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Heart and Soul: 500th Anniversary of the Reformation: Africa’s Mother

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Mercy Amba-Oduoye challenges many of the practices that are part of African society

27/10/2017 GMT

Africa’s Mother

500th Anniversary of the Reformation

BBC World Service - Heart and Soul, 500th Anniversary of the Reformation, Africa’s Mother

Mercy Amba Oduyoye uses her faith to challenge many of the practices in African society

Driven by her faith and her Grandmother, Mercy Amba-Oduoye is one of the most prominent Christian feminist activists in Africa. Anne Soy meets her

Mercy Amba-Oduoye is a true reformer; in fact in her native Ghana she embodies the phrase. 

She is called the Mother of African Feminist Christian Theology and is globally recognised as the leader of a movement that has constantly challenged the male preconception of being ‘a good girl’ a phrase in Africa which means not questioning the established role and place of young women. 

In the third programme in the special season on Heart and Soul focussing on reforming faith, Anne Soy travels to Accra, the Ghanaian capital, to meet Mercy to find out how she has channelled her faith to educate young Ghanaian women – and those in other parts of Africa - that many of the practices that have become part of life for women such as polygamy, marital rape or FGM have no theological basis. 

Mercy, now well into her 80’s, will tell Anne that male-led faiths have allowed many of these practices to go unquestioned, and how she has given over her life to God to disrupt and challenge the deeply entrenched thinking and attitudes in countries where religious and spiritual leader have such an influence on society and culture

Presenter: Anne Soy
Production: Anne Soy and Sulley Lansah

Image: Anne Soy

Heart and Soul: 500th Anniversary of the Reformation

Heart & Soul explores and celebrates the idea of reform in the world’s major religions, and the women disrupting the status quo.

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