"We are trying to help women see where the good news lies. We are taking the veil off issues they normally don't talk about," said Dr. Mercy Oduyoye, founder of The Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians, in her address to commissioners at the E.H. Johnson Award Luncheon on June 3.
A Ghanian Methodist married to a Nigerian Anglican, Oduyoye is a passionate feminist Christian. "I came from a maternal culture and married into a paternal one," she said. "There's such cultural variety in Africa. My goal is to come to terms with human nature being one: male and female are different only for the purpose of procreation. Beyond that we share all the same rules."
The Circle began in 1989 with a gathering of African women theologians. Later, several national chapters were initiated and the Circle began to spread. Typically, says Oduyoye, the Circle engages in issues embedded in culture or religion. It's through such dialogue, Oduyoye believes, that women will be empowered and liberated in a largely misogynistic culture.
Oduyoye has travelled the globe, been published in the area of Missiology and women-centred theology, and has been awarded five honorary doctorates in Theology and Ecumenical Leadership – the latest of which was given by Yale in May. "For as long as women remain a majority that is discriminated against, and religion remains a key factor in human life, women in theology will find themselves having to ensure that wisdom is not perceived as being in the nature of men only," Oduyoye told commissioners.
Oduyoye studied theology at the University of Ghana, Legon, and at Cambridge in the United Kingdom, taught high school in both Ghana and Nigeria, and was on the faculty of the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria.
