Drums and voices from the grassroots: local women and the Hallelujah Chorus among Anglican churches in Ukwuaniland, Delta State, Nigeria, 1841-1941

Abstract

From the mid-19th century a certain consistent and encrusted paradigm in African Christian historiography emerged, lamenting the voicelessness of the roles local people played in the evangelisation of their kith and kin during the modern missionary enterprise in that region. In their bid to sing of the unsung roles of indigenous agents in that enterprise, the high pitch of androcentricism drowned a vital but marginalised note. Using Ogbu Kalu’s (2005) theoretical framework (the concentric approach) and the case study and historical approaches to the study of religious phenomenon, this study echoes and reconstructs, from the grassroots, the gist of how indigenous, hitherto nameless Anglican women in their local communities encountered the power of the gospel. The study reveals that Ukwuani women understand Anglicanism through indigenous categories and gives credence and authenticity to the indispensability of grassroots women in the universal choir of Christianity. It recommends that local women should be taken seriously in African Christian historiography.