African Womens Use of Methodism as Power in Southern Africa

There is a common portrayal of Christianity as a religion that restricted female

independence during colonization. However this was not always the case, as African women
used Christianity in an effort to gain power and fight against social norms in numerous instances.
One country in particular, where this occurred is South Africa. South African womens utilization
of Christianity as power can be seen with the Manyano movement. The theme that I see is that
while the Manyano movement is a religious movement, women used it as a tool to better their
lives outside of the church. South African women were not empowered by todays feminist
standards, however they were empowered when put into the context of the times that they were
living in. They survived through the Manyano movement and used it to their own benefit.
Through looking at the manyanos as feminist, feminism is being looked at from a completely
different angle. Being a feminist and supporting womens rights is not always black and white.
Women can have social roles in societies, such as ones during the colonial period, where the
women are seen as completely dependent on men. These women may appear to not be doing
anything about this, but appearance is not always reality. Though the Manyano movement has
been around for over 100 years and is seen all throughout South Africa, this paper will attempt to
find enough continuity in order to answer the central research question: How did the Manyano
movement help South African women achieve power in their daily lives? Ultimately it will
prove that South African women found political and domestic power through the Methodist
Manyano meetings.
Before colonialism occurred in South Africa, women had power. Indigenous women in
South Africa before colonialism had an important role in their communities. These women had

jobs where they were farmers, mothers, and spirit mediums. While African women had
independence before colonialism, they were restricted by gendered taboos, and silent in most
public decision making (pg. 110, ruwar). These women however, were what bound South
African communities together, due to their performance of daily tasks which kept the household
running. These women, thus, were not dependent on men because they did their own labor, along
with labor that benefited their households. Ultimately, self-sufficiency was an essential part of
their identity and it reinforced their sense of worth (pg. 110, ruwar). Once colonialism occurred
in the late 1800s, many colonizers saw South African women as being broken and powerless,
thus needing saving. This is due to the fact that colonizers misinterpreted African womens
workload and relative autonomy as slave status and saw Christianity as their only hope (113,
ruwar). Colonizers attempted to save South African women, by changing their roles in society
by making them dependent on men. Even, after this, South African women still felt a need to
have a self-sufficient identity. After colonialism they found this identity through the Methodist
manyano movement.
Colonialism brought about the manyano movement. South African indigenous women
viewed one of Colonialisms key components, Christianity, as a resource, and thus they
attempted to combat Colonialism with it. The manyano movement started in Natal around 1906
and its early name was Kopano, which is a Xhosa word which means unity or union (pg. 164,
Womens religious Associations and Social Change). The manyanos are part of a larger
Methodist society or church. The Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Society or WMMS who
brought Christianity to Southern African women also brought new expectations for what a
womans place in society was. The manyano movement is part of the Methodist Church of
Southern Africa, which is a Wesleyan Methodist denomination. The Wesleyan Methodist

Missionary Society formed the ideas of the first manyanos, with the manyano movement,
originally springing out as a Wesleyan Methodist Prayer Union. Wesleyans taught that the
womens role was to be obedient to men, with insubordination being considered evil and
disrespectful to God. At the Wesleyan mission, indigenous South African girls were trained
based on the Victorian ideals of domesticity and motherhood in order to prepare them for
domestic service in the households of colonists. This would ultimately prepare them for when
the majority of black South African women became domestic workers under apartheid. Even
after South African women were taught that they were inferior to men along with white women,
mission practices reinforced African beliefs in divine intervention and womens spirituality
(pg. 115, ruwar). This is due to, the manyanos combining Afro centrism and Christianity. The
manyanos, gradually minimized the European cultural significance of Christianity and made it
into something that was significant to them as Africans. Essentially, in the manyano, over time,
Christianity was de-Europeanized and given an African personality (Elliot, pg. 172). This new
form of Christianity gave the manyanos power, in the domestic and political spheres
Along with bringing about the manyano movement, colonialism also eventually brought
about apartheid. The reasons for apartheid point to a combination of several factors colonial
conquest, land dispossession, economic impoverishment, and exclusion from citizenship of
Africans (http://overcomingapartheid.msu.edu/unit.php?id=65-24E-2). Colonialism caused a
racial segregation and this segregation was taken to an extreme level with apartheid. Mark
Sanders summarizes apartheid in the following manner:
"No longer content to tolerate a de facto pattern of
segregation in which 'grey' areas of social mixing remained-such as
in urban residential patterns and inter-racial personal contacts and
relationships, including marriage-from 1948, the new government

