Ndadhinhiwa (I am fed up): A Missiological Framing of the Gendered Notions of African Pentecostalism in Zimbabwe

Abstract

Pentecostalism remains one of the fastest growing forms of Christianity on the African continent. Early scholarship on African Pentecostalism had shown it to be gender inclusive. However, current scholarship has begun to question the continued marginalisation of women, especially from leadership positions in Pentecostal churches in Africa. Women marginalisation from leadership positions in the church is a missiological concern. Frustrated by the continued marginalisation, women in African Pentecostalism are finding innovative and subversive ways of protesting. One of these ways is the formation of women only prayer groups such as the Ndadhinhiwa Prayer Group in Harare, Zimbabwe, led by Memory Matimbire. This article, therefore, seeks to establish how this group helps us to frame the gendered notions of Pentecostalism in Zimbabwe from a missiological perspective. The focus of the article is on analysing how the prayer group is pushing beyond the boundaries of patriarchy by creating spaces where women can freely express their spirituality with no patriarchal demands placed upon them. A missiological gender analysis is critical in analysing this group as it offers new insights on the gendered inequalities in mission, particularly as they relate to African Pentecostal ecclesiastical spaces. Using the African womanist theoretical framework, the article analysed the covert subversion of patriarchal dominance to women empowerment through Pentecostal performance by this group. In doing this, an engagement with Allan Heaton Anderson’s analysis of gender in global Pentecostalism was done. Data for the article were gathered through online media (social media included) as well as an analysis of YouTube videos