Exploring African female Pentecostal leadership in the South African Pentecostal context

Prophetess Christinah Nku is celebrated as the first African female Pentecostal to establish an African Independent Church (AIC), St John Apostolic Faith Mission after breaking away from the Apostolic Faith Mission of South Africa in 1938. Her church later reached Southern Africa through many splinter groups belonging to Apostolic churches. Three other female African Pentecostal, Pastor Mpfariseni Mukhuba, Pastor Irene Tshifhiva, and Bishop Mapula Mphahlele, also established independent African Pentecostal churches in the late twentieth century. Just like Prophetess Nku, all three women face entrenched patriarchy and stereotypes with their communities. The objectives of this article are (a) to explore how the three emulates Prophetess Christinah Nku in the prophetic gift, healing and deliverance, experiencing patriarchy, and elevating the status of African female Pentecostal leaders; (b) determine the biblical and theological leadership function of these four women. The three-step Magadi practical theology research method of is used to focus on the above objectives. The article concludes that although the four leaders lived in two different epochs, there latter three emulates the former leader in the prophetic gift, healing and deliverance, are victims of patriarchy and in elevating the status of African female Pentecostal leaders. Lastly, the article shows that, from a Pentecostal re-reading of some New Testament texts, their leadership role and function is biblically and theologically congruent.