EDITORIAL INTRODUCTION
It Is an Insult to the Giver not to Use the Gifts Given
Special Issue in Honor of Mercy Amba Oduyoye
Mercy Amba Oduyoye has excelled as an African woman theologian. She is a respected scholar whose wisdom is sought by both seasoned and budding scholars. Oduyoye reached 85 years of age on October 21, 2018. This festschrift was organized in her honor to celebrate both her 85th birthday and her second retirement. In recognition of the Oduyoye’s wide-ranging contributions—to the Christian ecumenical movement, to empowering youth, to African women in theology and religious studies, to women in religion and theology, to liberation thought, to the fields of theology and religious studies, and more—the theme of this festschrift is “It Is an Insult to the Giver not to Use the Gifts Given.”
The theme was selected in note of the many important gifts Oduyoye offered to Africa and the world. Her contributions to ecumenism in Africa and across the globe, youth empowerment, and theological attainment are highly commendable. In 1987, Oduyoye was the first African woman to assume the position as Deputy General Secretary of the World Council of Churches. Another of her major achievements was institution of the Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians (the Circle) to ensure that African theology does not remain a one-winged bird. The Circle has members both in all the nations of Africa and in the diaspora. Through the Circle, Oduyoye was able to highlight pertinent issues related to all women: women’s place in the household of God, women and theological education, women’s access to authority and power, especially in the church, and reinterpretation of scripture to support women in their quest for equality and human dignity. Oduyoye has been a beacon of light for the voiceless, downtrodden, and helpless women on the African continent, hence the determination to celebrate and honor this great woman of substance. The theme of this festschrift, “It Is an Insult to the Giver not to Use the Gifts Given,” calls attention to the bounty derived from Oduyoye’s persistence in making important contributions to women’s advancement and to religion and theology. Her example is a reminder that utilizing the gifts with which we are endowed is vital and imperative.
The five contributions to this issue reflect upon Oduyoye’s legacy and build on her groundbreaking work. In “Kyriarchy and the Ever-Consuming Proverbial ‘Kraal of the Heart’? Casting a Bosadi Gaze on South Africa, Post-Independence,” Madipoane Masenya (Ngwan’a Mphahlele) analyzes ways patriarchy in religion and culture affects African women’s circumstances, particularly black women in South Africa. Masenya draws on Oduyoye’s use of traditional proverbs to assess ways patriarchal neglect of integrity and lack of commitment to the larger community’s wellbeing intensifies the already difficult circumstances of many South African women. In addition to noting exacerbation of difficulties of South African women, Masenya regards the present political corruption and greed in South Africa as an unjust departure from the vision of generational freedom fighters who made the current African National Congress’s leadership of the South African political order possible.
Dorothy BEA Akoto builds on Oduyoye’s legacy of contextual biblical interpretation by offering a reading of Christian wisdom literature as consistent with divine partnering in the cosmologies of African traditional religions (ATRs). In “Woman Wisdom, the Feminine Consort of the Divine and the African Theosophical Worldview,” Akoto argues that wisdom, which is portrayed as a woman in Christian scripture, is the feminine consort of the divine. Akoto’s conclusion is based on personal knowledge and experiences as an Ewe woman, scholarship on ATRs, and analysis of wisdom literature.
In “Empowering Women through African Pentecostal Corporate Social Responsibility,” Helen Adekunbi Labeodan makes a case for Christ Apostolic Church (CAC) to use its resources to develop practices of Pentecostal Corporate Social Responsibility that enhance women’s lives through empowerment. Labeodan notes CAC’s contributions to education but challenges its limitations of women’s leadership roles and participation in other forms of socially constructed gender subordination that contribute to gendered poverty and violence.
The final two contributions by Ruth Oluwakemi Oke and the late John A. Pobee reflect on Oduyoye’s legacy of accomplishments as generous giving and a witness of stewardship. In “’Give and It Shall Be Given unto You’: A Reflection on the Giving Life of Mercy Amba Oduyoye,” Oke presents an extended examination of the maxim on giving in Luke 6:38 to frame a discussion of Oduyoye’s contributions and achievements as a life of giving that reverberates through a legacy of giving in the work of those whom Oduyoye mentored. The late John Pobee’s reflection, “To Give a Good Account and Witness of Stewardship,” summarizes Oduyoye’s early formation and enduring accomplishments as culminating in a lifelong witness of stewardship. Having met Oduyoye as a college student and then maintaining a long-term professional relationship with her, Pobee’s reflection draws on personal observations of Oduyoye’s career, including discussion of their shared academic training in college as foundational to Pobee and Oduyoye’s collaborative work as staffers at the World Council of Churches and to Oduyoye’s lifetime of significant contributions.
As additions to knowledge about the history of ecumenism and development of African women’s theologies and religious studies and as new constructions that build on Oduyoye’s creative work, in addition to honoring her, these five contributions also are extensions of Oduyoye’s legacy.
Helen Adekunbi Labeodan
Rosetta E. Ross