Abstract
In Cradling Abundance, Monique Misenga Ngoie Mukuna and Elsie Tshimunyi McKee share the riveting story of the former, fondly referred to in the book as Maman Monique. Her story was collected through numerous interviews spanning about a decade. The book has fourteen chapters, which are grouped into four parts, revealing different stages of her life and ministry. McKee’s introductory words describing Cradling Abundance as “a personal conversation among friends, which English readers can now ‘overhear,’” provides an apt description of this coauthored volume (8).
Maman Monique was born on April 21, 1952, in Ngandajika, located in the Kasai Province of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), formerly known as Zaire. Through multiple roles as educator, businesswoman, church leader, social activist, philanthropist, and founder of Femme, Berceau de l’Abondance (Woman, Cradle of Abundance), Maman Monique’s sojourn transverses multiple arenas to engage religious, social, cultural, and political issues in the DRC. Her lived experiences, as well as those of the other phenomenal women we learn about through her, lie at the intersection of embodied theology, gender, and social activism within the sociocultural, religious, political, and socioeconomic landscape of the colonial and postcolonial DRC. They offer a glimpse into the private and public lives and the agency or lack thereof of women in the contemporary DRC, who are caught in the dominating and oppressive matrices of power in both local and global forms and structures.
Many salient themes come to light in this inspiring book. Perhaps, weaving together the threads of faith, courage, and resilience in the face of adversity is the power of women’s collaboration. In the words of the coauthors, “If it takes a village to raise a child, it also takes a community of women to be a woman” (73). Through her story, Maman Monique shows us an example of one such community of women engaged in the murky quest of seeking the manifestation of an abundant life for women and children in the DRC. As also evident in the book’s coauthorship, this community of women—and the men they welcome into their circle—reveal its transnational and transcontinental possibilities. Theirs is a community with the power to transcend boundaries, geographic or cultural, in search of the cradling abundance of all women.
Cradling Abundance makes for an excellent read in nonacademic Christian circles as it offers its readers a firsthand view of what commitment, compassion, and courage look like. However, the broad spectrum of issues it touches upon and their implications make it relevant to scholars and students interested in women and Christianity in Congo, or more broadly, women and religion in Africa. Although scholars interested in critical analyses of colonialism, slavery and its afterlives, Western Christian missions, and its relationship with the colonial enterprise, as well as neo-colonialism and the politics of contemporary Western aid to Africa, may find it substantially lacking in relevant nuances. Regardless, Cradling Abundance joins a host of other writings by African women, particularly those of the Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians, as a worthy addition to the growing collection of African Christian biographies.