit that an
abundance of theories supports feminism in reaching an understanding of how
inequalities are established by individual behavior, law, theology and collective action.248
Feminists are not satisfied with the naming of a few famous women characters in
history such as Cleopatra, Helen of Troy and Elizabeth I who made it into history books.
They intend to show that these ‘exceptions’ tell but a single story of how women have
lived their lives. Credit to the efforts of feminists, today some women at least have found
their voice and are resoundingly making it heard.
3.6.2 Feminist Theology and Its Goals

Rosemary Radford Ruether has traced the emergence and development of feminist
theology in Christianity. She intimates that feminist theology is not just women doing
theology because it is tangible that women have done theology that does not interrogate
the masculine paradigms of theology neither is it the affirmation of ‘feminine’ themes in
theology.249 On the contrary, Rosemary Ruether notes that feminist theology is one that
transports “feminist critique and reconstruction of gender paradigms into the theological
realm. They question the pattern of theology that justifies male dominance and female
subordination, such as…that women are created by God to be subordinate to males and
thus sin by rejecting this subordination.” 250 She accentuates that the central goal of
feminist theology is the realization of the full humanity of women.251
Reflecting on the emergence of feminist theology, Olga Vélez Caro credits it to the
rise of liberation theology. According to Caro, during the 1970s, the intensification of
liberation theology raised an essential awareness of women’s self-determination that
necessitated feminist consciousness’ adoption of a view of women as being historically
246
Marta Frascati-Lochhead, Kenosis and Feminist Theology: The Challenge of Gianni Vattimo (New
York: State University of New York Press, 1998), 11.
247
Lisa Isherwood and Dorothea McEwan, Introducing Feminist Theology, 2nd edition (Sheffield:
Academic Press, 2001), 74.
248
Ott, “Feminism and Justice,” 37.
249
250
Ibid.
251
Ruether, Sexism and God-talk: Toward a Feminist Theology (Boston, MA: Beacon, 1983), 18-20.
subjects of liberation in light of their condition of being doubly oppressed: socio-

economically and sexually. By developing a biblical hermeneutic that attempted to
recover feminine figures of the Bible, feminist theologians aimed at deprecating the
domination experienced by women and explore the prospect of their liberation on the
basis of biblical injunctions. A decade later feminist theologians began to question the
‘option for the poor’ for what it had to say concerning gender. They wanted to do
theology not only ‘about women’ but also ‘from women’.252
Musa Dube, a biblical post-colonial feminist theologian, describes clearly Caro’s
account of the doubly oppressive features challenged by the beginning of feminist
theology. Drawing from an African woman’s purview, Dube refers to the ‘double’ or
‘triple’ oppression of women in colonized settings. In her estimation, post-colonial
feminist interpretations must begin with the experience of an African woman who
belongs to a continent that was colonized.253 In calling for the discussion of gender in the
field of post-colonial biblical hermeneutics, she declares the interconnection between the
West, the Bible and imperialism. Dube’s submission then is that feminist biblical readers
must become decolonizing readers who “demonstrate awareness of imperialism’s
pervasive exploitative forces and its literary strategies of domination, who demonstrate a
genuine search for liberating ways of interdependence between nations, races, ethnicities,
classes, genders, and sexual and religious orientations.”254
It is of note that feminist theologians are particularly interested in the actuality that
the Bible was composed in a culture where women were male property, identical to land
or cattle, meant to be used at the discretion of the owner. Hence these theologians become
wary when a transposition is being done of multiple ancient proclivities of male
252
Olga Consuelo Vélez Caro, “Towards a Feminist Intercultural Theology,” in Feminist Intercultural
Theology: Latina Explorations for a Just World, eds. Maria Pilar Aquino and Maria J. Rosado-Nunes
(Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 2007), 254.
253
Musa W. Dube, Postcolonial Feminist Interpretation of the Bible (St. Louis: Chalice, 2000) 10-12. For
further reading explicating Dube’s feminist postcolonial thrust, see also J. Kabamba Kiboko, Divining the
Woman of Endor: African Culture, Postcolonial Hermeneutics, and the Politics of Biblical Translation
(London: Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2017).
254
Dube, Postcolonial Feminist Interpretation, 42-43. In a separate project, Dube applies her African
feminist post-colonial hermeneutical skills to the problem of language. She reaches an agreement with
Fantz Fanon that colonizers tend to tactically install their languages among the colonized and thereby
displace the local ones. She avers further that when one’s language and name are taken away, the result is
the loss of faith in their previous achievements and ultimately, the fundamental loss of the persons they
are. Furthermore, she highlights Ngugi wa Thiong’o viewpoint that, “the colonized, who speak, read and
write in the colonizer’s language to adopt the culture of their subjugators. They begin to perceive the world
from the perspective of their subjugators. In this way, the colonizer takes possession of the geographical
spaces and the minds of the colonized.” See Dube, “Consuming a Colonial Cultural Bomb: Translating
Badimo into ‘Demons’ in the Setswana Bible,” Journal for the Study of the New Testament 73 (1999), 33-
34. For a close reading on wa Thiongo’s discussion of the deconstruction of layers of imperialism see
Ngugi wa Thiong’o, Decolinizing the Mind: The Politics of Language in African Literature, Studies in
African Literature Series (London: Currey, 1986), 4-33. Explicating the significance of language, Sanneh
deduces that language is not just the ‘soul’ of the people, but also the garment that gives shape, decorum
and vitality to conscious life that enables the individual to appreciate the visible and invisible components
of reality. Sanneh, Translating the Message, 200.
supremacy into contemporary biblical disputes in a way that justifies male hegemony as
divinely authorized. They contend that such interpreters have not done the basic
homework of distinguishing the biblical message from Hebrew and Greco-Roman
cultural baggage. Instead they offer overlooked biblical stories that depict the equality of
women and men harmonized with the sweeping call of Jesus to a discipleship of equals.
They therefore attempt to recover the way of Jesus and they struggle for the full
development and equality of both sexes, accommodating no barricade on the basis of
sexual identity. 255 Rosemary Ruether accentuates that the central goal of feminist
theology is the realization of “the full humanity of women”.256
In examining the substratum of feminist theology, Marta Frascati-Lochhead argues
that feminist theology has from its beginnings seen itself as a form of liberation theology.
Its concerns have been based primarily on a connection to the emancipation project. She
reasons that feminist theology has directly challenged biblical and Christian theological
tradition in reference to patriarchy. Therefore, from its inception, it has provided a
platform to expose and oppose patriarchal biases of traditional theology and to propose
reconsiderations that concur with the experience of women.257 It is therefore a reaction to
the exclusion experienced by women in patriarchal societies.
Elizabeth Dreyer’s Making Sense of God: A Woman’s Perspective explains that
feminist theology as a consequence of theological reflections on the tradition in light of
women’s experience is a theology that assists women, engaging them to be full
participants not only in the Christian story but also in life in general. Dreyer highlights
the thrust of feminist as threefold, namely: 1) The recovery of the forgotten or obscured
past of female ancestors in the faith – loosely termed herstory. 2) The enquiry into
aspects of the Christian tradition that are perceived as unhelpful – or even harmful – to
women. 3) The task of reconstruction that builds upon new interpretations, more inclusive
ritual and creative ideas in theology and seeks to exhibit appreciation for the experiences
of Christian women.258
Thus, a major thrust of feminist theology is its challenge to liberation theology to
become more far-reaching. Describing her method as “a feminist critical theology of
liberation”259 or a “critical feminist rhetorical interpretation for liberation”260, Elizabeth
255
Webb, Why We’re Equal, 10, 13.
256
Ruether, Sexism and God-talk, 20.
257
Frascati-Lochhead, Kenosis and Feminist Theology, 2, 11. Frascati-Lochhead has developed an
extensive analysis on the feminist philosophy of the Italian philosopher Gianni Vattimo. Emancipation is a
central unit in Vattimo’s thought while he also instigates the search for new and better values and a new
and better construction of reality in addressing the age-long debate on emancipation. Vattimo’s stance is
that the history of metaphysics ought to be understood in order to comprehend the dominations of the
contemporary age.
258
Elizabeth Dreyer, Making Sense of God: A Woman’s Perspective (Cincinnati, OH: St. Anthony
Messenger Press, 2003), 49-50.
259
Elizabeth Schüssler Fiorenza, “Introduction,” in Bread Not Stone: The Challenge of Feminist Biblical
Interpretation (Boston, MA: Beacon, 1984), xvi.
Schüssler Fiorenza considers the need for a paradigm shift moving from a “hermeneutical
model of conversation” in liberation theology to a “practical model of collaboration”.261
Schüssler Fiorenza insists that intellectual neutrality is not an option in a historical world
of exploitation and oppression. Hence she maintains an advocacy stance on behalf of the
oppressed. 262 Relying upon historical criticism from a rhetorical perspective and from
social critical theory, she is wary of patriarchal status divisions that are founded on the
basis of the inequality of class, race, ethnicity and age.263 The idea Schüssler Fiorenza
communicates is that the celebration of differences is slightly responsible for the
historical construction of inequality together with the inclusion of male-female dualisms
into the debate.
From the foregoing, it is noteworthy to reiterate that feminist theology is not
singular. Drawing from our reflections thus far, several strands of feminist theology are in
vogue. Although they methodically spring out from the discrimination, subordination and
exclusion that have been experienced by women of various times and places, feminist
theologies typically differ in methodology, sources and scheme. Accordingly, a post-
colonial feminist theology differs from a reconstructionist feminist theology in the same
way that a theology of eco-feminism is distinct from a natural law feminist theology.264
Indeed, the plurality of positions in feminism is also true of feminist theology. Olga
Caro illustrates the various versions of feminist theologies by an example between
feminism of equality and feminism of difference. While the former is more emphatic on
the skirmishes and demands to gain equality in previously known strongholds of men, the
latter focuses on the recognition of the ‘essential’ characteristics of the feminine gender –
motherhood, care, attentiveness, service, tenderness and so on.265
3.6.3 So, Are African Women Theologians Feminists266?

As we earlier theorized, many African women theologians are vocal in their commitment
to gender egalitarianism. They abhor inequalities constructed on the pillars of race,
260
Schüssler Fiorenza, But She Said: Feminist Practices of Biblical Interpretation (Boston: Beacon, 1992),
47.
261
Schüssler Fiorenza, Discipleship of Equals: A Critical Feminist Ekklesia-Logy of Liberation (New
York: Crossroad, 1993), 278. See also Schüssler Fiorenza, “Changing the Paradigms,” The Christian
Century 107, no. 25 (September 5-12 1990): 796-800.
262
Loraine MacKenzie Shepherd, Feminist Theologies for a Postmodern Church: Diversity, Community,
and Scripture (New York: Peter Lang, 2002), 19. See also Fiorenza, Bread Not Stone, 45.
263
Shepherd, Feminist Theologies for a Postmodern Church, 23.
264
For a detailed reading on the divergences of feminist theologies see Caro, “Towards a Feminist
Intercultural Theology,” 254. See also Susan Frank Parsons, ed., The Cambridge Companion to Feminist
Theology; Rosemary Radford Ruether, “Ecofeminist Thea/logies and Ethics: A Post-Christian
Movement?” in Post-Christian Feminisms: A Critical Approach, eds. Lisa Isherwood and Kathleen
McPhillips (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2008); Anne Elvey, “Material Elements: The Matter of Women, The
Matter of Earth, The Matter of God,” in Post-Christian Feminisms and Satoko Yamaguchi, “Re-
Membering Jesus: A Post-colonial Feminist Remembering,” in Post-Christian Feminisms.
265
See Caro, “Towards a Feminist Intercultural Theology,” 257.
266
The usage of ‘feminists’ in this section is in the sense of a pejorative valuation.
gender and ethnicity. They interpret revelation in light of Jesus’ emancipatory activities in
the Gospels. Furthermore, they cling to their faith in Jesus to deliver them from
oppressive structures. In sharing their experiences, they propose cultural paradigms
particularly the ones that are also liberative.
Thus, in their radical call for Christology to reclaim and reassert the role of Jesus as
liberator and saviour of women from the oppressive contexts already discussed, they
could be regarded as ‘feminists’. For assertively recognizing Jesus as the foremost
empowerer of women in situations of powerlessness, they could be termed ‘feminists’.
For relying on biblical narratives to aggressively communicate Jesus as an ally and friend
in times of pain and alienation that African woman might be confronted with, they could
be referred to as feminists.267
Conversely, it should be noted that the stance demonstrated by African women
theologians is not a novelty as far as biblical chronicles are concerned. When they think
in inclusive terms that demonstrate the undertakings of Jesus as the redeemer for all
contexts, situations and peoples – male and female, then it is hard to categorize them as
feminists. Also, when they point to the relationship of individuals with Christ, each as
unique and each as a child of God, they are not exactly feminists.268 Furthermore, to the
extent that African women demand to do theology by looking at women’s reality from a
theological point of view, how could they be designated feminists? When they take as the
starting point the experience of women and men and their interaction with each other and
with society, as a source from which theology could be done, they are not necessarily
feminists. 269 As Oduyoye explains, African women theologians, even when they are
labeled ‘feminists’ and as a result being shunned or feared, are rather to be welcomed as
persons who seek to engage more realistically in the discussions of what it means to be
human.270
3.6.4 Palpable Lessons Drawn from African Women Theologians

What we learn from African women theologians is that the three major trends of African
theology namely: inculturation and liberation theologies as well as the relatively recent
theology of reconstruction have not sufficiently incorporated the gender discourse into
their outline. They contend that what previous male theologians have done is to
romanticize culture by giving it a positive outlook in order to establish the need for the
interaction of Christianity with the African culture.
In the liberation theology movement in Africa, they seem to be particularly
disappointed by the fact that the content of liberation theology, which could have been
267
For some exploratory notes on the dispositions of African women theologians see Mercy Oduyoye and
M.R.A. Kanyoro, eds., Talitha Qumi! Proceedings of the Convocation of African Women Theologians
(Ibadan: Daystar Press, 1990), 206
268
Oduyoye, “Jesus Christ,” 167.
269
Isherwood and McEwan, Introducing Feminist Theology, 35.
270
very suitable for the sexual liberation project, has turned a blind eye to the yearnings of
the female folks preferring to focus rather on the erection of a new era of liberty from
Africa’s colonized past. Yet, women - the ‘doubly’ or ‘triply’ oppressed as Dube puts it -
have hardly been given a look in. A similar disenchantment is resonated towards the
theology of reconstruction for failing to include the emancipation yearning in their call
for restoration and renewal.
What women theologians therefore seek is to identify the liberative and oppressive
elements of African traditions especially those that were socio-culturally constructed.
Using the Bible, they also aim to underscore the significance of women’s participation in
their vocation as ‘agents of life’ and to illustrate God’s disposition towards women. They
have questioned the role of the ‘community’ in the exploitation of women in Africa and
have issued a critique to the romanticization of the African culture by African male
theologians in their eagerness for establishing inculturation in Africa.
However, it is important to state that the propositions from African women
theologians are not analogous to the presentation of gender in the West. Whereas gender
in the West particularly underlines the range of characteristics defining masculinity and
femininity and examines these notions in light of their social construction, African
women theologians locate gender within the discussions of women emancipation,
empowerment and familial relationships as we have seen thus far. Yet, it is noteworthy
that the development of gender in the West once began with conversations on women’s
participation in society, particularly the right to vote and own property and their
involvement in the household with reference to the austere delineation of gender roles.
This brings us back to the question: Is there a gender theology in African Christianity? If
there is one, could it be that it still is in its elementary formation?
From the foregoing, it is detectable that African women theologians do not see the
need to enter into abstract and theoretical discussions about gender (as in the West) but
are mainly interested in accepting the sexual difference and integrating it into a logic of
emancipation and liberation which is recognizable as an extension to the political and
cultural liberation from colonialism. They show more interest in the sustained
participation of women in society than in the examination of the social construction of
gender.
For this reason, therefore, we shall study, in the next section, a dissimilar albeit
corroborative approach to the theme of women and the gender concerns in the African
family in order to identify the possibilities and obstacles to an egalitarian male-female
relations in Southern Nigeria. Here, we shall introduce John Paul II’s theology of sexual
difference and scrutinize whether it responds to the yearnings of African women
theologians. In this segment, we will inspect John Paul II’s theology of the
complementarity of the sexes from the primary sources. We will also study some of the
main (western) critics of this position, which will help us to remain alert to its possible
limitations in the establishment of gender symmetry in African Christianity.
SECTION B: JOHN PAUL II’S THEOLOGY OF THE COMPLEMENTARITY

OF THE SEXES271
3.7 A Concise Biography of John Paul II

Born on May 18, 1920 as Karol Jozef Wojtyla in Wadowice, Karol was the youngest of
the three children born to the senior Karol Wojtyla, an ethnic Pole and Emilia
Kaczorowska. When the young Karol lost his mother at the age of nine, the principal
figure in his childhood and adolescence became his father, the elder Karol Wojtyla, a
retired army officer and a man of profound Catholic faith. At his birth, the young Karol
was nicknamed ‘Lolek.’ He grew up in his hometown of Wadowice (several kilometres
southwest of Krakow), where he came into contact with people of diverse background
including those of Jewish, Ukrainian and German nationalities. This would go a long way
in shaping his deep respect for the religious conviction of others and would have a
bearing on his ecumenical thinking.272
He began his studies in philology at the renowned Jagiellonian University in 1938.
This was however cut short as a result of the Nazi invasion of Poland in September 1939.
Karol then had to spend the years during the war working as a manual labourer, and close
to the convent where a then-obscure Polish nun, Sister Mary Faustina Kowalska had just
died in 1938. He worked in a quarry for a year and afterwards in a chemical factory. As
he worked, he also secretly pursued some studies. It was a time where the average Pole
had to struggle for survival. On a certain occasion during his work, he was hit at night by
a German army truck. This flung him into a ditch until he was later rescued. It has been
noted that it was after surviving this incident that he decided to become a priest rather
than an actor as had been his original idea.273
The death of his father in February 1941 intensified the struggle of the young
Karol.274 Moved by a longing for priestly life, he was accepted by the Archbishop Adam
271
A number of topics reflected upon in this section were also discussed in my earlier unpublished work
titled: Towards a Theology of the Family: A Critical Analysis of the Teachings of Pope John Paul II (2012)
and A Systematic Study of a Theology of Marriage and Sexuality: Assessing the Thoughts of Pope John
Paul II (2013). However, in this dissertation, they have been treated a little differently.
272
George Weigel, The End and the Beginning: Pope John Paul II – The Victory of Freedom, the Last
Years, the Legacy (New York: Doubleday Press, 2010), 5. See also Darcy O’Brien, The Hidden Pope: The
Untold Story of a Lifelong Friendship That is Changing the Relationship Between Catholics and Jews
(New York: Daybreak Books, 1998). See also Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, The Legacy of John Paul II:
Images and Memories, trans. Michael J. Miller and Nicoletta V. MacKenzie (San Francisco, CA: Ignatius
Press, 2005), 21 and John Paul II, Crossing the Threshold of Hope, ed. Vittorio Messori (New York:
Alfred A. Knopf, 1994).
273
Michael Walsh, “From Karol Wojtyla to John Paul II: Life and Times,” in The Vision of John Paul II:
Assessing his Thought and Influence, ed. Gerard Mannion (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2008), 15.
274
Tad Szulc has affirmed that John Paul II was a product of great personal tragedy and suffering having
lost his entire family before he reached the age of twenty-two: his parent’s second born baby, a girl who
died in infancy (so he never knew her), his mother when he was nine and his beloved father three months
before his twenty-first birthday. See Tad Szulc, Pope John Paul II: The Biography (New York: Scribner
Press, 1995), 17. All these would play a key role in his life. As Pope, he would later highlight the effects of
Sapieha of Krakow, who administered a clandestine seminary, which represented an act

of resistance to the Nazi forces. Embarking on the study of philology, he ventured into the
artistic application of language as a representation of reality in a new form through
theatre.275 A reference point in the studies of Wojtyla must include his encounter with
Max Scheler and thus with ‘phenomenology.’276 The Catholic philosopher and German
phenomenologist Max Scheler had been a colleague of Edmund Husserl in the so-called
‘Phenomenological Movement.’277
His ordination to the priesthood on November 1, 1946278 was quickly followed by
doctoral studies at the Angelicum, Rome. His supervisor in Rome for his thesis on The
Notion of Faith in the Carmelite Mystic St John of the Cross was Reginald Garrigou-
Lagrange, perhaps the leading Dominican Thomist of his day. He was also referred to as
‘Reginald the Rigid’ and would later become the chief adversary of what was known as
nouvelle théologie (‘the new theologie’).279 Wojtyla’s interest in philosophical as well as
theological thoughts is evident in his encounters with some scholars of his day. These
include: Max Scheler, Emanuel Mounier and Edith Stein. Wojtyla engaged more with
philosophical phenomenology than with theological scholasticism. This philosophical
inclination is evident in his first book, Love and Responsibility, which is about sexual
ethics.280
Upon the completion of his doctorate, he returned to Poland in 1948 and two years
later, he began a second doctoral study (the so-called habilitation) that would qualify him
to teach philosophical ethics at the University. It was at this time that he went into a full-
scale research on the phenomenology of Scheler at the Catholic University of Lublin, the
only Catholic University allowed to operate in Eastern Europe at that time. His
habilitation was titled: An Evaluation of the Possibility of Constructing a Christian Ethic
on the Basis of the System of Max Scheler. Thereafter, his ministry was characterized by
both pastoral and academic work. Soon after, his conversation with the Lublin students
tragedy, suffering and martyrdom as “the highest witnessing of moral truth to which relatively, few are
called.” For further reading see Szulc, Pope John Paul II: The Biography, 274.
275
Ratzinger, The Legacy of John Paul II, 14.
276
Phenomenology is a philosophical approach that examines phenomena as they appear to us and
searches for a more precise way of understanding the nature of the human person.
277
Walsh, “From Karol Wojtyla to John Paul II,” 32.
278
By the time Wojtyla was ordained priest in November 1946, Poland had exchanged Nazi occupation for
life under Soviet-Communist domination. Believing that the young priest had a potential for leadership
that would be vital in the looming struggle with Marxist ideology, Archbishop Sapieha sent him to Rome
for his doctoral studies just two weeks after his ordination. See Walsh, “From Karol Wojtyla to John Paul
II,” 30. There Karol stayed at the Belgian College which enabled him to become fluent in French as well
as Italian. See also David Willey, God’s Politician: John Paul II at the Vatican (London: Faber and Faber,
1992), 32.
279
Walsh, “From Karol Wojtyla to John Paul II,” 15. See also Edward Stourton, John Paul II: Man of
History (London: Hodder and Stoughton Press, 2006), 83.
280
Ibid., 16-7.
stimulated his thought on sexual morality that led to the writing of his aforementioned
book, Love and Responsibility.281
In his early days, John Paul II was an active participant in theological discussions.
However, his major contribution to theology at this time reached its apex during the
debates of the Second Vatican Council. During the Council, Bishop Wojtyla interacted
and developed friendship with some of the most influential people in the Church. There
were also some contacts with some theologians who impressed him in their roles as periti
(experts). These included: the German Jesuit Karl Rahner, the French Jesuit Jean
Daniélou, the French Dominican Yves Congar, the Swiss theologian Hans Küng as well
as the Jesuit Riccardo Lombardi and Henri de Lubac with whom he developed a close
‘academic friendship’282
On July 4, 1958, Pope Pius XII in one of the last acts of his nineteen-year long
pontificate appointed Father Karol Wojtyla titular Bishop of Ombi and auxillary Bishop
of Krakow. On December 20, 1963 he was ‘promoted’ to Archbishop of Krakow. In
1967, he was created Cardinal by Pope Paul VI. On October 16, 1978, Karol Cardinal
Wojtyla was elected pope taking the name John Paul II. On May 13 1981 – less than three
years into his pontificate, there was an assassination attempt on him by Mehmet A. Agca,
a Turkish man.283 This would later prove to be instrumental in the waning of the pope’s
health. John Paul II died on April 2, 2005 – the eve of the Feast of Divine Mercy.
In order to understand John Paul’s theology of the sexes, we shall attempt a close-
text reading of his analysis in the Theology of the Body and in Mulieris Dignitatem. We
shall examine his arguments on the significance of the anatomical and biological make-up
of the human person in constructing a theology of equal dignity. In particular, his usage
of the phrases, ‘original solitude’ and ‘original unity’ will provide the lens through which
male-female relationships are construed. Afterwards, we shall evaluate the main features
of his theology in conversation with a number of authors.
3.8 A Close-text Reading of John Paul II’s Theology of the Body

The Theology of the Body is the topic of a series of 129 lectures given by John Paul II in
his Wednesday audiences (also known as Wednesday Catechesis) between September
1979 and November 1984. It was interrupted by the assassination attempt on May 13,
1981 and a long break for the Holy Year (from May 1983 to September 1984) as well as
281
Weigel, The End and the Beginning, 9-10.
282
See Jo Renee Formicola, Pope John Paul II: Prophetic Politician (Georgetown, WA: Georgetown
University Press, 2002), 25, George Huntston Williams, The Mind of John Paul II: Origins of His Thought
and Action (New York: Seabury Press, 1981), 167-168 and John Paul II, Crossing the Threshold of Hope,
159-160.
283
There have been certain hints of conspiracy theories, claims and counter-claims surrounding this
assassination attempt. However, none of them have been certified. For further readings on the
assassination attempt see George Weigel, Witness to Hope: The Biography of John Paul II (New York:
HarperCollins Publishers, 1999), 397-8 and Joseph R. Blaney and Joseph P. Zompetti eds., The Rhetoric of
John Paul II (Lanham: Lexington Books, 2009), 211.
offering catechesis for other topics. The cycle lasted for five years, with the last lecture
delivered on November 28, 1984.
Considered as the first major teaching of his pontificate, it constitutes an analysis on
human sexuality and marriage construed through the mystery of the incarnate person and
a biblical analogy of spousal love. Citations of the Theology of the Body feature
prominently in the pope’s encyclicals, letters and exhortations. Inspired by St. John of the
Cross, the pope makes extensive use of Thomistic philosophy and theology aided by a
phenomenological approach.284
3.8.1 Explaining the Theology of the Sexes

