Religion, Gender, and Wellbeing in Africa argues that, in many African societies, ideas and practices of wellbeing and gender relations continue to be informed and shaped by religious epistemologies. The contributors affirm that for many Africans, it is through religio-spiritual frameworks that daily experiences, interactions, and gender relations are understood and interpreted. However, for many African women, religions have functioned as a double-edged-sword. Although they have contributed to the struggle against issues such as colonialism, gender justice, climate justice, and human rights, they have also endorsed and perpetuated sexism, heterosexism, homophobia, and the denial of human rights for a wide variety of people on the margins. The chapters within this collection demonstrate that most religions and religious formations in Africa have not yet positioned themselves as forces for wellbeing, gender justice, and security for African women and children. The contributors challenge simplistic and superficial readings and interpretations of religio-spirituality in Africa and call for deeper engagements of the interplay between Africa’s religio-spiritual realities and the wellbeing of women, particularly around issues of gender justice, reproductive health, and human rights.

This volume brings to the fore the interface of religion, women’s sexual reproductive health and rights (SRHR), and the sustainable development goals (SDGs) in Zimbabwe. It emphasizes that empowering African women is a pivotal pillar for attaining sustainable development. Contributors discuss the need for implementing structural changes as a prerequisite for social progress and development to occur in Southern Africa. They interrogate the extent to which religious beliefs and practices either promote or impede women’s SRHR. The contributors also proffer several ways in which addressing the themes of health for all and equality for all women and girls can make a meaningful contribution towards the fulfillment of the goals set for Agenda 2030.

Mercy Amba Oduyoye, from Ghana, founded the Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians and is the first African woman from south of the Sahara to have served as deputy general secretary of the World Council of Churches. The essays in this volume describe the key contributions she has made to African theology in our time, and then apply her insights to issues of scripture, health and poverty, and women as peacemakers. Contributors: Denise M. Ackermann (South Africa), Dorcas Olubanke Akintunde (Nigeria), Dorothy B. E. A. Akoto (Ghana), Elizabeth Amoah (Ghana), Sophia Chirongoma (Zimbabwe), Musa W. Dube (Botswana), Musimbi R. A. Kanyoro (Kenya), Ogbu U. Kalu (Nigeria), M. Bernadette Mbuy Beya (Congo), Fulata Lusungo Moyo (Malawi), Nyambura J. Njoroge (Kenya), Susan Rakoczy (USA), and Letty M. Russell (USA).

African women come from a long tradition as practitioners of healing. Drawing on this tradition and on her own pastoral and theological work, Mercy Amba Oduyoye, a distinguished Methodist theologian from Ghana, discusses the spirituality that undergirds Christian healing practices in Africa, with a special focus on diseases that predominantly affect women.

This volume describes the context and methodology of Christian theology by Africans in the past two decades and provides brief descriptions of sample treatments of theological issues, such as creation, Christology, ecclesiology and eschatology. The aim of the book is to lead interested persons to the sources of African women's Christian theology. Throughout an effort has been made to illustrate how African culture and the multi-religious context has influenced Christian women's selection of theological issues. The importance of daily life to theology and the attempt to probe the spirituality of African Christian women is also evident in this introduction to African women's theology.

What social factors contribute to the tragic state of health care in Africa? Focussing on East African societies, this book is the first to investigate what role religion plays in health care in African cultures. Taking in to account the geopolitical and economic environments of the region, the authors examine the roles played by individual and group beliefs, government policies, and pressure from the Millennium Development Goals in affecting health outcomes. Informed by existing related studies, and on-the-ground interviews with individuals and organisations in Uganda, Mozambique and Ethiopia this interdisciplinary book will form an invaluable resource for scholars seeking to better understand the links between society, multi-level state instruments, and health care in East Africa.

Publisher's description: Quickly changing concepts on gender roles are a pivotal issue in after-colonial African societies. Many women (and men) are calling for a radical change as they feel traditional gender concepts as being oppressive, inhuman and un-Christian. Gender equality, gender fairness is on their agenda. On the other hand, for many men (and women) these societal changes are painful "gender troubles" and seem to be dangerous for gender-based identity, threatening traditional African values. Volume 22 of the BiAS series deals with this central topic by asking what gender troubles have to do with the Bible. Are biblical texts an obstacle for women's liberation? Is the Bible a divine guaranty for male supremacy or rather an advocate for gender equality? What are "redemptive masculinities" and how do they relate to a new, truly Christian understanding of the role of women in church, society and state? - Scholars from different disciplines and several countries are dealing with these urgent questions to help scholars, students, pastors, politicians and members of Christian churches to find a way to more gender fairness and "gender joy."