Leocadie Lushombo

Bernadette Mbuy-Beya maintains that African women’s ethics are contextual, based not only on knowledge but on feeling, not only on science but also on wisdom. It is an ethic conceived not only in the head but also in the heart, the body, and the belly. She laments the marginalization of women and advocates, in both her writings and through praxis, for a concept of social motherhood that affirms women’s agency and inner freedom. She proposes that the African continent cannot receive the hope of Jesus Christ without the complete liberation of women both in society and the church, nor will the hope of Christ be realized without addressing “the masculinization of the Church.” This liberation is done through social motherhood that goes beyond biological fecundity to include how women’s positive power gives life, nurtures growth, and transforms the factors that kill life on the continent. This chapter will critically assess Mbuy-Beya’s ethical and philosophical anthropology regarding women and how it challenges the Circle moving forward.

This book maps the philosophical and ethical paradigms African women proposed in propagating liberation theology. Through the Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians (Circle), they set out to generate women-focused theologies of liberation. The Circle was launched with a clarion call for African women from every country, religion, and culture to produce theological treatises that liberate and empower women from oppression within their communities and in the academic environment. The book acknowledges the many challenges facing African women and critically assesses the achievements of the Circle. It also suggests the philosophical, theological, and ethical paths to re-envision the liberational agenda, long sought by the Circle. It answers the following questions: How did African women theologians re-imagine the available ethical paradigms? What original ethical/philosophical ideas did they generate? How did their ethical frameworks shape the theologies and interpretations they developed? What purposes did their ethical/philosophical paradigm serve? How does the ethical/philosophical rendering intersect with various social categories such as gender, race, class, sexuality, capitalism, colonialism, neo-liberal economy, environmental degradation, and pandemics, in addition to interreligious and ethnic conflicts? How do African women theologians problematize the above oppressive social structures and categories, and what liberating frameworks do they propose? Finally, the book considers how effectively the Circle’s ethical theories, models, and frameworks could inform the future work of justice and liberation of women and the whole Earth community.

This volume explores the ethical and philosophical paradigms presented by most of the influential Matriarchs of the Circle of African Women Theologians. It critically evaluates the effectiveness of their ethical and philosophical theories, models, and frameworks in pursuing justice and liberation for women in Africa and globally. The authors address critical questions: How have African women theologians reimagined existing ethical paradigms? What original ethical and philosophical ideas have they generated? How have their ethical frameworks influenced the theologies and interpretations they have developed? What purposes do their ethical and philosophical paradigms serve? How do these renderings intersect with various social categories, including gender, race, class, sexuality, capitalism, and colonialism? What liberating frameworks do they propose? The volume further explores the dialogue between distinct African contexts and universal experiences and values. It explores how universal themes such as humanity, human dignity, rights, justice, motherhood, and more can coexist with communal African concepts and themes. It contemplates how embracing African approaches engages these themes more globally, bringing together particular African contexts of women and the universal ethical, philosophical, and theological theories, models, and frameworks to advance the cause of justice and liberation for African women and women worldwide into the future.

This article expands on Pope Francis’s vision of a community of fraternity. This community is one in which people support each other, identify with each other’s vulnerability, bear one another’s burdens, and embrace collective salvation. Although Francis takes steps forward in considering violence against women, a proper order to which a community of fraternity must turn requires that one draw much more from local narratives of injustice against women. This task can guide the Church’s orthopraxis on women’s suffering, which should consider how psychological or sociopolitical factors doubly wound women, especially in contexts of war and conflict. The effects of these wounds should inform the idea of imputability and responsibility for action regarding absolute moral laws. The article includes narratives affirming Francis’s call for mercy to be put first in accompanying wounded women, who become the locus theologicus on the suffering Christ.