Worshipping God in a Mabati Church: Bishop Jane Akoth’s Leadership in the African Israel Nineveh Church

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the particular effects of urbanization on women’s leadership in an African independent church in the semi-informal settlements of Kayole and Matopeni, in Nairobi, Kenya. It provides an example of recording marginalized experiences of colonized women which is indispensable to the post-colonial theological program. By focusing on the role and place of Moderator Bishop Jane Akoth in the African Israel Nineveh Church, the divergent views of the church teachings and the predominant views about the roles of women are brought to light. The agency in leadership of Bishop Jane Akoth in contrast to her marginalized experience, as a woman in this church, presents a hybridized theology which destabilizes Western forms of hegemony and African patriarchal hegemony.