Mercy Amba Ewudziwa Oduyoye is a Ghanaian Methodist theologian known for her work in African women's theologies and theological anthropology.
23 Facts About Mercy Oduyoye
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Mercy Oduyoye is currently the director of the Institute of African Women in Religion and Culture at Trinity Theological Seminary, Ghana.
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Mercy Oduyoye founded the Circle of Concerned African Theologians in Ghana in 1987 to promote the visibility and publishing agenda of African women theologians.
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Mercy Oduyoye was born on her grandfather's cocoa farm on Amoanna, near Asamankese, Ghana, as the eldest of nine siblings.
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Mercy Oduyoye's mother graduated from Wesley Girls School and was an activist for women and children in the church.
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Mercy Oduyoye attended Mmofraturo, a Methodist girls' boarding school in Kumasi, Ghana, where biblical courses were required.
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In 1959, Mercy Oduyoye matriculated at the University of Ghana to study theology.
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Mercy Oduyoye earned her Bachelor of Theology from the University of Ghana in 1963, and continued to the University of Cambridge for her second bachelor's degree and her Master of Arts degree, both in theology.
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Mercy Oduyoye has been awarded honorary degrees by the University of Amsterdam, the University of the Western Cape, Yale University, and Stellenbosch University.
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Mercy Oduyoye is currently Director of the Institute of Women in Religion and Culture at Trinity Theological Seminary, Legon.
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Mercy Oduyoye began teaching at the high school level, and then taught at the college level.
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Mercy Oduyoye worked as the youth education secretary and then as Deputy General Secretary for the World Council of Churches.
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Mercy Oduyoye was the first African to take this position.
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Mercy Oduyoye married Adedoyin Modupe Mercy Oduyoye in 1968, and they lived in Geneva until 1970.
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Mercy Oduyoye's husband was a Yale graduate and the General Secretary of the Student Christian Movement, of which she was a member.
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Mercy Oduyoye left the AACC when all employees were required to live in Nairobi.
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In 1989 Mercy Oduyoye, convened and launched the first meeting of the Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians at Trinity College in Accra, Ghana.
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Teresia Hinga, who attended this first conference of the Circle said that Mercy Oduyoye was frustrated at not seeing African women represented in global liberation theologies.
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In 1948, Mercy Oduyoye experienced the atmosphere of Ghana's independence as Ghana boycotted European goods.
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Contrary to this, Mercy Oduyoye says that woman's theology from the African perspective emphasizes issues of poverty and discrimination.
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Mercy Oduyoye disrupts this narrative by recognizing African culture and traditions that do not conform to Western ideals, and arguing against missionaries' attempts to erase African culture.
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Mercy Oduyoye encourages women to recognize and claim their instrumental roles in forming churches in their communities.
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Mercy Oduyoye implicitly offers a cultural criticism akin to postcolonial theology, which aims to use indigenous cultural thinking to challenge Western norms.