The notion of ‘original solitude’285 is quite eminent in John Paul’s theology. John Paul
reflects that the Genesis account of the creation of a woman is meant to provide a
companion for Adam. He subsequently reflects that the text “it is not good that the man
should be alone, I will make him a helper similar to himself” (Gen. 2:18) is quite
significant in identifying Adam’s state before Eve’s appearance. He thinks the term
‘solitude’ derives from the foreseen relationship between male and female, a relationship
that was non-existent until the appearance of Eve. He then explains further that the
creation narrative, which highlights the fact that “man is alone”, is a fundamental
anthropological issue that is in some way antecedent to the issue raised by the fact that
man is considered male and female.286 Identifying the key features of solitude, he tenders
that the concept of original solitude includes both self-consciousness and self-
determination; that is, the capacity of the human person to actualize free will.287
The biblical assertion that the human person cannot exist ‘alone’ takes a sharp twist
in John Paul. He is rather quick in identifying the communion between a man and a
woman as analogous to the Trinity. Describing how solitude is countered by the allure of
being in relation to another person, he reflects that the question of mutual relationship,
that is, man to woman and woman to man is best seen as a prelude to the definitive self-
revelation of the Trinity; a relationship of unity between the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
To his assessment, the fact of being a person created in the image and likeness of God
already connotes an existing relation, in this case, a relation to the other ‘I’.288
John Paul II then ponders that male and female are but both sides of the human
person. In referring to the creation story, he also considers it quite significant that the first
human being (ādām) is only defined as ‘male’ (îš) after the creation of the first woman
284
John Paul II, Man and Woman He Created Them: A Theology of the Body, trans. Michael Waldstein
(Boston, MA: Paulines, 2006). Hereafter, it shall be referred to as ‘TOB.’
285
It should be noted that the topic of ‘original solitude’ is not a general anthropological idea as such. It is
only understood in the context of a reading of the Genesis narratives, which John Paul II extensively
embarks upon.
286
TOB, no. 5.
287
TOB, no. 6.
288
John Paul II, Apostolic Letter, “On the Dignity and Vocation of Women, Mulieris Dignitatem,” 15
August 1988. AAS 80, 2 (1988), no. 7. Hereafter, it shall be referred to as ‘MD’.
proposing that before Eve was created, the term ‘man’ had a generic connotation. Hence
from the ‘beginning’ man is always male and female, he specifies.289 Making reference to
the anthropological and theological basis for the equal dignity of each person – man and
woman – he substantiates that this is firmly rooted in the creator’s decision that “the
human being should always and only exist as a woman or a man”290 in a way that justifies
the dignity and vocation of each.
Reflecting on the unity between the two, John Paul II then re-states that Christ’s
appeals in his dialogue with the Pharisees portrayed in the words, “a man will leave his
father and his mother and unite with his wife, and the two will be one flesh” (Mt. 19:5) is
apropos to describe the meaning of ‘original unity’. Arguing that original unity is sequel
to original solitude, John Paul distinguishes that the former is based on masculinity and
femininity, which are two different incarnations or rather two ways in which the same
human being, created ‘in the image of God’ is a body. This implies that while his
rendition of original solitude carries no distinguishing marks between male and female,
original unity on the other hand is unmistakably defined by means of masculinity and
femininity.291
Subsequently, in order to amplify the equality of persons, John Paul II proffers that
both sexes are human beings to an equivalent degree. This motivates his assertion that:
“both man and woman are human beings to an equal degree”.292 Behind this declaration is
the fact of the emanation of both from a singular image; God’s image. John Paul then
attempts to concretize the essential equality of man and woman from the perspective of
their humanity by making recourse to the creation of the woman as another ‘I’ in a
common humanity.293
He again uses the “unity of the two”, to indicate that original solitude is overcome by
the appearance of the woman as “a helper fit for him” (Gen. 2:20). Going forward, he
argues that the desire for a helper is not with respect to the task of dominating or
subduing the earth, rather he locates it in the requisite of a life’s companion with whom
he could unite to form “one flesh”. This, for him, lies at the foundation of the sacramental
view of marriage. 294 Of particular note is that a ‘helper’ in this sense should be
understood as occurring in a reciprocal relationship in which though Eve helps Adam,
Adam does so too in response, since they are called to exist mutually ‘one for the other’
in an interpersonal communion.295
289
TOB, no. 5. John Paul reviews however that it is difficult to express this concept in Genesis in the
translation of some European languages where ‘human being’ and ‘male’ are usually referred to in the
same word. For example: ‘homo’, ‘uomo’, ‘homme’, hombre’, ‘man’ and so forth. See Ibid., no. 5.
290
MD, no. 1. Emphasis mine.
291
TOB, no. 8.
292
MD, no. 6.
293
MD, no. 6.
294
MD, no. 6.
295
MD, no. 7.
The creation of the woman features a rather dramatic stroke. In affirming the need
for the human person to have a helper similar in personhood, Adam was made to fall into
torpor through which, with his rib, the woman was formed. The pope avers that the
coming of the woman as a ‘second I’ is significant for the man’s experience of original
solitude when he suddenly recognizes the chance for an interpersonal relationship. 296
Therefore, his interpretation of Eve’s creation demonstrates her suitability to be a
companion for Adam. Of note, Adam here is the human person out of whom male and
female are created at the same time hence the creation of the woman from the rib of
Adam does not denote inferiority or subordination. None of the animals were fit for
companionship, but only the one made out of his rib. Yet, in being fashioned out of the
rib of man, there is no indication in John Paul’s analysis that woman is in any way
dependent or subordinate to man.
John Paul II then communicates the meaning of the creation of the human person in
the ‘image and likeness of God’. First, he identifies the reference to God’s image and
likeness as the basic constituent upon which Christian anthropology is built. He reckons
the creation of the human person is the fundamental anthropological truth in the sense
that places man and woman at the peak of the whole order of creation. Next, he maintains
that not just men, but also women are entrusted dominion over the earth. Quite
instructively, the term ‘dominate’ is not cited in the relationship between man and woman
but in their combined responsibility to other living creatures.297 The most significant is his
assertion that “both man and woman are human beings to an equal degree”.298
John Paul specifically recalls that “womanhood and manhood are complementary not
only from the physical and psychological points of view, but also from the ontological. It
is only through the duality of the ‘masculine’ and the ‘feminine’ that the ‘human’ finds
full realization”.299 What is noteworthy here is that he uses complementarity to explain
the allusion to the principle of help in order to clarify that the help is not one-sided but
mutual. Hence woman complements man, just as man complements woman. To this end,
womanhood and manhood are simply different but complementary ways in expressing the
‘human’.300
The biblical avowal, “he shall rule over you” (Gen 3:16) referring to the relationship
between the sexes is of concern to the pope. As a result, he refers to it as a disturbance of
that original relationship between man and woman, which he argues is a consequence of
humanity’s sin. Although he recognizes that this snag in relationship does threaten the
296
TOB, no. 8. The pope adds that this archaic, metaphorical and figurative way of expression creation,
that is “with the rib” is meant to typify the homogeneity of the whole being of both man and woman and to
demonstrate that the woman is created based on the same humanity. Furthermore, the John Paul argues that
Adam is not male enabling him to avoid any form of anthropocentrism. See Ibid., no. 8.
297
MD, no. 6.
298
MD, no. 6.
299
John Paul II, “Letter to Women,” 29 June 1995. AAS 87, 9-10 (1995), no. 7. Hereafter, it shall be
referred to as ‘LW.’ Emphasis as in original.
300
LW, no. 7.
“unity of the two” and particularly acknowledges the disadvantage of the woman, he
reasons that a literal interpretation of “he shall rule over you” does diminish the true
dignity of the man also since they both originate from a similar image and likeness. The
outcome is that the pope denounces the culture of women domination or that of male
‘possession’ of women and more specifically, those situations in which a woman is
disadvantaged or discriminated against by the very fact of being a woman. On the other
hand, however, he calls for restraint against the proclivity for women’s appropriation of
male characteristics as a means of opposing male domination; a tendency he thinks could
lead to the ‘masculinization’ of women. He is wary that women’s appropriation of male
characteristics might yield to a loss of feminine originality.301
With this conceptualization, the pope implies that women should not attempt to gain
equality by trying to be like men else they miss out via the denial of their own essence.
He buttresses his position by asserting that the personal resources of femininity are no
less than the resources of masculinity. They are only different. He contemplates therefore
that a woman, and also a man, ought to understand her dignity and vocation, together
with her ‘fulfilment’ as a person on the basis of these resources which she receives from
creation; one that is securely established in her subjective expression of God’s image and
likeness.302
John Paul ruminates that the attitude of Christ to women should be a reference point
for humanity. He notes that Christ’s words and his demeanour towards women show
great regard for women to the point that even his disciples marveled at it (Jn. 4:27).
Additionally, the pope points to the definite role of women in Jesus’ path to fulfilling his
mission. The ones that encountered his healing touch and the ones who accompanied him
as he journeyed with his disciples were as important to him as the ones who were termed
‘unrighteous’ by society. More than that, in his parables and in his teachings, there is
nothing to reflect his discrimination against women that was prevalent in his day, the
pope contends. Emphasizing what he terms a woman’s dignity of personhood, John Paul
II defends women against the socio-juridic system of the time where women, especially
widows, were particularly defenceless and vulnerable. 303 Going forward in depicting
women’s role in the salvation narrative, it is of huge significance to him that a woman is
the first witness of the resurrection. The sensitivity shown by the women surrounding the
resurrection pericope is of particular interest to him. He credits that special sensitivity as a
distinguished characteristic of women’s femininity.304
In Mulieris Dignitatem, John Paul II particularly speaks of the dignity and vocation
of women. He signals the exceptional prominence of women’s issues as the reason for
issuing the document. Published in the Marian Year 1988, Mulieris Dignatatem sought to
301
MD, no. 10.
302
MD, no. 10.
303
MD, no. 12.
304
MD, no. 16.
recall the role of Mary as the ‘Woman-Mother of God’. Explaining the Pauline text,
“When the time had fully come, God sent forth his son, born of woman…” (Gal. 4:4), the
pope suggests that this most principal event in the history of salvation, which constitutes
the culmination and definite point of God’s self-revelation to humanity, has a woman at
the centre. Further, he acknowledges that the woman’s role in the salvific event is not
accidental for the event is ‘realized in her and through her’.305 With this he amplifies that
Mary is truly the mother of God and not simply the surrogate womb to bring forth God’s
son. Her role was significant, as in the case of mothers, rather than incidental.
The Marian model of vocation is eminent in John Paul II’s theology. He echoes that
Mary provides a source of guidance for the vocation of not just every woman, but of
every human person. Locating this evaluation in the divine-human relationship, the pope
tenders that “the dignity of every human being and the vocation corresponding to that
dignity find their definitive measure in union with God. Mary, the woman of the Bible, is
the most complete expression of this dignity and vocation.”306 The key to understanding
and actualizing this relationship is in the willingness “to serve” which Mary epitomizes in
her self-deference as the “handmaid” of the Lord (Lk. 1:38). According to the pope, this
testifies to the complete awareness of being God’s creature without recourse to her
specific sex. Elsewhere, the pope denotes Mary’s exemplary disposition as a key feature
in her role as the Pilgrim Guide ‘at the centre of the pilgrim church’ directing all
humanity back to the creator.307
John Paul then examines motherhood as a special communion with the mystery of
life. He discerns that motherhood represents a hermeneutical key to understanding a
woman since through the unique contact with the new human being developing within her
at conception, she develops an attitude that is commonly thought men are less capable of,
namely, paying attention to another person. Rather than a limitation therefore, maternity
in the assessment of the pope is a means in which women could express their orientation
toward others.308
Clarifying further, the pope postulates that even though the formation of a child
apparently involves both parents, women play a more pivotal role in the process. So while
he admits that parenthood belongs to men and women, he tends to portray that it is more
fully realized in the woman, specifically in the prenatal phase. For this reason, he is
adamant that it is the woman who ‘pays’ directly for this shared generation, which plainly
absorbs the verves of her body and soul. On this account, he fathoms that the man is
indebted to her.309
305
MD, no. 3.
306
MD, no. 5.
307
John Paul II. Encyclical Letter, “On the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Life of the Pilgrim Church,
Redemptoris Mater,” 25 March, 1987 AAS 79 (1987), nn. 25-28. Hereafter it shall be referred to as ‘RM’.
308
MD, no. 18. Later on, he would refer to the unique manifestation of women in the context of what he
refers to as the ‘feminine genius’, which he uses to connote the special charisms that he says the Holy
Spirit has bequeathed to women. See Ibid., no. 31.
309
MD, no. 18.
Spousal love is of immense concern to the pope.310 For this intent, he recalls that a
man and a woman are invited to a mutual self-giving which is not to be distorted either by
the crave of the man to become the ‘master’ of his wife (“he shall rule over you”) or by
the desire of the woman to remain close within her own dispositions (“your desire shall
be for your husband”) as is conveyed in Gen. 3:16. He contemplates rather that, through
spousal love of mutual self-giving, the spousal bond of husband and wife becomes a
living sign of other vocations in the Church.311
In the Letter to Women, John Paul II addresses women of various facets: the mothers,
the wives, the daughters, the consecrated, the professionals and all who partake in
womanhood. He accentuates that the vocation and mission of women traverse the length
and breadth of globe in order to actualize a common responsibility for the destiny of
humanity. 312 In congruence with African women theologians, the pope reviews that
women’s contribution to humanity’s history in parallel to men’s is even more exceptional
owing to the more difficult conditions from which they functioned.313
3.8.2 The Human Person: Created in God’s Image

Influenced by ‘transcendental phenomenology,’ 314 John Paul II argues that the
recognition of the human being as person has profound theoretical significance since it is
in his personhood that the human being is clearly understood and appreciated.315 In this
understanding, he devotes some time in arguing for the sovereignty of the human person.
Suffice it to say that this interest in the human person was further inspired in him through
his study of Max Scheler. Advancing a little further, John Paul figured that the human
person analysed in view of ‘acts’ is linked to the person of Christ as a rational creature
ennobled through a divine image. 316 In this way he argues that Christ illuminates the
workings of the human person. Advancing slightly from Scheler, he contends that the
sense of ‘I’, i.e. the self in inter-human relationships, precedes the sense of the ‘We’, thus
310
In the Theology of the Body, John Paul makes audacious analogies between spousal love and the love of
Yahweh for his people as demonstrated in the Song of Songs, Isaiah, Hosea and Ezekiel. He is even firmer
in equating spousal love with the New Testament’s signification of the love between Christ and the Church
illustrated in the Pauline text (Eph. 5:22-33). See TOB, nn. 94 & 95.
311
See TOB, no. 15 and MD, no. 18 & 25.
312
LW, no. 2.’ See also MD, no. 31.
313
LW, no. 3.
314
Largely developed by Edmund Husserl, ‘transcendental phenomenology’ is a philosophical approach
that seeks to understand human experience. However, Husserl sometimes uses the words ‘transcendental’
and ‘phenomenology’ interchangeably in order to describe phenomena and what constitutes meaning
hence it is sometimes referred to as ‘constitutive phenomenology’. See Stephanie Sheehan, “A Conceptual
Framework for Understanding Transcendental Phenomenology Through the Lived Experience of Biblical
Leaders,” in Emerging Leadership Journeys 7, Iss. 1 (2014): 10-11.
See also Dennis Howitt and Duncan Cramer, Introduction to Research Methods in Psychology, 4th edition,
(Harlow: Pearson, 2014), 431.
315
Williams, The Mind of John Paul II, 187.
316
For readings on the sovereignty of the human person see Karol Wojtyla, Love and Responsibility (New
York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1981) and Karol Wojtyla, The Acting Person (Dordrecht: D. Reidel,
1979).
societal plurality. In the assessment of his personalist’ view therefore, the person is the
primordial individual created in the image of God and confirmed in the redeeming of the
work of Christ. Each sovereign person subsequently enjoys an immortal destiny.317
From the above, there appears to be a motivation for John Paul II in situating
marriage and sexuality within the ambience of the human person created in God’s image
and finding fulfilment in the task entrusted to him. Central to this teaching is the very idea
that the human person is created in the image and likeness of God. 318 It is in this way that
the person is endowed with inalienable freedom and personal dignity. In John Paul’s
thinking, the place of the dignity of the person is fundamental. More so, as the Council
Fathers affirm, the human being accounts for the only creature on earth that exists for its
own sake.319
In John Paul’s thinking, the body is primarily the sacrament of the divine. Created in
a pattern of mirroring God’s saving grace, it can be referred to as the ‘sacrament of the
person.’ The inward reality of the person is effectively given to others through the
outward sign of the body.320 It may be difficult to point out the exact meaning of what he
usually refers to as the ‘language of the body’ although he seems to indicate that the body
is a ‘revelation from God’ and a ‘revelation of God’:
“Thus in this dimension, a primordial sacrament is constituted,

understood as a sign that efficaciously transmits in the visible world the
invisible mystery hidden in God from eternity. And this is the mystery of
Truth and Love, the mystery of divine life, in which man really
participates…. In fact, the body is capable of making visible what is
invisible: the spiritual and the divine. It has been created to transfer into
the visible reality of the world the mystery hidden from eternity in God,
and thus be a sign of it.”321
John Paul II connects love, the human body and the soul together and maintains that the
spiritual soul expresses itself in a body and the body in turn is made a sharer in spiritual
love. As a result of this alliance, the human person is aided in the recognition of his/her
vocation; a testimony of being ‘created in the image of God.’ The pope puts it thus:
“Christian revelation recognizes two ways of realising the vocation of the human person
in its entirety, to love; marriage and virginity or celibacy. Either one is, in its own proper
form, an activation of the most profound truth of man, of his being ‘created in the image
317
Williams, The Mind of John Paul II, 217. See also TOB, no. 93-4.
318
See GS, no 12.
319
Ibid., no 24.
320
Martin X. Moleski, SJ,“The Prophetic Mission of Marriage: John Paul II’s Vision of Human
Sexuality,” in Prophecy and Diplomacy: The Moral Doctrine of John Paul II, eds. John J. Conley and
Joseph W. Koterski (New York: Fordham University Press, 1999), 249.
321
TOB, no. 19. Emphasis as in original.
of God’”322 Besides, the biblical usage of the words ‘image and likeness’ epitomizes the
covenant between God and his people. It signals an invitation for man to respond to the
call of his creator.323 The divine likeness is thus a gift and a responsibility. This likeness
transmitted to the person is “a quality of the personal being of both man and woman and
is also a task.”324 Subsequently, the human person is an image of God because they does
possess a mind and a will. The human person is a thinking and choosing being whose
thoughts and choices stem from his/her spiritual inner self.325 Hence one’s thinking and
choosing are personal and cannot be done on one’s behalf by someone else. God who is a
conscious being bestows consciousness on the human person as well. It is within this
cockpit that we could better understand the statement, “Let us make man in our own
image.”326
3.8.3 ‘Man and Women He Created Them’

From the foregoing, we have explained the anthropological foundations of the dignity of
the person as John Paul posits. The human person possesses an inherent dignity by the
fact of coming into creation in God’s own image. Furthermore, as an embodiment of the
image of God, Scripture relates that the human person is created male and female.327 Even
though each does not exist in isolation, they are however separate realities. The ‘male’
has features that identify him as ‘man’ and the ‘female’ has features that typify her as
‘woman.’ The response of Christ to a question put forward by the Pharisees gives more
insight to the intention behind this physical make up when he says, “Have you not read
that the one who made them at the beginning ‘made them male and female,’ and said,
‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the
two shall become one flesh’? So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what
God has joined together, let no one separate.”328
In The Theology of the Body, the pope notes that Scripture initially used the word
hā’adāmah – which connotes man’s relationship to the earth – while referring to Adam. It
is only after the woman is created that the Hebrew word is used for man in the sense of
‘male.’ It is the word iš and it immediately pairs it with the ‘female’ iššāħ. The woman is
to be called iššāħ precisely because she was taken out of man.329 Reflecting on this idea
322
John Paul II, Apostolic Exhortation, “On the Role of the Christian Family in the Modern World,
Familiaris Consortio,” 22 November 1981. AAS 74 (1982), no. 11. Hereafter, it shall be referred to as
‘FC.’
323
Carl Anderson and Jose Granados, Called to Love: Approaching John Paul II’s Theology of the Body
(New York: Doubleday Publishing Company, 2009), 22.
324
MD, no. 7.
325
Richard M. Hogan and John M. LeVoir, Covenant of Love: Pope John Paul II on Sexuality, Marriage
and Family in the Modern World, 2nd edition (San Francisco, CA: Ignatius Press, 1992), 39.
326
See Gen 1:26. The version of Bible used in this analysis is the NRSV (New Revised Standard Version)
except for those that appear in a direct quotation.
327
See Gn 1:27.
328
Mt 19:3-6.
329
TOB, no. 8. For more analysis on these Hebrew words see Anderson and Granados, Called to Love, 45.
of creation, John Paul II submits that the text, 330 which Christ referred to speaks of
‘original human experiences’ which are “always at the root of every human
experience.”331
John Paul reasons that in the solitude experienced by Adam in the Garden of Eden,
Adam was not relieved by the presence of the animals. Not even the naming of the
animals ‘endeared’ them to Adam. 332 By the fact of Adam’s position in naming the
animals, there is the conception that the relationship of man (and woman) to the rest of
creation is one of responsible stewardship. The authority of the human being over
creation is always based on “God’s prior and original gift of the things that are.” 333
Hence, while we may not negate this supposition of Adam’s ‘fondness’ for these
creatures, it is clear that Adam soon discovered in the midst of these that there was still a
missing link. He realised that there was nobody like him.
It has been argued that in the face of agonizing loneliness, Adam longed to love.
Composed of a body and soul, he needed to express love to someone – another human
person. This was to be done in and through the body by way of sexual expression. Also,
this ‘irreplaceable’ love could not be shared with animals that apparently do not possess
the ‘required’ intellect and will. The experience of finding Eve was unarguably a joyful
one for Adam. The book of Genesis recounts his utterance, “This at last is bone of my
bones and flesh of my flesh.” 334 In order to arrive at a more lucid understanding of
Adam’s feeling at that moment, the words “this at last” is very crucial.
Is it conceivable to say it would have been a different situation if God had not
created the human person male and female? The supposition of the pope is that it is in
masculinity and femininity that the realisation of the unity of human persons in a bodily
way is achieved. Without sexuality, physical union would have been impossibe.
Following from this, the experience of joy that Adam felt upon seeing Eve, is to be
encountered by each and every spouse as he meets his future wife or as she meets her
future husband.335 However, it remains to be seen as to whether this instance of joyful
feeling, which Adam and Eve experienced, is realisable in every conjugal relationship.
It is interesting to note that the creation of the human person in the form of ‘man’ and
‘woman’ does provide a platform for the understanding of the person – male and female.
Seeing a creature similar to him, marked with some ‘important differences,’ man (in this
330
See Gen 2:24.
331
TOB, no. 11.
332
See Gen 2:18-20.
333
John Paul II, Encyclical Letter, “On the Hundredth Year of Rerum Novarum, Centesimus Annus,” 1
May 1991. AAS 83 (1981), no. 37. Hereafter, it shall be referred to as ‘CA.’ See also Avery Dulles, “Faith
and Culture in the Thoughts of John Paul II” in Prophecy and Diplomacy: The Moral Doctrine of John
Paul II, eds. John J. Conley and Joseph W. Koterski (New York: Fordham University Press, 1999), 179.
334
See Gen 2:23 and also TOB, no. 9.
335
Hogan and LeVoir, Covenant of Love, 47.
particular case, Adam336) is relieved of his loneliness and he subsequently enters into a
lasting relationship with the woman (in this case, Eve). 337 They both augment their
experience by seeing the world from the other’s point of view just as it happened between
Adam and Eve; each perceiving the other as a being who can complete him/her. This
represents the crux of sacramental marriage – a life of lasting union between the spouses.
Consequently, the pope suggests that the difference between a man and a woman is
to be positively actualised in a complementary manner. Masculinity and femininity “are
as it were, two different ‘incarnations’ that is, two ways in which the same human being,
created ‘in the image of God’ (Gen 1:27) ‘is a body.’”338 This is very essential in order to
comprehend what the pope calls the ‘spousal meaning of the body’ or the ‘nuptial
meaning of the body.’ He explains the spousal or nuptial meaning of the body as referring
to the revelation and discovery of the human being, existing as male and female. Man and
woman unite closely with each other and they become ‘one flesh.’. 339 In a way, the
spousal meaning of the body renders an explanation to Adam’s original happiness upon
seeing Eve. It renders a certain notion of ‘completeness’ that the man found in the
woman.
3.9 Evaluating the Sexuality of Man and Woman

We shall now turn our attention to an evaluation of the main features of John Paul II’s
theology in conversation with a number of authors. First we begin with his differentiation
of the sexes.
3.9.1 Different Sexes

The place of the sexual difference of man and woman is central in the teaching of the
pope on the human person. Citing the Genesis account, he admits that the human person,
since the very beginning, is male and female. In the Theology of the Body, he refers to
masculinity and femininity as two ways in which the human person is a body. 340 The
background to this idea of sexual difference is palpably nuanced one could say. The
intention of Yahweh-God in establishing a difference cannot be contested. The fact that a
rib was taken out of Adam did not necessarily imply that the ‘other’ that God was to
create would take a similar form. One could argue that the need for a complementary
‘other’ was motivational to this manner of creation. From the rib of man, the ‘other’ came
forth despite the marked difference. Adam recognized the sameness and exclaimed “this
at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh” (Gn. 2:23). This signifies that although
336
Adam means man. However, the Hebrew term ’adām expresses the collective species, that is, the man
who represents humanity. See TOB, nos. 3 & 8.
337
Thomas M. Martin, The Challenge of Christian Marriage: Marriage in Scripture, History and
Contemporary Life (Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 1990), 25.
338
TOB, no. 8.
339
Ibid., no. 14.
340
TOB, no. 8.
she had different characteristics, the woman has the same humanity that the man
possesses.
This similar ‘other’ then was to be a helper for the man. For this reason, man and
woman, in marriage are united as one flesh. However, in the pope’s theology, one is not
certain if this function of ‘helper’ still takes place outside the scope of marriage. If this
were exclusively realisable in marriage, it would appear that not all women experience
this originally intended aspect of womanhood. This group of women would include, for
example, women who do not share a marital bond with a man or women who do not
participate in a life of virginity (which the pope refers to as a ‘superior’ vocation in
Familiaris consortio).341
Apparently, those who detect a language of subordination are concerned that the
woman was made with the intention of being a helper fit for ‘him’. The pope, however,
does not see it this way. He contends that the creation of the human person as man and
woman, wherein the woman is subsequently referred to as the helper suggests rather, a
hint of complementarity. In simple terms, the notion helper connotes reciprocity.342 Susan
Rakoczy thinks differently though. She argues that although the pope argues for equality
between the man and the woman, “there is much in the papal writings that demonstrate
that the two different ‘incarnations’ are not really equal since the male is the norm.”343
She has intimated that in the analysis of the Theology of the Body, the man sees the
woman as a ‘second self’ and not necessarily as ‘another self.’ Nevertheless, the pope’s
response in Mulieris Dignitatem would be that humanity remains one because both
women and men were created in the image and likeness of the personal God sharing
equality from the point of view of their humanity.344
In contrast to Rakoczy’s assertion, John Grabowski is of the opinion that the biblical
accounts helpfully make for an articulation of a perspective on how both equality and
difference can be identified between the sexes and in their mutual relationship to each
other. Thus, the idea of creating an ‘ēzer – helper for the man is in response to the
concern that ‘it is not good for the man to be alone’ (Gn. 2:18). Grabowski notes that this
term – ‘ēzer is sometimes translated freely as ‘suitable partner’ (NAB) or more literally as
a ‘helper suitable’ (NIV). In the original Hebrew, the latter is closer to it, although in
contemporary English usage, the term ‘helper’ evokes notions of inferiority and
subservience.345 Conversely, current research shows that the original term, ‘ēzer does not
carry such association. More precisely, in biblical Hebrew, the term often refers to God as
341
FC, no. 16.
342
MD, no. 7.
343
Susan Rakoczy, “Mixed Messages: John Paul II’s Writings on Women,” in The Vision of John Paul II:
Assessing his Thought and Influence, ed. Gerard Mannion (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2008), 165.
344
MD, no. 6.
345
John S. Grabowski, Sex and Virtue: An Introduction to Sexual Ethics (Washington DC: Catholic
University of America Press, 2003), 98-99.
the one who gives aid to Israel (cf. Ex. 18:4; Dt. 33:7,29; Ps. 20:3; 121:2; 124:8).346 In
this sense, a helper can as well be a superior being. If for anything, within the framework
of marriage, the term would serve to underscore the equal dignity of women with men.
Another aspect that deserves mention is the deliberate reversal of the woman’s legal
status in the Genesis account. In the Israelite law, it was the woman who was expected to
leave her family in order to become part of the house (bet) of the man.347 That biblical
narrative reverses this in stating that “…Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother
and clings to his wife, and they become one flesh” (Gn. 2:24). The implication of this is
that “women’s legally subordinate status was not part of God’s original creative
intent.”348
The pope speaks of the sexual difference of man and woman as ‘biologically’
ordered to perform these distinct roles. For instance in his interpretation of Gn 4:1, the
words, ‘who conceived and gave birth’ which is used in reference to the woman Eve
suggests “femininity manifests and reveals itself in its full depth through motherhood.”349
Hence in view of sexual difference, the female body is geared towards motherhood.350
Hence the traditional image of the role of the woman is that she is primarily a mother and
then her other contributions to the society are secondary. Clearly, this does not do justice
to women who for one reason or the other do not share in motherhood. For this reason,
Rakoczy argues that the papal view “ignores the fact that many women are not mothers,
by choice and by circumstance, and that the potential for physical motherhood
encompasses only a percentage of a woman’s life, for example ages fourteen to forty-
eight in an average life span of eighty years.”351
The pope’s contention on sexual difference is indeed very striking. In Mulieris
Dignitatem, John Paul II develops the idea that the woman is the one who receives.
According to him, there is the “truth about woman as bride. The Bridegroom is the one
who loves. The bride is loved: it is she who receives love, in order to love in return.”352
This leaves a question as to why it is often the case that it is the woman who is meant to
receive love first and not the other way round. The continued emphasis therefore on the
nature of women does not seem to create room for an all-round approach to the
participation and development of women in the society. Gaudium et Spes had previously
affirmed this trend when it asserted, “women now work in almost all spheres. It is fitting
that they are able to assume their proper role in accordance with their own nature. It will
346
Lisa Sowle Cahill, Between the Sexes: Foundations for a Christian Ethics of Sexuality (Philadelphia:
Fortress Press, 1985), 54. See also John S. Grabowski, Sex and Virtue, 99.
347
John S. Grabowski, Sex and Virtue, 100. See also Lisa Sowle Cahill, Between the Sexes, 55 and Paul
Jewett, Man as Male and Female (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans, 1975), 124-28.
348
Ibid.
349
TOB, no. 21.
350
See also Ibid., no. 21 where the pope reiterates that motherhood reveals the constitution of the female
body from within. Then with the help of a man, conception and begetting is made possible.
351
Rakoczy, “Mixed Messages,” 167.
352
MD, no. 29.
belong to all to acknowledge and favour the proper and necessary participation of women
in the cultural life.”353
So, while the Council Fathers approve of the participation of women in the society,
they are quick to insist that the roles they play must be in accordance with their ‘own
nature.’ This is the view that John Paul II also tilts towards. Rakoczy contends that in the
pope’s writing on anthropology, “there is no reflection on ‘masculine nature.’ Man is the
norm; woman is different, idealized, and physically and psychologically passive and
receptive to men and the world.” 354 Is this therefore the role according to their ‘own
nature’ that the Council Fathers and John Paul II ask them to play? On the contrary
though, within the context of femininity and masculinity, the pope speaks of an exchange
of the gift between a woman and a man. In his opinion, it is a gift of the self to the other
in the whole process of giving and acceptance. The pope surmises that it is only in the gift
of self that one recognises the innermost depth of personhood.355
Following from the pope’s estimation of a woman’s inherent dignity and equality as
person, he employs the notion ‘communio’ in establishing the male-female relationship.
For him, communio speaks more with greater precision because “it indicates precisely the
‘help’ that derives in some way from the very fact of existing as a person ‘beside’ a
person.”356 The communion of persons therefore entails reciprocity; rendering the help
which no other living creature would have offered to the human person. Thus the
complementary nature of the man and the woman form a ‘communio personarum.’ In
other words, the human person becomes the image of God not only through his/her
humanity, but also through the communion of persons that had been formed.357
In the pope’s interpretation of the word ‘help’ there is no allusion to a lack in the
other that one tries to fill. Rakoczy however faults the pope’s thesis on complementarity.
She particularly perceives that the notion of complementarity in John Paul’s writings
which conveys this idea that man and woman are seen to bring to the other something that
is lacking is one-sided. She gives her interpretation of the papal view thus: “What is
lacking? Since the underlying assumption is that ‘masculine nature’ is human nature, a
man cannot lack what a woman has. But a woman can somehow be completed by a
man.”358 But John Paul II does not convey that the masculine nature is the human nature.
Rather he says feminine and masculine are but two ways of understanding human
nature.359
353
GS, no. 60. Emphasis mine.
354
355
TOB, no. 17.
356
Ibid., no. 9. Emphasis as in original.
357
Cf. Ibid.
358
359
MD, no. 8.
3.9.2 The Notion of ‘Complementarity’

