A CRITICAL EVALUATION OF WOMEN AS THE SUSTAINING FACTOR IN AFRICAN TRADITIONAL RELIGION

Abstract

This study is a critical evaluation of the role of women as sustaining factor in African Traditional Religion (ATR). African Traditional Religion is deeply connected to culture, morality, family life, and social organization. It shapes the worldview of African societies and serves as a guide for daily living. Within the structure of ATR, women occupy a very important position. This study therefore, seeks to critically evaluate the role of women in ATR by examining their contributions and the challenges they face. Accordingly, this study employed a descriptive survey method to evaluate the role of women in sustaining ATR. The findings revealed that ATR is sustained through a complex system of beliefs, rituals, oral traditions, and communal practices that are deeply embedded in African life. Within this structure, women occupy a central position as transmitters of cultural memory, custodians of moral values, and active participants in religious life. However, further findings showed that, a critical evaluation of their role requires both appreciation of their contributions and a clear understanding of the structural, historical, and modern challenges that shape their participation. While women remain essential to the survival of ATR, their influence operates within patriarchal systems, colonial distortions, and contemporary religious changes. It concluded that women in homes and fields, at shrines and markets, through healing, teaching, and ritual labor, have sustained the traditions that connect the living with the ancestors, communities with spirits, and the present with the past.