6
THE ROLE
OF WOMEN
IN AFRICAN
TRADITIONAL
RELIGION
THE ROLE
OF WOMEN
IN AFRICAN
TRADITIONAL
RELIGION
AND AMONG THE YORUBA
Joseph Akinyẹle Ọmọyajowo
Introduction
THIS PAPER WILL MAINLY FOCUS on the possibility of a feminine image of deity in our traditional religion and the functions of women in the religious system of the Yoruba race in a world that is so fundamentally masculine and in which women are not accorded any visibly prominent status in religious matters.
Generally and globally, the superiority of men over women has always been taken for granted. Women themselves seem to have internalized this image of female inferiority (a situation in which I have seen the women's liberation or feminist movements as no more than apologetic) and have therefore somehow taken male domination as the natural order of things.
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