An immediate consequence of the sexual difference of man and woman would be for
John Paul II the existence and requisite for complementarity between the sexes as we
earlier stated. It is therefore not surprising that the theme of male-female complementarity
is prominent in his teaching on marriage and family. In his Letter to Women he asserts:
“Woman complements man, just as man complements woman: men and women are
complementary. Womanhood expresses the ‘human’ as much as manhood does, but in a
different and complementary way.” 360 In finding an anthropological basis for
complementarity, he rather suggests it in terms of the ‘woman’s personal identity in
relation to man.’ The quandary here is that femininity is always clarified with a reference
to masculinity and not the other way round. One may be prompted to think that in the
pope’s teaching, man is always the norm to which the feminine nature is assessed. This is
a challenge to the equality theory as we shall see in further debates.
From the foregoing, it is evident that male-female complementarity enjoys a
prominent position in the theology of John Paul II. We could cursorily add that his
reflection on his idea of complementarity was a novelty as far as the Magisterium is
concerned. In the post-synodal apostolic exhortation Christifidelis Laici, he suggests an
anthropological basis for this complementarity:
“The condition that will assure the rightful presence of woman in the
Church and in society is a more penetrating and accurate consideration
of the anthropological foundation for masculinity and femininity with
the intent of clarifying woman’s personal identity in relation to man, that
is, a diversity yet mutual complementarity, not only as it concerns roles
to be held and functions to be performed, but also, more deeply, as it
concerns her make-up and meaning as a person.”361
John Paul avows that “even though man and woman are made for each other, this does
not mean that God created them incomplete. God created them to be a communion of
persons, in which each can be a ‘helpmate' to the other, for they are equal as persons and
complementary as masculine and feminine. Reciprocity and complementarity are the two
fundamental characteristics of the human couple.” 362 Each individual person has the
potential to be complete through an integration of the biological, social, psycho-affective
and spiritual elements of complementarity. The claim that men and women are complete
in themselves is seemingly intended as a response to the concerns that celibate religious
or single people are in a sense not complete and lack something about their humanity.
360
LW, no. 7.
361
John Paul II, Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation, “On the Vocation and the Mission of the Lay
Faithful in the Church and in the World, Christifidelis Laici,” 30 December 1988. AAS 81 (1989), no. 50.
Hereafter, it shall be referred to as ‘CL.’
362
John Paul II, Women: Teachers of Peace 3, Message of His Holiness Pope John Paul II for the XXVIII
World Day of Peace (January 1, 1995),
http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/messages/peace/documents/hf_jp-
ii_mes_08121994_xxviii-world-day-for-peace_en.html [accessed April 20 2017].
Charles Curran raises the alarm that the idea of incompleteness, in the humanity of
someone who is not married, “obviously goes too far”.363
Arguing the same as Curran, Todd Salzman and Michael Lawler are of the opinion
that John Paul’s notion of the individual is ambivalent. They stress that even though the
pope says that man and woman are ‘complete’ in themselves, he appears to argue that
before forming a couple, they are incomplete.364 In other words, while two persons are
complete as individuals, they would be incomplete as couples unless they complement
each other. It could be asked, however, as Salzman and Lawler do, where such
incompleteness and the subsequent need for complementarity reside in an individual that
is already complete in himself or herself? How does that same person become incomplete
in forming a couple? In what part of the human person does this incompleteness occur
that therefore needs complementing by the opposite sex?365 A response to these questions
could be found in the Letter to Women: “Womanhood and manhood are complementary
not only from the physical and psychological points of view, but also from the
ontological. It is only through the duality of the "masculine" and the "feminine" that the
"human" finds full realization.”366
The questions raised above undoubtedly require more clarifying answers especially
with regard to the claim that individuals are created by God as complete but incomplete
when they form a couple. More so, that this incompleteness is only made complete
through the affective (biological, social and spiritual) complementarity of male and
female. Salzman and Lawler raise two apprehensions to this argument. First, to claim that
one is complete in himself or herself means that the person is complete biologically,
socially, psycho-affectively and spiritually at least when the person is in relationship with
God and neighbor. Second, while it is evident that, in terms of genitalia for reproduction
male and female complement each other, it is not clear how couples complement each
other psycho-affectively, socially, and spiritually.367
There is another dimension to complementarity that we briefly acknowledged earlier.
Namely, that complementarity indicates for John Paul II an anchor for equality of male
and female. To underline the link between complementarity and equality, he prescribes
363
See Charles Curran, The Moral Theology of Pope John Paul II (Georgetown, WA: Georgetown
University Press, 2005), 192-3.
364
Todd A. Salzman and Michael G. Lawler, Sexual Ethics: A Theological Introduction (Washington DC:
Georgetown University Press, 2012), 67. For an extended reading on Salzman and Lawler’s views on
male-female complementarity see also Todd A. Salzman and Michael G. Lawler, The Sexual Person:
Toward a Renewed Catholic Anthropology (Washington DC: Georgetown University Press, 2008), 140-
150.
365
Ibid., 67-68. The postmodernist theologians Lisa Isherwood and Dorothea McEwan also fault the
complementarity argument because in their view, “it means neither men and women are ‘whole’,
individual entities, indivisible and autonomous. It is faulty because society is composed of individuals who
are whole, not families, which are divisible.” Isherwood and McEwan, Introducing Feminist Theology, 25.
However, John Paul in his usual manner might argue that society, even though it is composed of
individuals relies heavily on the family.
366
LW, no. 7. Emphasis as in original. See also FC, no. 19.
367
Salzman and Lawler, Sexual Ethics, 69.
that “as far as personal rights are concerned, there is an urgent need to achieve real
equality in every area: equal pay for equal work, protection for working mothers, fairness
in career advancements, equality of spouses with regard to family rights….” 368 A
drawback of the pope’s usage of complementarity-equality can be traced to his teaching
on the special character of virginity and celibacy. Though he roots the basis of this in the
history of the Church, the fact that he emphasizes that marriage and virginity or celibacy
complement each other in their expression of the one mystery of the covenant of God
with His people and yet remains insistent on the superiority of virginity might suggest
that complementary entities do not always belong to an equal footing. 369 If this is the
case, someone might argue that the complementarity thesis of the pope does not in itself
imply equality.
The complementary roles assigned to women needs to be duly examined. That the
woman is always the one to receive love and subsequently give love calls for concern.
The pope is anxious that if women ‘lose what constitutes their essential richness’ which is
of course the vocation to love, their femininity may be distorted.370 Hence it must be said
that the reception of love experienced by women does actually affirm a passive role and
does not pin-point an active role for women. Does this not appear to be a tendency for
subordination? What roles are ‘assigned’ to women? This, we shall examine later.
3.9.3 Parental Equality and the Upbringing of Children

The union of a man and woman in the sacrament of marriage signals a new beginning in
their lives. Significantly, marriage is the only sacrament where the participants are also
the ministers. After the exchange of consent, the spouses who are united as one in the
presence of the priest (or official minister) and the people who serve as witnesses begin a
new form of life. Several challenges and questions however await them. One of such is
the question of who attains leadership of the family or household.
In his consideration of the equality of parents, John Paul II emphasizes the
connection between the dual unity of ‘male and female’ and the ‘rights’ of each. He
theorises that “in creating the human race ‘male and female,’ God gives man and woman
an equal personal dignity endowing them with the inalienable rights and responsibilities
proper to the human person.”371 In order to gain more insight into this view-point, it may
be helpful to refer to the Pauline passage: “There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no
longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ
Jesus.”372
John Paul II’s interpretation of the equality of parents is never in doubt. He admits
that authentic conjugal love places a requirement that a man should have profound respect
368
LW, no. 4. Emphasis as in original.
369
FC, no. 16.
370
For further reading see MD, nos. 10 & 30.
371
FC, no 22.
372
Gal 3:28. Emphasis mine.
for the equal dignity of his wife. Relying on St. Ambrose, he suggests to the man that:
“You are not her master but her husband; she was not given to you to be your slave, but
your wife…. Reciprocate her attentiveness to you and be grateful to her for her love.”373
With regard to the husband’s relationship with his wife, the pope recommends a special
form of personal friendship.
Parallel to parental equality, John Paul II resonates the place of children in marriage.
Referring to them as ‘gifts of marriage’, he envisages a love for children as a means for
establishing a firm foundation for the family. In a short section of Familiaris Consortio
captioned ‘Men as Husbands and Fathers,’ the pope teaches: “love for his wife as mother
of their children and love for the children themselves are for the man the natural way of
understanding and fulfilling his own fatherhood.”374 Proceeding further, the pope urges
fathers to predicate their role on the ‘fatherhood of God model’.
Angelo Scola supports John Paul’s position on children by situating childhood within
the context of an original experience to be sought in the mystery of creation. As such,
“parents are called to accompany their children’s freedom without ever claiming to be its
substitute – such a claim would be illusory, since human freedom is personal and
inalienable.”375 Subsequently, it is through the task of education that parents are able to
provide for their children’s freedom, accompanying them to a gradual fulfilment of their
persons.376
3.10 The Role of Women

The place and role of women in the family, the society and the church has become one of
the most crucial topics of the time. Faced with an experience of patriarchal dominance,
women and feminist thinkers in general have advocated for a societal philosophy that
gives opportunity to everyone regardless of gender in the sphere of work. This awareness
venture is however not limited to the public sphere alone, it does begin from the home.
Thus, the traditional impression of the man as the breadwinner while the woman is the
homemaker has been questioned. It is somewhat apparent now that they can both be the
breadwinner and the homemaker together. Maybe this could help to solidify the notion of
complementarity among spouses.
The call for a reconstruction of the role of women could be said to have gained
ground in the early 20th century (though it became more established in the second part of
the 20th century). Pope John XXIII appeared to have detected this trend when he speaks
of women’s increasingly active role in society, particularly political life.377 True, a critical
attitude on the professional role of women is implausible. The claim that women cannot
373
FC, no. 25.
374
FC, no. 25.
375
Angelo Scola, The Nuptial Mystery, translated by Michelle K. Borras (Cambridge: William B.
Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2005), 251.
376
Ibid.
377
John XXIII, Encyclical Letter, “On Establishing Universal Peace in Truth, Justice, Charity and Liberty,
Pacem in Terris,” 11 April 1963. AAS 55 (1963), no. 41. Hereafter, it shall be referred to as ‘PT.’
devote time to work and remain faithful to the parental commitments has lost its footing.
That a woman necessarily has to be a housewife is in fact outdated and men seem to have
embraced the value of women working as well. If for nothing, it offers an economic
advantage by taking off a large chunk from the shoulders of the man. John Paul has made
an assessment of women’s work as well. In his opinion, “it is important to underline the
equal dignity and responsibility of women with men. This equality is realised in a unique
manner in that reciprocal self-giving by each one to the other and by both to the children
which is proper to marriage and the family.”378
This is quite interesting for as Lisa Cahill admits, unlike contemporary proponents of
male headship, John Paul II does not propose a theory of women being subordinate to
men in the family. Nevertheless, she casts some doubts as to the pope’s underlying
defence of gender equality. 379 Cahill reasons that in the years preceding John Paul II,
Catholic social teaching had defined the role of women within a given ambit. She
mentions that the view of the Church’s social teaching confines women to “remain within
the domestic sphere, providing traditional family services for the welfare of family and of
society. Those services are not to be remunerated in any direct way.” 380 That the woman
is plainly limited to household chores a century ago is not in doubt. It remains unseen
how John Paul’s consideration of the equality of women to men has impacted a difference
on this previous thought-pattern. Earlier on, in confirming this ‘traditional’ notion of the
role of women, Pope Pius XI had declared in his encyclical Quadragesimo Anno that “the
worker must be paid a wage sufficient to support him and his family. That the rest of the
family should also contribute to the common support, according to the capacity of each, is
certainly right… but to abuse the years of childhood and the limited strength of women is
grossly wrong.”381
Some scholars are very much hesitant to ascribe too much of public work to women.
They are of the view that a woman’s role in the family is very much a physical and
emotional one. Put simply, her role entails a ‘bodily one.’ Richard Hogan and John
LeVoir specifically are adamant that due to motherhood, the woman is a bodily and
spiritual reality who bountifully expresses love, affection and care on her children. They
add that by her nature, she is suited for this.382 While noting that a father’s love is hardly
378
FC, no. 22.
379
Cahill, Family: A Christian Social Perspective (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2000), 85.
380
Ibid., 87.
381
Pius XI, Encyclical Letter, “On the Reconstruction of the Social Order, Quadragesimo Anno,” 15 May
1931. AAS 23 (1931), no. 71. Emphasis mine. Pius XI discussed in this encyclical, the ethical implications
of the social and economic order. He called for a reconstruction of the social order based on the principle
of solidarity and subsidiarity. Pius also pointed out the ‘threat’ of capitalism and totalitarian communism.
Hereafter it shall be referred to as ‘QA.’ Pope Leo XIII had, some years earlier, reflected on this issue. See
Leo XIII. Encyclical Letter, “On Capital and Labour, Rerum Novarum,” 15 May 1891. Acta Leonis XII, 11
(1982), no. 42. The encyclical was a response to industrialization and the exploitation of the working class
by capital owners. It also addressed the emergence of atheistic socialism at the time. Hereafter it shall be
referred to as ‘RN.’
382
expressed in such an intense bodily way, they suggest that it is of necessity that the
mother be with the children in a physical way and to be physically capable of caring for
them.383 The implication of this position is that the role of women in the public square
would be very well limited because such home duties do carry along physical and
emotional exhaustion in themselves especially when exercised diligently. How then does
a woman fulfil her vocation to work in the public sphere, which is implied in the divine
charge in the Genesis narrative to ‘subdue and dominate the earth’?
In admitting the difficulties of this integration, John Paul II asserts that wives and
mothers should not for some reasons, be compelled to work outside their home. He
subsequently criticizes the mentality that honours women more for their work outside of
the home than their work within the family.384 This has motivated Cahill’s observation
that the pope’s concern about “the permanency of marital commitments and responsibility
for children can overshadow his commitment to women’s social advancement.”385 She
accepts that differences ought to be appreciated rather than denied. Still, these differences
should not be interpreted in a narrow confinement of expressing ‘masculinity’ and
‘femininity’ that excludes the necessary freedom that characterizes humanity. 386 In
addition, men’s caring role in the household is not clearly stipulated.
So, while some theologians share the pope’s concern about family, others differ with
him on gender, responsibility and public roles. The pope seems willing to approve
women’s work and to enhance a frontier against discrimination in public work but he is
also worried about the negative consequences this could have in the home. Hence he
reminds them that their uppermost priority is their maternal home thereby signalling for a
‘harmonious combination’.387 Susan Rakoczy is however adamant that the pope did not
make a differentiation between “women compelled to take up menial jobs for low pay
and the need of professionally educated women to work as doctors, teachers, lawyers etc.
not only to contribute to society but for their own psychological and spiritual well-being
as persons.”388
Considering previous papal teachings then, it is rather commendable that John Paul II
places domestic labour within the ambience of family wage-deserving work and
contemplates on ‘grants to mothers’ also.389 In Laborem Exercens, he admits: “experience
confirms that there must be a social re-evaluation of the mother’s role, of the toil
connected with it and of the need that children have for care, love and affection in order
that they may develop into responsible, morally, religiously mature and psychologically
383
Ibid.
384
FC, no. 23.
385
Cahill, Family, 92.
386
Cahill, Between the Sexes: Foundation for a Christian Ethics (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1985), 99-
100.
387
See FC, no. 23.
388
389
Cahill, Family, 87.
stable persons.”390 This leads him to assert that, “even when they work, it is fitting that
they should be able to fulfil their tasks in accordance with their own nature without being
discriminated against and without being excluded from jobs for which they are
capable….” 391 All the same, he still upholds that this ‘true advancement’ of women
should not be at the expense of their family aspirations.
In John Paul II, we shall find that, though he does not develop an ‘emancipatory
approach’ to gender, he piquantly advocates the equality of both sexes while at the same
time insisting on complementary traits and roles of women and men respectively. Overall,
he provides an insightful and appropriate response to deal with women (and gender)
issues in an African context.
3.11 Rethinking Gender Equality

The important subject of the role of women has been a regular feature in the Church’s
teaching.392 The Aristotelian notion that only the male is the fully competent and mature
human being, the ideal and primary representation of the human is no longer plausible.
The practice of the three famous ‘Cs’ used to describe the activities of women – children,
church, chores has fallen under deep scrutiny. 393 Around the last quarter of the 20th
century debates were rife over the role of women and gender equality. These debates took
on a relatively radical approach. For this reason, Lorraine Harding notes that in the
1980’s the term ‘feminism’ rather than women’s liberation was employed, and a body of
feminist literature developed, which highlighted and challenged women’s inequality and
traditional gender roles.394 The effect was the bringing about of changes in work, social
security provision, politics, media, fashion and popular psychology.
It is interesting to observe that it was about this time that the Synod Fathers gathered
in Rome for the ‘Synod on the Family’ in 1980 that led to the subsequent publication of
Familiaris Consortio a year afterwards. From a close reading of the document, we find
John Paul II’s appreciation of the role of women in the family and society. He has echoed
the equal dignity and responsibility of men and women. Nevertheless, he reminds women
of the recognition of the value of their maternal and family role. It is apparent that he
390
John Paul II, Encyclical Letter, “On Human Work, Laborem Exercens,” 14 September 1981. AAS 73
(1981), no. 19. Emphasis as in original. Hereafter, it shall be referred to as ‘LE.’
391
LE, no. 71. Emphasis as in original. John Paul II was a product of his society. He had witnessed the
experience of Polish women who under communism, had to work outside the home. They had to full time
jobs – taking care of the home, and their outside work in the society. This informs his position that women
should not be compelled by economic necessities to work outside the home. For further reading see
392
Popes Leo XIII (Rerum Novarum), Pius XI (Quadragesimo Anno), John XXIII (Pacem in Terris) and
the Second Vatican Council (Gaudium et Spes) have previously devoted some thoughts on this issue. For
further reading see RN, no. 42, QA, no. 71, PT, nos. 19 & 41, GS, nos. 52 & 60.
393
Walter Kasper, “The Position of Woman as a Problem of Theological Anthropology,” trans. John
Saward in The Church and Women: A Compendium, ed. Helmut Moll (San Francisco, CA: Ignatius Press,
1988), 51-2.
394
Lorrain Fox Harding, Family State and Social Policy (London: Macmillan Press, 1996), 21.
addresses also the role of men as fathers but he places more emphasis on the role of
women as mothers. Some have often criticised this position as ambivalent.
Critiquing the pope, Lisa Cahill admits that “an irreducible ambivalence in the papal
approach to gender owes to John Paul’s firm espousal of the complementary model of
equality.”395 Thus, while he has upheld the equality of spouses, the complementary roles
of each appear to witness some imbalance. Some scholars have argued that this model
leads to a situation wherein less socially valued roles are assigned to women coupled with
a limited measure of freedom, self-determination and leadership for which men become
the direct beneficiaries.396 David McCarthy prefers not to deny the significance of gender
roles and identity though he questions the reduced roles of husband/father and
wife/mother idea of the family. 397 In his opinion therefore, “the problem with the
personalist account of marriage is that it lacks social complexity.”398 Accordingly, when
the functional roles of the family itself are reduced to a frugal two, father and mother, the
entire social network suffers.
John Paul’s call for the avoidance of the oppressive presence of the father, a
‘machismo’ and a wrong superiority of male prerogatives that humiliates women, 399 has
been well received. On the flip side, his emphasis on the difference in social roles has not
gone unnoticed either. Julio Rubio reasons that “the pope’s acceptance of equality in the
relationship between husband and wife and his critique of ‘machismo’ might be
considered liberal. However, his assertion that people can be equal in dignity and still
play different roles reveals his conservative side.”400 While he encourages women to put
mothering before their work, he does not suggest that men put fathering before theirs. 401
Rather, the man contributes to the family and complements his wife “by work which is
never a cause of division but promotes his unity and stability.”402
In several ways, this practice of exercising paternal care-at-a-distance that could arise
from this trend constitutes a problem in itself. Whereas Adrian Thatcher claims “there is
an inevitable distancing of the father from his child because he does not experience the
bonding of the mother and child through pregnancy, childbirth and breastfeeding,” 403 the
395
Cahill, Family, 91.
396
For further reading on the opinions of these scholars see the following essays: Barbara Andolsen,
“Whose Sexuality? Whose Tradition? Women, Experience, and Roman Catholic Sexual Ethics,” in
Feminist Ethics and the Catholic Moral Tradition, Readings in Moral Theology, no. 9, eds. Charles
Curran, Margaret Farley, Richard McCormick S.J., 207-39 (Mahwah: NJ, Paulist, 1996); Christine Gudorf,
“Western Religion and the Patriarchal Family,” in Feminist Ethics and the Catholic Moral Tradition, 251-
77, Carol Coston, “Women’s Ways of Working,” Feminist Ethics and the Catholic Moral Tradition, 541-
59. See also Cahill, Family, 91.
397
McCarthy, Sex and Love in the Home, 111.
398
Ibid.
399
FC, no. 25.
400
Julie Hanlon Rubio, A Christian Theology of Marriage and Family (Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 2003),
138.
401
Ibid.
402
FC, no. 25.
403
Adrian Thatcher, Theology and Families (Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2007), 168.
distance would inevitably heighten when there is a huge proportion of concentration on

the father as the breadwinner. Notwithstanding, it seems a majority of scholars are not
advocating for the abdication of roles but of creating a balance in parenting. In a similar
manner, David McCarthy infers that John Paul II intends to reveal that “the role of
motherhood is an essential aspect of a woman’s dignity and that any androgynous or
gender-neutral account of equality denies real equality and undercuts the particular
vocation of men and women.”404
It is also of concern that the pope proposes that fathers should model themselves
after God the Father in ‘revealing’ and in ‘reliving’ on earth the very fatherhood of
God.405 For Rubio, “the choice of God the Father as model is telling, for women are not
told to model God for their children. Rather, like Mary, they should mother their children
and teach them devotion to God.” 406 Cahill criticises the ‘God the Father’ model as
inadequate. She explains that the pope envisions only the parental role exercised by men
as revealing divinity, in relation to the Fatherhood of God.407 Thatcher thus advocates for
an explanation into the meaning of the metaphor, ‘God the Father’. He admits that while
Familiaris Consortio has attempted to correct much gender bias in tradition, “the
religious meanings of ‘God the Father’ metaphor must surely be made available to men
and women, if in their nurturing of children, they are also to be nurtured in the love of
God.”408
So in what precise ways are Christian fathers to imitate ‘God the Father’? Why does
this model make consideration for fathers alone? The pope has given us a general vision
and presents us with an opportunity to reflect and fill in the details. However, Rubio
remains surprised that theology has said very little of fatherhood. In her opinion, “the lack
of reflection on what is meant to be a father is even more surprising given the fact that
father is a central metaphor for God in the Christian tradition.” 409 What do most
Christians think about when they call God ‘Father’? Quite interestingly, Thatcher has
questioned the contribution of the belief in God the Father to the practice of parenting. He
reasons that if for anything, “the symbol ‘Father’ is a barrier to effective parenting
because of its association with exclusively male power and gender.” 410 This raises the
issue of ‘patriarchy’ which is viewed as the dominance of men over women and children.
So, while some theologians share the pope’s concern about family, they differ
with him on gender, responsibility and public roles. The pope seems willing to approve
women’s work and to enhance a frontier against discrimination in public work but he is
also worried about the negative consequences this could have in the home. Therefore he
404
McCarthy, Sex and Love in the Home, 122. Emphasis mine.
405
FC, no. 25.
406
Rubio, A Christian Theology of Marriage and Family, 138.
407
Cahill, Family, 91.
408
Thatcher, Theology and Families, 175.
409
Rubio, A Christian Theology of Marriage and Family, 138.
410
calls for a renewed ‘theology of work’ that seeks to harmonize women’s careers in the
society with the ‘irreplaceable’ maternal obligations.411 This represents Cahill’s concern
that the pope’s unease for the consequences of career mothers in the household does
outweigh his commitment to women’s social advancement.412
3.12 Conclusion
As we have seen, the entrance of women (and gender) issues into the domain of African
theology owes much to the efforts of African women theologians. Though African
theology emerged in the 1960’s (with leading figures such as Vincent Mulago, John
Mbiti, Bolaji Idowu), they did not refer much to gender or to issues regarding women and
according to some scholars, presented ‘a theology with African male face’. In fact, the
earlier strand of African theology focused solely on adaptation to the detriment of prolific
aspects that have been discovered subsequently. Currently, African theologians seek to
bring women’s experience into theology.
To this end, much criticism has been levied against African male theologians for
their neglect of the gender discourse and their preference for the two earlier components
of African theology namely: liberation and inculturation theology. On the one hand, it is
observed that liberation theology together with the reconstruction theology in their
analysis of unjust structures systematically ignores the gender subject and on the other
hand, inculturation theology has been lampooned for its uncritical approach to culture
through its quest for reclaiming and affirming African culture. Nevertheless, a number of
African male theologians such as Laurenti Magesa and Emmanuel Katongole have taken
up the challenge put forward by women’s theology in their commitment to the theological
project of women’s liberation and gender justice.
Still more, in our study of the African women theologians it was lucid to us that John
Paul II’s idea of sexual difference and gender tends to connect with and accentuates the
insistence of African women theologians on the equal appreciation of men and women in
Africa in the sense that they are both specifically rooted in the dignity of the human
person. Therefore, in accessing John Paul II, we studied his complementarity approach.
The necessity of gender egalitarianism makes him insist both on the difference of the
sexes in the natural order and their equality in the social order. He does this with the help
of the creation narrative in his attempt to clarify what the differences could mean. His
conclusion is forthright: the difference of the sexes serves to underscore the establishment
of an appreciation of complementarity of man and woman. In this thinking, sexual
difference does not in any way suggest a disunity of both sexes but justifies the unity of
the human person as male and female. For this reason, in the Theology of the Body, he
describes masculinity and femininity as “two ways in which the same human being
411
See FC, no. 23.
412
Cahill, Family, 92.
created in the image of God (Gen. 1:27) is a body”. This intuition of the pope is the
foundation for his complementarity-equality model.
In advocating the equality of man and woman, he concurs with African women
theologians that women should have access to public functions and lauded what he
referred to as the ‘feminine genius’, which contributes to the development of the society
and also provides variety to societal work. He sees this, however, as an additional
responsibility of women. Though the concept of motherhood is explained by the pope,
fatherhood is barely discussed. Furthermore, there seems to be a certain apprehension that
if women get too involved in public roles, their responsibility in the home may suffer.
Yet, without prejudice to the role of women in the home, it is expected that due to the
increasing presence of women taking up careers, fathers should offer more support for
domestic duties than ever before. More so, the engagement of women in the society
improves their social, psychological and physical wellbeing. At the same time, it
contributes to the financial income of the family. This would reinforce a modification of
the mentality of a ‘breadwinner husband’ and a ‘home-maker wife’ as conveyed in our
ethnographic study.
Putting this chapter in perspective, we identify that the empirical study of the
previous chapter does validate aspects of the conceptual approaches studied herein in
some profound ways. Quite foremost is the fact that the interconnection between culture
and religion in African Christianity testifies that the role of culture in the domain of
African theology cannot be underestimated. This is because African Christians still locate
themselves at the crossroad between allegiance to Christianity characterized by its
emancipatory tone and faithfulness to the African culture with a slant on male headship
and assigned gender roles. Therefore the attempt to uncritically romanticize culture by a
superficial application of inculturation, as the African women theologians point out, is
tantamount to erecting a venture on a feeble backdrop. For this reason, it is bemoaned that
the generative and transformative elements of inculturation in African theology has not
been sufficiently utilized.
We discovered in the second shapter also that the attention Nigerian couples pay to
Church teachings is factual. They still want to know what the church postulates and
attempt to appropriate it in their lives. As a result, magisterial explanations form a core
part of their religious life and as a consequence, the pope’s explanation of human
sexuality and his insights on the complementarity of man and woman resonates across
multiple conversations. They convey that church authority has positively adopted the
gender theme in her teachings and are convinced that John Paul’s explanations on the
relations between maleness and femaleness have helped in no small way to safeguard
identical respect between couples. Some others did not share this optimistic view though.
They are adamant that magisterial teachings could be somewhat dense for lay faithful to
comprehend in addition to their impression that the daily experiences of couples are not
taken into account in the formulation of pastoral care for couples and families.
What is also quite evident from the empirical study and these conceptual approaches
is the Christian hope and confidence in Jesus that Nigerian Christians express. Evidently,
their identities have been shaped by their religion and spirituality to the extent that their
rhetoric is characteristically marked by their faith-life. They tender that in moments of
anguish and deep anxiety, they find it quite convenient to turn to Jesus in prayer, founded
on their conviction that he offers a succour for the weak, the afflicted and the distressed.
Similarly, they do attest that their Christian life provides an extra layer of perseverance
and optimism in their relationships.
On a disparate note, the place of women in the decision-making process of families is
ambivalent. While a few attest that they enjoy an interpersonal approach to the decision-
making process with their spouses, others are not as positive. Just as African women
theologians illustrate, this group of interlocutors convey that the prerogative of definitive
decisions rested on the shoulders of the husband. Quite intriguingly, a strand of female
participants is not bothered by this reality admitting to the fact that they have been
tremendously socialized into male headship. Relatedly, they are convinced that the image
of the ‘good wife’ is symbolically connected to that of the ‘submissiveness wife’, a point
that the African women theologians identify as an index of a patriarchal understanding.
It seems therefore that the notion of male headship is not debatable as far as many
couples in Southern Nigeria are concerned. Even those men who are not in support of
male dominance are nonetheless very clear that male headship is indisputable. They seem
unwilling to relinquish those privileges that have been accorded them by that position.
Though they assert the equality of spouses, they tender that their cultural upbringing
coupled with their numerous responsibilities – mostly financial – informs their stance that
the male headship is the norm. The idea of male headship coupled with the ‘breadwinner’
mentality makes women’s intellectual and economic development, which we theorized in
the first chapter, all the more necessary in order to bridge the gap in the relationship
between cultural provisions for male headship and women’s economic dependence on
men. Put differently, the intellectual and economic empowerment of women in Southern
Nigeria might be key in unlocking the prospects of an equal-regard relations between the
sexes.
A major point of reference therefore is an access to career for women as highlighted
in the second chapter. John Paul’s elucidation on the need for women to prioritize
household responsibilities over career choices is met with mixed responses. While
interlocutors of our ethnography generally acknowledge the fundamental responsibility of
women in their homes, a few express worry that motherhood has set their career path
some steps backward. This group is obdurate that a career-mother does no harm to the
organization of the family when she enjoys the support of their husbands in household
chores and when the gap of her warranted absence have been checkmated by relevant
apparatuses such as baby-sitting and mobility arrangements for children have been
adequately catered for. A few participants identify the financial benefit of a career job as
irresistible in itself. In addition, they recognize the psychosocial development of the

woman who develops a professional career path and protests a discriminatory ambience,
where compared to their male colleagues, they often have to exert more effort in their
work place to justify their engagement.
CHAPTER FOUR
TOWARDS AN ARTICULATED RESPONSE TO THE GENDER MOTIF IN
AFRICA:
AN ETHICAL-THEOLOGICAL ASSESSMENT
4.1 Introduction
In this final part of the dissertation, we attempt to arrive at an assessment on the basis of
the African theological literature vis-à-vis John Paul II’s reflection and the outcome of
our empirical study to what we have examined on the gender inquiry in Africa so far and
to explore where there is congruence and discrepancy between the ethnographic survey
and the conceptual frameworks and for what reasons. In doing so, this conclusive part
shall synthesize the results of our study and account for an ecclesial and theological
discourse which takes African couples’ experiences, along with their
social/communitarian embedding seriously on the one hand, while remaining at the same
time critical toward unjust gender relations on the other hand. The goal is to critically
consider the question on what an African Christian discourse on gender should look like
that adequately acknowledges the cultural heritage and grass root experiences of African
couples on the one side, and effectively goes against unjust gender structures on the other
side.
First, we shall identify, for the purpose of particularity, the undercurrents of gender
in the African family. In order to critically pinpoint these, we shall explore the major
participants of the Christian family while enunciating theological reflections along the
line. Proceeding to a expanded ambit, an exhumation of core aspects of African societies
that portray gender imbalances will include ascertaining whether their diminuendos could
be guaranteed by a nuanced reappraisal of what is mostly referred to as ‘cultural’. In
continuance, we shall penetratingly comb the implications of gender roles and biological
differentiation while searching for transformative elements of an inculturated Christianity
in Africa.
4.2 Gender Dynamics in the African Family: Recurring Themes

