Good afternoon everyone,

Don't worry I didn't forget about you! Just had a busy morning. Here's a Fem Fri of women who stood up for what they believed in in the face of injustice. Real bread and butter Fem Fri stuff, one of them is even a saint.

Let's start with Nonetha, prophetess. She had a series of visions around the time of the Spanish Flu pandemic, resulting in her unifying disparate groups of her people and establishing her own church which afforded high status to women. Obviously the authorities who were working on the principle of divide and conquer hated this, but people loved her and the church she founded exists today:

among her contemporaries, she was revered. She was to attract many local women (especially diviners) to her cause and they soon became prominent in her Church of the Prophetess Nontetha, which still exists today. The church enabled women to articulate gender and generational concerns, while their prophetic role offered the prospect of enhanced status. By the 1920s, Nontetha had gained immense respect in African society, for she was not only a respected seer and herbalist but also a middle-aged and fully initiated woman and household head.

https://www.sahistory.org.za/people/nontetha-nkwenkwe

Now here's Walatta Petros, who resisted religious hegemony and won! Her people loved her so much they wrote the first biography/hagiography of an African woman for her, and you can read it too:

The Life and Struggles of Our Mother Walatta Petros (1672) tells the story of an Ethiopian saint who led a successful nonviolent movement to preserve African Christian beliefs in the face of European protocolonialism. When the Jesuits tried to convert the Ethiopians from their ancient form of Christianity, Walatta Petros (1592–1642), a noblewoman and the wife of one of the emperor’s counselors, risked her life by leaving her husband, who supported the conversion effort, and leading the struggle against the Jesuits. After her death, her disciples wrote this book, praising her as a friend of women, a devoted reader, a skilled preacher, and a radical leader. One of the earliest stories of African resistance to European influence, this biography also provides a picture of domestic life, including Walatta Petros’s life-long relationship with a female companion.

https://wendybelcher.com/african-literature/walatta-petros/

Keep loving, keep fighting,

Alex.