Stories of ‘Born-Again’ Women in Uganda: Epistemic Violence, Visceral Faith, and Subversive Performances of Subjectivity
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Authors
Bauman, Noelle
Date
Type
thesis
Language
eng
Keyword
Epistemic Violence , Global Coloniality , Colonial Mimicry , Born Again Christianity , Uganda , Feminist Ethnography
Alternative Title
Abstract
Between 1986 and 1991, missionaries “pioneered” the Hope Land base of the
international missions organization: Youth With A Mission (YWAM). Situated just
outside of Jinja, Uganda, the Hope Land base’s vision is “to be a training center, running
schools accredited by YWAM’s University of the Nations,” and to be “committed to
discipling men and women, while equipping them with the professional skills necessary
to serve and reach the world for Christ”. Run by a small group of
leaders, the British directors of the Hope Land base oversee a community of international
and national students and staff, who live “To Know God and Make God Known”.
Using data collected in qualitative interactive interviews with Ugandan women, I
discuss the lives of a diverse group of ‘born-again’ Christian women whose lives have
been influenced, in some way, by the work of YWAM in Uganda. Using a discussion of
global coloniality, with particular attention given to the coloniality of power and the
coloniality of knowledge, I consider the ways that
hegemonic epistemic violence has worked to produce the ‘born-again’ conversion
experiences among the women. Inspired by Mahmood (2005) use of Foucault’s Modes of Subjectivation and Techniques of the Self, I examine the ways that ‘born-again’ women continually work
towards their own Christian discipleship, through actively transforming their own moral
and ethical selves. Finally, using Bhaba’s concept of Colonial Mimicry (1994), I
present evidence that argues that the YWAM missionaries use strategic ambivalence to
perpetuate their work in Uganda. I argue Ugandan women resist the
missionaries metonymizing gaze, and engage in subversive behaviors with these
missionaries, as a means of perpetuating their access to the material benefits provided by
YWAM.
This project relies on women’s stories as articulations of unique knowledges. It
acknowledges that in a neocolonized postcolonial world, asymmetries of power result in
violent epistemic interventions that produce subjects and subjectivities marked by
hegemonic ways of knowing. Despite this, this thesis finds that those subjectivities
actively experience their own visceral responses to the Christian God, and as such,
produce their own conceptions of God and their own ways of knowing about the world.
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ProQuest PhD and Master's Theses International Dissemination Agreement
Intellectual Property Guidelines at Queen's University
Copying and Preserving Your Thesis
This publication is made available by the authority of the copyright owner solely for the purpose of private study and research and may not be copied or reproduced except as permitted by the copyright laws without written authority from the copyright owner.