Mother Earth, Mother Africa and African Women’s Role in Indigenous Religions

Bibliographic Data

ID9286555
AuthorsMutale Kaunda Kaunda (University of Zambia, corresponding author)
Year2021
Volume27
Issue1
Publication date2021-08-23
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueAfrican Journal of Gender and Religion (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2707-2991 • E-ISSN: 2707-2991
PublisherUniversity of Johannesburg (PUBLISHER • ZA)
DOI10.14426/ajgr.v27i1.89
OpenAlexW3195573097
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited8

This paper explores the nexus between African indigenous religio-culture and ecology, gender, rituals and the environment, in current ritual debates. Current debates demonstrate that ritual has filtered into the public space thereby being resilient and at the same time vulnerable to exploitation by the public sphere. Examining the current debates on rites of passage, this article reviews four chapters from the book Mother Earth, Mother Africa and African Indigenous Religions. African indigenous rituals are spaces that produce knowledge for African ways of living. However, in search of progress, development and better life, most African people have been neglecting rites as they seem unprogressive. In ritual spaces, the novices were instructed about how to engage with nature and how to live with others within communities. Ritual spaces gave women and men (initiates) agency over a vast number of life issues. Drawing on African feminist cultural hermeneutics, I examine ritual functions as a tool to understand how contemporary African people’s search for justice can be gleaned within such African rituals in order to uplift women’s agency

African studies · Agency (philosophy · Indigenous · Nexus (standard · Social science · Sociology · African cultural and philosophical studies · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Anthropology · Gender Studies · Theological Perspectives and Practices · Ecology

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Open DOIOpen Access