Is Ruth the Ēšet Hayil for real? Womanhood between African proverbs and the threshing floor (Ruth1:1-13)

Abstract

Contradictory definitions of what worthy womanhood is have, in many contexts, including African contexts, caused divisions within religious institutions, families and communities at large. In Christian African contexts, definitions of worthy womanhood emerging from various Bible interpretations, and shaped by different African cultures, have wrought and continue to influence views concerning women and men, boy and girl children even as these mould our definitions of what affirming gender relationships (should) entail. In Ruth 3:11, Boaz, the wealthy Judahite man, informs Ruth, the poor foreign (Moabite) widow, that the assembly of Judahite men knows that she is the 'ēšet hayil, the woman of substance. Which images of womanhood are revealed when some African proverbs are read in conjunction with Boaz’s words in Ruth 3:11? Do these images indeed reveal Ruth as the woman of substance? Are they affirming of those in their search of affirming definitions of womanhood in our African contexts? These questions among others will be addressed by the present article.