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‘A Light-Hearted Bunch of Ladies’: Gendered Power and Irreverent Piety in the Ghanaian Methodist Diaspora

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 May 2011

Mattia Fumanti
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Abstract

This article explores the making of gendered and religious identities among a group of Ghanaian Methodist women in London by bringing to the fore the complex and irreverent ways in which the women of Susanna Wesley Mission Auxiliary (SUWMA) negotiate their recognition within the predominantly patriarchal settings of the Methodist Church. If, on the one hand, the association and its members conform to Christian values and widely accepted Ghanaian constructions of womanhood, on the other hand, flouting expectations of pious femininity, they claim a unique, elevated position within the church. Their transgressive hedonism can thus be read as a performative assertion of their claims to respect, recognition and leadership beyond the narrow parameters of gendered modesty. Many of the women are senior church leaders and respected members of the diaspora. All are successful professional career women and economically independent. Their association is simultaneously about promoting the Christian faith while being recognized as successful, cosmopolitan, glamorous middle-class women. It is this duality which the present article highlights by showing how members of the association negotiate and construct their subjectivities both within the Methodist Church and the Ghanaian diaspora, while they also negotiate their relationship with the Methodist Church in Ghana.

Cet article explore la construction de l'identité sexuée et religieuse au sein d'un groupe de femmes méthodistes ghanéennes à Londres en mettant en avant la façon complexe et irrévérencieuse dont les femmes de l'association Susanna Wesley Mission Auxiliary (SUWMA) négocient leur reconnaissance dans le cadre essentiellement patriarcal de l’Église méthodiste. Si, d'un côté, l'association et ses membres se conforment aux valeurs chrétiennes et aux constructions de la féminité largement acceptées au Ghana, d'un autre côté, faisant fi des attentes de féminité pieuse, elles revendiquent une position élevée unique au sein de l’Église. On peut donc voir dans leur hédonisme transgressif une affirmation performative de leurs revendications au respect, à la reconnaissance et au leadership au-delà des paramètres étroits de la modestie sexuelle. Beaucoup de ces femmes occupent de hautes fonctions dirigeantes au sein de l’Église et sont des membres respectés de la diaspora. Toutes ont réussi dans leur carrière professionnelle et sont économiquement indépendantes. L'enjeu de leur association est de promouvoir la foi chrétienne tout en étant reconnues comme des femmes de classe moyenne séduisantes et cosmopolitaines qui ont réussi. C'est cette dualité que l'article met en lumière en montrant comment les membres de l'association négocient et construisent leurs subjectivités tant au sein de l’Église méthodiste que de la diaspora ghanéenne, tout en négociant leur relation avec l’Église méthodiste au Ghana.

Type
Research Articles
Information
Africa , Volume 80 , Issue 2 , May 2010 , pp. 200 - 223
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 2010

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