Abstract
For about sixty years, Christian mission has encountered the resistant Sonjo traditions, and much of the competition between religions has happened in the realm of narratives. Sonjo myths and stories change according to the religio-political needs, and Christians make use of stories or versions of myths that gain them leverage against the traditional religion. Christian mission attempts to utilize women's position as an argument for its benefit. Sonjo Christian women, finding themselves between two patriarchies, the traditional and the Christian, negotiate themselves additional moving space by positioning themselves usually in accordance to churches' positions but sometimes to the Sonjo traditions.
Highlights
This paper aims at discussing the ways in which Christian missionaries among the Sonjo, as well as Sonjo Christians argue, and could argue, in relation to gender, making use of missionary propaganda, popular narratives, myths and their versions among the Sonjo
Lutheran pastor Rong’ola (1976: 60, 71, 72, 77-78), maintains that the Sonjo understanding of marriage is the same as in Christianity because no premarital sexual intercourse is allowed and points out that many marriages between Christians end in divorce while many Sonjo traditionalists remain in their marriages for the rest of their lives
The missionaries were generally not of Sonjo background, and one may wonder whether some of the cultural superiority complex had been transmitted from the Western missionaries to the African ones
Summary
This paper aims at discussing the ways in which Christian missionaries among the Sonjo, as well as Sonjo Christians argue, and could argue, in relation to gender, making use of missionary propaganda, popular narratives, myths and their versions among the Sonjo. The data used for this paper are the Sonjo myths and narratives recorded since the 1950’s until the 1990’s and the narratives I was able to collect in 2003 in group interviews conducted with the traditional leaders of Samunge village as well as local Christians and church workers. That the priests and leaders of the traditional religion blow the horns looks like a public secret, even if the Sonjo would not agree to tell you so.[13] The existence of the horn(s) is mentioned in several studies, and this fact has been recorded from among the Sonjo It would be remarkable if initiated men would have been able to keep the secret from women and children if they have told it to the outsiders. The women believed them, and the horn became the men’s secret.[15]
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