By Mutombo Nkulu-N’Sengha (chpt. 3 in Raines and Maguire)

Recall his biography, as briefly summarized in introduction.  Grew up in Mobutu’s Zaire (after US CIA assassinated democratically appointed PM Patrice Lumumba (leftist); Jesuits were his first teachers although they advised the Belgian colonial regime that the Congolese were not mature enough for university education); he trained to be a Jesuit priest at seminaries in Zaire and in Rome (where he obtained a B.A. in theology and M.A. in philosophy), speaks 6 African and 3 European languages fluently; passing knowledge of Spanish, Latin, Greek, Hebrew, hieroglyphics and Coptic; decided against ordination; now finishing his doctorate in religion at Temple.

I love his discussion of why men recognize sexism in others – gross displays of violence against women, e.g. – but not in their own behavior

4 reasons:  invisibility of patriarchal privileges, fear of social judgment, identity crisis due to the burden of falsely constructed malehood, and selfishness (Amen, brother)
 

African traditional religions – while still practiced by 31% of people in Africa – also significantly inform the practice of Christianity and Islam in Africa

African tradition not monolithic, yet generalities exist.  Can be and has been articulated by women African writers as a tool of oppression

Hallmarks of traditional African religions:
Oral tradition, myths of creation, proverbs, art, prayers, ethical codes and rites of passage

*note: many customs, practices thought to be indigenous, in fact, the product of contact with Westerners, misconstrued or constructed by them, memorialized in history books as a justification for their “civilizing” missions (78)

1.  Gender justice is a sine qua non for the building of Pax Africana

2.  Need also to consider context of “global market” (is this new for Africa??)
“which generates new forms of sexism, while provoking a cultural backlash.  The inability of traditional cultures to cope with the social transformations creates a radicalization and absolutizing of tradition that has nothing to do with the will of the ancestors (71).”

That Africans (an the entire world) embrace the  trappings of Western consumerism (Coke, jeans, etc.) does not mean that indigenous world view is dead:  it lives, reacts, adapts, creates antibodies to these
 

3.  Unlike African nationalists of the 1950s, Nkulu-N’Sengha is not going to candy coat African approaches to womanhood, or to claim that sexism is a Western invention (72)

Africa no exception to the “global evil” of sexism
exhibits same ambivalence of revering mothers, queens and goddesses while at the same time maintaining the “Eve-and-Evil” syndrome:   women as witches, polluters, or minors to be controlled by men.
 

He argues that ideas such as “god as policeman” and “will of the ancestors” were coopted by men, used to continue their privilege (70)

Moreover, African men (and some women) have defended treating women “differently” endorsing practices such as polygamy, genital mutilation “in the name of the autonomy of the African tradition, the claim being that Africa has its own vision of moral values and its own version of women’s liberation and should be protected against the hegemony of Western arrogance.  In this context the struggle against colonial alienation is captured by a problematic post-modernism which, by denying a decent universality of common human values, promotes a narrow relatives that tends to sanctify all aspects of local culture” (73).
 

4. Like many religions, the tradition uses FEAR to coerce people into behavior

Creates “taboos” with consequences for breaking them

Women’s bodies as the ultimate in taboo, the ultimate fear

Proverb told to boys that “to marry is put a snake in one’s handbag”; women’s genitals as death-radiating, source of bad luck.  Must abstain before important trips, outings or will have bad luck (75)

Menstruation unclean, women can’t cook, stay in separate huts (75)

5. same old double ethical standards; rejoice at birth of son more than daughter; domestic labor women’s natural duty;  justify burying women alive with their dead husbands; different penalties for adultery; girls expected to be virgins at marriage

**exclude women from the public sphere
Hausa proverb – the good woman stays home (77)

6.  African theology
Bumuntu (personhood)
Intrinsic equality of men and women – owing to the transcendent origins of life, sacredness of life
All children of god, great spirit

All human beings have divine spirit, “breath” but also have free will and, hence, are responsible for the moral development

Failing to do this, becoming evil, one loses her humanness

Virtues to cultivate (characteristics of good heart):
Compassion, love, generosity, righteousness, honesty, integrity, fairness, truth, hospitality, peace, dignity, respect, politeness, helpfulness, chastity before marriage and faithfulness during marriage

Vices (characteristics of evil heart):
Hate, robbery, hypocrisy, falsity, sexual misconduct, adultery, arrogance, insolence, discrimination, rape singled out in several cultures, especially

Leza (God) – from the Luba verb meaning “to cherish”; beyond human comprehension, beyond our definitions of morality, power, supernatural

Men can’t define women, only God can

Women as mothers as the connection between life and death, the link in the perpetual life cycle

Thus, men owe to women their very lives and, hence, gratitude, respect, love, and most importantly, justice (what does justice mean here?? Payback for your mother’s labors?  Her sacrafice?? He says men must help with domestic labor, childrearing)

Ethics – demand working for gender justice
(increasing one’s virtues/good heart, fostering these in others)

Interesting section on Globalization – how it is bringing new forms of sexism to Africa – sex tourism, sex industry, changing African women’s image of themselves, importing white standards of beauty

Increases the marginalization, indebtedness of Africa; world’s wealth continues to flow into fewer and fewer hands

Solutions:

Macro level:  Collectively, need to own up to sexist elements of African tradition and rebuild/redefine it; Create women’s studies centers in Africa

Micro level:
Recognize that women’s liberation is also men’s liberation – men also suffer under current constructions of gender

Men’s mea culpa – take responsibility for how they have benefited from women’s exploitation, need humility and grace

Inform yourself – talk to women who have suffered (i.e., any woman will do!) and actually LISTEN instead of defend, rationalize, dissociate self from their pain; read women authors