The Woman in Me

African Women and Religion

They are African women. They dance and dance until their sorrows become washed away by the river of sweat on their brows. These Mother Earths clap hands in a rhythmic fashion. Their voices and moves touch the heart of Mother Earth and Father Heaven. As they dance they fall on the ground. They lose their balance because of the dance rigors and extreme hunger from fasting. Thanks be to God, the men are there to catch them when “the spirit knocks them down.” When they wake up from fainting in the spirit, they find nothing has changed. Their problems have not gone away but their sadness has been replaced by some joy—even if it is temporary. They will still need to attend to their problems. But they need to be distracted from thinking about them for a while because they have become overwhelming. These African women have been maimed psychologically by suffering. They have become extremely weak. They can no longer face the deeply disturbing issues in their cultures and societies. They need to be distracted. The situation is becoming hopeless and these women are helpless. At least they get some temporary relief and happiness. They dance like goddesses. They want to shake off their misery and sorrow. It is free for all. They call it tarry night. Some call it a crusade.

The crusades are like a soothing ointment on the wound. But the wound is becoming deep and painful. Soon, the ointment may no longer cover it. Pentecostalism and spiritual churches have swept African Christians off their feet and are rapidly replacing the authentic Christian faith described in the Acts of the Apostles. I use Pentecostalism and spiritual churches to describe the twenty-first-century evangelism. It is revivalism. It is marked by robust and loud forms of worship filled with songs, music, and outbursts of overt behaviors claimed to be manifestations of different inner stirrings. Most of such gatherings are either in a church building or in an open space. Different terms are used to describe these gatherings, such as tarry nights, fellowships, or crusades. It is flowery, exciting, and even fun. It is more appealing to the present generation of Africans. It provides physical as well as emotional exercises with a temporary spiritual flavor. A visit to a Christian night crusade or mass fellowship is needed to understand the phenomenon. You may be forced to think that Africans do miss the moonlight game.  

The moonlight game is a traditional evening recreation for youth, still practiced in some places. “Onwa tibe, ije aguba agadi”—“the crippled elders long to walk again when the moon is out”—is a proverb that describes how much the elders miss youthful age. The present day forms of night worship provide adequately what were lost in the areas of African evening recreations. “Young men and women should not go out at night,” the first missionaries said. “They might fall to temptations and commit sins of impurity.” Nowadays it is okay to go to a moonlight (even if it means artificially creating the moon by electricity) game but have you call it a Christian crusade or tarry night. Funny but true!

It took a long time before I agreed to attend a crusade. I attended crusades in several countries before I decided on a name for the movement: effervescent church. Could this effervescent church be a reminiscence of what was lost, namely traditional evening recreations? Could this be what attracts so many to the crusade grounds? But the men do not flock there like the women do. Do women need this type of religion more than men? Could it be that recreational needs have changed?  

 < body="">