A CRY FOR FREEDOM: THE AFRICAN WOMEN’S QUEST IN THE LIGHT OF THE BIBLE

Abstract

The place of theology is in the church, however, once the church is in the world and has to

respond to contemporary issues, these issues sometimes influence the way people do their

theologies’. In spite of these influences on theology and the changes around us; the mission of

the church is still the same1

contextualization at various places and seasons. God related to people in the Bible in various

contexts and these contexts influenced the content of how they understood God and related to

Him. In a similar way, in the African’s quest to understand and relate to God in their context,

they contextualized their form of theology. This theology is known as ‘African Theology’ or

‘African Liberation theology’ depending on the context in which the word is used. Out of it,

came African feminist theology or the African womanist theology.

Women are the subject of many questions and controversies in the church today

especially African Churches. Is she equal to man? Can she exercise the same spiritual gifts as

man in the church? Should she be subject to her husband in all matters? This paper therefore

seeks to address some of this issues by bring to light the definition of African feminist theology,

highlight on the African women’s view of ‘Feminism’, give a brief history of African feminist

theology and its development, state some of the contexts in which they do their theology, their

approaches and the content of their theology. Since Feminist theology is a movement found in

several religions, including Buddhism, Christianity, Judaism and Islam, this paper will focus on

Christian feminist perspective.

. Analysis of both the Old and New Testament show a picture of