Mercy Oduyoye

Mercy Oduyoye
Born	Mercy Amba Ewudziwa Yamoah (1934-10-21) 21 October 1934 Ghana, Africa
Alma mater	University of Ghana Cambridge University
Academic career
Discipline	African Theology
School or tradition	Methodist
Influenced	African Feminism Womanist Theology Black Liberation Theology

Mercy Amba Ewudziwa Oduyoye (née Yamoah; born 21 October 1934) is a Ghanaian Methodist theologian known for her work in African women's theology. She is currently the director of the Institute of African Women in Religion and Culture at Trinity Theological Seminary, Ghana.

Biography

Mercy Amba Ewudziwa Oduyoye was born on her grandfather's cacao farm in Amoanna, near Asamankese, Ghana, in October 1934. The name Ewudziwa is of Akan origin and was given to her in honour of her grandfather. Oduyoye's story begins from her location where African theology, the impression of African women, and African culture influenced her greatly. She was the first-born child of nine siblings born to Charles Kwaw Yamoah, a teacher and pastor who became president of the Methodist Church in Ghana and a "strong-willed" mother, Mercy Dakwaa (Turkson) Yamoah.

As a young girl, concepts such as gender and motherhood began shaping her into a young woman. Oduyoye talks about the importance of matrilineal kinship in her Ghanaian upbringing where women held a vital part in their family, passing down their names. However, later on, she was married into a patrilineal kinship by her Nigerian husband as a part of the Yoruba culture but had no children. She did not experience the effects of gender binary because, she suggests, she and her brothers all helped around the house without separation of tasks. Therefore, gender construction was a new element to Oduyoye because it never existed in her household. Although, the main difference she remembers is how the firstborn in African families, the eldest daughter was unmistakable "the second mother." In this sense, cultural practices became one of the main issues for Oduyoye to criticise in her later years. As big as her family was, all Children went to post-secondary education, and some trained as nurses.

Education

Oduyoye attended Mmofraturo, a Methodist girls boarding school in Kumasi, Ghana, Africa where Biblical scholarship was a required study.

In 1948, as a teenager, she experienced the atmosphere of Ghana's independence as Ghana boycotted European goods. Her sense of Pan-African increased. For President Kwame Nkrumah, "...Ghana's Independence meant nothing if the rest of Africa was not Independent." This quote inspired Oduyoye's work because she saw liberation as intrinsic to African Women's Theology. Nkuruham believed education would help Africa. Therefore, Ghana offered free secondary school education for students in exchange for them to "... work for the Government for five years in any part of Africa" after their completion.

Oduyoye's analysis of Europe was critical because she thought about her grandfather's Cacao farm. The economy is very much interconnected from her perspective to politics because she says, "Cocoa is part of my heritage; it provided financial support and stability." Oduyoye saw how Europe subjugated Ghana's wealth through power structure. Also, marriage in African culture interconnects with wealth. The most leading case for polygamy in Africa, is connected to successful men, economically.

In 1959, Oduyoye decided to go to the University of Ghana to study theology. However, at the time, theology was not a popular subject of study for many universities undergraduates, namely women, and she felt alone when she decided to pursue it. Later on, she realised that many African women studied theology as they went on to pursue masters and further studies in the field. For her, African Women's Theology means, "we are African, we are women, and we are a theologian."

Oduyoye earned a Bachelor of Theology degree from the University of Ghana in 1963, a second bachelor's and master's degree from Cambridge University in 1965 and 1969. In her time at Cambridge, she realised how the education structure was not different at all. The fact rested on how the system of study in Ghana was "based on the Cambridge system."

African Women's Theology

When Oduyoye finished her studies at Cambridge, she taught at Princeton University in the 1960s. In the 1970s, she taught other campuses in the United States, Europe, and Africa few are Harvard University, Union Theological Seminary, and the University of Ibadan. During this period of teaching, she realised that "people who wrote about Africa and Christianity in Africa, were not Africans" and also were all men, having only "male face in mind." She continued challenging this status quo and raising her voice. As she notes, "liberation theology became my theology voice." Oduyoye led a few organisations besides her teaching career, such as the Ecumenical Association of Third-World Theologian (EATWOT). From 1967-79, she was youth education secretary for the World Council of Churches; from 1987-94, she was Deputy General Secretary for the same organisation. From 1970-73, she worked as the All Africa Conference of Churches' (AACC) Youth Secretary at the Ibadan office.

