Navigating Disability, HIV, Relationships and Abuse for Christian Women in Nigeria
A Focused Study on Port Harcourt
Jessie Ini Fubara-Manuel author
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Taylor & Francis Ltd
Published:23rd Jul '26
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back
Navigating Disability, HIV, Relationships and Abuse for Christian Women in Nigeria contains poignant stories of formidable women who, because of their gender and disabilities, were sexually assaulted and infected with HIV by people known to and loved by them. Focusing on the Christian women of Port Harcourt, Nigeria, the book brings together the often under-represented voices of women with disabilities and HIV in an under-researched area of Nigeria.
Fubara-Manuel builds on long-term ethnographic research to bring together the isolated cases of disability, HIV, gender-based violence and Christianity in sub-Saharan Africa. In so doing, she critically examines the perpetuation of rape culture and the role of faith communities and support groups in shaping women’s responses. The author’s work moves beyond victimhood frameworks to document the agency of women living with both disability and HIV, and their resilience and faith-based solidarities as resources for survival, resistance, and liberation from abuse.
The book advocates a conversation between men and women for the dismantling of patriarchal structures that promote and legitimise the rape culture perpetrated against women by men. By integrating lived theology, gender analysis, and disability studies, this book advances existing literature through relational and narrative-driven accounts that re-centre marginalised voices and rethink the role of Christian faith in contexts of sexual violence.
This book is a deeply moving and essential look at the lives of women who are navigating the immense challenges of living with disabilities and HIV. What makes this book so special is the way it honours their voices, turning what could be another academic study into powerful, real-life stories. By focusing on lived theology, the author shows us that faith is beyond doctrine—it’s about the incredible resilience and sisterhood these women find in each other. Fatih is the heart of human survival and hope.
- Affiong Etim, Member, Board of Trustees, Bold Hearts Initiative for Beautiful Outstanding Ladies with Disabilities (Bold Hearts), Nigeria
Ini’s long term pastoral accompaniment of women with disabilities in Nigeria as a Presbyterian Church Elder, Minister’s spouse, Minister and theologian, as illustrated in this book provokes us to listen meticulously to women with disabilities (including albinism) who are rendered vulnerable to sexual and gender-based violence with adverse consequences of being sexually infected with HIV. With passion and compassion, her well-researched resources and indepth interviews amplify these women’s everyday life survival tactics and silent resistance against patriarchal structures and rape culture, which beseech critical attention in church pastoral ministry.
- Rev Dr Nyambura J. Njoroge, Theologian and Ecumenical Leader, and Founding Member of the Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians
Jessie Fubara-Manuel has written an insightful and hopeful account of women living with disabilities and HIV in Nigeria. Fubara-Manuel does not flinch from the pain and trauma of women’s lives, nor does she underplay their resilience and their faith. Drawing on feminist theological traditions, she balances her investigation of patriarchal forms of Christianity that promote women’s abuse with women’s own stories of Christian belief and communities that undergird their lives and relationships. The result is a clear-sighted and compassionate voicing of marginalised but bold women.
- Emma Wild-Wood, Professor, African Religions and World Christianity, New College, University of Edinburgh
ISBN: 9781041133070
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: 400g
112 pages