Black women’s bodies as reformers from the dungeons: The Reformation and womanism

Abstract

While it cannot be denied that the 16th-century Reformation, which challenged papal authority and questioned the Catholic Church’s ability to define Christian moral practice in a just manner, indeed came with deep and lasting political changes, it remained a male-dominated discourse. The Reformation was arguably patriarchal and points to a patriarchal culture of subordination and oppression of women that prevailed then and is still pertinent in the church and all spheres of society today. The absence of Elmina and the silenced yet loud voices and cries from the female dungeons below a Dutch Reformed Church in the upper levels of the castle in the retelling of the narrative of the Reformation leaves much to be desired and has a bearing on how black women perceive the Reformation 500 years later. The article thus problematises the Reformation through the heuristic eyes of Elmina Castle in Ghana as the genesis of the ‘dungeoning’ of black women justified by faith. The article argues that black women are reformers from the dungeons following the historical experience of reformation and the Reformed faith as racist and sexist, among other ills experienced by blacks in the Global South, with black women literally kept in the dungeons below a Reformed Church building as they were in Elmina with a biblical inscription, Psalm 138, on the threshold of its main door. This article thus points to irreconcilable contradictions maintained by the Reformed faith that continues to bury black women in the ‘dungeons’ even today. The enfleshment of black bodies in the dungeons of the Elmina Castle underneath a Reformed Church building is seen as the historical and heuristic starting point of engaging Reformed faith from a womanist perspective.

Womanism, land and the cross: In memory of Vuyani Vellem

“…'It is the heart to feel the burden of the cross that distinguishes elusion from the spiritual embrace of the cross Jesus', argues Vellem (2018a:3). The dungeoning of black women's bodies and black humanity in the Elmina Castle that Vellem, also Kobo (2018b) and Nadar (2005) allude to is a dungeoning that is not felt, yet is at the helm of faith. Looking at Elmina, the assumption is that when 5.Te Deum Laudamus was a prayer-song, a doxology of victory of the violent dispossession of land as in the capture of Kilwa after Vasco da Gama's ship touched the coast of Natal.…”

Womanism, land and the cross: In memory of Vuyani Vellem

“…'It is the heart to feel the burden of the cross that distinguishes elusion from the spiritual embrace of the cross Jesus', argues Vellem (2018a:3). The dungeoning of black women's bodies and black humanity in the Elmina Castle that Vellem, also Kobo (2018b) and Nadar (2005) allude to is a dungeoning that is not felt, yet is at the helm of faith. Looking at Elmina, the assumption is that when 5.Te Deum Laudamus was a prayer-song, a doxology of victory of the violent dispossession of land as in the capture of Kilwa after Vasco da Gama's ship touched the coast of Natal.…”

Spirituality trapped in androcentric celebrity cults in South Africa post-1994

“…17.Elmina signifies the genesis of the fragmentation of black humanity and 'dungeoning' of black African women. See Kobo (2018b).…”