Africa, Religion, and Female Priesthood

"The ritual and political involvement of women in general and of female priesthood and leadership in particular was an important aspect of precolonial Igbo society that was not recognized during colonial times. Because the male elders of a lineage act as its visible agents, they were recognized as the lineage's representatives. Because vital female rituals are highly secretive and exclusive, male elders commonly appear to outsiders as the dominant agents in charge of resource management, preservation of the custom, maintenance of social order, religious practices, and mediation between human and spirit worlds. Against this background, social structuralists, functionalists, and marxists have all emphasized the gender-based social division of labor and ignored women's ritual and political involvement. The non-recognition of female priesthood and other expressions of female leadership relegated women to the background. In addition, women's power is further eroded by the imposition of Christian and Islamic values and the lack of attention to African religious beliefs and practices. Moreover, Western-style structural inequalities and elitism in contemporary African society and economies continue to erode previously established positions of power held by women."

Sabine Jell-Bahlsen, 1998, 101

"Female Power: Water Priestesses of the Oru-Igbo"

in Sisterhood: Feminisms and Power from Africa to the Diaspora, ed. Obioma Nnaemeka