African Women, Religion and Health: Essays in Honour of Mercy Amba Ewudziwa Oduyoye (review)

The book consists of works written by African (mainly women) theologians and others to celebrate the life of Prof. Mercy Amba Ewudziwa Oduyoye, a Ghanaian theologian, writer, mentor, mover, indeed, described as 'one of the first African women theologians … to write and publish theological reflections of any significance, particularly with respect to African women' (20).

Mercy Oduyoye, throughout her life, has been 'treading softly but firmly' (i) through the field of religion and culture, with particular reference to how these affect women in the African context. Those who know Mercy know that she is a 'wise woman bearing gifts' (43) which she uses to lift up women, indeed, also men, from the doldrums of self or societal impositions as they reflect on religion and culture. The reflection is done not through a 'hammer and axe' theology (2) which Mercy thinks is not the most fitting tool to use when pursuing the cause of gender-justice and liberation of women, but rather through 'a soft but firm' theology (ibid.). This is because 'God may not be "in the thunder" and one may have to listen to the "thin calm whispers"' (ibid.).

The preface from Dr Elizabeth Amoah gives the profile of Mercy Oduyoye, a woman born on a Ghanaian cocoa farm, who climbed the academic ladder to the University and has become 'a meticulous and modest person with an extraordinary sense of excellence' (xix). The book is divided into five parts. The introduction of Part I brings up, among many other things, the characteristic approach of Mercy to theology and her visionary role in the formation of the 'Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians'. The 'Circle' has to do with women coming together to do 'communal theology', to reflect and 'dialogue with the cultures, religions, sacred writings and oral stories which shape the African context and define the women of this continent' (20). Contributors in the segment include Nyambura J. Njoroge and Letty M. Russel.

Part II focuses on 'African women, the Bible and Health'. Practices of violence against women have to be 'read and exposed' and avoided rather than made to seem as if they did or do not matter. This segment, among other things, also draws attention to the fact that women's rights and health are so bound together with children's rights that both should constantly be handled.

Part III captures 'Women as Traditional Healers in Africa'. The health care in this case has to do with wholistic healing, not only of the physical body, but also of the emotional, psychological and social healing, particularly in the trauma of sexual abuse. Very good articles in this partwere written by Isabel Apawo Phiri, Musa Dube and Dorcas Olubanke Akintunde.

Part IV, with the main heading of 'African Women's Experiences of Health And Healing, Endurance and Peacemaking' highlights such issues as the inequalities experienced in accessing scarce health-care resources, efforts of African women to make peace, and a call on consecrated women not to live 'tiptoe at the periphery of the world to which they too belong' (218). Instead they are encouraged to 'commit themselves to work toward the coming of a better world' (ibid.). A very profound teaching, among many others, is one about prayer which states that, in the face of disappointment, particularly in times of praying for healing, we should remember that 'Each disappointment in prayer should be a challenge to develop new and deeper insights as we work to discern why God's answer contradicted our own' (252). The personal experience that led to sucha teaching is better read than told. Contributors in the segment include Sophia Chirongoma, Susan Rakoczy and Denise M. Ackermann.

Part V, the postscript, is the writing of a man blessed among women, the writing of the only male contributor to the quilt. Ogbu Kalu's article is a good sign that the women theologians are really not out to use a 'hammer and...