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A phenomenological meaning of testifying about suffering within an African Pentecostal church context : exploring narratives of black South African women's lived experience
Thesis (MPhil)--Stellenbosch University, 2022.
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English |
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Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University
2022
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| _version_ | 1867614091395203072 |
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| access_status_str | Open Access |
| author | Nyoka, Ayanda |
| author2 | Thesnaar, C. H. |
| author_browse | Nyoka, Ayanda Thesnaar, C. H. |
| author_facet | Thesnaar, C. H. Nyoka, Ayanda |
| author_sort | Nyoka, Ayanda |
| collection | Thesis |
| dc_rights_str_mv | Stellenbosch University |
| description | Thesis (MPhil)--Stellenbosch University, 2022. |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oai:scholar.sun.ac.za:10019.1/124656 |
| institution | Stellenbosch University (South Africa) |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2026-06-10T12:46:31.699Z |
| license_str | Other — see source repository |
| provenance_str_mv | Harvested via OAI-PMH from SUNScholar — Stellenbosch University Repository |
| publishDate | 2022 |
| publishDateRange | 2022 |
| publishDateSort | 2022 |
| publisher | Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University |
| publisherStr | Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University |
| record_format | dspace |
| source_str | SUNScholar — Stellenbosch University Repository |
| spelling | oai:scholar.sun.ac.za:10019.1/124656 A phenomenological meaning of testifying about suffering within an African Pentecostal church context : exploring narratives of black South African women's lived experience Nyoka, Ayanda Thesnaar, C. H. Wale, Kim Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Theology. Dept. of Practical Theology and Missiology. Women, Black -- South Africa -- Social conditions Suffering -- Religious aspects -- Christianity Pentecostal churches -- South Africa -- Cape Town UCTD Thesis (MPhil)--Stellenbosch University, 2022. ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Discourse on collective trauma and healing in post-conflict contexts have largely focused on the role of victims’ testimonies within Truth Commissions. It has not extended far enough into the role of testimony within religious spaces where ordinary people, especially in African societies commonly engage in the practice of testifying about their ongoing suffering. This study aims through a hermeneutical phenomenological approach to explore what it means to testify about suffering within the religious context of African Pentecostal churches. It explores the narratives of black South African women who have a lived experience of this phenomenon. It departs from a broad definition of suffering and thus explores diverse lived experiences of suffering through which the meaning of the phenomenon is explored. Narrative data were collected using semi-structured interviews and analysed with thematic analysis. Interdisciplinary theoretical perspectives are used to make sense of participants’ meanings of the phenomenon. These include psychoanalytic theory of trauma and witnessing, postcolonial-feminist trauma perspectives, and theological perspectives on Pentecostal testimony and theologies of healing. The study is framed around the overarching research question: How do black South African women within an African Pentecostal church context experience testifying about their suffering? Three sub-research questions guided the exploration of this overarching question: 1) How do participants make sense of their suffering? 2) Why do they testify about their suffering? 3) How do they experience testifying about their suffering and what shifts (if any) are experienced in the process of testifying? The findings indicated that the nature of suffering that participants testify about encompass sufferings that are typically associated with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and with insidious, continuous trauma arising from multiple intersecting systems of oppression. Participants’ Pentecostal Christian beliefs about spiritual oppression were also shown to shape meanings about the nature of their suffering. Participants’ motivations for testifying varied but common among them was the need for God’s intervention enacted through the prayers of the faith community. Participants’ meanings showed that personal transformations are experienced in testifying about suffering. The findings indicated that these shifts were attributed to psychoanalytic dynamics and theologies of healing notably prayer and discernment and their interaction especially in narratives of gender-based violence. These findings call for radical theologies of healing that move beyond a psycho-spiritual orientation in Pentecostal testimony in order to respond to the continuous