The circle of concerned African women theologians: its contribution to ecumenical formation.

Phiri, Isabel Apawo

In The Ecumenical Review of July 2001, whose theme was "Transforming Ecumenism in Africa in the 21st Century", a number of articles paid homage to the contribution of the Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians in ecumenical formation in Africa. I pick only three examples: Sam Kobia concluded his article by stating that:

 The initiatives which led to contemporary ecumenical institutions
 and ethos were strongly male dominated and intrinsically
 patriarchal. The visions of African women must be allowed to
 determine not only the structures but also, and perhaps more
 fundamentally, the content of 21st century ecumenism in Africa. In
 this vein the insights of the Circle of Concerned African Women
 Theologians is absolutely vital. Serious dialogue between the Circle
 and the ecumenical organizations in Africa has yet to take
 place. (1)

Furthermore, Nyambura Njoroge said:

 Inevitably, the significant changes that have taken place in the
 20th century in the field of theology, including ecumenical
 theology, call for a critical look at how we structure ministerial
 ecumenical formation. We need to re-examine the theological voices
 that are emerging; such a move requires the women and men in
 leadership to be open-minded and discern what these new theological
 voices have to say to us today ... Hence, even though excluded from
 church leadership for a long time, African women theologians are
 making a contribution in the shaping of ecumenical theology. (2)

John Pobee also said:

 Now many publications by women are on the market and ecumenical
 formation will not be on target unless religious communities come to
 grips with these voices. If we seek to envision a new church in
 Africa in which women are more than one-half--and the vibrant,
 energetic part--then the mission-ecumenism agenda which defines
 church should seriously engage African women's theology. (3)

It is no wonder then that the "Journey of hope continued: A critical evaluation of theological education and ecumenical formation" conference, held in Johannesburg, South Africa, 16-23rd September 2002, embraced African women's theology as part of its ecumenical agenda. Furthermore, its five year plan of action pledged to promote the engendering of theological education in Africa. As a follow up to the 2002 plan of action, the Circle and the Ecumenical Theological Education programme of the WCC formed a partnership in 2003 to initiate a process of engendering theological education in Africa through curriculum development. It is the aim of this paper to discuss this effort of engendering theological education as part of the Circle's ongoing contribution to ecumenical formation in Africa. It becomes necessary, then, to discuss what the Circle is about and how it fits into ecumenical formation.

The Circle as a theological association in Africa

The history of the Circle has already been well documented by some of the Circle members. (4) Suffice it here to say that the Circle was launched in 1989 with the aim of creating theological space for African women theologians to find and mentor each other on how to produce theological literature that is based on their experiences. The Circle also uses their communal power to get involved in activism as they work towards the transformation of their communities and institutions for gender justice. The Circle understands ecumenism not only as working towards the unity and renewal of the church but embraces unity and renewal of the whole world. (5) Therefore the Circle membership is inclusive of African women theologians from African religion, Christianity, Islam, Judaism and Hinduism. The statement that the Circle is making is that in Africa, conversation on ecumenical formation cannot ignore the existence of religious pluralism, which must be included in our self-understanding. Membership in the Circle is through individuals who are willing to conduct research based on African expressions of their religion and culture using the methodology of gendered analysis, to be followed by writing and publishing. The successes of the Circle's vision and mission can be measured through the yearly publication of journal articles, chapters in books, individual and co-edited books by the Circle members, which are in the process of being documented. In this way, the Circle is making its voice heard in theological circles, in Africa in particular but also at a global level.

Nyambura Njoroge has described the Circle as the youngest theological association in Africa. (6) She sees the associations as the best forum for dialogue on how to transform theological and ministerial formation in Africa. Though the Circle has only been in existence for the last fifteen years, its contribution through production of theological literature is tremendous. However, its greatest challenge has been the circulation of this literature to the theological institutions in Africa and making sure that the books are being used to contribute to the shaping of the religious leadership on the continent.

