Narrative, Identity and Ethics in Postcolonial Kenya: The Young Women’s Christian Association

Eleanor Tiplady Higgs

jun 2021 · Bloomsbury Publishing

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Can a Christian organization with colonial roots work towards reproductive justice for Kenyan women and resist sexist interpretations of Christianity? How does a women's organization in Africa navigate controversial ethical dilemmas, while dealing with the pressures of imperialism in international development?

Based on a case study of the Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA) in Kenya, this book explores the answers to these questions. It also introduces a theoretical framework drawn from postcolonial feminist critique, narrative identity theory and the work of the Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians: 'everyday Christian ethics'. The book evaluates the theory's implications as a cross-disciplinary theme in feminist studies of religion and theology.

Eleanor Tiplady Higgs argues that Kenya YWCA's narratives of its Christian history and constitution sustain a link between its ethical perspective and its identity. The ethical insights that emerge from these practices proclaim the relevance of the value of 'fulfilled lives', as prescribed in the New Testament, for Christian women's experiences of reproductive injustice.

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Eleanor Tiplady Higgs received her PhD from SOAS University of London, UK. She was previously a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Cape Town, South Africa, and a Fellow of the Africa Multiple Cluster of Excellence at the University of Bayreuth, Germany. Her research interests lie in the study of gender and Christianity, ethics, feminist theory and narrative.