nature of suffering embedded in multiple, intersecting structures of oppression. AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die diskoers oor kollektiewe trauma en genesing in ná-konflik kontekste fokus hoofsaaklik op die rol van slagoffers se getuienis voor waarheidskommissies. Dit het nog nie ver genoeg uitgebrei na die rol van getuienis binne godsdienstige ruimtes waar gewone mense, veral in Afrika-samelewings, gewoonlik oor hulle voortgesette lyding getuig nie. Hierdie studie poog om deur ʼn hermeneutiese fenomenologiese benadering te verken wat dit beteken om oor lyding te getuig, binne die godsdienstige konteks van Afrika-pinksterkerke. Dit verken die narratiewe van swart Suid-Afrikaanse vroue wat hierdie fenomeen self beleef het. Dit wyk af van ʼn breë definisie van lyding en verken dus diverse geleefde ondervindings van lyding waardeur die betekenis van die fenomeen verken word. Narratiewe data is ingesamel met behulp van semi-gestruktureerde onderhoude en ontleed met behulp van tematiese ontleding. Interdissiplinêre teoretiese perspektiewe is gebruik om sin te maak van die betekenisse wat die fenomeen vir deelnemers inhou. Dit sluit die psigoanalitiese teorie van trauma en getuienis, postkoloniale feministiese traumaperspektiewe en teologiese perspektiewe op pinkstergetuienis en teologieë van genesing in. Die studie is geformuleer rondom die oorkoepelende navorsingsvraag: Hoe ervaar swart Suid-Afrikaanse vroue in die konteks van ʼn Afrika-pinksterkerk getuienis oor hulle lyding? Drie ondergeskikte navorsingsvrae het die verkenning van hierdie oorkoepelende vraag gerig: 1) Hoe maak deelnemers sin van hulle lyding? 2) Waarom getuig hulle oor hulle lyding? 3) Hoe ervaar hulle die getuienis oor hulle lyding en watter veranderinge (indien enige) word in die getuienisproses ervaar? Die bevindings dui aan dat die aard van die lyding waaroor deelnemers getuig, lyding omsluit wat gewoonlik met posttraumatiese stresversteuring en met bedrieglike, deurlopende trauma wat spruit uit veelvoudige kruisende verdrukkingstelsels, verbind word. Deelnemers se pinkster- Christelike oortuigings oor geestelike verdrukking vorm ook die betekenisse wat geheg word aan die aard van hulle lyding. Deelnemers se beweegredes vir getuienis wissel, maar een algemene rede was die behoefte aan God se ingryping wat deur die gebede van die geloofsgemeenskap verorden word. Deelnemers se betekenisse toon dat persoonlike transformasie tydens getuienis oor lyding ervaar word. Die bevindings dui aan dat hierdie veranderinge toegeskryf word aan psigoanalitiese dinamika en teologieë van genesing, vernaamlik gebed en onderskeidingsvermoë, en die interaksie daarvan, veral in narratiewe van geslagsgebaseerde geweld. Hierdie bevindings vra om radikale teologieë van genesing wat verder as ʼn psigogeestelike oriëntasie in pinkstergetuienis beweeg, om te reageer op die deurlopende aard van lyding wat vasgelê is in veelvoudige kruisstrukture van verdrukking. Masters 2022-03-08T12:21:57Z 2022-04-29T09:24:48Z 2022-03-08T12:21:57Z 2022-04-29T09:24:48Z 2022-04-04 Thesis http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/124656 en Stellenbosch University vi, 113 pages application/pdf Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University |
| spellingShingle | Women, Black -- South Africa -- Social conditions Suffering -- Religious aspects -- Christianity Pentecostal churches -- South Africa -- Cape Town UCTD Nyoka, Ayanda A phenomenological meaning of testifying about suffering within an African Pentecostal church context : exploring narratives of black South African women's lived experience |
| title | A phenomenological meaning of testifying about suffering within an African Pentecostal church context : exploring narratives of black South African women's lived experience |
| title_full | A phenomenological meaning of testifying about suffering within an African Pentecostal church context : exploring narratives of black South African women's lived experience |
| title_fullStr | A phenomenological meaning of testifying about suffering within an African Pentecostal church context : exploring narratives of black South African women's lived experience |
| title_full_unstemmed | A phenomenological meaning of testifying about suffering within an African Pentecostal church context : exploring narratives of black South African women's lived experience |
| title_short | A phenomenological meaning of testifying about suffering within an African Pentecostal church context : exploring narratives of black South African women's lived experience |
| title_sort | phenomenological meaning of testifying about suffering within an african pentecostal church context exploring narratives of black south african women s lived experience |
| topic | Women, Black -- South Africa -- Social conditions Suffering -- Religious aspects -- Christianity Pentecostal churches -- South Africa -- Cape Town UCTD |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/124656 |
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