The Circle engendering theological education

While the Circle is happy to continue with the production of theological literature, the process of self-evaluation has begun. The Circle is aware that there are still many theological students in Africa who graduate without having been exposed to the theology that the Circle is producing. In some cases, the exposure is done as a sideline in half-hearted ways that provoke the students to be up in arms against engendered theology as not necessary for Africa. In fact, because the staff and students in African theological institutions are still predominantly male, and to a large extent the library is full of western theological books due to denominational ties with "mother churches", the theology being taught excludes the realities of Africa and the male experience is assumed to include the female experience when in reality it does not. This challenge is what motivated a call for mainstreaming gender as a tool of analysis in the theological curriculum. A gendered approach to theology refers to exposing the injustices that exist in the church, culture and the Bible in the relationship between men and women. It acknowledges that human beings construct culture; therefore, cultural practices in the Bible and in our own cultures should not be confused with the will of God. It highlights the importance of acknowledging that both men and women are created in the image of God. The process of change requires an analysis of the African worldview and how people's identities are constructed. (7) Musimbi Kanyoro explained it well when she said:

 The concepts and practices of equality and discrimination determined
 by social, economic, religious and cultural factors lie at the heart
 of a gender-sensitive perspective. Theological engagement with
 gender issues seeks to expose harm and injustices that are in the
 society and are extended to scripture and the teachings and
 practices of the church through culture. (8)

The need for mainstreaming gender in theological education is a global one and has been well articulated by a number of theological conferences and scholars as shown in the three quotations which are in the introduction of this paper. A few examples from the international conferences, seminars and working groups will suffice to show the global awareness of the problem. In 1997, I was part of the World Conference of Associations of Theological Institutions in Indonesia where it was highlighted that there is male domination of the theological curriculum, staff, and student numbers, and that something must be done to redress the situation. I was also present when this was echoed at the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) global consultation on theological education in Rome in 1999 and at the WCC consultation on "Viability of theological education and ministerial formation in Africa" in Kuruman, South Africa in 1995. (9) The LWF took the lead at a global level to begin the process of engendering theological education by organizing a consultation on "Engendering theological education for transformation" in Montreux, Switzerland, 4-8 November 2001. The report of this consultation has been widely circulated to stimulate further discussions on engendering theological education.

It was in this global context and taking its cue from the WCC Ecumenical and Theological Education conference on the "Journey of hope continued" of 2002 that the Circle embarked on the process of engendering the theological education in Africa project.

In addition to the reasons already mentioned above for engendering theological education, Musa Dube has articulated very well the reasons for the Circle, as follows:

--most members of the Circle are in the teaching departments, both in faith communities and academic institutions;

--the reason behind the production of literature was driven by the need for social transformation towards justice, and a great amount of literature has been produced already--making it viable to undertake a gender-sensitive theological education;

--HIV/AIDS, a gender and poverty driven global catastrophe, is not only highly concentrated in Africa, but women are particularly vulnerable to a high risk of infection and they carry the heavy burden of care;

--Many departments and male colleagues who are interested in undertaking a gender-sensitive theological education often lack a readily available curriculum. (10)

Thus, the interactive process of engendering theological education systematically, through curriculum development, started in September 2003. Members of the Circle were invited to work in discipline teams to design gender-sensitive courses, according to their area of specialisation. Each course was designed to be aware of the existence of multiple oppressions of people on the African continent. Thus gender discrimination was to be viewed in the context of other forms of oppressions such as racism, classism, HIV/AIDS, globalization, anti-Semitism and other forms of religious intolerance. The courses were also to be ecumenical and inter-religious as they meet theological and religious needs at both undergraduate and post-graduate levels. Realizing that structure and content of the theological curricula is not the same in African theological institutions, (11) the courses were to be designed in such a way that users from any of the institutions, communities and contexts could adapt any part of it to meet their needs.

Most of the Circle conversation on engendering theological education in Africa was done through e-mails. In addition, two small workshops of twelve Circle members in each team were organized to examine in detail the drafted curriculum. The Anglophone and Lusophone workshop was held at the Kempton Conference Centre, Johannesburg, from the 15th to 20th May 2004. The Francophone Circle workshop was held in August 2004 in Cameroon. The whole document is being scrutinized and tested by the Pietermaritzburg Cluster of theological institutions discipline committees (12) before printing it in the form of a handbook that will be sent to all the Circle members both in faith communities and academic institutions in Africa by 2005.

The interactive process of engendering theological education in Africa through curriculum development gave the Circle a chance to grapple with issues of self-identity, quality of the theological literature that the Circle is producing and the vision of the way forward for the Circle. This paper will now turn to a brief discussion of these three issues.

