FROM CHINAMWALI TO CHILANGIZO:

This study covers female initiation rites. Therefore literature from the Circle of Con­
cerned African women Theologians, though few are from Malawi, is useful to this
study. I am aware of their use of 'gender' as a tool for analysis, and their predominant
questions concern the role of women in religion in Africa (be it Christianity, Islam, or
African traditional religions). These can be summed up in Mercy Oduyoye's (1992)
question 'What responsibilities do women have in the structures of religion?' Other
works consulted included Oduyoye's (1995) Daughters ofAnowa: African women and
patriarchy; and Emmanuel Martey's (1998) Women and culture in contemporary
Africa. I have already mentioned Isabel Phiri's Women, Presbyterianism and
patriarchy: Religious experiences of Chewa women in Malawi and Rachel Banda's
thesis on 'Liberation through Baptist polity and doctrine: A reflection on the lives of
women in the history of women in the Baptist Convention in Southern Malawi.'
Looking from a Christian perspective, all these women point to Jesus Christ as the only
Liberator ofwomen in Africa.
Although I have quoted extensively from Mercy Oduyoye's Daughters ofAnowa and
Isabel Phiri's Women, Presbyterianism and Patriarchy, I have not engaged with them
on the issue of gender as a tool for analysis as they have done. Rather my analysis is
basically between culture and Gospel because of the Church's failure to engage with
traditional customs. As a result the Church has not been able to provide adequate
responses to cultural issues. There is need to engage and analyse women's issues using
all analytical tools, and not just with one tool.
Literature on Gospel and culture and research related to it is vital to this study especially
with regard to the significance of the vernacular Scriptures as the interpretive key to
Gospel and culture engagement. Works consulted therefore included Allison Howell's
(2001) Religious itinerary ofa Ghanaian people; Kwame Bediako's (1995) Christianity
in Africa: The renewal of a non-Western religion and (2000) Jesus in Africa: The
Christian Gospel in African history and experience. Articles on the Gospel and culture
theme that appear in Journal of African Christian thought have also been a useful
resource.
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