Troubling the gender binary: church uniform and gender inequality in Zion churches in Pietermaritzburg (KZN).

Abstract

Church uniform is a significant and meaningful symbol in African Independent Churches (AICs) that speaks to common identities that are reinforced, retained, and sustained over time. The aim of this study is to problematise1 the use of church uniform in Zion churches as a method to reinforce the gender binary and prescribed gender roles which inform and maintain the patriarchy in the church. This research aims to respond to the main research question of how religious and cultural dress can be reimagined as gender-inclusive adornment in the Zion churches. Borderlands theory is employed in this study in order to read and understand the history of African churches and their epistemologies before colonisation and/or Apartheid took place in South Africa. This study does this with the intention to resist, protest, and deconstruct the dominant cultural epistemologies that have been imposed on AICs through the adoption and use of church uniform. Moreover, to conscientise churches in contemporary (south) African societies to resurrect and re-read epistemologies that speak to African ways of living, and to preserve African ways of worship. Findings of this study show that the existing church uniform in Zion churches speaks to the restrictive and prescriptive nature of a church uniform that directly inform gender roles. It also informs how these gender roles constitute the accepted heteronormative patterns of sexuality in those who adhere to the church uniform. Thus, not only establishing visual identity for religion, but also gender identity to exert control over bodies of individuals. Individual and group interviews were conducted with fourteen participants, and thematic analysis was used to analyse themes that emerged from the interviews. This thesis seeks to argue that the re-imagining of religious and cultural dress to be gender-inclusive in the Zion church is possible – through Borderlands theology and through proposing a shift to an asexual type of church uniform.