The conduct of our ethnography has provided a basis for a critical assessment of whether
the available gender thoughts, which we have examined in the third chapter, take into
consideration the grassroots’ perception and practice of gender in its cultural context and
what the chances of these philosophies are to question, and possibly transform, the way
women and men relate to each other in the family setting and beyond. Against this
backdrop, we intend to examine the connotation of gender in the African family with
specific reference to motherhood, fatherhood and the care of children.
4.2.1 Womanhood or Motherhood? The Implications of Reproduction

Cristina Grenholm’s assertion that the concept of motherhood is often associated with
normative conceptions of family underlines the existing asymmetry between motherhood
242 Towards an Articulated Response to the Gender Motif in Africa:
An Ethical-Theological Assessment
and fatherhood; an asymmetry that is further fed by the amount of time spent with the
child and the physical proximity of the parent with the child. 1 Grenholm makes an
elaborate trace of the demarcating lines that stretch between both aspects of parenthood.
According to her, where motherhood connotes pregnancy and birth, the former lasting for
about nine months and hardly evades noticing, fatherhood leaves less trace since a man
might actually need to remind himself that he is expecting. Further, whilst the midwife
and everyone visibly present in the delivery room are unmistaken as to the identity of the
child’s mother, there is no corresponding way to establish paternity since there is no
obvious link between father and child. In essence, a father might need to confirm
paternity but a mother does not confirm maternity. 2 Unlike the mother, the father can
choose to deny paternity.
Oduyoye has made an extensive identification of the multiplicity of maternal
responsibilities. She relates that even though fathers’ absence from the home and family
is easily taken for granted, the woman who works outside of her home does so in
extremis. She uses the illustration of Asante market women who struggled to educate
their children and to supply their needs in desperate times when their husbands were not
forthcoming. 3 The exertion paraded in their professions was not a reason to neglect
household chores though. Although Oduyoye approves of the costly sacrifice that African
women make, she insists that sacrifices must be voluntary and must be the onus of both
women and men.4
Referring to the nexus between women and motherhood, the pastoral theologian,
Joseph Ghunney seems to suggest that failure on the part of an African adult to get
married is reckoned as an attempt to attenuate humankind on earth, which he fathoms is a
major offence in society’s lens. For this reason Ghunney impinges on Africans, the
“sacred obligation” to marry. 5 But marriage and motherhood are not the only way to
contribute to the preservation of life. In furtherance, marriage of its own, even when open
to procreation does not pledge the begetting of children. Contrary to Ghunney’s
assumption, Thomas Knieps unravels that the Second Vatican Council broke with the
1
Cristina Grenholm, Motherhood and Love: Beyond the Gendered Stereotype of Theology (Grand Rapids,
MI: William Eerdmans, 2011), 43. Being conversant with the ‘family systems theory’ has helped in the
investigation of familial relationships. Fulgence Nyengele has described family system theory as a
psychotherapeutic theory that conceptualizes family life by viewing each member relative to other family
members with distinct reference to how each affects and is affected by the others. Its aim is to modify
interpersonal contacts and re-adapt family interaction patterns. See Mpyana Fulgence Nyengele, African
Women’s Theology, Gender Relations, and Family Systems Theory: Pastoral Theological Considerations
and Guidelines for Care and Counseling (New York: Peter Lang, 2004), 8-9.
2
Grenholm, Motherhood and Love, 49. An exception to this though might be surrogacy.
3
Oduyoye, Hearing and Knowing, 134.
4
5
Joseph Ghunney, “[Pastoral Counseling in] Ghana,” in Pastoral Counselling in a Global Church: Voices
from the Field, ed. Robert Wicks and Barry Estadt (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1993), 88.
Towards an Articulated Response to the Gender Motif in Africa: 243
tradition that conceived marriage principally as a contract geared towards begetting

children to a presentation of marriage accentuating the partner’s mutual love.6
Taking the debate further, African women theologians therefore argue that first,
marriage of itself is not an obligation but a choice to be freely and joyfully entered into.
Secondly, the ‘failure’ on the part of an adult to marry does not necessarily equate to an
attempt at thinning humankind since marriage itself does not always generate children.7
In any case, what then are the implications of men’s childlessness in Nigeria and how is it
received by society? Is the same true of women’s?
The fact is that, although most men do become fathers, fatherhood is hardly
understood as a constituent of a man’s life in the same way that women are expected to
become mothers. In Nigeria, a voluntary childless man does not turn as many heads as a
voluntarily childless woman except in instances of a deliberate religion-oriented celibacy
as the interlocutors of our ethnography disclosed. The voluntary childlessness of men is
to a great extent admitted as personal choice and faces little inquisition. 8 Put differently,
men’s identity is not hinged on parenthood in the same way that the woman is marked by
motherhood. So, are fathers expected to be less involved in parenting as a result?
Much more, African women theologians are wary that the cultural expectations of
marriage and motherhood wield pressure on women to marry and stay married, even at
huge personal costs. This is subsequently succeeded by the prescription to procreate so as
to be a mother. From this perspective, the ultimate career for women is marriage and
motherhood. On the flip side, however, even when African women theologians affirm the
remunerations and potentials of marriage, what they particularly disparage is the
hyperbolic valuation on female attachment to males via marriage co-joined with an
overstated view of reproductive abilities.9
When Oduyoye decries that African women display what she calls a ‘compulsory
attachment’ to men and marriage, her intention is to critique the assumption that a woman
can only be fulfilled by being ‘attached’ to a man. She therefore rebukes the version of
the complementarity hypothesis that idealizes singleness as an indication for
incompleteness. Even when she acknowledges the joy of being in a relationship, she notes
that the absence of one is not tantamount to an unfulfilled existence. She frowns
especially at a culture that promotes the idea of a fulfilled and mature existence as akin to
those who are married and have children, as exemplified in some ethnic groups in West
6
Thomas Knieps-Port le Roi, “Marriage Spirituality: A Spiritual Paradigm-Shift,” in The Way 45, no. 4
(Oct. 2006): 64.
7
Fulgence Nyengele, African Women’s Theology, 13.
8
See also Grenholm, Motherhood and Love, 50. The major worry for ‘traditional’ men who do not bear
children is that their family name is not passed on to the next generation. It appears childless women have
more troubles than the prospect of familial regeneration.
9
Nyengele, African Women’s Theology, 35. See also Isabel Phiri, “Doing Theology in Community: The
Case of African Women Theologians in the 1990’s,” Journal of Theology for Southern Africa 99 (Nov.
1997): 71.
Africa.10 This is precisely the reason why John Paul II is gauged for embroidering the
longing of Adam and Eve for each other as if those who do not have a partner lack
something substantial.11 Additionally, for those who are into relationships, it remains to
be seen as to whether this occasion of joyful sensation experienced by Adam and Eve is
realisable in every connubial relationship. In any case, women themselves, in our opinion,
would need to demonstrate a genuine capacity for independence whether they are
‘attached’ to a man or not. For good measure, among the Nigerian people, as we have
seen, females are found wanting in this respect as dependence on men seems to be
overrated.
In terms of provision, the father is expected to be the family provider without
necessarily interacting with the child. Though the father can be at a distance, a mother is
expected to be with her child. Fatherhood is characterized by the obligation to provide
financial security for the child and for the family. In hindsight, it is more compatible with
public life than motherhood. This understanding is transmitted in our empirical study
where respondents admit that though fatherhood includes the fostering of a close
relationship with children, the provision of moral education, discipline and financial
obligation top the list of responsibilities of fathers whereas motherhood includes these
and much more. Accordingly, fatherhood is deemed compatible with distance to the child
whilst motherhood requires closeness. To a great extent, motherhood is associated with
private life. It could sometimes lead the child to perplexity as to the reality of a mother
who is very active at home, yet silent in public.
For this reason, as evidenced in our ethnography, mothers tend to spend more time
with the infant; providing nursing responsibilities to them at a tender age and preparing
them for their routine activities when they arrive at school age. Whereas some fathers
attribute their absence to a busy schedule, the majority of mothers interrogated in our
study had to give up or limit a portion of their career to guarantee their presence with
children. Although men realize the importance of home time, their administering
disposition ensures that they rather prioritize the financial security of the family.
Accordingly, the tension between fatherhood and personhood is dissimilar to that
between motherhood and personhood. Grenholm’s persuasion that fatherhood allows for
conflicts and tensions in a way that motherhood does not corroborates the African
experience. 12 The impression we get from respondents is that an ordinary dad is not
analogous to a super-dad, and he does not need to be. In some instances, they focus on
provision for the family and somewhat less on care. However, for a number of mothers,
there is a tendency that they attempt to be super-mums or rather, the society expects them
to be in a way that their efficiency is determined by the ability to multitask. Grenholm
10
Oduyoye, Daughters of Anowa, 4. See also Nyengele, African Women’s Theology, 35.
11
Isherwood and McEwan, Introducing Feminist Theology, 25.
12
Grenholm, Motherhood and Love, 51.
contends that the asymmetry between both aspects of parenting might be as a result of
both the overestimation and underestimation of the provisions of motherhood.13
In hindsight, mothers seem to have a hard time distinguishing between their needs
and the child’s needs. The intermingling effect of this merger does have implications for
their public work. The term ‘working mother’ is commonplace whereas the concept of a
‘working father’ seems an oddity. The reason might just be that the woman is not simply
mother first before all else, but she is mother at all times. Thus motherhood itself is seen
as a task sufficient on its own. Indeed, from hindsight, motherhood in Nigeria tends to be
quite demanding. It often requires a response of total commitment and supervision of a
woman to her children as participants concomitantly avowed. She seems to be the first to
rise daily in order to attend to the routine needs of children. This obviously has
consequences for her career in the sense that the amount of time she puts in into
household chores might make her aspiration for a tasking profession job a tall order.
Furthermore, the anxiety demonstrated by women over children might come across
to some men as an obsessive preoccupation with the child. Analysing the parental
disposition of fathers towards child-care, Diane Ehrensaft hunches that some fathers feel
no envy or guilt when they observe the intermingling between mother and child. 14
Interlocutors of our ethnographic study validate that some men cannot fathom why their
wives choose to be overburdened and overworked at parenting. Rather than raise unease
though, they realize it does leave them less burdened, focusing on a more relaxed
relationship with the children. Ehrensaft insists that it comes ‘naturally’ for men to be
able to do this because they possess something women do not, that is, a capacity to
maintain a distance between themselves and their child. 15 In addition, men have been
socialized to actualize their traditional ‘roles’ as breadwinner and public participant in the
same way women are drawn to their duty as wife and mother. Accordingly, the ‘out of
sight, ought of mind’ relationship is a possibility for fathers setting off to work but less so
for career-mothers.
Going forward, mothers are frequently encouraged to appropriate the example of
Mary in tackling their challenges. Okure very well illustrates this in her depiction of Mary
as a powerful, initiative-taking woman. Using this prototype, Okure underlines the
important role of mothers in the sustenance of humanity. This accounts for her
exemplification of the consequences of the motherhood of Mary for African women when
she disputes that “no sane woman, and certainly no African woman, would see anything
belittling or derogatory in motherhood per se.” 16 Research participants who insist that
though they find motherhood quite demanding, they are positive that it gives them
profound joy seeing their children develop by means of the education, discipline and love
13
Ibid., 52.
14
Diane Ehrensaft, “The Reconstruction of Mothering,” in Becoming a Father, eds. Jerrold Lee Shapiro et
al. (New York: Springer Publishing Company, 1995), 54.
15
Ehrensaft, “The Reconstruction of Mothering,” 54.
16
Okure, “Feminist Interpretations in Africa,” 55.
that they have received, which for them substantiates the glory of motherhood for African
women. They find in Mary a symbol of strength, sacrifice and commitment.
In like manner, it needs affirming that the recognition John Paul II gives to parental
equality is helpful to an analysis of the gender subject in the family. In Familiaris
Consortio, he underscores that in establishing humanity via maleness and femaleness,
God gives man and woman an equal personal dignity endowing them with the inalienable
rights and responsibilities proper to the human person.17 The responsibilities of mothers
then are no less significant than that of fathers for motherhood has sashayed a core
intervention in humanity. As he puts it in Mulieris Dignitatem, in Mary, a woman is
found at the centre of the salvific event 18 furthering that women do not stand at the
margins of divine and human activities but at the centre. On the flip side, though, his
condemnation of the mentality that honours women more for their work outside the home
than for their work within the family does have telling implications for the professional
career of Nigerian women as a few of them are more appreciated for the work they
perform in the household than in the progress they make in their careers.19
So, given that African Christianity is quite swift in drawing parallels between
mothering in African societies and the motherhood of Mary, what these correspondences
intimate needs to be charted. In pointing to the impact of Mariology in Africa, Anne
Nasimiyu-Wasike for instance detects the link between the situations of women in the
continent and Mary, the mother of Jesus. The meeting point in her opinion is that in the
face of Mary who experienced the incipient poverty of a humble class in society and in a
jurisdiction controlled by foreign power, there is found the semblance of multiple men
and women who live in poverty under situations of discrimination and subjugation.
Beyond that though, Nasimiyu-Wasike stresses that the image of motherhood in Africa
exemplifies the hidden strength of women showcased in their ability to carry out multi-
tasking activities.20 Accordingly, it is estimated that in the genuine display of Mary’s self-
effacement lies her strength – the possession of the capacity for endurance.
Conversely though, it is one thing to cultivate a devotion to Mary, it is quite another
to expect women to meet up with this idealized image. On the flip side, a hegemonic
interpretation of Mary’s modesty might aim to highlight Mary’s submissiveness in order
to underscore the subservience of women. It might be more interested in identifying true
womanhood with motherhood, meekness with passivity, humility with servitude. In some
ways, John Paul II’s and African women’s theologians’ image on women are rather
convergent.
17
John Paul II, Familiaris Consortio, no 22.
18
John Paul II, Mulieris Dignitatem, no. 3.
19
See Familiaris Consortio, no 23.
20
Anne Nasimiyu-Wasike, “Mary, the Pilgrim of Faith for African Women,” in Bible in African
Christianity: Essays in Biblical Theology, eds. H. Kinoti and J.M. Waliggo (Nairobi: Acton Publishers,
1997), 176.
4.2.2 Bringing in Fathers: The Persona of Fatherhood

“Fathers are not mothers – they never will be and shouldn’t try” 21 , Kyle D. Pruett
hammers. They need not copy mothers nor engage in the mother-mimic tactic. Fathers
should be themselves – fathers! But what is the meaning of fatherhood? How could they
be who they truly are?
Alvin Poussaint tenders that historically, many fathers have been very close to their
children and are often sources of warmth and affection for them. Although he observes
that this side of the story, where fathers responded adequately to the developmental needs
of their children, is seldom told, he thinks that fathers’ roles in the custodial care of their
children is more important than ever before. He claims further that fathers, who have
assumed this interactive and nurturing disposition with their children, have discovered a
bonding and satisfying relationships with their children that mother have enjoyed for
centuries. The idea is that involved fathers need not see themselves as ‘weak’ and
‘maternal’ but as a ‘strong father’.22
Owing to women’s movements, the establishment of fixed roles for parents is being
questioned. Social and economic changes have also necessitated this. More than before,
men are more active in fathering roles. The underlying idea therefore is to bring about a
balance in parenting. 23 Poussaint’s conclusion is that there is hardly a mystique of
motherhood that a man cannot master, except of course, the physical acts of pregnancy,
delivery and breast-feeding.24 So, what then hinder fathers from getting fully involved in
parenting?
In discussing the role of fathers, Jerrold Lee Shapiro supposes that the role of fathers
in childbirth and early parenting shifted within the second part of the 20th century. As
demonstrated in the Nigerian context, an increased number of fathers now do have the
chance to be present during the birth of their children. The experience of the pains of
labour, which has been shrouded covertly, has become even more plain in the same way
that the incredible joy at the birth is well-known.25 In examining the impact of ‘absent
fathering’, studies have tried to encounter how the absence of a father affects his boys
who in turn become the next generation of fathers.26
In traditional African societies, fathers are looked upon not only with respect, but
also with fear. Children cannot challenge his authority in the same way that his orders are
unquestioned. Particularly, in some sense, a son does not become fully independent as
long as a father lives. He refers major decisions to him. 27 When a father grows old and
21
Kyle D. Pruett, “The Paternal Presence,” in Becoming a Father, 36.
22
Alvin Poussaint “Forward,” in Becoming a Father, xx-xxi.
23
Ibid., xxi.
24
Ibid., xxi.
25
Jerrold Lee Shapiro, “Introduction,” in Becoming a Father, 3.
26
See Ibid., 7. Shapiro conjectures that one outcome in boys who grow up without fathers is that they often
grow up without an appropriate role model and object for identification.
27
Benezeri Kisembo, Laurenti Magesa and Aylward Shorter, African Christian Marriage (Nairobi:
Paulines, 2010), 124.
infirm, his children work hard to support him. This is corroborated in our findings that
fathers are the major decision makers in families. It is admitted that even when there are
opportunities for dialogical exchange, the final decision is mostly taken by fathers. Some
families are further characterised by a neglect of the female party’s counsel. Closely
associated to this is that fathers are expected to be the financial pillars of the household;
the one who supplies the economic sustenance of the family. As a result, respondents tend
to convey the impression that the one who supplies the financial resources calls the shot.
Furthermore, in the Nigerian society, the concept of fatherhood extends from the
children to the man’s wife. Consequent on the demands and features of male headship,
wives convey deeper expressions of devotion and respect to their husbands in referring to
him as the ‘father of the entire household.’ In addition, the age difference between
husbands and wives tend to play a massive role in this regard. In instances where the
disparity in age is quite remarkable, wives are more than willing to broaden the
jurisdiction of fatherhood even to themselves.
Examining fatherhood from a South African context, Juanita Meyer refers to
contemporary dimensions of fatherhood. Aside from the traditional concept of
fatherhood, which is inexorably linked with the biological aspect where a man fathers a
child, she points to the economic and social outlining of fatherhood. According to Meyer,
economic fathers feel more responsibility for the maintenance of a child’s material needs
and does all he can to accomplish this. On the flip side, she identifies social fathers as
those who attend to the emotional and psychological needs of their children and go all out
to ensure that they are present in their children’s everyday development.28 She is aware,
however, that masculinity is constructed differently in different contexts and depending
on the prevalent narrative, the consideration is often between the fatherhood-breadwinner
model, which reinforces a validation of manhood, or the fatherhood-‘new father’ model
which denotes the genre of domestically more involved fathers.29 As we discovered in our
empirical search, modern-day fathers are liable to go either way depending on how they
have been socialised.
Paul VI’s recognition of the significant role of fatherhood in African societies is
helpful to begin a theological reflection on fatherhood. Ascertaining the place of fathers
in African families, Paul VI contemplates that “in the family one should note the respect
for the part played by the father of the family and the authority he has. Recognition of this
is not found everywhere and in the same degree, but it is so extraordinarily widespread
and deeply rooted that it is rightly to be considered as a mark of African tradition in
general.”30 Although the pope does not dig into the rhizome of the patria potestas as a
28
Juanita Meyer, “Restructuring the Christian Fatherhood Model: A Practical Theological Investigation
into the ‘Male Problematic’ of Father Absence,” HTS, vol. 74, no. 1 (2018): 3.
29
Meyer, “Restructuring the Christian Fatherhood Model,” 5.
30
Paul VI, Message, “On the Land of Africa for the promotion of the religious, social and civil welfare of
the continent, Africae Terrarum,” 29 October 1967, 3. AAS 59 (1967), no. 11.
source of authority in the kinfolk, he conveys that fathers do play quite a prominent role
in the fostering of children.
True Christian fatherhood indicates a constant desire to inspire trust, not fear. On
account of this, fatherhood is regarded as a cog of leadership in service to the family.
Aside from material provisions, fatherhood compels physical presence. The obligation to
form the Christian attitudes of his family and to inspire their character by word and
especially by example requires his active charisma. With Christ as his example, the
prospect of a fatherly, loving, self-giving manifestation of agape is very often demanded
of fathers.31 John Paul II’s condemnation of the phenomenon of ‘machismo’ or as he puts
it, a “wrong superiority of male prerogatives”32 which humiliates women and stifles the
development of a healthy family relationship is imperative for fathers in Nigeria. This
idea is resonated by Pope Francis in his assertion that the elimination of ‘unacceptable
customs’ which includes the shameful ill-treatment of women, domestic violence and
other shows of masculine power are but craven acts of cowardice. He specifically refers
to those verbal, physical, emotional and sexual abuses that women endure in marriages as
contradictory to the very essence of conjugal union.33
The new father, epitomized by Dustin Hoffman’s performance in Kramer vs. Kramer
ought to be an active, involved, nurturing participant in the various aspects of childcare
and child rare.34 Today’s fathers are expected to be more influential in the growth and
development of the child. Today’s fathers should not come across as a stranger to his
child but to be more involved than his historical predecessor. The shift from an economic-
centred father to a more care-giving fatherhood is real. In light of postmodern realities,
the breadwinning father has given way to the ‘new emergent nurturant’ father invited
upon by the awakening consciousness of active parenting. Although breadwinning
remains a vital module of fathers’ role today, if for anything, with the continuing
disparities between the income of male and female workers, it should be complemented
with the emotional connection with their children vis-à-vis the ability to ‘rear’.
It could be argued that the nurturing instinct in boys varies from family to family.
More so, it might appear that the instinct to nurture is repressed in boys. Conversations
with participants in our ethnography indicate that parents are willing to allow boys the
freedom from nurturing their younger siblings contrary to what is expected of the girl-
child. Mothers especially admit that their daughters’ household education is an aspect of
their primary education even though they pay less attention to their sons. This has cyclic
consequences for the boy who develops to become a father. If he neither learns from his
mother nor from his father on what his prospective responsibilities might be, what are his
chances of responding to the needs of his children when faced with such obligations?
31
Kisembo, et al., African Christian Marriage, 134.
32
John Paul II, Familiaris Consortio, no. 25.
33
Pope Francis, Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation, “On Love in the Family, Amoris Laetitia,” 19 March
2016. AAS 108 (2016), no. 54.
34
See Michael E. Lamb, “The Changing Roles of Fathers,” in Becoming a Father, 18.
Obviously, fathers do interact differently with their children from the way mothers
do. Erik Erikson’s confession that ‘mother love’ and ‘father love’ are essentially different
may shed some light to this discrepancy. Eriksson admits that father’s love is more
instrumental and less embroiling.35 Hence, where the mother’s love is admitted as more
active and it would be hesitantly condoned if she were to be absent, the father’s absence
is almost expected. Nevertheless, this idea of fatherhood is not helpful, we must admit. It
makes men to be unnecessarily distant even when such distance could be bridged. Adrian
Thatcher’s claim to the inevitability of remoteness between a father and his child, chiefly
because he does not experience the bonding of the mother and child through pregnancy,
childbirth and breastfeeding,36 is faulty as shown by very active nurturant fathers today.
For all that, it should be reaffirmed that the reality of fatherhood is a mirage without
motherhood. The man becomes a father only through a woman in the same way that a
woman becomes a mother only through a man. Together, they form the hub of the family.
In their unitary relationship they become the channel of life and co-creators with God.37
Their vocation is to be of support to each other and to be carriers of Christ’s saving
mission to their children who they bring up in the love of God. As Lumen Gentium
annotates, they undertake the witnessing of the faith and love of Christ, first to one
another and then to their children.38
4.2.3 Childhood and Childlessness

