10 - Men of God & Gendered Knowledge

Summary

Despite important strides brought about by legislation and civil-society advocacy, contemporary Ghanaian society remains unequal, and women continue to be largely confined to subordinate roles. In this chapter, we examine the ways in which some of the key leaders within Ghana’s Pentecostal and charismatic churches speak to this gendered context, and aim to assess whether they contribute to gender equality or inequality. We also consider whether their writings reveal evidence of a new and emerging African knowledge. We focus on Christian churches because, according to Ghana’s 2010 population census, 71.2 per cent of the country’s population profess their belief in the Christian faith. Christianity is also the dominant religion in all but one region. According to the census, more females (73.4 per cent) than males (68.8 per cent) consider themselves Christian (Ghana Statistical Services 2012: 6). The Pentecostal or Charismatic groups with their 6.9 million adherents form 28.3 per cent of the population (Ghana Statistical Services 2012: 40) and anecdotal evidence suggests that these denominations are the fastest growing and possibly most popular and influential, even among members of other denominations.

The (independent) Pentecostal and charismatic churches (PCC) should not be confused with what the literature refers to as African independent churches or African indigenous churches. According to Birgit Meyer (2004: 447) ‘the adjectives “African” and “independent” were once employed as markers of authentic, indigenous interpretations of Christianity’, however, such descriptions prove ‘increasingly problematic to capture the rise, spread, and phenomenal appeal of PCCs in Africa’. Where the African independent churches consciously sought to infuse both the liturgy and worship with African content and praxis, PCCs seem to seek a more global appeal, including building transnational congregations (Okyerefo 2008:78). Although they may frequently dissociate or at least distinguish themselves from both the mainline Christian denominations and the African independent churches, the PCCs are very important in that they do what the missionary churches of the nineteenth century did, namely: run missionary outreach programmes, feed the hungry, heal the sick, and provide education including, in some cases, building universities (Okyerefo 2011). In addition, these churches produce television and radio programmes, as well as video, audio and printed materials, which reach a wide audience, well beyond the congregations that attend Sunday services.