Women and Religion: Women's Participation in the Ritual of Worship in African Traditional Religion

On Saturday afternoon the session began with Samuel Awuah-Nyamekye paper onWomen and Religion: Women's Participation in the Ritual of Worship in African Traditional Religion.

In traditional African societies, the image of womanhood is nothing good to write home about. She is only fit for the kitchen and other household chores. A woman is never equal to a man and thus must not be heard when men are around. She is seen as a sort of sex machine to satisfy the sexual desire of men. This unfortunate traditional image of womanhood has been carried to the field of religion and thus suppressing or denying women their divine-given talent to participate in the ritual of worship. In this paper, an attempt will be made to examine women participation in the ritual of worship in African Traditional Religion. Three major questions will guide the discussion. They are: Why have women in Africa been imaged in the way described above? Are there areas in African Traditional Religion where women are permitted to express their religiosity? If there are, which are they? Have women any role at all to play in African Traditional Religion? If there are, which are they? The paper will, however, argue that the women participation in African Traditional Religion can better be described as ambivalent. For, in one breath, women seem to be restricted in the extent to which they can participate in religious activities but in another breath, restrictions are removed. This seeming contradiction stems from the fact that in the African religious thought, there are both male and female gods and even the Supreme Being is neither exclusively male nor female.