Cultural definitions of personality and behaviour are often transmitted in the raising up of
children in Nigeria. Girls are generally trained toward nurturance and household
responsibility at tender age whereas boys tend to be raised toward achievement and self-
reliance. Evidenced by respondents, children and teenage upbringing follow specific
trends reflected in grownups. The girls are mostly socialised to be soft, subtle, tender,
courteous and sensitive. Boys are trained to be powerful, independent, vocal and
assertive.
Similarly therefore, there is an assumption that the mother identifies with their
daughter on the basis of their shared gender and keeps her close to her heart. Whereas she
views her son as very much the other, different than her, and encourages his autonomy
and independence. 39 Furthermore, boys seem to conform to cultural expectations to
suppress their abilities for human-relatedness and assume the posture of an independent,
strong-minded, affirmative individual.
35
Erik H. Erikson, Childhood and Society (New York: Norton, 1963), 106.
36
37
Kisembo, African Christian Marriage, 134.
38
See Vatican Council II. “Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, Lumen Gentium,” 21 November 1964,
no. 35.
39
See also Nancy Chodorow, The Reproduction of Mothering (Berkeley, CA: University of California
Press, 1978), 169.
Nancy Chodorow has suggested that in order to breach the gaps generated by sex
roles, children of both sexes need to be trained to develop a sufficiently individuated
sense of self and secure gender identity while at the same time discontinuing ego-
boundary confusion and low self-esteem. This might mean that boys are mentored by
men who assume a major role in child-care in the same way that girls are instructed by
women who amidst child-care responsibilities are significantly visible in the public
workforce.40
On the flip side, the desire for children is intense in African societies, and a lack of
them places a marriage in jeopardy. The church’s explanation of the procreative end of
marriage is taken further by African societies as the need to birth offspring in order to
guarantee the man as progenitor. In particularly ancient societies, a childless man upon
his death is not referred to as an ancestor. For them, having children was insurance that
one’s memory would be cherished after death. This is also aided by the progenies’
invocation of their ancestors within living memory in addition to making offerings to
them. Childlessness certainly became a motive for polygamy as men dreaded such a
reality. The sorority pact meant that in a childless marriage, a provision would be made
for a sister of the first wife to become a junior wife, when the first wife had no children.41
What traditional societies failed to understand, however, was that the cause of
childlessness is not one-sided, since men could be as infertile as women.
Consequently, in a fertility-oriented understanding of marriage, the birth of children
is the corner stone of the marital union. The primary duty of the woman is therefore to
receive the male seed, nurture it within herself and deliver when its time. In a way, she is
first of all the mother of her husband’s children before all else. 42 By begetting a vast
number of children, a woman is estimated to increase her husband’s wealth. This explains
why she is at a loss when a child is not forthcoming, for childlessness is looked upon with
scorn and derogatorily referred to as a ‘man’ or a ‘wood’, just as on the other hand,
children are viewed as the seal and glory of marriage.43 Oduyoye claims that patrilineal
groups are often so obsessed with having children, so much so that in the Yoruba
tradition of Nigeria for example, there are tales of men becoming pregnant.44 Indeed, as
40
Chodorow, “Family Structure and Feminine Personality,” in Women, Culture and Society, eds. Michelle
Zimbalist Rosaldo and Louise Lamphere (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1974), 66.
41
Kisembo, African Christian Marriage, 96. The need to give birth to several children became even
exaggerated when parents resorted to birthing as many children as possible coupled with the establishment
of labour-intensive subsistence economy. As was previously explained the sororate arrangement was
intended to supply for the situation by providing a sister of the first wife as a junior wife, when the first
wife had no children. Ibid., 94.
42
Ibid., 117-8.
43
See Ghunney, “[Pastoral Counseling in] Ghana,” 89. See also Nyengele, African Women’s Theology, 13.
44
Oduyoye, Daughters of Anowa, 51. Anthony Chiegboka reasons that the over-emphasis on progeny does
create unhealthy experiences in the lives of childless couples. For the woman particularly, she becomes a
victim of village gossips and of unreserved allegations. He claims that in some instances, it has led to a
deceitful undertakings wherein women faked pregnancy and afterwards feigned miscarriages. Anthony
Anthony Onyekwe contemplates, the motivation for desiring children differs from culture
to culture. These impulses range from: children’s contribution to a family’s economic
viability, insuring the assistance of parents in old age, guaranteeing ancestral immortality,
generating the emotional affection and joy to their parents, multiplying the numerical
strength of a clan and so forth.45
Furthermore, Oduyoye considers procreation as the ‘most important factor’
characterising marriages in matrilineal and patrilineal societies. This explains why issues
of fertility, especially that of a woman are central to the marriage institution in Africa in
addition to the already established platform that motherhood occupies with regard to the
preservation of society. The major drawback Oduyoye cites however is that procreation is
frequently described as if women are simply ‘objects of genetic and social
transmission.’46
Discussing childhood in detail, Oduyoye attests to the prominence of procreation and
biological continuity in Africa. She has illustrated that children provide an avenue for
parents to participate in the creative activity of birthing and a being on whom parents
stamp their image. She also draws attention to the role played by children upon the
demise of parents by means of proper final rites. Beyond that, children are sources of
prestige for parents especially when they become successful adults. For these and other
reasons, childlessness produces all but despair. Illustrating via Anowa, as composed by
Ama Ata Aidoo, Oduyoye identifies that at the end of the drama, the main protagonists,
Ako the husband and Anowa the wife tragically commit suicide in the knowledge that
they would remain childless even though they both experienced a flourishing economic
life.47
So, in popular folktales for example, Oduyoye demonstrates that marriage must
result in children or it may be broken up in what she refers to as been dictated by ‘divine
injunction’. For this reason, it is unsurprising to locate a preponderance of stories about
agitated childless women getting desperate to have children.48 Suffice it to say that failure
in her primary responsibility is usually not celebrated. She rather becomes quite
vulnerable. As we discussed previously, infertility on the part of the woman can be an
impetus for the man to enter into other marital unions. A related motivation for venturing
into polygamy would be the lack of a male child since sons are considered a major
concern in marriage, as it is they who preserve and extend the family name; they are the
heirs who inherit the father’s estate.
B.C. Chiegboka, The Predicaments of Women in African Marriage Institution (Nimo: Rex Charles, 2009),
46.
45
Anthony Onyekwe, Marriage, Fertility and Life After Death: Towards a Regenerative Model of
Inculturation in the Igbo Context, Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation (Faculty of Theology and Religious
Studies, K.U. Leuven, 2014), 115.
46
Oduyoye, Daughters of Anowa, 141-2.
47
48
In order to underscore the importance of fecundity in marriage, a symbolism referred

to as the ‘garden concept’ of marriage is sometimes illustrated. According to this
metaphor, the “woman is the garden in which her husband, the owner of the garden,
plants seeds”.49 This implies that as the garden is valued for the fertility of its soil, so is
the woman. The extent to which the garden is able to bear fruits is the measure to which it
is appreciated. In addition, it is noteworthy that it is the sower who chooses the garden;
the garden does not choose the sower for certain. This vision is confirmed by female
interviewees in their assertion that they observed a separate feeling of acceptance from
their husband’s families between the moment where they had no children and the moment
they became mothers. They raise awareness that unfortunately, barren women are objects
of disapproval and ridicule.
The chronicle of creation in God’s image and likeness as male and female is a
foundation for establishing equality.50 In creation, man and woman are assigned an equal
status. The woman is first and foremost a partner in marriage, not a mother of his children
and certainly not one to be owned. The biblical account of marriage is that it is a union
formed for the sake of those who enter into it themselves, that is, for companionship and
subsequently, for procreation. It is not the other way round. In essence, each of the
partners has value as a human person in his/her own right and not quite in the children.
Their value in marriage is not subordinated to any other purpose be it genitor or child
bearer.51
First, on this account, it needs asserting that even though the presence of children
evokes pronounced euphoria and bliss to the marriage and tightens the bonds of the
relationship, the lack of it should not be permitted to induce gloom in the marital union
nor cause a wane to the relationship. Conjugal love without procreation should be
envisaged as a possibility and that such actuality can produce as much happiness and
thrill. Spouses who accept the travails of childlessness without losing their faith in God
are a testament to God’s faithful covenant of love.52 Research respondents admit though
that there were some pressure that comes with childlessness in marriage, they very often
referred to the optimism inspired by their faith-life which reminds them that it is God who
gives children. They recount as well that marriage instructors and marriage counsellors
play a huge role in establishing this sanguine disposition.
Truly, a childless marriage is not a defective marriage. Arguably, the truly defective
marriage is one where true love between the partner is lacking and not where children are
49
Kisembo, African Christian Marriage, 45. The ‘right’ of ownership is extended to children as well.
Nasimiyu-Wasike recounts for example, that among the Babukusu in Kenya, the father is able to command
a daughter to marry a man of his choice and can as well select wives for his sons without their
consultation. See Nasimiyu-Wasike, “Child Abuse and Neglect: An African Moral Question,” in Moral
and Ethical Aspects in African Christianity: Exploratory Essays in Moral Theology, eds. J.N.K Mugambi
and A. Nasimiyu-Wasike (Nairobi: Acton Publishers, 1999), 154-5.
50
Genesis 1:27.
51
Kisembo, African Christian Marriage, 128-9.
52
See Vatican Council II, Gaudium et spes, no. 48. See also Kisembo, African Christian Marriage, 131.
absent. William Blum even adds that “childless couples whose love is not deep enough to
sustain the union despite the lack of children lack something important, if not essential, to
the upbringing of children”. 53 The underlying idea here is that a spouse who retains
faithfulness to his or her partner even when sterility is extant demonstrates that his/her
love is founded upon the dignity of the partner as a person and not on his/her capacity to
procreate.54
John Paul II’s assertion that the impossibility of procreation does not equate to the
loss of value of conjugal love is edifying.55 The understanding of the Christian tradition is
that children are a gift from God. Thus in view of the psalmist, it is a divine blessing to
have children. 56 The instance of Abraham begetting a child in his advanced age is
portrayed as a testament of God’s blessings. The idea is that it is God who bestows
children and he does so at His volition. For this reason, to fixate one’s self on the reality
of childlessness or blaming one’s spouse as responsible for childlessness is perceived as a
mistrust in God’s omnipotent power. The submissive disposition by couples towards a
childless union can be a sign of authentic married love.
First, in offering hope to childless couples through a development of a theology of
the family, John Paul demonstrates that the human family enjoys a communion that is
neither diminished nor attenuated by the absence of children. His expectation is that
couples would find in the Trinitarian communion of persons a reflection of their own life
of mutual sharing as the perfect form of a communion of persons is the Trinity. He
chooses a top-down movement (from God to the human person) to amplify his position
on the human person’s imitation of the Trinity.57 It is in light of this sensitivity that the
Christian couple is in a special way invited to mirror and live the divine life in such a
manner that nuptial love is not hindered by childlessness.
Second, a prevailing culture of valuing where sons are seen as more valuable than
daughters needs severe questioning. In these patriarchal societies, inheritance was solely a
male prerogative in the same way that female children had no significance in genealogies.
Thus, it seems that though female children are needed as mothers and wives, they are
only of secondary value. Hence, as we discovered in our ethnography, the sex of children
is of essence to the majority of African minds. Truly, the majority of male respondents
communicated either directly or indirectly that it was of particular interest to them.
Yet, it is interesting to note that this desire for a male child is not only peculiar to
fathers. In actuality, mothers seem to be actually more worried. The foundation for their
anxiety is established in the realities of family intrusions, which I shall next reconnoitre in
my presentation of the idea of community in Africa societies. Suffice it to say that when a
married woman is not able to give birth to a male child, family invasions may machinate
53
William G. Blum, Childlessness and Christian Marriage (Eldoret: Taba Publications, 1975), 82.
54
Kisembo, African Christian Marriage, 111.
55
See John Paul II, Familiaris Consortio, 14
56
Psalm 127:3.
57
to convince the man to get married to another woman who might be able to raise male
children for him. This blame is apportioned to women despite the scientific discovery that
has shown that it is the presence of the male chromosome in the sperm that determines
the child’s sex.
Third, to raise a male child in a way that pampers him while acclaiming the need for
one’s daughter to be restrained is markedly inequitable and unjust. Children ought to be
given a fair playing ground irrespective of their sex. Depriving one under the guise of
discipline is to foster the dominant notion that females need to be ‘tamed’ just as it
amplifies a partisan approach to the development of children.
4.3 Gender Dynamics in the African Society: Recurring Themes

Sequel to our scrutinization into the phenomenon of the gender question in the African
family, a heuristic survey of our present study offers us the chance to critically evaluate
the following emergent subjects and their implications for African societies.
4.3.1 The Idea of Community in African Societies: A Case for Exclusivity in Conjugal
Relationships
Family interferences are commonplace in marriages in Nigeria. A wife has an obligation
to show respect to not only her husband, but also to his immediate family. Her mother-in-
law together with the senior women in her husband’s household form a core group of
active participants demanding the show of restraints towards her husband. She is duly
reprimanded if she falls short. For good measure, newly-weds are strongly encouraged to
put in the effort to establish a stable relationship with her husband’s family. The same is
also true for young grooms. Failure to achieve this might expose the union to a dose of
onslaught from one’s in-laws. Anthony Chiegboka reviews that marriage in Africa is
clearly a family affair. Rather than being a private matter for the spouses, he discovers
that marriage is purported as an alliance between two families and clans. Therefore, more
than just the consent of the two partners, it demands the consent of their respective clans
since the success and fruitfulness of marriage is directly linked to it.58
In effect though, extensive familial intrusions do threaten the union between couples.
To include the accession of the extended family members therefore means that the choice
of spouses does not solely rest on the individual. Marriage in this context is hardly a man
and wife but a network of family members that leaves little room for spousal self-
realization and expression. This is an unmistakable pitfall of marriages in Nigeria.
Whereas the importance of family ties in Nigeria cannot be underestimated, a
demarcating line between assistance and unnecessary interferences would need some
sketching.
58
Chiegboka, The Predicaments of Women in African Marriage Institution, 23.
The African intuition of community is striking. As Mbiti recognizes, it relies on the

perception of “I am because we are and since we are therefore I am.”59 Although, this
philosophy is intended to provide support for members of the community, its shortcoming
could well be that an individual becomes too dependent to the extent that his or her
survival hinges on staying in the group. This too is a challenge for African men and
women today.
For the most part, the understanding is that you cannot live a life of your own; you
need the aid of other people who will help you actualize the desire of living life to the
fullest. This explains why in South Africa, the Nguni tribe uses a formidable idiom to
convey the relevance of community: “umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu”, meaning a person is
a person because of other people.60 Fulgence Nyengele further justifies this clairvoyance
in his assertion that the forte of the African worldview lies in its philosophy of
communality within which the concern for the well-being of all members of the
community is engrained. Taking it further, he claims that most Africans do affirm that
they live only when they participate in family and community life.61
At any rate, and while not discounting the remunerative features of community, it
needs saying that an exaggerated emphasis on community might result in the exhibition
of a constructed inadequacy of the individual leading to the emergence of a corporate
personality. Maseno-Ouma’s stance that a person is denied his or her freedom when the
community’s demands override that of the individual is valid. This is especially true for
women in Africa whose essence is linked to their role as mothers and underscoring the
community’s preference for marriage. Women’s identity is frequently knotted to their
sexuality and ability to procreate. Little wonder marriages without children are not
considered fully consummated.62
Therefore, Mbiti is rightly critiqued for his endeavour to link the African
understanding of community to the communal dimension of the gospel in his unravelling
of Jesus’ resurrection as a communal event where individuality is subsumed. He asserts
too that a person’s individuality is best realized in relation to the good of others in the
community. Herein lies the trouble. Individual persons need to be identified for who they
are and not in terms of “the other”. The mentality that appreciates a woman as the wife of
‘so and so’ or the daughter of ‘so and so’ or the mother of ‘so and so’ rightly subsumes
59
Mbiti, African Religions and Philosophy, 108-9. Elsewhere, Mbiti reiterates that “an individual does not
exist alone except corporately”, testifying to the apprehension that in several African villages, one is not
allowed to live his/her life independently, like an island. See Mbiti, Concepts of God in Africa (New York:
Praeger, 1970), 109.
60
M.J.S. Masango, “African Spirituality that Shapes the Concept of Ubuntu,” in Pastoral Care, Health,
Healing and Wholeness in African Contexts: Methodology, Context and Issues, eds. Tapiwa M. Mucherera
and Emmanuel Y. Lartey (Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock, 2017), 10.
61
Nyengele, African Women’s Theology, 13.
62
Maseno-Ouma, Gendering the Inculturation Debate in Africa, 41. Mbiti explains the dimensions of the
community’s preference for marriage in his affirmation that every “normal person” is expected to get
married and bear children. Failure to get married is similar to committing a crime against traditional belief
and practices. See Mbiti, Introduction to African Religion (London: Heinemann, 1975), 104.
her individuality and denies the woman of her self.63 Contrary to the communality slant,
she is first a person before she is a wife or a mother.
Oduyoye’s take on community is that it is not enough to speak of community in
Africa as an integral component of African culture if the quality of community is not
critically examined and assessed in light of its promotion of justice and supporting
women and men. The strand of community that is mostly sought for is one that promotes
reciprocity and mutuality while at the same time denouncing the hierarchical ordering of
power relations between men and women. 64 For instance, the influence of extended
family members in the choice of a spouse founded on their expectations of who a marital
partner should be complicates relationships between young people. In a similar mode, kin
relationships tend to impinge on contemporary connubial life most visibly with regard to
fertility and parenting.65
Notwithstanding, the positive aspects of being in a community are hardly obscured.
There are aspects of it that enrich the lives of its members. Kinship does support the
sustenance of its affiliates. In the case of newly-weds, a couple’s family in-law might be
helpful in acclimatizing to the new environment. On the other hand, however, they might
furnish the possibility of making the household inhabitable for the woman, or even the
man as the case may be. Three prominent points with regard to the realities of extended
family and community are raised in our empirical investigation. First, extended family
members do sometimes disapprove of the temperament and general disposition of an in-
law and explicitly demonstrate their revulsion. Secondly, there are intruding voices within
the family that might encourage separation from one’s spouse on those occasions where
the relationship has become quite unstable. This testifies to the influence of family
members in conjugal unions. Thirdly, the pressure to separate emanating from family and
friends might result in the victim’s imminent emotional collapse.66
4.3.2 Polygamy
Bénézet Bujo has discerned that pre-modern African societies condoned polygamy in his
assertion that portions of the African tradition alleged that the idea of polygamy could
certainly preserve and promote a woman’s dignity and should therefore not be considered
unjust and derogatory to human dignity. 67 He makes an observation that adherents of
traditional polygamy claim that the practice has definitely protected women from
prostitution arguing further that there is hardly a lack of respect for women, where
63
64
Ibid., 59. See also Oduyoye, “Feminist Theology in an African Perspective,” 176-8.
65
Daniel Jordan Smith, “Promiscuous Girls, Good Wives, and Cheating Husbands: Gender Inequality,
Transitions to Marriage, and Infidelity in Southeastern Nigeria,” Anthropological Quarterly, vol. 83, no 1
(2010): 124.
66
See also Ibid., 124
67
Bénézet Bujo, Foundations of an African Ethic: Beyond the Universal Claims of Western Morality (New
York: Crossroad, 2001), 133.
polygamy is done with the permission of the ‘first wife’ or even begun at her initiative. 68
Furthermore, they declared that it helped tighten the bonds of society and broadened the
circle of relatives and associates.69
In supplement, African ancestors in the guise of the extension of life institutionalized
polygamy so that a childless man for example might have the chance of having
descendants. A woman’s procreative power was imperative not for her own sake but in
order to fortify the husbands power of immortality. However, taking the dignity of
women seriously, this smacks of instrumentalization. In using the woman to achieve the
needs of the man, only one person is considered, the man. Plus the pretext that many
children are needed in maintaining a household resulting in the conglomeration of a
sizeable number of wives is no longer tenable in the context of today’s socio-economic
development.
A further problem with the polygamous mentality is that it requires a wife to be
unquestionably faithful to her husband, but tolerates the husband to court a limitless
number of other women with a view to having another marriage. This is often used as a
justification for the husband’s extramarital sexual interests. In situations where women
demand a greater measure of marital companionship and for undiluted fidelity from men,
clandestine polygamy is operationalized.70 Still, the fact that the death of a polygamous
man makes an array of women widows at the same time is striking as well.
As a result, Daniel Smith with the use of an ethnographic study argues that
extramarital sexuality in Nigeria is highly gendered in both its moral and behavioural
dimension. He specifically thinks that the discourse about sexual immorality is
customarily a formidable form of collective commentary in which shifting social lines
with reference to gender, generation and class are discovered even though the moral
valences and social risks associated with illicit relationships means it is often swathed in
secrecy. 71 Acknowledging the general perception that married men are more likely to
engage in extramarital relationships than married women, Smith portends that men are
more likely to admit to having had clandestine relationships and also more forthcoming in
discussing their experiences whereas women mostly talk about other people’s illicit
sexual behaviours.72
68
Bujo, Foundations of an African Ethic, 133.
69
Kisembo, 86. These authors (Kisembo, Magesa and Shorter) adjudge further that besides catering for the
sexual needs of men and minimizing the chances of promiscuity and prostitution, polygamy was also
meant to establish security and guarantee prosperity in instances when a large family community was
needed to maximize the environment and make provision for basic needs. Ibid., 86. It was also seen as a
kinder alternative to divorce, particularly when the first wife was barren. The sororate arrangement in this
situation was meant to cater for the situation by providing a sister of the first wife as a junior wife, when
the first wife had no children. Ibid., 94.
70
Ibid., 100. In clandestine polygamy, a man, already married, marries another wife and keeps her in a
different location without telling her about his first wife.
71
Daniel J. Smith, “Intimacy, Infidelity and Masculinity in Southeastern Nigeria,” in Intimacy: Love and
Sex Across Cultures, ed. William R. Jankowiak (New York: Columbia University Press, 2008), 224.
72
Smith, “Intimacy, Infidelity and Masculinity,” 229.
Smith also discusses the influence of peer groups in the nurturing of extramarital
affairs. Highlighting male-dominated settings such as social and sports clubs, specific
bars and eateries, he asserts that it is not uncommon for married men to commonly speak
about their girlfriends and show them off before their friends. He goes further to allege
that seeing men encouraging and rewarding each other for extramarital affairs is a
common phenomenon in masculine spaces such as a tennis club or bar. 73 Still, while
men’s engagement in illicit relationships is more commonly spoken about, the truth is
women themselves also engage in improper affairs. However, there is little information
emanating from women’s spaces due to the mammoth condemnation of female infidelity
in African cultures. As evidenced in our empirical study, women are much withdrawn in
discussions surrounding sexual behaviours in order not to give the impression that they
are overly sexually active coupled with the realization that men’s sexual desire is allowed
to metamorphose into polygamy whilst such a prospect is unthinkable for women.
The church’s response to polygamy has always been that it is incompatible with the
church’s understanding of marriage. It is deemed unacceptable for Christians to activate
polygamy. More so, polygamy threatens the development of real companionship that
emerges from the husband-wife relationship. Whereas it is already stupefying that Mbiti
justifies polygamy on the grounds of the protection of African women and men against
prostitution and the diminution of infidelity, authors such as Sigqibo Dwane, an African
male author is eager to point out that polygamy is founded on a mutual attraction between
man and woman and that it is essentially a loving relationship. For the Christian tradition,
what is of prime essence is the equality of love in marriage and the fostering of the
intensity of the relationship between husband and wife, something that polygamy
obscures. 74 Monogamy is promoted by the Christian tradition as the ideal and the
normative form of marriage for Christians. However, we recognize the fact that for
adherents of other faith-communities, the understanding might be different.
A theological reflection of the dangers of polygamy needs to envisage the
objectification of women, going forward. Adrian Thatcher pushes that Jesus himself
condemns the identification of women as sex objects and chides men who persist in it.75
Referring to the Matthean account of Jesus’ pronouncement, ‘But I say that you that
73
Ibid., 237-8.
74
See Mbiti, African Religions and Philosophy, 142. See also Kisembo, African Christian Marriage, 106-
7. Dwane’s attempt is meant to equate polygamy with monogamy. According to Dwane, polygamy, just
like monogamy, is a permanent, life-long, indissoluble relationship. He takes his argument a step further in
asserting that because polygamy is a life-long relationship of love, it is certainly sacramental just as it is an
effective sign of God’s covenant of love. See Sigqibo Dwane, “Polygamy,” in Church and Marriage in
Modern Africa, ed. Trevor D. Verryn (Johannesburg: Zenith Printers, 1975), 226. Conversely, the
Missionary Conference in Edinburgh at the dawn of the 20th century had given a damning condemnation of
polygamy. Comparing it to adultery and insisting on polygamy’s opposition to natural law, the Conference
was adamant that polygamy is “one of the gross evils of heathen society, which, like habitual murder or
slavery, must at all costs be ended.” Adrian Hastings, Christian Marriage in Africa (London: SPCK,
1973), 15.
75
Adrian Thatcher, Redeeming Gender (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016), 123.
anyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his
heart’ (Matt. 5:28), Thatcher is positive that Jesus confronts men who impinge on women
the blame for sexual attraction. Thence, rather than placing restrictions of dress code,
visibility, elegance and conduct on women, men are reprimanded to take responsibility
for their thoughts.76 Still more, rather than control women’s appearance and behaviour,
they are alerted to control theirs.
Unambiguously, therefore, the anxiety of African women theologians that polygamy
undervalues and denigrates the place of women needs to be looked at. Okure particularly
notes that the denial or downplay of their God-given dignity threatens their operational
participation in society and in the church’s mission. Okure’s instigation of women to
develop a better image of themselves and of one another needs to be seen in this light.77
The underlying idea is that women must struggle for their divinely bequeathed rights and
reject all measures aimed at undermining their potentials as effective participants in
African society.
A major problem with polygamy though is that women have themselves missed the
target specimen. Nasimiyu-Wasike rightly detects that instead of critiquing the men who
initiate and romanticize polygamy, women have projected their denunciation of polygamy
onto their co-wives who become targets of envy and hatred.78 The goal, however, should
be to deconstruct the glamourized view of polygamy by reflecting on the brokenness of
humanity which polygamy stimulates. Accommodating a practice that legitimizes the
exploitation of some while preserving and justifying the privileged status and power of
others is distasteful. African Christianity would need to stand up and be counted as a
contender against polygamy. In solidarity with African women, it would need to
underline it as mode of domination, subjugation and oppression that would require a
decisive rejection.
The explanation of John Paul II that marriage provides the bond where the two
become ‘one flesh’ is exclusive of polygamy. Polygamous relationships are hardly a
relationship of one-flesh. John Paul II’s anthropological vision helps him to explain that
the woman is not less human than man for they both derive their unique being from
God’s image and likeness. Elucidating in Mulieris Dignitatem, he amplifies that both man
76
Thatcher, Redeeming Gender,123-4.
77
78
Nasimiyu-Wasike, “Polygamy: A Feminist Critique,” in The Will to Arise, 111-3. Explaining taboos that
encouraged and forced women to demand polygamy, Nasimiyu posits that as per the necessitating of
increasing men’s wealth, the inability to cultivate, plant and harvest enough food due to physical weakness
and the incapacity to bear enough children to help her compelled the wife to bring in one or more
subordinates. However, in most cases, the first wife chooses women herself whom she believed would not
be rivals but would rather be subservient to her. See Ibid., 111-2. Unfortunately, this testifies, however,
that in some instances, there is no partnership in relationships since women are identified like slaves
working to enrich their husbands and ‘masters’.
and woman are human beings to an equal degree; both are created in God’s image.79 Pope
Francis in Amoris Laetitia proposes a similar idea.80
Evidently, the biblical narrative gives an undiluted specification of the bonding of
man and woman in marriage. “And they shall become one flesh” as Genesis 2:24
provides, relies on the Hebrew word basar which connotes the living, physical flesh.
Uniting as one flesh gives the woman, just like the man, a value in herself as a person.
The oneness in flesh is an indicator of the profound sharing between husband and wife.
Earlier in the verse, the Yahwistic writer uses the phrase ‘cleave to his wife’ to forcefully
convey the idea of oneness in a striking manner.81
Yet, John Paul II’s analysis of Adam and Eve as completing each other at creation is
not always helpful for African Christianity. His assertion is subject to the interpretation
that neither men nor women are ‘whole’ individual entities. In contrasting John Paul,
therefore, Oduyoye is not comfortable with the modern usage of ‘complementarity’. In
her view, it is used to downplay the humanness of the woman and to argue that her
individual survival depends on staying in the group. Referring to African Christianity’s
understanding of human sexuality, she puts forth that, “women are persons-in-
communion, not persons who ‘complete’ the other. There are female souls and there are
male souls. We may need to reorient our thinking so that we see communion as a
relationship devoid of hierarchical relations and power-seeking.”82
Oduyoye seems to prefer the appropriation of the terms ‘reciprocity’ and ‘mutuality’
into the debate. She thinks that human relationships can be rather depicted through the
contours of mutual interest, trust, reciprocity and responsibility. 83 While it is true that
Oduyoye has not sufficiently developed the concepts of ‘reciprocity’ and ‘mutuality’, it is
of interest that she advances a creative foresight to relationships especially one that seeks
to underscore the ‘wholeness’ of the human person. This could be beneficial to people
who do not feel drawn to wedlock but feel compelled to it by means of society’s
expectations.
4.3.3 Widowhood
African Christianity must question the exercise of widowhood in traditional societies. The
hostile, mental and physical treatment that a widow receives, based on the assumption she
might be responsible for her husband’s death, and must vindicate herself, is truly negative
for African peoples and culture. That the same principle is not applied to a widower on
the loss of his wife speaks volume. To confine a woman to her house for a long period
79
John Paul II, Mulieris Dignitatem, no. 3. See also Thatcher’s explication of the fundamentals of John
Paul’s anthropology in Thatcher, Redeeming Gender, 92-97.
80
See Pope Francis, Amoris Laetitia, no. 10.
81
Kisembo, African Christian Marriage, 45-46.
82
Oduyoye, “Women and Ritual in Africa,” 23; Oduyoye, “Feminist Theology in an African Perspective,”
176-8.
83
Oduyoye, Introducing African Women’s Theology, 73 .
while she receives untold treatment from her husband’s relatives needs reviewing. In the
same vein, to loosen her hair, the requirement to wear dirty clothes and eat sparsely,
being deprived from seeing her children for some time calls for a radical re-consideration.
The deprivation of inheritance resulting to some degree of penury distances nobility from
this ‘tradition’.
Oduyoye nuances that in traditional African societies, widows and widowers alike
are expected to mourn the loss of their spouse. For the purpose of mourning, they are both
expected to remain unmarried for a considerable period of time. She conceives however
that this period of mourning differs according to gender. From her study, she recounts
that oral tradition specifies that a widower is encouraged to obtain a sexual partner as
soon as possible so as to deter the spirit of the deceased wife, enabling that she does not
visit him again. On the other hand, however, it is believed that a husband’s soul will not
rest until the women has completed elaborate mourning rites and has been subsequently
purified.84 Women are mostly held accountable for the ills of society and yet are unable to
bring about change due to their powerlessness, thereby limiting their alternatives to
protesting and reacting rather than aiming to bring about something new.85
Accordingly, Maseno-Ouma’s surveillance on the obsolescent practice of widow
inheritance in local communities calls for serious concern. Although, this is now a
declining trend, the ritual sexual cleansing of a widow is in opposition to Christian tenets
just as it accounts for vulnerability to marauding in-laws. In the first instance, widow
inheritance gives the ‘heir’ sexual access to the widow. Coming under the guise of
establishing the continuity of the dead man’s name, one of the family members is entitled
to having the widow.86 Quite laudably, some widows have decided to openly rebel against
this antediluvian practice. On the flip side though, they have had the repercussion of
physical, emotional, social and economic torture for their refusal to adhere to this aspect
of tradition.
The treatment of widows in Africa is akin to John Paul II’s enumeration of a
mentality that considers the human being not as a person but as a thing, an object of trade
and of mere pleasure.87 To ‘inherit’ a woman is rightly seen as a contradiction of the
Christian message where each person is appreciated as an individual adequately ransomed
by the liberating message of Christ. The unjust treatment of widows thus stands as a
negation of Christianity’s stance for the weak, the vulnerable and the powerless. This
84
Oduyoye, “Women and Ritual in Africa”, 15. Quoting Ajisafe Moore, Oduyoye puts widowhood rites in
context claiming that in some traditions, “when a man dies his wife mourns him for three months. She
must not plait her hair and if already plaited she must loose it [sic]. She must not take a bath for three
months. She must not change the clothes which she was wearing at the time of her husband’s death. She
must sleep on rag mats. So must keep indoors for the three months, and if she cannot help going out, it
must be in the evening. Buts such a case is very rare.” Oduyoye, Daughters of Anowa,150.
85
86
87
John Paul II, Familiaris Consortio, no. 24.
treatment also hinges on a mentality that treats women as the property of her husband or
of his extended family.
Conversely, the human person is created with inalienable rights and responsibilities
proper to each; and male and female are both created with equal dignity as persons. To
deny one person his/her personal freedom or dignity is to deny humanity. It is in this light
that John Paul II speaks of the image and likeness of God as constituting the immutable
basis for Christian anthropology for which both man and woman are human beings to an
equal degree. More so, by means of the ‘unity of the two’ as he explains, they are meant
to not only exist ‘side by side’ but also to exist mutually ‘one for another’. 88 Put
summarily, women and men share a communion that enriches their sense of dignity.
Additionally, the place of Christ in the struggle against unjust structures is a veritable
foundation for an inculturated Christianity to respond to prominent gender misdeeds. As
Radford Ruether has shown, unfolding Christ as a redeeming path to extricating African
society from sexism and all injustice is open-ended; helping to point the continent
forward to expanding future hopes, rather than confined to fixed African or Christian
past. 89 The sturdy belief of African women that God is on their side helps them to
overcome elements of the dominant shackles of African traditional culture. They have
held on to the Christological view that Christ is able to save them from rapaciousness and
hardship, fronting the hope that in no time the travails will be over. For a good number of
cases, however, these realities hardly ever cease.
Térèsa Souga, in justifying the correlation between women’s experience and
liberation in Jesus Christ, argues that “Jesus reveals God in the various kinds of bonds
connecting him to women throughout the Gospel.”90 Certainly, for the African woman,
Jesus is not simply an Ancestor in the way it has been explained in African male
academic contexts. Jesus is related to as a friend and liberator; a husband of the widows
who protects them from those who seek to exploit their vulnerability, life-giver, mother
and ground for a new humanity. This is why the liberation paradigm is essentially central
to the theological approaches of African women theologians. To be sure, the reference to
Jesus as mother is rooted in the cultural view of the woman as the embodiment of life, the
one who gives birth to life. This explains the reason why the continent is called ‘Mama
Africa’.91
4.3.4 Witchcraft
Why do African women find themselves on the receiving end when misfortunes befall
families? Why is witchcraft associated with African women and hardly with African
men? Is there something in the feminine make-up that provides a veritable ground for
88
John Paul II, Mulieris Dignitatem, nos. 6-7. See also John Paul II, Letter to Women, no. 7.
89
Ruether, Women and Redemption, 262.
90
Térèsa Souga, “The Christ Event from the Viewpoint of African Women: A Catholic Perspective,” in
With Passion and Compassion, 28.
91
Okure, “The Global Jesus,” 243.
sorcery? Radford Ruether thinks that the underlying assumption that women are both
powerful and dangerous might be responsible for this affiliation. 92 Accordingly the
impact of the pervasive African belief in evil spirits, operating through witches and
causing untold calamities, are linked to women.
An illustrative example on women’s perception in moments of misadventure is
shown in pregnancy. For the reason that an African woman’s fulfilment of her primary
function is intermittently linked with giving birth, there is mostly rejoicing when she is
pregnant laced with litanies of support. However, if it does happen that the birth process
goes badly leading to the premature death of the unborn child, the accusations placed on
her might be resounding.93 The assumption of accusations range from unfaithfulness on
her part to a negative act she might have done in the past coming back to hunt her in
circles.
Consequently, witchcraft is usually considered a woman’s crime. Although young
girls could also be indicted as witches, witchcraft is mainly associated with older women.
For the most part, it is held that witches specialise in causing harm to infants or little
children in a way that hinders their smooth development into adulthood. They are
regularly accused of provoking miscarriages, death in childbirth and for the emergence of
deformed babies. Others are vehemently accused of destroying their own kin either in the
womb or after they are born. For this reason, women who are suspected to be witches are
kept at arm’s length, and when a woman is pregnant, she attempts at all cost to avoid
contact with the supposed witch so that a spell is not cast on the unborn child.94
In any case, it is interesting that witches are deemed to be mostly women and quite
intriguingly, the majority of them are poor. Hence just as it might appear that there are no
‘rich witches’, it needs to be said that some accusations of witchcraft are notoriously
unfounded. In some instances women who seemed to have a divergent perspective from
what the norm had been or women who tended to behave differently were prone to
suspicions of witchcraft. Additionally, other factors that prompt the naming of witches
include: hatred, jealousy, covetousness among women, a scapegoat mentality (necessarily
blaming someone for a disease or a mishap), and so forth. 95 As M.G. Marwick
92
Ruether, Women and Redemption, 260.
93
See Ibid. See also Oduyoye, “Women and Ritual in Africa,” 14; Oduyoye, Daughters of Anowa, 40-42.
94
Onyekwe, Marriage, Fertility and Life After Death, 121. I.W.C. van Wyk, “African Witchcraft in
Theological Perspective,” HTS 60, Iss. 4 (2004): 1210. Jim Harries continues the debate that older women
are most probably to be accused of being witches. He thinks that the accusation finger is usually pointed at
a close family member such as co-wives, mothers-in-law, sisters-in-law, aunts and others. According to
Harries, it seems quite convenient to indict the old women in African society who are usually poor,
distressed or rejected by their husbands/sons coupled with some sort of imagined jealousy, bitterness or
envy from these old women as a result of their condition. For example, it is sometimes assumed that barren
women wish the death of their co-wife’s children in order to endure misery alone while another enjoys the
company of a bulbous offspring. For older women, their relative powerlessness and emotional
vulnerability usually means they are less likely to offer a counter-protest if they are accused of practising
witchcraft. See Jim Harries, “Witchcraft, Culture and Theology in African Development,” African Nebula,
Iss. 2 (2010): 142.
95
Wyk, “African Witchcraft in Theological Perspective,” 1208.
summarised decades ago, “belief in sorcery and witchcraft provide an outlet for repressed
hostility, frustration and anxiety.” 96 In like manner, interlocutors from our empirical
study convey that the accusation of women as witches is a troubling page in the lives of
those victimised. They are insistent that conclusions concerning witchcraft are too
quickly drawn in a way that leaves very little room for the suspect’s defence.
In addressing this reality, African theology needs to transmit the notion that Christ,
as Rosemary Edet conveys, “has triumphed over illness, blood taboos, women’s rituals,
witchcraft and the conventions of society”97 because some societies go even further to
believe that a woman is likely to transit ill luck to a male if coitus takes place at the time
when a woman is having her menses. 98 To place the humanity of individuals on
demarcating pedestals as a result of gender denies the intent of equality at creation. The
prerogative to determine the ethical evaluation of an action or trait is not reliant on gender
affiliations. The Catechism of the Catholic Church does offer a personalist perspective to
the debate in declaring that God gives man and woman an equal personal dignity. 99 The
Catechism continues that each of the two sexes is an image of the power and tenderness
of God, bestowed with equal dignity though in a different way.100 Tersely put, gender is
no criterion for a possession of hazardous and diabolical attributes.
4.2.5 Domestic Violence

