From shrines to prayer houses: A religious history of Igbo women, 1900--1970

This dissertation argues that Igbo women in southeastern Nigeria played active roles in the religious transformations that occurred in their communities between 1900 and 1970. This time period is chosen to permit an exploration of the changes and continuities in Igbo women's religious experience in three successive periods: the late pre-missionary (before 1910), missionary (c. 1900--1940), and independence (c. 1940--1970). Focusing on the Ufuma-Igbo, this project first highlights the changes that occurred in Igbo women's religious experience on the eve of missionary incursion and British colonial rule by examining the role of women's personal shrines in spreading culture-specific ideas. Next, this study examines the ways in which indigenous women influenced European missionary strategies during the encounter between Ufuma and CMS (Church Missionary Society) missionaries. It particularly explores the role of early indigenous female Christians (remembered as "Bible women") in the mass conversion of Ufuma in the 1930s. Turning to the late colonial period, this project then surveys the conditions that led to the rise of spiritual churches founded by Igbo women. It also examines some of the ways in which Igbo men and women came to trust in "prayer houses" as auxiliaries to main-line churches.;This study makes a number of contributions to African women's history as well as to African religious historiography. First, it highlights the dominant position that indigenous Igbo women occupied in the religious realm in pre-colonial times. Next, it clarifies Africa's religious history by identifying Ufuma women as key players in the religious changes occurring on the eve of colonial rule and European missionary incursions. Furthermore, by examining the ways in which Ufuma women drew closer to the church when they took advantage of maternity supplies provided by missionaries, this study shifts the focus from educational missionary strategies to the importance of medical missions in African church history. What is more, this study prioritizes the importance of local indigenous women missionaries ("Bible Women") in the evangelical project of the CMS in Nigeria in the 20th century. Finally, this study enriches our understanding of independent Christian movements by exploring the gendered character of "prayer houses" as a 20th-century Christian phenomenon in African history. Prayer houses prompt us to reconsider women's religious experience and African Christian categories in the 20 th century and raise the question whether we can speak about womanist churches in African History.