She has taught at Harvard University, Union Theological Seminary, and the University of Ibadan. She served as president of the World Student Christian Federation and founded the Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians in 1989. During her time in the US, Oduyoye experienced the Black liberation theology and womanist theologymovements. The subject "liberation theology was not sensitive to feminist issues" was a criticism from Oduyoye. She saw issues of sexuality that feminist in the western part of the world stress as their main topic not applicable to African women. In the USA, Alice Walker brought about a campaign through a novel and documentary, Mary Daly published Gyn/ecology on the issues of genital mutilation as a primary concern for all women. Contrary to this, Oduyoye says that womanist theology from the African perspective underlines poverty and discrimination upon women. Secondly, the problem for Oduyoye was Westerners only report about the good works of the missionaries and their benefit upon the population of Africa, all too good to be true. She disrupts the above narrative and insists Africans have a culture and tradition nonconformitive to western ideals. For Oduyoye, "the Bible is not British culture or French culture or European culture." In totality, her work around African women's theology, in this case, was improving what African men have started. Theology in Africa was a two-winged theology, where men and women were making the appropriate improvement together, narrating two necessary viewpoints. The approach missionaries had on converting a person to Christianity by giving up one's culture seemed inappropriate. Oduyoye saw the need to revitalise African theology as "...a prerequisite to other independences." Oduyoye has written four books and more than eighty articles focusing on Christian theology from a feminist and African perspective. Oduyoye has been awarded honorary degrees by University of Amsterdam (1991), Stellenbosch University the University of the Western Cape in 2002 and Yale University in 2008.

Christianity and African traditions

The Africa continent has many believers; Muslims, Christians, Buddhists, Hindus, and Sikhs. Therefore, God plays a vital role in societies and cultures. Forming the distinction of whether God is a woman or man becomes very important in some cultures. Like the myths and Folktales offered in traditional teachings. Some cultures prefer to show men as powerful while women are not. The taboo in Nigeria is how women use witchcraft powers against men because they do not succumb to the natural order of things, showing men as above women. Sometimes, the narrative is Christian women become attached to Jesus as a Prophet who can relate to the suffering and pain of the world. In this case, the patriarchal system subjugates women. Gender plays a critical role in relationships, such as in Yoruba or Akan cultures. Oduyoye sees the need to hold churches accountable as she emphasises men and women have equal status before God. Hence, in marriage, contracts should not be looked upon which party benefits but a live a life of the partnership. Oduyoye sees the need to re-evaluate African traditions because she sees colonialism as a system that interfered with them, such as martial law by the British in Lagos 1864. Oduyoye encourages women not to remain quiet but realise they hold the brick in forming churches in their communities. She seems theology in Africa outside the western interpretation because both men and women play a role in the body of Christ which is the Church.

Global impact and legacy

Oduyoye is recognised for her work in transnationalism because she has broken barriers and acted as a force of nature voicing for the voiceless if it meant going past the African Continent. Global feminist theology is her focus in transnational work. Oduyoye operates in a post-colonial narrative to revitalise Indigenous cultures from the western phenomena. In her second assembly of EATWOT in New Delhi, India 1981, Oduyoye addressed what she termed as "irruption within the irruption. For her, gender division has taken root in the Global South inspired by colonial structures. Oduyoye uses the trait of hospitality and sisterhood to help people in the Global South deal with the effects of shared oppressions. In a way, when countries in the Global South help one another, they act in genuine solidarity because they share the same experiences. Collaboration is a dream that can help achieve impactful achievement. Oduyoye leaves the legacy of doing something where it is needed. She shows the role of confidence and sophistication that lies in individuals to chase after in changing the world as they see it fit.

Works

• 'Reflections from a Third World Woman's Perspective: Women's Experience and Liberation Theologies', in Irruption in the Third World the Challenge to Theology (1983)
• Hearing and Knowing: Theological Reflections on Christianity in Africa Eugene, Or.: Wipf and Stock Publishers, 1986. ISBN 9781606088616, OCLC 758532712
• 'Women and Ritual in Africa' in The Will to Arise: Women, Tradition, and the Church in Africa (1992)
• 'Feminist Theology in an African Perspective' in Paths of African Theology (1994)
• Daughters of Anowa: African Women and Patriarchy Maryknoll, NY Orbis Books 1999. ISBN 9780883449998, OCLC 258564319
• Introducing African Women's Theology Cleveland: The Pilgrim Press, 2001. ISBN 9780829814231, OCLC 611377765
• Beads and Strands: Reflections of an African Woman on Christianity in Africa Maryknoll, New York : Orbis Books, 2004. ISBN 9781570755439, OCLC 55109167

Further reading

• Phiri, Isabel Apawo; Nadar, Sarojini, eds. (2012). African Women, Religion, and Health: Essays in Honor of Mercy Amba Ewudziwa Oduyoye. Wipf and Stock Publishers. ISBN 978-1-62032-092-1.
• Pemberton, Carrie (2003). Circle Thinking: African Women Theologians in Dialogue with the West. Brill. ISBN 90-04-12441-1.