Domestic violence or household battering is ubiquitous in continental Africa. Daisy
Nwachukwu in her survey of the cultural and psycho-social footings of violence has
proffered that among a number of ethnic groups in West Africa, it is in the man’s place to
discipline his wife and children, as the head of the family, by any method acceptable to
him. The abuse is particularly incensed when in his estimation, the wife is unsubmissive
and seditious and when the child is rebellious and malcontent. 101 Surely, Christian
families are not exempt from this mayhem.
Habitual ‘cultural’ tendencies make it quite difficult for some women to express
themselves. In some societies, as Anne Nasimiyu-Wasike accounts, women are not
allowed to talk when men are having a discussion. The motivating influence behind this
disposition is that their intelligence is not articulate enough to contribute to puzzling
matters. When they are ‘allowed’ to speak, it could be that they are belittled by men and
96
M.G. Marwick, “Some Problems in the Sociology of Sorcery and Witchcraft,” in African Systems of
Thought, prefaced by M. Fortes and G. Dieterlen, (London: Oxford University Press, 1966), 171.
97
Rosemary Edet, “Christianity and African Women’s Rituals,” in The Will to Arise, 26-29.
98
Lloyda Fanusie, “Sexuality and Women in African Culture,” in The Will to Arise, 144.
99
Catechism of the Catholic Church (1994), no. 2334.
100
Catechism, no. 2335.
101
Daisy Nwachukwu, “Cultural and Psycho-Social Roots of Violence Against Women and Children in
Selected African Milieux,” in Pastoral Theology’s and Pastoral Psychology’s Contributions to Helping
Heal a Violent World, ed. G. Michael Cordner (Surakarta: International Pastoral Care Network for Social
Responsibility, 1996), 226. See also Nyengele, African Women Theology, 53.
are not taken seriously.102 The popular saying that ‘a woman’s place is in the kitchen’ is
as real as the Bini adage, which alleges that ‘a woman should be seen and not heard.’ To
infer that the dignity of these women involved is not adequately considered is truly
validated.
Relatedly, violence against women and children is one of the recurrent themes in the
theological analysis of gender dynamics in Africa. Nyengele avows that violence against
women is pervasive in the African context, just as it is around the world. His submission
is that in some cultures, it is rooted in the culture.103 Taking a similar position, Oduyoye
recounts that wife battering is a vital component of domestic violence over which a dense
veil of silence is drawn. Worse still, some men tend to see wife-beating as an obligation
and are proud to declare it to their folks. What is even worse is to hear women speak of
the beating they received from their husbands as a normal part of their marital
relations.104 While our empirical study definitely corroborates Oduyoye’s impression, it
needs to be added that domestic abuse is not always as one-sided as it seems. Research
participants hint too that husbands might also be objects of abuse. Therefore, a critical
approach to domestic violence needs attesting that men too could be victims of this
bedlam.
Domestic violence presents a major concern to African Christianity. Pope Francis
particularly decries the abuse of children as ‘scandalous’ especially when they occur in
places where they otherwise ought to be most safe. 105 From our ethnographic survey,
couples who experience this misdemeanour are not often vocal about it to a third-party. In
their estimation, to reveal the extent and damage of domestic abuse is to expose one’s
family to public glare. But this is not always true. A party – either male or female – who
undergoes abusive relationships needs to be reassured that it is alright to express their
challenges.
For the most part, the recourse to silence is frequently a motivator to the abusive
partner who fathoms that after each episode, he or she is likely to get away with it in
reticence. Annemie Dillen appeals for the church to adequately address the ‘taboo’ tag
that has been ascribed to speaking about domestic violence. She wants the church to
investigate not only the methodology of providing a decent pastoral care but to inspect
how household abuse poses a challenge to theology.106 As it seems, the pervasiveness of a
102
Nasimiyu-Wasike, “Polygamy: A Feminist Critique,” 105-6. Nasimiyu recounts that in some rural
communities, a man is given a whip on his wedding day in order to ‘keep’ his wife under control and
curtail her ‘excesses’.
103
Nyengele, African Women Theology, 52. See also Daisy Nwachukwu’s investigation on the prevalence
of domestic violence in Nigeria in Nwachukwu, “Cultural and Psycho-Social Roots of Violence Against
Women and Children,” 221.
104
105
Pope Francis, Amoris Laetitia, no. 45.
106
Annemie Dillen, “Gewalt in Familien: Eine Herausforderung für das kirchliche und theologische
Sprechen” PThl 36 (2016-1): 63.
silent culture on domestic violence in Africa is an opportunity for the church to establish
her concern for the weak and the vulnerable.
In debating for equitability, henceforward, Oduyoye questions the misrepresentation
of humanity’s source of authority. In her assessment, God’s creation of women and men
as equally human offers them the responsibility of being stewards of creation and the
authority to jointly manage it. In Oduyoye’s purview, the reduction of stewardship to
domination and husbanding to control rests on the one-sided development of the source of
authority that strictly speaking is bequeathed to the human being as a person not as male
or as female in the same way that John Paul II explains.107
4.3.6 Female Genital Mutilation

Bénézet Bujo asserts that while its aim is to integrate boys and girls into the clan
fellowship, the otherwise known female ‘circumcision’, which is still practiced in some
ethnic groups and often regarded as the high of this initiation, is exceptionally brutal.
More so, unlike the circumcision of boys, female circumcision is a mutilation intended to
have an effect on sexual life and sexual pleasure. Bujo construes that such an exercise is
tantamount to torture and accordingly, unjust.108
Putting the lifelong suffering of circumcised women in perspective, and drawing
from our acquaintance of psychology and medicine, the significance of the genital
mutilation of women and girls in ethnic cultures would need reconsideration. In light of
this, it is renowned as a major facet of gender violence for indeed it is considered within
the category of a physical, sexual and psychological harm to women including the use of
threat and coercion conjoined by a deprivation of their liberty.
Female circumcision does expose women to a lifetime of pain and a lack of control
of their own bodily integrity. It is interesting to see, however, that a major reason why the
action has perpetuated is the ‘taboo’ tag that is fastened to the topic. The impending
culture of silence creates an environment where ‘victims’ are impeded from discussing
their experiences of harm and suffering apportioned by the defacement. In allusion to this
assertion, a 2016 report of the UN reveals that the single largest factor influencing the
preponderance of female genital mutilation is the yearning for social acceptance and an
avoidance of social stigmatization. 109 Contrarily, African Christianity too must not be
silent to such anomaly. It must attempt to purge cultures of this incongruity. Dillen draws
attention to the fact that even persons who are religiously inactive are expectant for the
107
Oduyoye, Who Will Roll the Stone Away? The Ecumenical Decade of the Churches in Solidarity with
Women (Geneva: WCC, 1990), 53. See also TOB, no. 8.
108
Bujo, Foundations of an African Ethic, 132.
109
Janet Anyango, “Take Five: To end Female Genital Mutilation, we have to break the culture of
silence,” www.unwomen.org [accessed December 15, 2017].
church to stimulate and exemplify moral codes on their behalf. 110 From the African
panorama, such people ask for the church to be more vocal in exorcising this malaise.
It has been verified that female genital mutilation has no beneficial value to the girls
who are subjected to it. If for anything, the value is enclosed in the sexual benefit it offers
to their male partners whereas on the other hand, it curtails the sexual pleasure of the
women. Second, while it is documented that women are more biologically susceptible to
infection, the probability of infection is even greater in cases when there is an
involvement of violent or forceful execution, inducting the possibility of virginal tearing
not excluding the vulnerability of girls and women in general to HIV/AIDS infection
owing to the uncensored contact of blood.111
Quite ludicrously, the genital mutilation of girls in parts of Africa is reputed as their
readiness for marriage. In some African cultures as Oduyoye has pointed out, without
‘circumcision’ there is no marriage hence mothers ensure that their daughters undergo the
surgery because to be a real women is to be married and to have children. 112 The
underlying myth is that female ‘circumcision’ helps control the sexual desire of women
and safeguards their fidelity in marriage. In hindsight, however, vetoing the readiness of
the sexual relationship of girls via genital mutilation neglects the fact that a girl may not
yet be mentally, socially and emotionally ready.113 This absurdity is rightly a violation of
human rights and an unnecessary exposure to the claws of preying men.
Unquestionably, an important step in resolving the miasma of female genital
mutilation is the evolution of a cultural and attitudinal change. It will also require nations
to take up adequate measures including awareness-raising on the medical and mental
effect, allocating adequate resources to protect women and girls from such violence and
enforcing legislation. Withal, it would need to pay attention to support those have been
already subjected to the damage. Additionally, it is also arguable that the reduction of the
risk of the mutilation of girls is linked to the educational attainment of their mothers. For
this, the education of women to address this negative social norm is all the more
necessary.
This is not an attempt, however, to generalize that clitoridectomy is practiced in all
contemporary African societies. Though it is true that its exhibition is manifold, it would
be an overstatement to postulate that it is in vogue in every habitable surface of Africa.
For sure, there are numerous parts of Nigeria, for instance where female ‘circumcision’ is
neither practiced nor conceived as a required aspect of the rite of passage for girls. We
110
Annemie Dillen, “Lived Religion and the Complex Relations between Practical Theology, Empirical
Theology and Religious Studies,” in Catholic Approaches in Practical Theology: International and
Interdisciplinary Perspectives, eds. Claire E. Wolfteich and Annemie Dillen (Leuven: Peeters, 2016), 29.
111
Anne K. Gatobu, “Conjunction of Gender Violence and HIV/AIDS with Implications and Assessment
and Intervention in Pastoral Care,” in Pastoral Care, Health, Healing and Wholeness in African Contexts:
Methodology, Context and Issues, eds. Tapiwa M. Mucherera and Emmanuel Y. Lartey (Eugene, OR:
Wipf and Stock, 2017), 68-69.
112
113
Gatobu, “Conjunction of Gender Violence and HIV/AIDS,” 69.
only attempt to show that in places where it does exist, the dignity of women and girls is
attenuated.
4.4 Gender Roles vis-à-vis Biological Differentiation

Val Webb raises some pertinent questions with reference to the interjection emanating
from biological differences. She is adamant that the tension between biological
differences and gender role is repeatedly extended to body parts without a critical
assessment of what it means to be a woman and what being a man entails. 114 According to
Webb, the term ‘natural qualities’ is all too often ascribed. Webb demands as such:
“because women breast-feed, does this make them ‘naturally’ superior to men as
nurturers, and thus confined to lifelong caregiving? Does the ability to give birth go with
‘natural’ weakness, irrationality, and the need for male rule as is often argued for
women?”115 Webb shows awareness that in as much as women are the first habitat for
children, the potentials for nurturing that they possess are in no way limitations to their
abilities to function outside of caregiving. The call she makes is that an evaluation of sex
roles is needed in order to discern whether they were constructed by the social and
cultural ideas of the times or whether they are real.
In describing the perspective focusing on sex roles, Carol Robb refers to the term
‘sex-rolism’. This viewpoint detects the ascribed importance to sex roles delineated to
women and men and critiques a fanatical allocation of roles as responsible for the
asymmetry in relationships. According to Robb, this position absolves men from the
blame of women oppression and places the culpability on the shoulders of both society or
‘sex roles’. In order to rectify the lopsidedness, proponents of this stance call for a
reformulation of previously held belvedere which would include asking women to fix
automobiles and other machines while encouraging men to take equal responsibility for
parenting.116 The question is, how realistic is this venture? Assuming the environment is
created for African women to realize their potentials in mechanical science or hard labour
duties, how disposed might they be? Robb presses on that even though the redefinition of
stereotypical sex roles is important, the creation and practice of sex roles is not at the
foundation of women’s predicament, but rather the upshot of other factors. In conclusion,
she points out that sex roles are symptoms of male supremacy and neither the cause nor
the cure. Robb contends rather that the dense lines of roles appropriation be endorsed to
114
Webb, Why We’re Equal, 14. In calling for a critical assessment of tradition, Webb reckons that quite a
lot is heaped upon tradition as a dependable source of information without reflecting on the context in
which such information emerged. She initiates the story of a new husband who probed his wife as to the
reason she habitually chopped the ends off French baguettes. The wife rejoined that her mother always did
it. However, “when he asked the mother, she said her mother did as well. Fortunately grandmother was
still around to inform her new grandson-in-law that she did it because her bread box was too short!” Webb,
Why We’re Equal, 15.
115
Ibid.
116
Robb, “A Framework for Christian Ethics,” in Feminist Theological Ethics, 21.
wane in order to allow for flexibility in the division of labour in the home and public
spheres.117
Quite discernibly, the stringent allotment of roles in connubial relationships is a
major cornerstone of matrimonial life in Nigeria rooted in the expectations of society for
each gender. To put this in perspective, in pre-modern times, it might be regarded as
indecorous for a man to be constantly in the presence of his wife or sisters. The concept
of ‘woman-wrapper’, which we identified in the first chapter, is illustrative of this
disposition. He simply does not belong there. He belongs rather to the company of other
men of his age group. Further, the one who assists his wife with the house chores at every
opportunity is seen as lacking in dignity. He exposes himself to ridicule if discovered. At
no time may a man undertake a female role or participate in jobs set aside for women. For
example, Oduyoye makes the claim that taboos say that the kitchen is out of bounds to
boys and men. Similarly, a woman may not assume a male role.118
More than that, because the kitchen came to be in the domain of women, Oduyoye
stresses that food accounted for a strong weapon in the hands of women within a culture
that vilifies ‘eating out’. Thus holding jealously to their ‘kitchen power’, women
disparaged men who invaded their sacred domain and haven; about the only place in the
home were they could exercise autonomy and making decisions affecting the entire
household without having to confer with the man.119 It suffices to admit then that division
of labour was doggedly followed. Marital relationships were therefore founded on roles
that each partner were expected to undertake and questions regarding equality of the
spouses as understood in the Western practice of conjugal union was not a topical subject.
As we discussed in the second chapter, John Paul II stresses the biological distinction
between man and woman. He emphasizes that the ‘male’ has features that identify him as
‘man’ and the ‘female’ has features that typify her as ‘woman.’ 120 While this is true of
biological differentiation, the accentuation of the attributes which each possess might be
misrepresented to mean inflexibility in the appropriation of household roles since such
ingredients are contained in a person’s peculiarity. This could yield to the post-modernist
assumption that gender roles are some sort of specialization.
In explaining the correlation between specialization and the demands of gender roles,
Joseph Martos and Pierre Hégy argue that the purpose of gender roles in nature and
society is, in a word, efficiency. They explain that gender roles are a product of the
process of diversification and specialization in nature, which means individuals do
specialize in specific functions over the course of time. They point further that gender
117
Robb, 21-22.
118
Oduyoye, Daughters of Anowa, 50. See also Kisembo, African Christian Marriage, 122. Authors have
illustrated that among the Xhosa ethnic group, sex-division took a profound prototype. Men and women
(and boys and girls) sat on different sides of the house or of a hall. In marital life, couples had separate
sleeping mats and only the man could cross to join his wife on her mat. See Ibid., 122.
119
Ibid., 53.
120
John Paul II, Theology of the Body, no. 8
roles yield individual satisfaction since when everyone knows his/her place, individuals
tend to have belonging and purpose. They prefer to deliberate on gender roles rather than
‘sex roles’ because they ponder that the latter connects more with functions that entail
reproduction and survival (such as nursing the young) whereas the former includes these
in addition to a huge variety of social, symbolic, and satisfaction functions also.121
Martos and Hegy’s explanation of gender roles is truly elaborate. They tender that
gender roles not only define how girls relate to boys and how men relate to women, it
features also how individuals of the same gender relate with each other. Thus for them,
gender roles place consideration also on how “girls relate to other girls and to women,
how males of any age relate to various places and activities, and so on and so forth. In
other words, gender roles move beyond simple sex roles and involve the complexity of
human society and culture.”122
As we earlier noted, biological differentiation is subject to interpretation in diverse
ways laced with deductions from the biblical context. Sally Gallagher has pointed out that
there has been a disposition to approvingly juxtapose the ‘distinctive natures’ of men and
women with the difference in the kind of work they are meant to undertake.123 According
to Gallagher, this position attests that since God has ‘hardwired’ women to respond to and
to nurture others, it is only right that they assume the responsibility of meeting the
emotional and physical needs of others. On the other hand, if God has engraved in men’s
physiology the designation to initiate, lead and direct it is only right that they take up the
primary responsibility for the material needs of the household.124
But to what extent is nature gendered? To what extent did God ‘assign’
responsibilities to both sexes? Are women ‘helpers’ to men in the same degree that men
are ‘helpers’ to women? It is noteworthy that in addition to the biblical assertion that
women should be ‘helpers’ to men, there is an undercurrent incipient from African
traditional cultures that women’s primary role is to aid the progress of the household head
– the man. This evolution takes into cognizance the obligation of the man to provide
sustenance for his household and the assistance generated by his wife in actualizing this.
Furthermore, it would explain the reason some men are averse to career-wives in
those instances where their amassed income is sufficiently able to cater of the family. A
number of women themselves in our empirical survey declared themselves that were it
not for economic constraints, their preference would have been to be a housewife. Those
who think career jobs expose women to ‘temptations’ further reinforce this conservative
trend. When women are provided access to career, others term it as an ‘opportunity’. In
121
Joseph Martos and Pierre Hégy, “Gender Roles in Family and Culture: The Basis of Sexism in
Religion,” in Equal at the Creation: Sexism, Society and Christian Thought, eds. Joseph Martos and Pierre
Hégy, 4-5.
122
Martos and Hégy, “Gender Roles in Family and Culture,” 5.
123
Sally K. Gallagher, Evangelical Identity and Gendered Family Life (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers
University Press, 2003), 127.
124
Gallagher, Evangelical Identity, 127.
light of this, the biblical narrative of the woman as helper (Gen. 2:18), which John Paul II
takes up does little to sway the incipient intuition of African traditional societies that a
woman’s function is primarily to assist a man as required by him.
Gender roles as a form of specialization in time follow some sort of societal ordering.
A prime example attributed to gender roles in society is the understanding of a primary
provider which metamorphosis into the notions of ‘breadwinner’ and ‘homemaker’. This
dominant trend, which has consequences for the value placed on the dependent,
recognizes the man as the one who provides sustenance for the family whereas the
woman is mostly a housewife. Okure laments such dependency of women on men as
husbands and fathers and criticizes such feebleness. Likening African women with the
daughter of the biblical Jairus, Okure prompts African women to obey Jesus’ command
by waking from inertia so as to be empowered for action.125
In any case, the ‘breadwinner’ mentality, which we identified in our ethnography, is
constantly challenged today across Africa. Increased education, coupled with improved
access to illustrious careers, has ensured that women too can ‘win’ some bread for their
family. Her position as breadwinner is all the more accepted in light of sweeping
economic challenges. To hang on to the notion of the traditional housewife leaves one’s
family at the risk of financial hazards. Becoming less dependent on her husband as
before, the modern wife might attempt to educate and provide for the children without
relying on her husband’s earnings. They exemplify that together, both can indeed be
breadwinners and homemakers. It needs saying though that not every man is able to take
in this possibility in good faith. The ensuing tension, arising from this panorama, is
capable of breaking down marriages.
With regard to household chores, a balance should be sought. The unequal
distribution of household work between women and men is of huge concern to African
women. Fulgence Nyengele alerts that the division of household work (and child care) is
exploitative of women’s industry. Irrespective of their employment outside of the home,
research has shown that they do about twice more housework than their male
counterparts, Nyengele claims.126 Arguably, the same holds good for girls in relation to
boys.
Be that as it may, the mentality that conceives men who assist their wife as lacking
dignity is out-dated; a man does not hurt himself by taking part in household chores. If for
anything, relieving the burden of his wife is a noble deed. As we established from our
ethnography, women in rural society carry an even heavier burden. Besides assisting the
husbands in the farms, they are expected to fulfill their obligations of mothering back in
the home and so the hours of toil continues. While these drudgeries are not usually
appreciated in the large scale of things, a simple assistance from one’s partner would be
quite soothing.
125
Okure, “The Will to Arise: Reflections on Luke 8:40-56,” in The Will to Arise, 230.
126
The attempt by African women theologians to challenge cultural socialization and to

reject the assumption that the roles of women and men are already fixed, either by the
creator or by culture is valiant.127 The obsession on gender roles leaves little room for
interchangeability of responsibilities between couples even when circumstances warrant a
need to do so.
4.5 Taking the Inculturation Debate Further

It is not enough to objectify inculturation as a major thrust of African Christianity. There
is need for inculturation to contribute meaningfully to the existential authenticities in
Africa. Any effort to energize inculturation in Africa must take into account the
identification and explanation of the two realities of Christian life in Nigeria, namely, the
reality of the Good News of Jesus Christ and the reality of African peoples in their
different societies. A sincere attempt ought be made also to unite them and make room
for the mutual enrichment of each other. John Paul II realizes this union between Christ
and culture in his assertion that inculturation for Africans need to bring “Christ into the
very centre of African life, and lifting up all African life to Christ”. 128 Accordingly,
inculturation in Africa must not regard the culture as preparation evangelica but as a
‘fertile soil’ in which the Good News could be planted.
4.5.1 The Early Missionaries’ Impetus for an Inculturated African Christianity: An

Argument for Naivety?
The colloquial exchange labelling missionary Christianity as complicit in the disregard of
an inculturated Christianity in Africa has been established in previous chapters. As E.
Fasholé-Luke puts it, “Western missionaries stressed aspects of discontinuity between
Christianity and African cultures and traditional religion to such an extent that they
excluded the aspects of continuity between Christianity and African cultures and
traditional religion.” 129 He continues that the condemnation placed on cultures was
without proper assessment of African religious beliefs and practices so that they replaced
these with Western cultural and religious practices.130
While it is arguable that in many respects these judgments on the missionaries are
reasonable, it is important to note that the early missionaries were in many ways “children
of their age and products of what were often arrogantly colonial cultures.”131 Cases of
missionaries who were found on the side of the African converts against the colonial
masters were perhaps too far and few between to persuade the prevalently accepted
127
Kanyoro, “Engendered Communal Theology,” 168.
128
John Paul II, “Address to the Bishops of Kenya, Nairobi,” 7 May 1980. AAS 72, 6 (1980): 497.
129
Edward W. Fasholé-Luke et al., eds., Christianity in Independent Africa (London: Rex Collings, 1978),
357.
130
Fasholé-Luke, Christianity in Independent Africa, 357.
131
John Parratt, Reinventing Christianity: African Theology Today (Grand Rapids, MI: William Eerdmans,
1995), 9.
impression. It is of little surprise then that for good measure, theologians in Africa have
adopted a critical stance toward Western-dominated Christianity.132
However, just as many African theologians now discover, to simply attack the faults
of the European fathers on the African church is quickly becoming a negative and sterile
exercise. It may simply be an alibi to divert attention away from the desires of the
present. Similarly, while the castigation of publications such as Placid Tempel’s Bantu
Philosophy for patronizing colonial approaches is justified, this immensely critical
disposition, on the other hand, vehemently betrays a misunderstanding of its actual
significance in the development of African thought.133 As Anthony Gbuji muses, placing
the blame of Africa’s collective ills and misconducts on the influence of ‘Western
Civilization’ is ill sighted and misses the point completely. 134 In truth, transformative
influences, positive or negative, whether from within or without, are regular features of
societies open to interaction with others.
Quite arguably, Kwame Bediako’s position that the image of Africa and of Africans
as inherently inferior to Europe and Europeans did not originate with the missionary
movement as such but with the trend of nineteenth-century Europe needs to be looked
at.135 Although missionary Christianity in following the Christological model of Christ’s
inclusive approach towards the appreciation of humanity is expected to know better, the
subordination posture owed a large extent to the European’s first impression implied from
the earlier decades of contact with Africa. Sadly, of course, the early missionaries were
unable to extricate themselves from that fetter.
4.5.2 Reimagining Inculturation: A Search for Transformative Elements

