Church Uniforms and the Mothers’ Union of South Africa: A Neo-indigenous and Post-colonial Expression of African Anglican Women’s Christianity

In this paper I will reiterate earlier work where I showed that African women members of the Mothers’ Union (MU) in South Africa forged a neo-indigenous expression of Christianity during the first half of the 20th century. The paper will show that these women had to resist the restrictions placed on them by women missionaries and church leadership from England with respect to their church uniforms that had been adapted from manyano groups (women's prayer groups) of other church denominations. In the modern post-colonial post-apartheid church context, the church uniform carries with it certain ambiguities and these will be explored through interviews with African women clergy, professional middle-class lay women, and the leadership of the MU. This case study will show that African Anglican women in South Africa have forged a particular expression of Anglican identity that, despite being shaped by post-colonial modernity and globalization, is unique.