set out to segregate every aspect of political, economic, cultural,

sporting and social life, using established legal antecedents where
they existed and creating them where they did not" (68).
Legislations brought about with apartheid increased the social construct of blacks as a servant
class. Along with this, many black South African women had children and families. Thus, many
black South Africans were domestic workers along with mothers and wives. These women
worked in white South Africas urban areas. Apartheid caused these women to become reduced
to non-citizens that had to carry passes and travel far distances in order to even enter these white
neighborhoods where they worked. These houses where domestic workers worked under
apartheid were characterized by terrible pay, oppressive working conditions, and dehumanizing
sexism and racism (pg. 1, domestic workers). Barely having any time to be home due to having
to travel and work long hours, South African women needed tips on how to be the best mothers
they could be. Black workers domestic responsibilities forced them to concentrate on daily
survival strategies (pg. 110, ruwar). All of this, caused black South African women to search
for new ways of survival.

South African women used the manyano movement in order to help

their families survive the daily struggles brought about with apartheid. Having superior domestic
abilities and a moral support system, is one of the ways in which the manyano movement helped
South African women survive.
After apartheid, the manyano meetings gave South African women domestic power, at a
time when they needed it most. In, The Rise of an African Middle Class: Colonial Zimbabwe,
1898-1965, Michael West argues that Manyano meetings gave South African women who
wanted to be domestic, an opportunity to talk about how to be good wives and mothers.
Manyano women started using the Manyano meetings as a place to share tips on how to run
households and take care of their families. This is the way that the manyano meetings helped

black South African womens. Manyano meetings also helped South African women survive
through helping them have a positive mentality so that they could continue on. As mentioned
previously, before colonialism, independence was an essential part of the African womens
identity. The Manyanos reclaimed their values as independent women, due to the fact that
motherhood played a central role in the movement. The manyano movement made motherhood a
priority and ultimately gave it support, in a time when black South African womens positions as
mothers were endangered. Shireen Ally interviewed Sophia Ncobo, a sixty year old domestic
worker where she said:
I joined a long time ago, [the] Methodist manyano. It was
a place for the women who were married. I joined when things
were very bad... we were all domestic workers, and it was this
place, where, in the time when you were there...you were talking
about your problems and how you must keep up the morals...the
manyano has always been like the heart in the body (translated
from isiXhosa) (pg. 302).
The manyano meetings gave black South African women like Sophia Ncobo moral and
theological support. The moral and theological support that the manyano movement gave to
South African women helped them have more fight in them, as they fought for the survival of
their families, essentially giving them domestic power.
South African women also used the manyano movement and Christianity to gain Political
power. The manyano movement has commonly been viewed as conservative and consequently
not been appreciated as players in the feminist struggles in South Africa. This is due to the fact
that they were not necessarily fighting against the system during apartheid, along with the fact
that they are a religious organization. Though the manyano movement is religious and were
actively not fighting against apartheid, they still had a political conscious. This can be seen by

looking at their refusal to integrate with other organizations in their church. Within, the
Methodist Church of the South Africa Province there are three women's organizations: the
Methodist Women's Manyano, composed of black African women; the Methodist Women's
Association, for coloured women; and the Methodist Women's Auxiliary, for white women (pg.
162, Elliot). The manyano movement do not want to combine all of the organizations for
women. The reasoning goes back to the colonial period. Though colonizers wanted to convert
Africans, once indigenous Africans actually converted, their initiatives inside of the Church were
often fought or questioned. Along with this, the manyanos views were ignored, all because they
were black women. Although the white foreign missionaries ignored their views, they still
wanted the manyano to be a part of white womens organization, so that the manyanos would
have supervision. They felt they needed supervision because, although African women
championed Christianity, missionaries found their assertiveness unexpected and disturbing (pg.
109, ruwar). Despite being dominate and having many members throughout its history, the
Manyano movement has been on the edge of Methodist church and political activity. The
manyanos, refused to join the white womens organization. The Manyanos chose to be racially
segregated from the church because through operating from their own space they feel they are
powerful and confident, transcending their allocated social inferiority when dealing with the
other groups in the Methodist Church. The manyano movement throughout its history has
needed to be a safe and sacred space for black South African women, where they could be
themselves openly in a fashion that was truly meaningful. Thus, the manyano have maintained
their segregation. Along with giving them a sense of empowerment, the manyanos choice to be
segregated also sends a political message. The movements rejection of shared space with
Coloured and especially white women may also reflect a rejection of the system at large, a

