The Principle of Imani
The last candle lit in Kwanzaa celebrations represents Imani, the Swahili word for “faith.” As this final guiding ideal, Imani seems fitting to meditate on during the Christmas season. The biblical narratives around Jesus’ birth and infancy highlight remarkable acts of faith amongst female figures – Mary, Elizabeth, Anna and others who believed, hoped, and acted on convictions beyond social customs and personal trials. Their stories resonate through a womanist lens attentive to issues intersecting race, class and gender.
When Mary and Elizabeth Speak
When the angel Gabriel delivered the incredulous news she would conceive the Christ child, Mary demonstrated courageous Imani (faith) in replying, “I am the Lord’s servant. May everything you have said about me come true” (Luke 1:38 NIV). Her act of radical acceptance allowed Incarnation to occur, evidencing faith, not as passive belief, but embodied trust and obedience.
This peasant girl engaged social realities around ethnicity, legitimacy and reputation as she consented to a pregnancy that defied convention. After the visitation from the angel, Mary visited her cousin, Elizabeth.
Elizabeth too exhibited startling faith when greeting Mary, “Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord’s words to her would be fulfilled!” (Luke 1:45). This utterance echoes a long line of Israelite women like Sarah, Hannah and the mother of Samson who were also improbably granted children. By blessing Mary’s obedience to Gabriel’s announcement, Elizabeth identifies herself with prophetic matriarchs who saw and proclaimed God’s paradoxical activity with those on the margins.
Anna’s Prophetic Pronouncement
At Jesus’ presentation in the temple as a baby, Anna the daughter of Penuel, publicly “gave thanks to God and spoke about the child to all who were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem” (Luke 2:38 NIV). Drawing on womanist approaches by recognizing intersections of domination, Anna’s identity as an elder and widow makes her testimony even more remarkable. While she was of humble means and station, she nonetheless displayed prophetic authority and freedom to proclaim the Messiah. When Anna spoke, the community had hope of a new Savior bringing revolutionary restoration.
Anna bookends the chorus of female witnesses to Jesus’ coming – first proclaimed by his mother’s cousin, Elizabeth, before birth. Elizabeth identifies Mary’s son as her Lord. At the sound of Mary’s voice, the babe in Elizabeth’s womb leaps with joyful recognition.
Anna now blesses the infant Jesus at the temple. This arc challenges androcentric assumptions about men occupying leading gospel roles while women serve peripheral supporting functions.
19th Century Women Changing Norms
By faith, Mary, Elizabeth and Anna demonstrate a radical trust which also echoes through the witness and resistance of enslaved women in 19th century America. By faith, the escaped slave and conductor of the Underground Railroad, Harriet Tubman, exhibited profound trust in God’s guidance to lead hundreds to liberation. When Tubman spoke, enslaved people had faith they would soon be untethered from bondage. Though chains shackled their bodies, their belief was strong enough to walk off plantations, heading North with promises claimed within their hearts.
By faith, the prolific author Harriet Jacobs penned her Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl memoir under the pseudonym Linda Brent. Though constantly aware of the encroachment upon her life by the slaveholders, who continued to pursue her, she held fast to her belief. For Brent, she was entitled to her freedom. By faith, she held her self emancipation in higher regard than the freedom papers purchased by her friend. When Brent spoke, 19th Century Victorian women began to consider women in bondage whose virtue was compromised through no fault of their own.
Revolutionary Redemption Defined
Each of these women provide revolutionary redemption. The concept of “revolutionary redemption” points to liberation from oppression leading to restoration. Revolution connotes an overthrow and transformation of unjust systems, often sudden and arising from the grassroots.
Redemption implies atonement, buying back, and setting free. Together “revolutionary redemption” captures the idea of radical social change reversing damage done, setting right longstanding evils.
When these women speak, they speak into existence, the destruction of social structures which threaten their very lives. But the power of their proclamation is transgenerational. The reality of their witness flows through our veins.
Hope for New Possibilities
As we light the candle of Imani this Kwanzaa and Christmas season, the examples of Mary, Elizabeth and Anna model faith as a liberative praxis over passive belief. For, without faith, it is impossible to please our God.
Their extraordinary acts, despite all convention, demonstrate “outrageous, audacious, courageous behavior” that reconciles improbabilities and offers hope for new possibilities. May these women help spark ‘dangerous memories’ of freedom through faith.
Dr. CL Nash for The Misogynoir to Mishpat (M2M) Research Network (c) 2024
Misogynoir to Mishpat Research Network 