Browsing by Author "Masaiti, Bridget Nonde"

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    Women and male power : a study of the Missional policy of the African Independent Church in Northern Zambia
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2018-03) Masaiti, Bridget Nonde; Mbaya, Henry; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Theology. Dept. of Practical Theology and Missiology.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This is a missiological study about the lived experiences of Bemba women in the Mutima Church in Northern Zambia. It seeks to interrogate how these women respond to the male-formulated policy in the church. The methodology of this study was guided by the feminist narrative methods of inquiry. It adopted a qualitative approach to answer the research question: “How does the male-formulated missional policy affect ordained women’s lives and influence their functions in the Mutima Church?” To make meaning of the life experiences of the women, data were collected through in-depth interviews, participant observation and document review. The population of the study was female priests, male priests and former members of the church, comprising twenty female priests, five male priests and two former members of the church. In this study, data were analysed thematically. The study found that the Mutima Church teachings are ingrained in the minds of members. This makes them not to question the teachings of the chief priest who is the founder of the church. For example, in the process of performing their ministerial duties, some ordained female priests, who vow not to get married, conceive and give birth to children known as children of the spirit. The belief is that the children of the spirit are gifts from God, since their biological father [who is the church founder] also receives the gift of the Holy Spirit. This is a religious ideology that is ingrained in the minds of Mutima Church members. The study has also shown that the founder of the church uses both Bemba culture and Biblical scriptures to formulate the church policy. The findings also show that both holy patriarch and African [Bemba] patriarch are at work in the church founder’s teachings and formulation of the policy. These teachings and formulation of the Mutima Church policy are embedded in patriarchal ideologies, which include Biblical, cultural, policy and hegemony. In addition to the arguments by some feminist theologians in the study, I have shown that these patriarchal ideologies are power structures that interlock with each other. In the Biblical traditions, the church founder has portrayed himself as a patriarch, while in the royal Bemba tradition, he projected himself as royalty.