rejection based on class position and a racial caste system supported by the apartheid regime (pg.
175, Elliott). The white church has constantly tried to take the manyanos private space away
from them. This is symbolic, of Africans space as a whole. The church has continually tried to
make them cooperate and has been throughout its history trying to make the manyanos embrace
their way of living. For example the white church throughout its history has tried to make the
manyanos embrace the Europeanized Christianity that the manyanos gave an African personality.
Ultimately, through their insistence on segregation, the black manyano women in a sense have
turned racism on its head throughout their history, by making the white church chase them and
beg them to assimilate. This is a reflection of the segregation South Africa has endured
throughout its recent history. The Manyanos actually are doing something politically, but they do
not actively fight the system. They do not need to protest, being segregated is their message.
All of this is symbolized through the Wesleyan church asking and sometimes forcing the
Manyanos to not wear their uniforms.
The manyanos have a signature uniform, which includes a white hat, red blouse and a black skirt.
The theological explanation of their uniform is that the white represents purity, the red
represents the blood of Jesus, and the black represents sin (pg. 188, Elliott). However the
uniforms throughout the movements history have meant more than this to the manyanos. They
provide a sense of unity and a positive sense of identity. Lyn Holness argues:
With my own eyes I have seen a person become somebody
different the moment she puts on her Manyano uniform.These
women assume a dignity, a self-confidence and a sense of pride.
They move from being individuals with a sense of either no, or at
best second-rate, personal identity (a negative selfimage) or only
derivative identity (Mrs so-and-so's maid), to people with a
positive identity of their own. In addition to this, the Manyano
uniform serves another vital function. Everyone looks the same.

No one can detect who is rich and who is poor. In other words, the
Manyano uniform confers a common identity on its members. It is
a leveller - to the extent that "these women can, without shame,
hide their poverty in their official dress.

Along with providing reassurance, the uniform is a symbol for the manyanos being different but
not inferior to the other movements in the church and not conforming to society. Europeans
knew the Manyano movement as the Red Blouse Movement. The woman Manyanos church
uniforms were banned in places such as Johannesburg and Natal, however Manyano women
continued to wear them anyways. Shiela Elliott argues that:
During interviews with the Manyano women of Guguletu
in the Western Cape they proudly told me that despite the civil
unrest in the township, and threats by comrades to stay indoors and
out of their uniforms, they bravely continued to meet and pray on
Thursdays in full uniform. It is not that the leaders and members of
the Manyano do not see the problems confronting their people and
especially their children. They do, but the Manyano prays fervently
for God's assistance and deliverance from those evils (Elliott, pg.
188).
Manyano womens church uniforms became a representation of rebellion against colonizers and
apartheid. Still, today, the wearing of church uniforms remains a key characteristic of the
manyano movement (Pg 10). In short, instead of wanting to be accepted by the whites, the
manyanos did not accept whites. They felt and acted as if they were superior to the whites,
making a political message through the Manyano movement along with their uniforms.
The Manyano movement eventually was seen all throughout South Africa and is still
around today. This is due to their perseverance and their strategies at survival. for a lot of
South African women, using the manyano meetings as a way to get help on domesticity, was one

of their only options for survival. They could not fight against the system very easily because
many women struggled just to keep their families going. The manyano movement is a reflection
of how African women put up with the obstacles that were placed in front of them, with the
introduction of apartheid and colonization.