ABSTRACT
Persons with disabilities face physical, social, economic and environmental barriers to participation. In Africa, they often lack access to the physical environment and are discriminated from entering the labour market. This limits their work opportunities, while increased expenditure related to disability may have an adverse impact on financial resources and push persons with disabilities into poverty. The World Health Organization notes that disability may increase the risk of poverty, and poverty may increase the risk of disability. In Africa, disabilities can be both a consequence of the cumulative deprivations of poverty and simultaneously a contributor to poverty since the poor use more of their income to obtain services, and disability can prevent individuals and their families from generating income. This chapter adopts critical disability studies, to reflect on religion, disability and poverty in Africa. It enumerates ways in which the teachings of some religious Institutions continue to disable physically impaired people, exposing them to psychological and social factors that contribute to inequalities, lack of physical activity, associated employment opportunities, poverty and inequitable access to services. This chapter will interrogate how teachings of these religious institutions emphasise wholeness to the detriment of an impaired body, thus disabling and creating further barriers.
