FEMINIST CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF PENTECOSTALISM MOVEMENT IN NIGERIA

Abstract

Traditional African cosmological and sociological accounts delineate pictures of complementary gender relations. Such narratives denote the active participation of both genders in traditional African society. This is contradicted by the Victorian ideology of the colonial era which restricted women’s role solely to the private sphere this ideology has sent a lot of women to hiding. This colonial ideology is further perpetuated by contemporary interpretations of holy texts which birth religious fundamentalism, an ideology that reinforces unequal gender relations. This paper is an overview of the contributions of women in Nigerian Pentecostal churches. Particular attention is paid to the leading role of selected women in the Pentecostal movement. Investigating the traditional African gender constructs to emphasize the complementary roles played by feminist gender in the traditional African society. This paper argues that gender constructs existed before colonialism, and should be redefined contemporaneously as complementary, rather than hierarchical or binary opposed