Naming our work

The whole exercise brought back issues of language and people's perceptions of the work of the Circle and how that relates with engendering the theological curriculum. We had to clarify for ourselves the difference between "women's issues" and "gender issues". Without going into detail, women's issues centre around raising awareness on the experiences of women which have been sidelined for a long time due to the existence of sexism and patriarchy. In the words of Mercy Oduyoye:

 Feminism has become shorthand for the proclamation that women's
 experiences should become an integral part of what goes into the
 definition of being a human. It highlights the woman's world and
 her worldview as she struggles side by side with the man to realize
 her full potential as a human being ... Feminism then emphasizes the
 wholeness of the community as made up of male and female beings. It
 seeks to express what is not so obvious, that is, that male-humanity
 is a partner with female-humanity, and that both expressions of
 humanity are needed to shape a balanced community within which each
 will experience a fullness of Be-ing. (13)

On the other hand gender issues go beyond examining women's experiences. In principle, gender studies highlight the relationship between men and women, which is more inclusive than women's studies. It raises questions of power, authority and control. (14)

The Circle is aware that in Africa, the question "Are you a feminist?" is loaded. There are some theological institutions and communities where the name itself is enough to cause people to close up and not listen. It is for this reason that many Circle women prefer to call their work African women theology(ies). However, the Circle feels that it is important to have dialogue over the word so that we dispel the myths that dominate our theological institutions. Our experience in the classroom has shown us different students' understanding of the word: at the beginning of a course on feminist theology, most students in Africa define feminists as women who are divorced, single, frustrated, men-haters, etc. After the students have been properly introduced to what feminism and gender are all about, there is always a conversion experience and change in attitude.

Therefore a conversation is on-going among ourselves as to who we are. It was noted that Circle members have used different names to describe their work. Some are comfortable to use the word feminist when describing their work. Others have resisted using that word even though their work is from feminist perspectives. Furthermore, some shared experiences of having been forced to use the word in the title of their books by publishers. The designed curriculum has accommodated all the naming, which includes: Circle theology; Communal theology; Bosati theology; African women theologies. The users of the curricula are invited to use the title that seems more comfortable for their situation.

Although some African women link themselves to womanist theology, which describes the theology of African American women theologians, at the workshops it was agreed that the Circle embraces the similarities that we share with our sisters but also sees the importance of acknowledging the differences. Womanist theology arose out of the experience of slavery. The American context informs their theology. Therefore when African Americans are talking about survival, it is not the same as what that means on the African continent. The Circle encourages African theologians to read what the womanist theologians are saying, affirm them, learn from them but also acknowledge our difference. What is important is that the Circle is in dialogue with other gendered theologies around the world.

While the Circle is aware of the differences between women's and gender issues, the curriculum has highlighted the experiences of women more than the relationship of women and men because women's experiences in Africa have been ignored for a very long time, and therefore this has contributed to the imbalance between the two genders.

Quality of the Circle theological literature

The engendering process gave the Circle an opportunity to start a process of taking stock of what we have written in the past 15 years. A call was made to start with internal stock-taking by reading each other's work critically. We identified a need for a workshop where we can evaluate our work and find the way forward. When the Circle says that publishing is a requirement to individual membership in the Circle, it is understood that writing for publication presupposes that one has skills to do research, to reflect theologically on the information and to write, which is not true for everyone. It has therefore become a necessity that before requiring publication the Circle should vigorously promote the theological education of African women. Besides that, it was felt that even the Circle women with theological education need regular workshops to develop academic skills to write professionally. Such workshops would cover the following topics: ethical issues of research; methodology; publishing; editing and co-publishing. The internal stock-taking was coupled with an invitation to objective external review of our work.

The way forward: Research gaps

The original plan of the development of an engendered curriculum for theological education in Africa was to use as many of the Circle's publications as possible. The whole process has revealed where the gaps are in the Circle writings. The advantage of identifying these gaps in our research is that it helps us to direct future research to areas of need. The identified gaps are too many to be included in this paper, but they will appear in the Circle's handbook that will be published soon.

Conclusion

This paper has shown that the Circle's contribution to ecumenical formation in Africa is through the production of theological literature and in particular the development of an engendered theological curriculum. In the spirit of the Circle's commitment to doing theology in community, the process of designing and writing the curriculum has been done in community. Therefore the work reflects the spirit of ecumenical and religious plurality that is also a trademark of the Circle.

Beverley Haddad has reminded the Circle that engendering the theological curriculum is a process that can be successful only if two other elements are taken into account. The first one is the importance of building the institutional capacity for engendering theology. This includes the institutions' making a deliberate attempt to develop gender-sensitive policies that promote gender equity among staff, and student enrolment; inclusion of language and sexual harassment policies. In doing these things, the theological institutions will be creating an atmosphere that promotes taking seriously issues of gender. Secondly, instead of leaving the process of engendering the curriculum to female lecturers, team teaching should be encouraged so that the students see all staff members as being committed to the process of engendering the curriculum. Haddad has also mentioned the need for the engendering of theology to be a collaborative work with poor and marginalized women. (15) As such, academic teaching and research should be accountable to the community that they serve.

