|
|
AEGIS European Conference on African Studies
11 - 14 July 2007
African Studies Centre, Leiden, The Netherlands
Show panel list
Religious Thursdays: The invisibility of male voices and women in the stage for satisfaction, authority and control in post-civil war Mozambique
| Panel |
48. Women, Men, and Faith: Reconfigurations of Authority
|
| Paper ID | 702 |
| Author(s) |
Igreja, Victor
|
| Paper |
No paper submitted
|
| Abstract | Religious chiefs use various strategies to enforce their power and authority both in the religious and domestic arenas. These strategies range from control of faith production and reproduction and the prediction and healing of ill-health and socio-economic problems, to the domination and control of women's bodies and their lives. Scholarly debates do not provide a consensual answer on which of these strategies are central in the works of religious leaders. Using a plethora of Christian religious groups operating in the former war-zones of Mozambique central, this paper argues that the domination and control over women's bodies and their lives is the cornerstone strategy of the religious leaders. Through a process of reconfiguration of authority the male domination is enacted by granting authority to women. Hence, the appearance of a class of married women respectfully labeled as mother-pastor, mother-evangelist, and mother-preacher. This class of women religious leaders, which are usually more physically robust than the rest of commoner women, gathers on Thursdays to enact their authority and control. |
|