Insisting that theology must serve the pastoral and evangelical needs of the church, Harry
Sawyerr has noted that ecclesial communities in Africa are being called out to make
relevant the truths of the Gospel to the realities of the continent. He is upbeat that whereas
Christianity has contributed to the faith yearnings of local communities, he is adamant
that “the Church in Africa is faced with a clamant demand for an interpretation of the
Christian faith in a sanguine hope that such an interpretation, when produced, would
provide the means of bringing home to Africans the truth of the Christian gospel in an
idiom related to the African situation.” 136 While Saywerr recognizes the distinguished
unity of the Christian faith, he pleads for its interpretation in terms of the ‘African soil’ in
order to provide a Christianity that is truly engrained.
132
Parratt, Reinventing Christianity, 9.
133
See Ibid., 10. See also Paulin Hountondji’s analysis of the reprimanding of Tempel’s work in
“Comments on Contemporary African Philosophy,” Diogenes 71 (1990): 109-17.
134
Anthony Gbuji, The Pastoral Care of Marriage and Family Life in Nigeria (Onitsha: Kimenso
Educational Publishers, 1994), 4.
135
Bediako, Christianity in Africa, 5-6.
136
Harry Sawyerr, Creative Evangelism, towards a New Christian Encounter (London: Lutterworth Press,
1968), 8.
The expected mutuality between Christianity and African culture is a chance for
Christianity, despite its storied past with colonialism, to show respect to culture. John
Paul II helps in depicting the relevance of this relationship when he posits that “not only
is Christianity relevant to Africa, but Christ in the members of his Body is himself
African.”137 This statement from the pope as weighty as it is, is meant to highlight that
barring inculturation, Christ remains an outsider, a foreigner to culture, not a citizen, not
an inhabitant. In order to underscore the importance of a well-drilled African theology,
John Paul II does not hesitate to use the term ‘Africanization’ for ‘inculturation’.138
In order to guarantee the sustenance and perpetuation of inculturation, African
women theologians have pondered upon the need for reciprocity between the gospel and
African culture. As Maseno-Ouma points out, the critical interaction between the gospel
and African culture must offer local communities the opportunity to express their new
consciousness of self-worth and to aid the development of their identity as local churches
rather than to subsume them. 139 Inculturation, just as Bujo formulates, needs not be a
product of an inferiority complex vis-à-vis the West or one that is coloured by an
apologetic intent.140 Rather, it is one that allows for the interpretation of the gospel from
the African peoples’ thought forms and worldview. Hence any consistent deliberation of
gender in Africa needs to take inculturation seriously in the same way that inculturation,
as an on-going endeavour, is expected to include the experiences of women in its
theological project.141
It is precisely for this reason that the version of inculturation, as presented by early
African theologians, has been termed ‘deficient’. The view from post-modern African
theologians is that it has relied solely on its earlier presentations by African male
theologians. The worry is that in a bid to reclaim and re-position the cultural heritage of
the African people at the dawn of independence, African male theologians in attempting
to foster an appreciation of the African culture gave prominence to the positive aspects of
the African culture only and turned a blind spot to the aspects that were not worth
reclaiming. They romanticized the African culture and were quite eager to paint a perfect
picture of it even though in reality, such a portrayal is idealistic.142
In a similar fashion, inculturation is also lampooned for its intent in equating the
experience of a man in African community to a woman in African community. The
137
John Paul II, “Address to the Bishops of Kenya,” 198.
138
See John Paul II, “Address to the Bishops of Zaire, Kinshasa,” 3 May 1980. AAS 72, 4-6 (1980): 432-
35.
139
140
Bujo, African Theology in its Social Context, 15.
141
In his examination of the role of experience in Catholic moral theology, Knieps has underscored the
prominent position of human experience as a veritable source of moral discernment proximate to Scripture,
tradition and other bodies of knowledge. He buttresses this point in referring to the Second Vatican
Council’s willingness to incorporate into the church’s discourse on marriage, the experiences of pastoral
ministers with married people. See Thomas Knieps-Port le Roi, “Lay Perspectives on Marriage and the
Family,” INTAMS review 20 (2014): 172-3.
142
demonstration of the sources for an inculturated African Christianity is often from a male
perspective, which has been understood according to John Pobee as “the human
perspective”. 143 Thus, a lack of input from the female perspective means that the
experience of women has not been integrated. Such a lack of development on the
feminine experience creates an imbalance just as it dispenses a lack of sensitivity to the
various categories that form the core of African culture. As it has been noted, for an
African theology to remain relevant to the Christian community in twenty-first century
Africa, it must include the sum of African realities which African peoples are confronted
with. Additionally, it will need African theologians, from various denominations, male
and female, to engage in dialogue.144
Therefore to limit inculturation to an approach that explores a superficial drawing of
parallels by which aspects of traditional religion are related to aspects of Christian
doctrine is misleading. This would be too feigning and naïve. Inculturation on the other
hand must uncover and recover the essential focus of each traditional thought-system.
Similarly, African theology must convoke a Christology that is founded on a holistic
stance that is eschatological and anthropological, cosmological and liberational. Women
in Africa do need a Christ who affects the whole of her life.
Accordingly, it is beneficial for an African theology of the present epoch to refer to
traditions in order to reclaim aspects of culture that empowered women. A close study of
the historical development of the predominant and robustly-established imperial
administration in the ancient Benin Empire must pay attention to the influence and
prestige of the Iyoba, the Queen-Mother in the Edo tradition and culture. In building a
palace for her at Uselu and granting her assorted insignia of high rank, the Oba raises the
bar on how women – especially mothers – should be regarded.145 The special reverence
set aside for the popular Emotan, 146 though childless, testifies to the respect women,
regardless of whether they were mothers, assumed in times past.
In drawing from tradition, African theology can display a stronger awareness of the
major contributions of men and women in its historic antecedents. It can respond to issues
of neglect of women who are distressed. It could also respond to the challenge of
childlessness of married women by reminding them that their inputs to society is beyond
bearing children. In retrospection, however, these instances of heroine virtues and their
143
Ibid., 46-47. For Pobee’s detailed delineation of the components of an inculturated African Christianity
see John S. Pobee, Toward an African Theology (Nashville, TN: Abingdon, 1979).
144
Nyengele, African Women’s Theology, 97. See also Tinyiko Maluleke, “Half a Century of African
Christian Theologies: Elements of the Emerging Agenda for the Twenty-first Century” Journal of
Theology for Southern Africa 99 (Nov. 1997): 20.
145
See Kaplan, “Ideology, Belief and Sacred Kingship,” 129.
146
Emotan was a childless market woman who assisted, together with the slave Edo, in aiding Oba Ewuare
“the Great” (then Prince Ogun) in ascending the throne after it was usurped by his brother Uwaifiokun.
Oba Ewuare upon assumption of the throne immortalized Emotan by referencing her loyalty in all
chieftaincy rounds and burial rites in Benin, and also memorialized the slave Edo by adopting his name for
all Benin people. See Kaplan, “Ideology, Belief and Sacred Kingship”, 121.
recognition might be too far and few between to be relied upon in the gender
emancipation venture. In this way, the African reality does not simply emerge as a mere
context or backdrop for theologising, but as Katongole puts it, “the locus theologicus –
the very ground within which God is encountered – and thus generates its own questions
and methodologies for theological reflection”147 in order not to theologise about questions
no one in Africa is asking, but on pertinent subjects that relate to the African experience.
Furthermore, it is to be noted that the perspective of African women theologians is
not one-sided. It duly recognizes the search to create an environment where both men and
women can live together in a partnership of equals – a visualization in which all humanity
can live in harmony and in non-imperious ways to one another. More specifically, it not
only aims at ransoming oppressed women, it also hopes to enlighten men so as to engage
them in the prospects of establishing a better world in which people are not segregated
and excluded on the basis of fastidious identities such as gender, class, race, geographical
location, educational attainment and so forth. Its underlying goal thus, is to facilitate the
development and promotion of right relationships not just between men and women, but
also among all peoples,148 proposing a vision of wholeness for both men and women, and
for the entirety of creation.
4.6 Conclusion
Our central research question consisting of how an African Christian discourse on gender
should look like that on the one side respects the cultural heritage and grass root
experiences of African couples and on the other hand, goes against unjust gender
structures is succinctly addressed in this chapter. Put differently, it has attempted a critical
analysis of major challenges in male-female relations in Southern Nigeria and has sought
to contribute to the transformation of unjust gender structures in local African
communities. It has also investigated the conditions in which traditional and current
gender practices and patterns are susceptible to critical conceptualization from a Christian
perspective.
In sum, in this chapter, we have carefully integrated the fruits of our ethnography in
the protruding analysis of the gender subject in Africa. In doing so, we provided a
heuristic enunciation of the shades of the gender conundrum in Africa’s families and
societies. Through this attempt, the possibility of deciphering the methodical mêlée of
African women theologians and John Paul II to account for a more egalitarian and just
relations between women and men both in the public and private sphere in African
Christianity was birthed. The resultant yield is that African Christianity is still in a
skirmish with African cultural connotations that seek to locate men and women on quite
contra-distinctive platform; one ennobled with authority and control and the other
intermittently disadvantaged by the demands of society and culture. Though the hard-
147
Katongole, “How Long Oh God?” 206.
148
thought reflections of African theologian and John Paul II have been helpful, there are
still spaces to be filled by a severe practical approach to the gender discourse in the
continent.
To initiate this chapter, we classified the major stakeholders of the African family.
Tapping from the resources of the family system theory, we effectively conceptualized
family life by viewing each member relative to other family members with distinct
reference to how each affects and is affected by the others. A theological appraisal of
these interactions was quite helpful in the proposals for the modification of interpersonal
contacts and the re-adaptation of family interaction patterns.
As a follow up, we developed the essential elements of man-woman relations in
African societies. Through this channel, we discovered misapprehended traditional
prejudices about women as being less capable than and inferior to men that underlie a
fleet of cultural philosophies. Furthermore, we then demonstrated through an assessment
of gender roles, how a one-sided construal of biological differentiation might –
intentionally or unintentionally – work to consolidate and preserve men’s imperiousness
within the family and in the larger society. In the end, we strove to reinvent inculturation
as an ineluctable channel for discovering and accounting for that which is truly African
by renaming its omissions of the past and reimagining its scope for future contemplations.
GENERAL CONCLUSION
Christianity has had a tremendous impact on African people. More than anything else, the
influence of Christianity is particularly evident and felt in the social, economic and
religious scopes of African life. Put differently, missionaries were not simply
evangelizers, they were also leaders to whom African communities looked up to for
inspiration. Little wonder formal education as instituted by the missionaries was whole-
heartedly embraced as a channel of training the mind in order to attain human
advancement and to ensure the continuity of literary endowment. In order to ascertain this
progression, parents readily sent their children to missionary schools. However, it has
been demonstrated that many boys and fewer girls peopled the schools.
It subsequently emerged as a source of amazement that missionary Christianity did
little to pursue the educational development of the girl-child. All the more alarming is the
realization that the missionaries’ education approach was meant to be a seedbed for
evangelization. So then, why was the girl-child not adequately considered for this
education-evangelization project? Conceivably, the missionaries acted out of their own
convictions since they too were egress from a male-controlled Western society at the
time. Another possibility perhaps is that they were only too eager to admit converts to
Christianity. Hence, they did not think it wise to challenge the situation in Africa which
might have had deleterious consequences in their interactions with the local community
leaders.
But it would be unfair to lay the blame on missionary Christianity alone. We need to
raise the question as to the extent to which African theology has specifically addressed
the question of women’s domination. The early African indigenous Christian theologians
themselves did not fare particularly differently from the missionaries. They also did not
critically and forcefully challenge the disparaging gender nuance in the continent. Thus,
while they erected an African theology of adaptation and subsequently, a more popular
theology of inculturation, women and gender issues did not feature as such. The plot of
the successive theologies of liberation and reconstruction in Africa did not offer much in
this regard either. To this end, we detected that ample criticism has been cast against the
early origins of African theology for its neglect of the gender motif and its preference on
two strands of theology namely: liberation and inculturation theology.
On the one hand, it is observed that liberation theology in its analysis of unjust
structures systematically ignored the gender discourse and on the other hand,
inculturation theology has been lampooned for its uncritical approach to culture by
disregarding the pitfalls of culture in its quest for reclaiming and affirming African
culture. African theology need not fall into the trap of idolizing culture in an uncritical
way. Evangelization needs to be a cultural exchange between the Christian culture and
the indigenous culture and not a cultural domination or assimilation. Thusly, a number of
African male theologians (such as: Tinyiko Maluleke, Laurenti Magesa, John Mary
280 General Conclusion
Walligo, Emmanuel Katongole) have taken up the challenge put forward by women
theologian in their commitment to the theological project of women’s liberation and
gender justice that we explained in the third chapter. Still, more recent ethnographic
studies have shown that these theological approaches have little relevance for the way
gender relations are lived and perpetuated in local communities as was discovered in the
second chapter.
This led us to a realization, that human cultures, as far as we can tell, treated men and
women differently. The dominant trend in human history tended to allocate greater power
and privilege to males than to females. The weight ascribed to the terms ‘patriarch’ and
‘matriarch’ partially tells the story. A balance of power between the sexes, which is often
the vision of an egalitarian society, is rare and as uncovered in the first chapter, there is an
impression that Africans (men and women) have been socialized into patriarchy. This
palaver is not merely African but global, although the ponderousness of the asymmetry
might differ from one place to another. From the evidence of prehistoric times, men’s
activity was often accepted as the superior activity. Production was the primary end of
society, reproduction was secondary, albeit necessary. In light of this, the women’s role in
reproduction was appreciated as women’s contribution to the prolongation of the family,
clan and ethnic group. Their attainment of motherhood sequentially rewarded them with
honour and prestige. At the same time, however, the worth of the childless woman
remained in doubt and her contribution to family and society was questioned. On some
occasions, the women were routinely envisaged as the properties of men.
Against this backdrop, the exhibition of gender bias has been blamed on the
traditional patterns of patriarchy that have held sway for centuries. That such patterns of
patriarchy paved the way for a sturdy foundation on which gender domination was
founded and nurtured is quite indubitable as evidenced in the empirical study of the
second chapter. So far, the scholars we dialogued with have brainstormed on the
inadequacy of such gender bias, which in most instances has registered women on the
receiving end. This could be considered the ‘apartheid of gender’ in which the status of
women is believed to be inferior to the status of men. Quite plausibly, in contemporary
conversations, patriarchal structures are under increased attack by women and men alike
who are philosophically dedicated to the promotion of human rights, and are morally
bound to the advancement of fairness fused with an inspiration from the gospel of Jesus.
Patriarchal forces today are on the wane from the pressure of women’s enhanced
educational, economic and political power. The affirmative implication of this renewed
effort is the exposition of gender injustices leading to its attempt to deconstruct gender
ideologies.
Additionally, the disposition which considers living as a man as totally human, as
shown in religious rituals whereas the woman’s participation ceases at puberty and only
resumes at menopause when she is considered to be symbolically reverted to a ‘man’, is
rightly derided by African women theologians in the third chapter. The solitary equation
General Conclusion 281
of maleness to humanness in portions of the continent essentially disregards the value of

anyone who is not male since the male is the norm. This is indeed a ludicrous estimation
since it fails to recognize the uniqueness of every human person – male or female and
disregards the finer margins of what it means to be male and what it means to be female.
The gender narrative in Africa is characterized by this intense struggle seeking to amplify
the pertinence of egalitarianism in the mutual partnership between African men and
women.
It is of note that the entrance of gender studies and related issues to the domain of
African theology owes much to the efforts of African women theologians such as Mercy
Amba Oduyoye, Anne Nasimiyu-Wasike (of blessed memory), Teresa Okure, Musimbi
Kanyoro among others. The formation of the “Circle”, that is, the Concerned African
Women Theologians at Accra in 1989 was a pivotal landmark in this exertion. Though
African theology already emerged in the 1960’s (with leading figures such as Vincent
Mulago, John Mbiti, Bolaji Idowu), they did not refer much to gender or to issues
regarding women and according to some scholars, presented ‘a theology with an African
male face’. Today, African theologians seek to bring women’s experience into theology.
The question, however is, what are these experiences of women and where do they come
from? Yet, it would be important to assert that the experiences of women in Africa vary
according to their specific location with regard to race, culture, nationality and religion.
However, we have shown that women generally experience, in one way or another,
sexism and patriarchal subjugation. The supposition of the theologians considered is that
the humanity of women is not fully respected by the patriarchal traditions in African
societies, cultures and religions. They, in fact, contend that these structures threaten rather
than promote the humanity of African women.
The contemporary context can offer us a pathway as a milieu that appears to take
gender discussions more seriously. Concretely, in our time, the Church’s teaching on
human sexuality has been greatly shaped by the teaching of Pope John Paul II. Without
alluding that it is exhaustive, we find an overall appeal that those insights offer to the
African understanding of the relation between the sexes. If we must chart a course for a
better appreciation of the substance of our humanity as persons, there is the need to
endeavour an accessible platform through which we can recognize persons for what they
are – Imago Dei – and not simply entities. This would entail respect for every human
person regardless of the sex.
In the course of our study, it was lucidly intelligible to us that an understanding of
sexual difference is central to a thorough discussion on gender in Africa. To this end, we
commenced an in-depth reading of Pope John Paul II’s theology of the sexes. A critical
study of his complementarity approach reveals his insistence on, first, the difference of
the sexes in the natural order and secondly, their equality in the social order. He does this
with the help of the creation narrative in his attempt to clarify what the differences could
mean. His conclusion is categorical: the difference of the sexes serves to underscore the
establishment of an appreciation of complementarity of man and woman. In his thinking,

sexual difference does not in any way suggest a disunity of both sexes but justifies the
unity of the human person as male and female. As a result, in the Theology of the Body,
he describes masculinity and femininity as “two ways in which the same human being
created in the image of God (Gen. 1:27) is a body”. This intuition of the pope is the
foundation for his complementarity-equality model.
It is indeed striking that the complementarity vision is a central element in the
African understanding of marital relationships. An inquiry into African cultures reveals
that a complementarity account of relationship is a solid base for the coming together of
man and woman in marriage. It could be argued that such a profound idea of
complementarity is a pointer to the importance placed on marriage by the society. Still,
contrary to the complementarity-equality model of John Paul II, complementarity of the
sexes may not often suggest equality within African cultures. Even in complementarity,
the man could still undoubtedly be the ‘boss’ since male headship is often emphasized
and the woman may be no more than the man’s property or rather, his most cherished
property. Hence, the question remains as to whether the theory of complementarity has
the potential to contribute effectively to the establishment of just gender relations.
On the other hand, several pragmatic questions beg to be asked. What are people
saying? What are they thinking? How is gender explained and illustrated in their lives?
What is the grass root experience of the gender plot? In order to refer John Paul II’s and
indigenous African gender theologies to the elementary experiences of African couples
and to test the viability of these theologies for concrete practical transformation we
carried out an ethnographic study in five of parishes in the Archdiocese of Benin City,
South Nigeria. These parishes/communities span through urban, semi-urban and rural
populations. First, we outlined the procedure and orientation of our empirical research
and demonstrated the means through which the qualitative data was collated. This
collection was carried out in the form of semi-formal interviews with twenty couples
(forty participants) in these parishes providing the basis for a critical assessment of
whether the available gender theories take into consideration the people’s perception and
practice in a concrete context and what the chances of these ideologies are to question and
possibly transform the way women and men relate to each other in the family setting and
beyond. We also undertook a cursory study of catechetical materials in order to explore
the sort of gender discourse African couples are confronted with. As this local official
discourse can be assumed to hold an intermediary position between the theoretical-
conceptual level of gender theories and the level of lived gender relations, it was
particularly useful to find out from what sources this discourse is nurtured and how it is
received by its addressees. Subsequently, with the use of the interpretative
phenomenological approach (IPA), we arrived at a constructive evaluation of the gender
question in Nigerian families and societies.
An essentialist slant of gender is identifiable in the course of our empirical study. By

essentialism is meant the classification of things according to inherent and immutable
qualities or ‘essences’. There remains a tendency to refer to a ‘woman’s nature’ in the
specification of responsibilities for women which has implications for men’s obligations
as well. Assumptions of what women are, and what they should be is preponderant in
African traditional systems. Therefore some questions persist: is the woman
fundamentally and essentially different from the man? Is she created to be more nurturing
and more intuitive? Is she necessarily weaker as frequently perceived? Is it right to think
of her as a helper to man? Can her value as a person be appropriately ascribed to her
without relating her worth to a man as wife, mother or daughter? Aside from reproduction
and the consequences of birthing, is there something more that is essentially feminine and
precisely masculine?
Arguably, there is the impression that essentialism is at the root of the delineation of
gender roles in family and society. In other words, a number of functions are duly
assigned to ‘woman’s nature’ and the others are categorized as belonging to the domain
of men. Correspondingly, phrases such as ‘breadwinner’ and ‘homemaker’ are hastily
assigned across the divide. But the reality is, a woman is not essentially a homemaker just
as she too can provide the financial mainstay of the home. To apportion the homemaking
role to the domain of the woman gives the impression that men are principally expected
to provide financial resources as ‘breadwinners’. This too has a telling consequence for
the upbringing of children since it is assumed that the girl-child would need to be more
skilled in household activities than in the pursuit of professional careers. Domestic
responsibilities ought to be more fluid than rigid.
We discovered that African women theologians are vocal that this mentality, which
makes universal claims about women based on the characteristics considered to be an
inherent part of being female, is limiting. Discussions about ‘the authentic woman’ or the
‘true African woman’ which tend to capture the feminine as subservient, loyal, intuitive,
nurturing and caring, empathetic and sensitive, tender and so forth need to be
reconsidered in light of the fact that not all women are these. Granted, that some of them
are, there are no universal facts to suggest that these traits could be easily generalized. On
the other side of the divide, definitely not all men are physically strong, assertive,
confident, independent and so forth. In reality, these traits are found on both sides.
Another point for deliberation is the assumption of motherhood. It is mostly expected
that an Africa female gets married and becomes a mother at some point. They are
foreseen to marry and stay married. Female interlocutors of our ethnography were
adamant that the anticipation of motherhood is piquantly configured in the cognition of
girls growing up and they too, as wives and mothers, are keen to remind daughters of the
necessity of being married and raising children. The predominant narrative in this respect
is that marriage and motherhood are the ultimate careers for women. But is wedlock and
motherhood an absolute for women really? Are all women ‘destined’ for motherhood?
Can a woman not achieve the fullness of her personhood without been a spouse or a
mother? In truth, marriage and motherhood are possibilities for women. They are neither
obligations nor compulsions. Surely, womanhood comes in several shades: married
women, single women, married mothers, single mothers, wife and so forth. In any case,
nevertheless, the pressure is not on boys to become fathers, just as they are not concussed
to get married, as soon as they ‘come of age’. Moreover, it would appear boys are not
trained to become fathers in the way girls are tenaciously brought up to become mothers.
In a similar vein, surplus respect should not be accorded a woman for reason that she
has children. A woman need not be placed on a higher pedestal based on the number of
children she births. With or without children and husbands, women can preserve their
dignity and value as autonomous beings. To regard a woman simply as an object of
genetic and social transmission is diminishing to women. The one who has not been able
to give birth to a child or the one who is not married at all is equally dignified as a person.
A childless marriage is not a calamity just as the preponderance of girl-children in a home
is not a setback. Every child – male or female – is unique and with proper development
and upbringing contributes to the flourishing of family and society in his/her own way.
Correspondingly, the predilection for installing sons as the sole beneficiaries of a parent’s
estate is out-dated. Daughters too can do with the inheritance they receive from their
parents.
African families would need to reassess the patterned upbringing of children. The
practice in a sizable number of homes in Benin City is that the training focus for girls and
boys are differentiated at an early developmental phase. In practice, it is on record that
some parents are willing to afford their sons a sense of autonomy and independence in a
way that such spaces are not rendered to their daughters. Whereas a daughter is foreseen
to remain close to the mother so as to learn from her, boys are not expected to develop a
learning approach towards their fathers. Thus while it is palpable that tips on how to be a
‘successful’ wife and mother is derived from one’s mother, such guidelines are not
earmarked for boys. They seem to learn on their own. Snapshots of these male privileges
are mostly tendered in the argument that gender arrangements in the family tend to be in
favour of boys and men. At any rate, the systematic and normative inequalities between
males and females in families are exhibited in the inhibitive cultural practices that limit
the possibilities for growth and self-fulfilment for girls and women. Even before the
gender conflict is discovered at the level of society, the so-called safe-haven, the home
already validates shades of the dominant gender narrative. Similarly, the exclusion of
women in the decision-making processes in some societies is a cursor to gender
subordination.
We observed that the roles of men and women in gender relations are often
considered fixed based on biology, creation or tradition. However, these roles could be
rather flexible than fixed. The conversationalist in our ethnography often asserted the
unequal distribution of household work. Women and girls take up heavier workload in
appraisal to men and boys giving the impression that household division of labour is
exploitative of women’s services. This has an undesirable consequence for girls owing to
the impact of household work on their education. An unequal distribution of home chores
– even when both parents have professional careers outside of the home – partially
testifies to the inequality in the distribution of power in African families. The testament
from rural women regarding the heavy workloads they assume is even more worrying.
For the most of these women, a little helping hand from their spouse is much craved for
and appreciated because it saves them the strain of multi-tasking. Women should not have
a monopoly of the servant role. Aside from the biological differences of pregnancy,
conception and giving birth, it seems sex differences have been exaggerated. However,
since the gender narrative in Africa has been socio-culturally constructed, it can not only
be deconstructed but also reconstructed.
Domestic violence or physical abuse is also a point of consideration for African
Christianity. Quite perilous is the resort to household violence towards one’s partner. The
brute force exerted from a man to a woman, or from a woman to a man apparently does
more harm than good. The disposition that explicates physical force as a means of
demonstrating power and domination between couples is critically ludicrous. Domestic
violence should never be condoned as a means of keeping one’s partner under control as
it is sometimes explained. An ethical-pastoral approach to marital relationships would
benefit from a painstaking rationalization of the effect of household mistreatment existing
in the form of physical, mental, sexual or emotional abuse. What makes this even more
imperative is the culture of silence that prevails regarding this theme. Sharing one’s
experience of household abuse is not actually a common practice and thus the victim
retains the trauma to herself or himself while the aggressor capitalizes on the ensuing
silence. Couples are reluctantly strapped into situations of weakness and powerlessness
by a ‘culture of violence’ that is sequentially nurtured and sustained by a pervasive
‘culture of silence’. African Christianity would need to reassure couples and individuals
that it is alright to speak out in the face of abuse. The pastoral care of the church must
demonstrate its willingness to realize concern for the weak and the vulnerable by paying
due attention to the pervasiveness of a silent culture on domestic violence in Africa.
The disintegration of marital relationships is of concern to the scholars in our study.
The failure of married couples to adjust to each other is demonstrated in the yawning
incompatibility among couples. Relationship breakdown owes partially to the inability of
a harmonious collaboration between spouses. This is not helped by the pressure they
receive from family and peers constraining young people to get married or compelling
them to remain in a relationship that is inimical to their well-being. The mentality, which
stimulates women’s ‘compulsory attachment’ to men and marriage, needs to be
challenged. The woman who is ‘attached’ to a man has not achieved an advanced status
by that fact. On the other hand, to promote the cultural assumption that singleness is an
indication of a sense of incompleteness is false. Relationships are indeed beautiful but not
to the detriment of one’s personal fulfilment. To measure an individual’s progression or

accomplishment based on his/her relationships is quite limiting.
A critical look at African Christianity would need to re-think the notion of
community. Truly, there are positive flanks of community such as solidarity,
empowerment, reciprocal support, harmony and so forth. Yet the negative shades of
community seem to outshine the positives in instances of conjugal union. First, the notion
of community ensures that a person’s identity is knotted with one’s role and with the view
to meeting the expectations of others. In effect, the woman’s identity as wife and mother
ensures that her initial family name disappears after marriage, signifying a handing-over
from one man to another while the community also changes her first name to one that
denotes her as the mother of a child. An unrestrained emphasis on communal identity
gives the impression that outside of the group (marriage, family), one is regarded as a
‘non-entity’. In this respect, there is a tendency that one’s interests, ambitions and
placement of value is sacrificed for the benefit of the group or community. ‘Corporate
personality’ should not take priority over the personhood of the individual for when it
does, it restrains individual initiatives and dampens the chase of personal ambitions.
Second, the gross interference from parents, siblings and relatives activate the tendency to
undermine the interdependence couples are expected to enjoy among themselves.
Occurrences of these familial intrusions are not helpful for young couples particularly in
their initial phase of getting to inaugurate their own family. Hence while the presence and
support of community and family is comforting in the establishment of new conjugal
unions, they are unhelpful when they unnecessarily interlope in the affairs of married
partners particularly when the goal is to take sides with one’s kin. In effect, realizing a
firm grip of the ‘ideal community’ having the sole aim of aiding conjugal relationships is
far-fetched.
Besides, African women themselves would need to affirm a better image of self and
of one another. They would need to reassure themselves that in their uniqueness lays their
strength. Rather than deny their humanity, they should locate in it their inherent dignity
and attempt to negotiate the prospect of contributing to society as women.
Correspondingly, respect for other women is championed. For this reason, African
women would need to reconsider the role they play in promoting instances of polygamy,
female genital mutilation, prostitution and women trafficking, widow-inheritance and so
forth. Illustrating the role women play in a practice such as polygamy for instance, rather
than squaring it out with the men who perpetuate it, some African women have projected
their rejection of this tradition to their co-wives. In other words, whereas they display
affections of love and devotion to their husband in order to guarantee their status in the
home, they demonstrate hatred and envy for the co-wives. This disposition only helps to
legitimize the inferiority and subordination of women to men that polygamy unleashes.
The argument that it protected African women and men against prostitution and reduces
unfaithfulness now looks ridiculous. If polygamy is to become a thing of the past, women
themselves need to stand up to it by a complete denunciation. On a similar note, records