Thus, the formation of the Circle for Concerned African Women Theologians should be taken seriously. Its aims and objectives of increasing the number of African women theologians, research and publications by African women, and advocacy for the inclusion of gender issues in the theological curriculum, should be supported by all theological institutions in Africa.

(1) Sam Kobia, "The Pitfalls of institutional Ecumenism", The Ecumenical Review, vol. 53, no. 3, July 2001, p.305.

(2) Nyambura Njoroge, "Transforming Ministerial Ecumenical Formation", The Ecumenical Review, vol. 53, no. 3, July 2001, p.316.

(3) John S. Pobee, "Ecumenical Formation in the Service of a Renewed Church", The Ecumenical Review, vol. 53, no. 3, July 2001, p.330.

(4) R.A.M. Kanyoro and M.A. Oduyoye eds, Thalitha Qumi: The Proceedings of the Convocation of African Women Theologians, Ibadan, Daystar UE 1990; M. Kanyoro, "Engendered Communal Theology: African Women's Contribution to Theology in the 21st Century", in J.N. Njoroge and W.M. Dube eds, Talitba Cumi: Theologies of African Women, Pietermaritzburg, Cluster, 2001; A.M. Oduyoye and R.A.M. Kanyoro eds, The Will to Arise: Women, Tradition, and the Church in Africa, Maryknoll NY, Orbis, 2001; A.M. Oduyoye, Introducing African Women's Theology: Introductions in Feminist Theology 6, Sheffield Academic Press, 2001; Musimbi R. Kanyoro "Beads and Strands: Threading Beads to Her Story in the Circle", in A.I. Phiri,. D.B. Govinden and S. Nadar eds, Her Stories: Hidden Histories of Women of Faith in Africa, Pietermaritzburg, Cluster, 2002; Isabel Apawo Phiri, "Doing Theology in Community: The Case of African Women Theologians in the 1990s", in Journal of Theology for Southern Africa, no. 99, Nov. 1997, pp.68-76; Musimbi Kanyoro "Where Are the African Women in the Theological Debate?" in Journal of Constructive Theology, vol. 6, no. 2, pp.3-20.

(5) Pobee, "Ecumenical Formation", p.321.

(6) Njoroge, "Transforming", p.314.

(7) Isabel Apawo Phiri, "Life in Fullness: Gender Justice: A Perspective from Africa", in Journal of Constructive Theology, vol. 8, no. 2, 2002, p.71.

(8) Musimbi Kanyoro, Introducing Feminist Cultural Hermeneutics: An African Perspective, Sheffield,. Sheffield Academic Press, 2002, p. 17.

(9) Isabel Apawo Phiri, "Women, Church and Theological Education", in Ministerial Formation, no. 17, Oct. 1995, pp.39-43.

(10) This information is taken from the proposal for systematic engendering of theological education in Africa, which was initially drafted by Musa Dube and developed further by a team that consisted of Nyambura Njoroge, Esther Mombo, Sarojini Nadar and Isabel Phiri.

(11) Esther Mombo and Joseph Galgalo, "Theological Education and Ecumenical Formation: Some Challenges", in Ministerial Formation, no. 98/99, July-Oct. 2002, p.8.

(12) The Pietermaritzburg Cluster of theological institutions includes the School of Religion and Theology at the University of KwaZulu Natal, St Josephs (Catholic) Theological Institute and the Evangelical Seminary of Southern Africa. The Cluster was chosen as a testing ground because of its commitment to ecumenical formation. The Cluster also has already started the process of engendering theological education through its Cluster gender committee. See Beverley Haddad, "Engendering Theology: What Does It Entail?", a paper presented at the Lutheran World Federation Consultation "Engendering Theological Education for Transformation", Montreux, Switzerland, 4-8 Nov. 2001.

(13) Mercy Amba Oduyoye, Hearing and Knowing: Theological Reflections on Christianity in Africa. Maryknoll NY, Orbis, 1986, p.121.

(14) "Engendering Theology", p.11.

(15) Idib., p.2.

Isabel Apawo Phiri is professor of African theology, School of Religion and Theology, University of KwaZulu Natal Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, and the general coordinator for the Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians.