ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the way in which Christian mission has affected women among the Anaguta of central Nigeria, who have adopted Christianity only since the 1950s. At the heart of the Anaguta world lay the secret-sacred. Surounded by larger neighbours, they believed that safety lay in invisibility. The traditional Anaguta hero is one who can make himself invisible. A favourite proverb states that the Anaguta are a basket of water. The realm of the secret-sacred was entirely dominated by elderly men, who were believed to be sorcerers. In many parts of Africa, women are empowered by spirit possession cults which enable them to voice demands and grievances which are not otherwise readily expressed. The Sudan United Mission’s radical demands, which included permanent monogamy and the renunciation of local beer and dancing, made the adoption of Christianity difficult for the Anaguta. No area of missions-related change has affected Anaguta women’s lives more profoundly than that of marriage customs.