have pointed out that the majority of professional traffickers who engage in the marketing
of African women to several parts of the globe are women themselves just as women are
often at the forefront of shaming widows in the mourning rites of their husband’s passing.
Surely, it is saddening when women themselves show little respect for each other. African
women need to become agents of social transformation themselves rather than being
objects of mercy, compassion and kindness.
To this end, culture is in dire need of a critical scrutiny. Culture seems to be referred
to as if it was stable, easily detectible and a stagnant entity but who is defining it? A host
of subjects concerning the welfare and status of women in Africa such as ritual taboos,
female genital mutilation, polygamy, right to inheritance, the anticipated discretion of a
woman to be seen and not heard are explained and justified within the framework of
culture. On the flip side, however, the question as to who is making decisions on what is
cultural and who has the power to decide what cultural practices need to be preserved or
obliterated needs to be negotiated. A further question is: in whose interests are these
cultural principles and who benefits from them? Additionally, between reverence for life
and reverence for cultural values, which is the most important? A more nuanced approach
to culture needs to navigate through the contours of a nostalgic adulation of the past to a
transformative encounter with the present.
Whereas the experiences and perspectives of men and women are a fundament in
African theology, we were able to discover that women’s experience takes on an even
greater significance owing to the perceived neglect of women issues in African theology
in the past and the pejorative critique on African theology as a theology with an ‘African
male face’. Put differently, the critical evaluation of inculturation theology as lacking
input from a female perspective is hinged on the impression that the male perspective was
understood as the human perspective, hence the experience of women was not utilized in
the search for an inculturated Christianity in Africa. The capacity to listen and to
negotiate the experiences of persons needs to be the hallmark of a valuable pastoral care.
An effective pastoral care would therefore attempt to congregate women, men, families
and groups in order to listen to them and offer responses to their expressions of pain,
suffering, anxiety and hope. A theology that makes no room to listen intently to women,
men and children within their religious, cultural, socio-economic and political locale is
sadly inauthentic and irrelevant. Secondly, experience takes on a more important garb
with regard to the emancipation of women for it is through recourse to such familiarities
that an unassuming course of action could be drawn up. Through this channel, African
women can themselves become actors and agents of empowerment themselves.
We also realized that there is a caveat on the other hand. Experience must never be
generalized or commonalised. The danger of generalizing experience lies in the fact that
ethnic and class differences among women are concealed. To discount the distinctiveness
and diversity of women’s individual experiences in the multiple contexts in which they
live does no good to our awareness of the totality of African women’s experiences.
African women do not share one and the same experience in their respective families.
There are diverse factors that inform and influence the exact dynamics of specific African
families ranging from: urban or rural settings, level of literacy of husband and wife, class
status, women’s professional status, economic status, religious commitments, age and so
forth as we explained in our ethnographic discourse. Therefore, diversity and multiplicity
of the experiences and perspectives of African women means that these outlooks need to
be contextualized and categorized in order to attend to the particularities of women in
Africa. To illustrate further, it would be short-sighted to insist that the gender gap is
parallel in African countries when in fact as of January 2017, countries such as Rwanda,
Senegal, Namibia and Mozambique featured in the top-twenty countries with most
women in parliament toppling more developed countries such as the United States and
Britain. To put it in perspective, Rwanda had 49 women in its 80-seat lower house of
parliament (61%) and 9 women occupying the 19 ministerial positions in government
(47%) to rank first in the globe. At the time, Nigeria on the other hand placed 180 in the
190 ranking.
In African women theologians and in John Paul II, we uncover a commitment to the
eradication of all forms of oppression against women through a critique of the multiple
layers of discrimination that we have uncovered in our project. Again, it must be asserted
that definitely not all African men fall into the sort who undermines the perspectives and
experiences of women. In addition, there are many African men who do not participate in
abusive actions over their wives. There are many African men who place supreme value
over their daughters in the way that they do relish their sons. A plethora of men are
caring, kind, friendly and appreciative to women. They are decent fathers, husbands and
brothers. Consecutively, surfeits of men are immensely vocal against women subjugation.
Not all men are violent. Some men are also victims of violence from women themselves.
In essence, there is definitely a multiplicity in masculinity as well.
From the outlook of conceptual theology in African Christianity, the principal place
of Christ in African theology deserves more attention. As we discussed in the third and
fourth chapters, a Christological approach to the gender palaver in Africa denotes that
Christ confronts every culture as he did the Jewish culture. Therefore, rather than ignore
the negative elements of African cultures by hastily appropriating inculturation, African
Christianity has the responsibility of denouncing unjust structures and practices
preponderant in traditional cultures in order to operationalize a Christological slant to the
emancipation of women and men in Africa. For the African woman, Jesus affects and
influences her whole life and worldview, accompanying her through the vicissitudes of
life and giving her the courage to confront stormy moments. She pictures Christ as the
one who takes sides with the oppressed, provides voice for the voiceless, strength for the
powerless and demonstrates concern for victims of social injustice. In addition to
Christology, Mariology too can offer a platform for women to re-examine their
experiences for in Mary’s life is found a crossroad of struggle and suffering as well of
glory and determination.
So, an anthology of African theology needs to integrate mutuality, companionship,
equality and partnership in its discourse on male-female relationships. A woman does not
need a man in order to be ‘complete’ just as a man does not require a woman in order to
reach a complete humanity. However, they both can exist in partnerships of mutual
equality. Dispositions that tend to discriminate based on a person’s physiology must be
jettisoned. The input of African theology in the gender impasse in Africa is quite
imperative in the present age. The objective is not to continue apportioning blames for the
current state of affairs. It is to discover ways in which human persons – male and female
– can attain flourishing irrespective of sexual differences. Women, and men, are created
in the divine image of God and any pattern of discrimination, domination and subjugation
is in contrast to God’s justice and dominion. In Christ, there is no inequality on the basis
of class, social condition or sex for we are all one in Christ. In this light, the search for a
normative community that espouses inclusivity and pursues a harmonic appreciation of
individual differences continues.
A noticeable limitation of this research is that it is restricted to the insinuations and
implications of the gender subject in Christian theology. References are not made to other
prominent religions in Africa such as Islam, traditional African religion and others. On a
similar note, considerations were only sparsely made to other Christian denominations
other than Catholicism. This is verifiable in the fact that participants in our empirical
study were predominantly Catholic. Future research in the domain of gender could
activate a dialogue between Inter-religious and Inter-denominational communities on the
nuances of gender in these traditions. Nonetheless, it is noteworthy that the African
theologians under our spotlight are not solely of Catholic orientation. A sizeable number
of these scholars emerge from the Anglican, Methodist, Presbyterian, Baptist and
Pentecostal backgrounds.
Additionally, we are not unaware of the fact that we did not investigate in-depth how
women might stimulate their competence to be agents of transformation in Africa. In this
respect, further research would endeavour to demonstrate the implications of a gendered
approach to the socio-economic realities of Africa. Further study of the gender theme
could also attempt an investigation of masculinity in Africa. It could venture to detect the
position where men find themselves within the gender narrative since the gender
discourse is not limited to women studies alone. Further inquiries might also need to
probe into the (im)balance of male-female participation in Nigeria’s socio-political
scenery. Subsequently, it might aim to critically analyse the prospects of bridging the
gender gap in many parts of Africa perhaps with some inspiration from the Rwandan and
Senegalese models.
This dissertation fits into the ethical discussion of how masculinities and femininities
have been accessed as tools in determining the capabilities and functionalities of
individuals. Situated within the domain of sexual ethics, it continues the discussion on
whether or not men and women are subject to similar forms of treatment irrespective of
sexual differences and whether socially ascribed roles of gender has concrete implications
for the way in which men and women experience life.1
Indeed, our current research has been quite challenging. The intention of this study is
to stimulate further discussions on the gender question in Africa. It is also aimed at
challenging the prevalent discourse that undermines the humanity of a person based on
biological differences and one that places sturdy emphasis on a recourse to culture. In a
nutshell, we wanted to show where African theology with respect to the gender narrative
is at the moment, how it has navigated through the contours of critical confrontation to
arrive at this point and what the prospects of a sustained reconstruction of the gender
motif in Africa might encapsulate.
1
Michael O’Sullivan, SJ, How Roman Catholic Theology Can Transform Male Violence Against Women:
Explaining the Role of Religion in Shaping Cultural Assumptions About Gender (New York: The Edwin
Mellen Press, 2010), 1-2. See also Nancy Lombard and Lesley McMillan, “Introduction” in Violence
Against Women: Current Theory and Practice in Domestic Abuse, Sexual Violence and Exploitation,
Research Highlights 56, Nancy Lombard and Lesley McMillan, (eds.), (London: Jessica Kingsley
Publishers, 2013), 8.
FACULTY OF THEOLOGY AND RELIGIOUS STUDIES
SINT-MICHIELSSTRAAT 4, BOX 3101
BE-3000 LEUVEN
KATHOLIEKE
UNIVERSITEIT
LEUVEN
INFORMED CONSENT FORM FOR PARTICIPANTS OF OUR ETHNOGRAPHIC

STUDY
This informed consent form is for participants of our ethnographic survey in the Catholic
Archdiocese of Benin City who we are inviting to participate in the research titled, "The
Gender Question in African Christianity: A Critical Examination of John Paul II and
African Theology in the Context of Southern Nigeria”.
I am Charles Omogiate a doctoral researcher of the Faculty of Theology and
Religious Studies at the KU Leuven, Belgium. I am doing a research on the theme of
gender in African Christianity which is quite topical in ongoing discussions today. I am
going to give you some vital information and invite you to be a part of this research. You
do not have to decide today on whether or not you will participate in the research. Take
your time to decide. Before you make a decision, you can speak with anyone you feel
comfortable with about the research. This consent form may contain words that you do
not understand. As I go through the information, please ask me to stop for clarification
when you deem so and I will take time to explain. If you ask questions later, you can also
ask of course.
Purpose of the research

The gender theme is relatively novel in African Christianity. We aim to discover the
challenges facing marriage and family life taken gender into consideration. We want to
arrive at ways in which we can articulate a Christian response to prevailing gender
ideologies. We believe that after having been married for some years, you can offer us
insights on how your relationship with your spouse has been and the factors that have
motivated cultural patterns of gender relations. We would also want to discover how the
church has taken up these issues and what the perception of church teachings on marriage
and sexuality is at the grassroot.
Type of Research Intervention

This research will involve your partipation in a semi-formal interview session that will
take about an hour.
Participant Selection
You are being invited to partake in this research because we feel that your experience as a
married person (husband, wife, mother, father, son, daughter) can contribute a lot to our
knowledge on male-female relations in Nigeria.
II
Voluntary Participation
Your participation in this research is entirely voluntary. The choice on whether or not to
participate is yours. If you choose not to participate, you will not be upsetting anyone.
Procedures
A. Outlining a brief introduction to the format of this research study, we are
requesting you to help us learn about the implications of gender in marriage and
society. We want to particularly know how the relationship between the sexes is
concretized in Southern Nigeria.
B. During the interview, I will sit down with you in a comfortable place in the parish
environment. If it is better for you, the interview can take place in your home or a
friend’s home. If you do not wish to answer any of the questions during the
interview, you may say so and I will move on to the next question. No one else
apart from me would be present unless you would like someone else to be there.
The information recorded is confidential, and no one else will access the
information documented during your interview. The entire interview will be tape-
recorded, but no one will be identified by name on the tape. The tape will be
stored in a safe place. The information recorded is confidential, and no one else
will have access to the tapes. The tapes will be destroyed after three weeks.
Risks
There is a possibility that you may share some personal or confidential information by
chance, or that you may feel uncomfortable talking about some of the topics. However,
we do not wish for this to happen. You do not have to answer any question or take part in
the interview if you feel the questions are too personal or if talking about them makes you
uncomfortable.
Benefits
There will be no direct benefit to you, but your participation is likely to help us address
issues of gender imbalances in Nigeria.
Confidentiality
We will not be sharing information about you to anyone. The information that we collect
from this research project will be kept private. Initially, any information about you will
have a number on it instead of your name. Only the researcher will know what the
number is and we will lock that information up with a lock and key. It will not be shared
with or given to anyone. After the complete transcription of data, we shall use a
sobriquet/pseudonym in place of your name. This pseudonym will be the name referred to
in our dissertation.
Sharing the Result

Nothing that you tell us today will be shared with anybody, and nothing will be attributed
to you by name.
III
Right to Refuse or Withdraw

I would really want to repeat, you do not have to take part in this research if you do not
wish to do so. You may stop participating in the interview at any time that you wish. I
will give you an opportunity at the end of the interview to review your remarks, and you
can ask to modify or remove the portions of those, if you do not agree with my notes or if
I did not understand you correctly.
Who to Contact
If you have any questions, you can ask them now or later. If you wish to ask questions
later, you may contact any of the following: Prof. Annemie Dillen and Prof. Thomas
Knieps using the following address:
Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies
Sint-Michielsstraat 4, Box 3101,
BE-3000 Leuven.
Part II: Certificate of Consent

I have been invited to participate in a research about the gender question in African
Christianity.
I have read the foregoing information (or it has been read to me). I have had the
chance to ask questions about it and any questions I have been asked have been
answered to my satisfaction. I consent voluntarily to be a partipant in this study.
Name of participant______________________ Thumb print of

participant
Signature of participant___________________
Date_________________
Day/month/year
If illiterate (a witness testifies)
I have witnessed the accurate reading of the consent form to the potential
participant, and the individual has had the opportunity to ask questions. I confirm
that the individual has given consent freely.
Name of witness______________________
Signature of witness___________________
Date_________________
Day/month/year
IV
Statement by the researcher taking the consent
I have accurately read out the information sheet to the potential participant, and to
the best of my ability made sure that the participant understands that the following
will be done:
1. That the information gathered in this interview will be be used in a

research project.
2. That the name of the participant will be veiled using a sobriquet.
3. That the voice data collected during this interview process is confidential,
and no one else will have access to the tapes.
I confirm that the participant was given an opportunity to ask questions about the
study, and all the questions asked by the participant have been answered correctly
and to the best of my ability. I confirm that the individual has not been coerced into
giving consent, and the consent has been given freely and voluntarily.
Name of researcher______________________
Signature of researcher___________________
Date_________________
Day/month/year
Adapted from the WHO1
1
Research Ethics Review Committee, “Informed Consent Template for Qualitative Studies,” (World
Health Organization, 2008) http://www.who.int/ethics/review-committee/informed_consent/en/ [accessed
November 14 2014].
V
INTERVIEW QUESTIONS FOR EMPIRICAL RESEARCH (JANUARY – APRIL 2015)
For a Female respondent
How many years have you being together as a married couple?
What is your education status?
What is your career specification?
What is the nature of your professional work?
In your home, how does your husband exercise his responsibilities as a husband as a father?
What challenges do you face in combining your responsibility as a wife and a mother?
What were the major expectations you had before marriage?
Have those expectations being met? If yes/no, how?
In raising up your children, how do you bring up the boys and the girls? Do you teach them
the same thing? What do you expect from the boys? What do you also expect from the girls?
What have you learned from your children – male and female – with regard to their specific
gender?
What salient points can you draw from your position as a woman in your family? What
differences can you identify in comparison to the other gender?
Do you reckon that there is an effect of a couples’ age difference on the dynamics of the
power play between them?
Could you discuss in detail the place of culture in relation to your relationship as a
woman/man? What are the fundamental stipulations of culture, for your specific gender, in
marital relationships?
Under what particular context is recourse to ‘cultural norm’ with regard to male-female
relationship made? How frequently is culture referred to in your matrimonial union?
In your marital relationship, are there some perceptible tensions ensuing between the cultural
stipulations on what characterizes a particular gender and your subjective thought on those
matters? If there are, how are these tensions addressed between you and your spouse?
With reference to the theological-ethical reflection of the Catholic Church, what message did
you get from priests, catechists and those who tutored you in your marriage-preparatory
classes? What relevance did those lessons have for you when you got married?
What message do you get when – within the context of the Eucharist – you listen to homilies
on marriage?
VI
How do priests, catechists and marriage instructors speak about the demands of being a wife
and of being a husband? What are the striking discussions they often present in these
lectures?
How do they talk about the duties of a wife and a mother and those of a husband and a
father?
What are the noticeable differences in the way both genders are addressed?
In their messages, would you say there is a strong emphasis on the equality of men and
women? If yes/no, how do they convey this?
From what angle do they relay the idea of the complementarity of women and men?
What do they say with regard to service in the household? Do they also say this to the
husbands/wives?
What do the priests, catechists and marriage instructors speak about women working in
public places?
In your view, what does it mean for women to work in public places?
How would you assess the church’s discourse on marriage, family and gender? Would you
say this is sufficient in its present form? In which aspects would you identify as needing
improvement?
What is your personal consideration of the Catholic Church’s teachings on marriage, family
and gender? Could you explain in clear terms how these schoolings affect you as an
individual?
In your opinion, what do you think the church could do to address the imbalances in gender
relations?
What do you do when you are faced with difficult challenges in marriage? Have you ever or
do you sometimes contemplate separation? Have you ever or do you sometimes contemplate
divorce?
Do you sometimes experience pressure from your family or friends that tend to trigger
considerations of separation from your husband/wife?
Do you experience domestic violence sometimes? What usually triggers it? How severe
could it be?
Could you highlight some foremost challenges you experience as a woman in your
matrimonial union? In your opinion, what is the most fitting response to these concerns?
To conclude, what recommendations, in a concise way, would you propose to prospective

couples?
VII
For a Male respondent
How many years have you being together as a married couple?
What is your education status?
What is your career specification?
What is the nature of your professional work?
In your home, how does your wife exercise her responsibilities as a wife and as a mother?
What challenges do you face in combining your responsibility as a husband and a father?
What were the major expectations you had before marriage?
Have those expectations being met? If yes/no, how?
In raising up your children, how do you bring up the boys and the girls? Do you teach them
the same thing? What do you expect from the boys? What do you also expect from the girls?
What have you learned from your children – male and female – with regard to their specific
gender?
What salient points can you draw from your position as a man in your family? What
differences can you identify in comparison to the other gender?
Do you reckon that there is an effect of a couples’ age difference on the dynamics of the
power play between them?
Could you discuss in detail the place of culture in relation to your relationship as a
woman/man? What are the fundamental stipulations of culture, for your specific gender, in
marital relationships?
Under what particular context is recourse to ‘cultural norm’ with regard to male-female
relationship made? How frequently is culture referred to in your matrimonial union?
In your marital relationship, are there some perceptible tensions ensuing between the cultural
stipulations on what characterizes a particular gender and your subjective thought on those
matters? If there are, how are these tensions addressed between you and your spouse?
With reference to the theological-ethical reflection of the Catholic Church, what message did
you get from priests, catechists and those who tutored you in your marriage-preparatory
classes? What relevance did those lessons have for you when you got married?
What message do you get when – within the context of the Eucharist – you listen to homilies
on marriage?
VIII
How do priests, catechists and marriage instructors speak about the demands of being a wife
and of being a husband? What are the striking discussions they often present in these
lectures?
How do they talk about the duties of a wife and a mother and those of a husband and a
father?
What are the noticeable differences in the way both genders are addressed?
In their messages, would you say there is a strong emphasis on the equality of men and
women? If yes/no, how do they convey this?
From what angle do they relay the idea of the complementarity of women and men?
What do they say with regard to service in the household? Do they also say this to the
husbands/wives?
What do the priests, catechists and marriage instructors speak about women working in
public places?
In your view, what does it mean for women to work in public places?
How would you assess the church’s discourse on marriage, family and gender? Would you
say this is sufficient in its present form? In which aspects would you identify as needing
improvement?
What is your personal consideration of the Catholic Church’s teachings on marriage, family
and gender? Could you explain in clear terms how these schoolings affect you as an
individual?
In your opinion, what do you think the church could do to address the imbalances in gender
relations?
What do you do when you are faced with difficult challenges in marriage? Have you ever or
do you sometimes contemplate separation? Have you ever or do you sometimes contemplate
divorce?
Do you sometimes experience pressure from your family or friends that tend to trigger
considerations of separation from your husband/wife?
Do you experience domestic violence sometimes? What usually triggers it? How severe
could it be?
Could you highlight some foremost challenges you experience as a man in your matrimonial
union? In your opinion, what is the most fitting response to these concerns?
To conclude, what recommendations, in a concise way, would you propose to prospective

couples?
IX
TABLE OF PARTICIPANTS OF THE EMPIRICAL RESEARCH
No Pseudo Name Gender *Age *Years of **Educational Area

. Range Marriage Status Location
1. Bibi O. Female 30-40 5-10 Educated Semi-urban
2. Harrison O. Male 40-50 5-10 Educated Semi-urban
3. Ebinehita A. Female 40-50 10-20 Educated Semi-urban
4. Simon A. Male 40-50 10-20 Educated Semi-urban
5. Imafidon I. Male 40-50 10-20 Educated Semi-urban
6. Stephanie I. Female 40-50 10-20 Educated Semi-urban
7. Chika C. Female 30-40 10-20 Fairly- Semi-urban

educated
8. Ndubuisi C. Male 30-40 10-20 Fairly- Semi-urban
educated
9. Esezobor A. Male 60-70 20-30 Educated Semi-urban
10. Oyemwen A. Female 50-60 20-30 Educated Semi-urban
11. Oshiogwe A. Male 60-70 30-40 Educated Urban
12. Emoshioke A. Female 50-60 30-40 Educated Urban
13. Chinomso O. Male 30-40 5-10 Educated Urban
14. Chinasa O. Female 30-40 5-10 Educated Urban
15. Fabian O. Male 70-80 30-40 Educated Urban
16. Noredia O. Female 50-60 10-20 Fairly- Urban

educated
17. Olise O. Male 30-40 5-10 Educated Urban
18. Kikanwa O. Female 20-30 5-10 Educated Urban
19. Victoria B. Female 50-60 30-40 Not educated Rural
20. Anayo B. Male 60-70 30-40 Fairly- Rural

educated
21. Philip O. Male 60-70 40-50 Educated Rural
X
22. Anthonia O. Female 60-70 40-50 Educated Rural
23. Tamara U. Female 20-30 5-10 Not educated Rural
24. Edet U. Male 30-40 5-10 Fairly- Rural

educated
25. Osamudiamwen E. Male 30-40 0-5 Educated Rural
26. Oghogho E. Female 20-30 0-5 Educated Rural
27. Erhauyi N. Male 60-70 30-40 Fairly- Rural

educated
28. Ireti N. Female 50-60 30-40 Fairly- Rural
educated
29. Iredia O. Male 50-60 20-30 Educated Rural
30. Esohe O. Female 50-60 20-30 Educated Rural
31. Ogbemudia I. Male 50-60 20-30 Fairly- Rural

educated
32. Osatohamwen I. Female 50-60 20-30 Fairly- Rural
educated
33. Gladys I. Female 40-50 20-30 Educated Urban
34. Idibia I. Male 50-60 20-30 Educated Urban
35. Omoefe E. Male 30-40 5-10 Educated Urban
36. Omosede E. Female 30-40 5-10 Educated Urban
37. Tosan O. Female 70-80 40-50 Educated Urban
38. Temituoyo O. Male 70-80 40-50 Educated Urban
39. Elohor R. Female 60-70 40-50 Educated Urban
40. Ogagavwodia R. Male 60-70 40-50 Educated Urban
This table is arranged in a chronological order beginning with the first participant and
ending with the last. The names of couples are organized sequentially also. For example,
respondents 1 & 2 are spouses, 3 & 4 are spouses, 5 & 6…. 39 & 40.
*The exact details of name, age and years of marriage are available to me. However, for
reason of anonymity, I do not include them.
XI
**With reference to the educational status, ‘educated’ includes a university degree and
above, ‘fairly-educated’ denotes a secondary school education while ‘not educated’
signifies the absence of any shape of formal education.
XII
A CODING SCHEME ILLUSTRATING THE LAYOUT OF DATA ANALYSIS
CULTURAL CONTEXT RELIGIOUS CONTEXT
PASTORAL APPROACHES
POWER AND RESPONSIBILITY
- Faith Life
- Church and
Gender
- Church
Teachings
- Message from
Pastoral
Ministers
MARITAL RELATIONS ROLES INDIVIDUAL OBJECTIVES
- Equality - Parental Responsibilities - Financial Subsistence
- Complementarity - The “Fatherhood” Concept - Personal Development
- Submission - The “Motherhood” Concept - Career Women
- Respect for the Male - Male Headship - The “Age-Differentiation”

Argument
- Independence - The “Breadwinner” Ideology
- Response to Domestic
- Autonomy - The Homemaker/Housewife Violence
practice
- Mutual Support - Attitude Towards
- Household Chores Separation
- Family Interference
- Children Upbringing - Marital Expectations
XIII
A MAP SHOWING THE SITE OF SOUTHERN NIGERIA

XIV
A MAP SHOWING THE LOCATION OF BENIN CITY IN NIGERIA

Charles Osasogie Omogiate - Dissertation (Recent)

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KATHOLIEKE UNIVERSITEIT LEUVEN

FACULTY OF THEOLOGY AND RELIGIOUS STUDIES

WOMEN AND THE GENDER MOTIF IN THE AFRICAN FAMILY

A dissertation presented in partial

DEDICATION ............................................................................................................... iii

AN OVERVIEW OF GENDER IMBALANCES IN SOUTHERN NIGERIA:

1.1 Introduction ......................................................................................................... 13

AN ETHNOGRAPHIC STUDY OF THE GENDER QUESTION IN THE

2.1 Introduction ......................................................................................................... 59

SECTION A: METHODOLOGY OF THE ETHNOGRAPHIC STUDY

SECTION B: THE FINDINGS OF THE ETHNOGRAPHIC STUDY

2.12 Power and Relations ........................................................................................... 110

2.12.4 The Notion of Spousal (In) equality ...................................................................... 115

A SYSTEMATIC INVESTIGATION INTO THE GENDER QUANDARY AND THE

3.1 Introduction ......................................................................................................... 149

SECTION A: SITUATING THE GENDER QUANDARY IN AFRICAN THEOLOGY

3.5.2 African Women Theologians: In Search of a Constructive Response to the

SECTION B: JOHN PAUL II’S THEOLOGY OF THE COMPLEMENTARITY OF THE

TOWARDS AN ARTICULATED RESPONSE TO THE GENDER MOTIF IN

4.1 Introduction ......................................................................................................... 241

4.3.5 Domestic Violence ................................................................................................ 265

GENERAL CONCLUSION ......................................................................................... 279

Annex I: Document for Informed Consent .................................................................. I

1.1 Papal Documents and Writings by John Paul II

Wojtyla, Karol. The Acting Person. Dordrecht: D. Reidel, 1979.

1.2 Other Papal Documents

1.3 Conciliar Documents

Vatican Council II. “Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, Lumen Gentium,” 21

1.4 Other Documents

Abraham, Kuruvilla Cherukara, ed. Third World Theologies: Commonalities and

Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart. London: Penguin, 2006.

Aidoo, Ama Ata. Anowa. London: Longmans, 1970.

Atkinson, Paul, Amanda Coffey, Sara Delamont et al. Handbook of Ethnography.

Besigomwe, Leonarda. A Guide to a Happy Marriage: Why Do We Need Serious

Blum, William G. Childlessness and Christian Marriage. Eldoret: Taba Publications,

Blumer, Herbert. Symbolic Interactionism: Perspective and Method. New Jersey:

Boesak, Allan. A Farewell to Innocence: A Socio-Ethical Study on Black Theology and

Bonino, Miguel, J. Doing Theology in a Revolutionary Situation. Philadelphia: Fortress:

Bosch, David, J. Transforming Mission: Paradigm Shifts in Theology of Mission.

Boulaga, Eboussi F. Christianity without Fetishes: An African Critique and Recapture of

Chiegboka, Anthony B.C. The Predicaments of Women in African Marriage Institution.

Chodorow, Nancy. The Reproduction of Mothering. Berkeley, CA: University of

Cone, James H. and G. S. Wilmore, eds. Black Theology – A Documented History.

Cone, James H. A Black Theology of Liberation. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1990.

Dedji, Valentin. Reconstruction and Renewal in African Christian Theology. Nairobi:

Dickson, Kwesi A. Theology in Africa. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1984.

Erikson, Erik H. Childhood and Society. New York: Norton, 1963.

Fasholé-Luke, Edward, et al., eds. Christianity in Independent Africa. London: Rex

Fiorenza, Elizabeth Schüssler. In Memory of Her: A Feminist Theological Reconstruction

Fiorenza, Elizabeth Schüssler. But She Said: Feminist Practices of Biblical

Fiorenza, Elizabeth Schüssler. Discipleship of Equals: A Critical Feminist Ekklesia-Logy

Frankfort-Nachmias, Chava, and David Nachmias. Research Methods in the Social

Frascati-Lochhead, Marta. Kenosis and Feminist Theology: The Challenge of Gianni

Garfinkel, Harold. Studies in Ethnomethodology. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1967.

Giddens, Anthony, Sociology, 5th edition. Cambridge: Polity, 2008.

Glesne, Corrine. Becoming Qualitative Researchers: An Introduction, 3rd edition. Boston,

Gutierrez, Gustavo. A Theology of Liberation. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1973.

Hastings, Adrian. Christian Marriage in Africa. London: SPCK, 1973.

Hillman, Eugene, C.S.Sp., Toward an African Christianity: Inculturation Applied. New

Howitt, Duncan, and Duncan Cramer. Introduction to Research Methods in Psychology,

Idowu, Bolaji E. Oludumare: God in Yoruba Belief. London: Oxford, 1962.

Idowu, Bolaji E. Towards an Indigenous Church. London: Oxford, 1965.