Abstract
Through semi-structured interviews with female social movement participants in Nicaragua, I ask, How do women in Nicaraguan social movements perceive the influence of theology on these movements’ pedagogies? I argue that through this work, the women cultivate what I deem personal theologies rooted in their understanding of their own reality. The study emerged at the intersection of Theologies of Liberation, Pedagogies of Liberation, Globalization, and Social Movement theories. In this chapter, I discuss the following main themes from the interviews: Moving Past Doctrine; Liberation as It Connects to Gender, Struggles Against Violence, Globalization and Spirituality, and Rebellion and Spirituality. Ultimately, I argue that the women perceive, as in the central research question, the influence of theology on their movements’ pedagogies as an influence that leads to the women’s liberation. This concept of liberation motivates women to participate in the struggle against neoliberal globalization through nonformal and formal education that contributes, ultimately, to holistic community “development.”
This study was funded by the World Council of Churches.
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Notes
- 1.
A brief political history is necessary to provide context to the analysis that follows: The uprising against the Somoza regime in 1978 inspired the nation to eventually overthrow a long-running dictatorship. The Sandinistas, led by Daniel Ortega, fought United States-backed counterrevolutionary group the Contras. Elections were held which resulted in Ortega being elected president in 1984. National campaigns under Ortega and the Sandinistas ensued, including a national literacy campaign for which Paulo Freire paid a visit to the country in 1979. The Sandinistas were not able to solve all of the issues surrounding the poverty of the Nicaraguans, and Dona Violeta Chamorro, widow of Joaquin Chamorro, who was tortured during the war, was elected in 1990, ousting Ortega. More recently, after 17 years out of office, Ortega returned to power in 2007.
- 2.
I operationalize theology as “dynamic and critical languages with which we express our religious vision of a new paradigm of civilization that is free of systemic injustice and violence” (Aquino et al. 2002, p.xiv).
- 3.
For more on the concept of the “organic intellectual,” see Gramsci et al. (1971).
- 4.
I was inspired by the definition of 2 types of theology, Biblical theology and theology rooted in the local community, described in Hinsdale et al. (1995). This led me to include popular culture, politics, and language.
- 5.
The names of the groups and the participants have been withheld to protect their identities, as agreed upon in the UCLA human subjects permission form the women signed before the start of the interviews. This was a general practice in the overall study as particularly the women of El Salvador and Bolivia were continuing to be persecuted for their work in their respective movements.
- 6.
The Atlantic Coast of Nicaragua, part of the Mosquitia region of Central America, was never colonized by Spain. It became a British protectorate so that it would be protected against the Spanish. A major difference between the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of Nicaragua was that the Atlantic coast never saw civil war like their compatriots on other side of Nicaragua. Fighting occurred in the RAAN and the RAAS (North and South Autonomous Regions), but did not occur within urban coastal city where my interviews were conducted. The current reality of the Atlantic coast of Nicaragua was connected to its marginalization by government, ever since this coast went under Nicaraguan government control in 1894. When women spoke about the fact that a local university provided translation from Spanish to English, but refused to provide English to Spanish translation for Afro students, this presented a case of the long history of discrimination against the English Creole language spoken on this coast, which was tied to its British legacy. Economic problems were connected to this history. Girls and young women from Nicaragua’s Pacific coast served on top Caribbean cruise lines, such as Carnival and Royal. This phenomenon, discussed within presentation of results, was referred to by participants simply as “Shipboat.”
- 7.
Quotes from the interviews conducted in English Creole with Aegle and Eunomia were preserved in this text in their original form.
- 8.
Nicaraguans who identify themselves as Evangelical often refer to themselves simply as Christian.
- 9.
Name for the political divisions of rural community.
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Jones, L.I. (2013). Women’s Theologies, Women’s Pedagogies: Globalization, Education, and Liberation in Nicaragua. In: Gross, Z., Davies, L., Diab, AK. (eds) Gender, Religion and Education in a Chaotic Postmodern World. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-5270-2_3
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