Decolonizing and Decoloniality in African Women Theology

Abstract

Decolonization and decoloniality offer potential gains to African Women Theology (AWT) to address the intersections, continuities, and discontinuities between the pre-colonial, colonial, and Christian gender ideologies that have disempowered African women. While African women theologians have, at different points, identified the patriarchal forces in these three spheres, an intentional intersectional approach has not always successfully challenged the colonial meta-narratives of the construction of the African man. Decolonization and decoloniality offer a critical theoretical framework to not only deal with gender meta-narratives but to deconstruct and dismantle these narratives to develop responses that are appropriate for their communities. These perspectives will also cement AWT as a major player in the renewed calls for decolonization and decoloniality in Africa. This article acknowledges an intersectionality of traditional, colonial, and post-colonial patriarchies and the persistence of coloniality in the present spaces in which AWT operates, as well as discontinuities in the gender perspectives in these different periods.