Book Review
Oyeronke Olademo (2009) Review of Gender and Ordination in Three Nigerian AICs by Crumbley,
Deidre Helen, 2008, Spirit, Structure, and the Flesh: Gendered Experiences in African Instituted
Churches among the Yoruba of Nigeria. Madison (Wisconsin): The University of Wisconsin Press,
180pp. Notes, references, index, ISBN 978-0-299-29910-9 (hbk), US4 50.
This book supplies valuable analysis of gender as integral to Aladura church rituals in Yoruba land. It
is a fresh insight into the complexities attending the role of culture in diversifying religious practices.
According to this book traditional Yoruba culture is a source of both liberating and constraining
features of Aladura gender practices. A silent strength of this book is the presentation of three
different situations with respect to gender practices in the Christ Apostolic church, Church of the
Lord Aladura and the Celestial church of Christ, at once. It comes to fore eventually that in all three
churches women’s bodies are controlled to varying degrees and their activities constrained, but in
ways that do not preclude women from empowering the respective churches, spiritually and
materially.
The book is divided into three sections, which are preceded by an introduction and prologue
and followed by a conclusion, notes, references and an index. Section one explores the historical
contexts and the place of gender in the institutional narratives of the three churches that constitute
the focus of the work; whereas section two analyses the exchange between ritual sybol and gender
in the worship sessions of the three Aladura churches under consideration. Also, section three,
evaluates gender and power within and without church structures in the three churches concerned.
Section one of the book identifies the colonial-missionary era in Nigeria as the context in
which these three churches emerged as essentially a religious response to the desire of the people
for wee-being. The significant roles of women in the founding years of the Christ Apostolic Church
are highlighted. These include the contributions of Sophie Odulami and Mrs. O. A. Pearce. The Christ
Apostolic Church provides education for women but this was highly gendered. The contribution of
women in the foundation years of the Church of the Lord Aladura are also documented. These
include Julie Ositelu, a wife of the founder, Beatrice Talabi of Iperu. Others are Mama Fanny Aina,
Mama Comfort Solanke and Nana Akua Afriyie of Ghana. Worthy of mention is a ‘Women Ministry’
in the Church of the Lord Aladura wherein women are ordained into ministry beginning from 1959.
The accounts of the founding years of the Celestial Church of Christ present women as recipients of
miracles but also as conducts of spiritual power as prophetesses. The role of women in the founding
years of the Celestial Church of Christ has been rightly described as proactive, especially in the
contributions of Yaman, the first wife of the founder, Samuel Bilehou Joseph Oshoffa. An important
observation by the book in this section is that historical memory of women’s contribution to the
establishment of a church affects its gender practices, symbols and rituals.
Section two of this book submits that worship experience in the three churches differ for
men and women. In addition, to varying degrees, the female body elicits attention in worship
experiences in the three churches. This hinges on the ambivalence of the Aladura concerning
menstrual blood and this is rooted in African rituals. Compliance and obedience to these prohibitive
regulations for the female body, keeping women away from the altar in Aladura churches, is
premised on the claim to divine instruction as its base. The influence of Yoruba culture on worship
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experiences in these churches also comes to fore. These include fasting, prayer, women’s leading
roles in ritual, and the belief in malevolent forces and their influences on humanity. Worthy of
mention here is the correct understanding that menstrual blood among the Yoruba should not be
presented as contamination but as a source of life that should be respected and requires certain
physical distance in awe. I must commend the cultural sensitivity of the author on the Yoruba
understanding of soup as correlating with comfort and as constituting a level of sacrifice in ‘white
fasting’ i. e. The fasting period during which the individual avoids any type of dark-coloured food
such as oil, pepper or soup (see p.73).
Section three of the book explicates the negotiation mechanism between gender and power
by women within and outside of the Aladura churches under investigation. In the Christ Apostolic
Church for instance, women are not ordained but they may preach, found churches and head
evangelistic ministries. Examples of CAC women leaders are Mrs. M. B. Odeleke, Mama Dorcas
Siyanbola Olaniyi and Mama J. O. Ogunranti. The ordination of women in the Church of the Lord
Aladura is a divine injunction and as long as the church exists, it shall not cease. Yet until
postmenopausal age, ordained CLA women have limited duties ascribed to them. In the Celestial
Church of Christ, women are excluded from ordination and holy space. Consequently the bible is
utilized both to sacralise and to prohibit women from holy space and holy office. Thus revelation can
be used both for and against women’s ordination depending on whether its human conduit is
predisposed for or against the policy.
The book concludes with the observation that the Aladura experience is now international
and church leaders perceive this as integral to worldwide evangelism. The implication of this
however is the trans-location of gender practices rooted in Yoruba cultural milieu into another
culture. The book identifies the need for Aladura adherents in the Diaspora to avoid equating
menstrual avoidance rituals with female powerlessness. I am persuaded that this notion is premised
on the different axis of understanding power in the African perception, i. e. power may not be visible
or formal, yet it remains potent. The author confirms this when she submits that ‘women count in
the day-o-day life of these Aladura Churches whether (they are) ordained or not------ (see p. 137).
This book is a must for anyone interested in church history, feminism, religion, gender studies and
/or anthropology.
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