The anger over the decision not to allow women bishops in the Church of England continues to intensify with scathing criticisms from those within and out of the church including the Archbishop of Canterbury.
But as the controversial decision was picked apart, a small story about the first female African Anglican bishop went mostly unnoticed.
Ellinah Wamukoya, 61, was consecrated on Saturday four days before the CofE voted against allowing women to become bishops. She will be the church’s bishop in Swaziland, her native country.
Her ordination comes two weeks after Fauzia Yusuf Haji Adan was chosen to be Somalia’s first female foreign minister.
In April, the Guardian’s Afua Hirsch wrote a critical piece of the “west’s lazy reporting on Africa” decrying the mass reporting of Africa in the mainstream media when war intensified: “Even worse is the situation when an impromptu Africa season is triggered by newsworthy events in Africa. A dramatic climax in a long-running war, preferably with the close involvement of a western power, usually leads to an African country being “discovered” by the international media.”
Looking at statistics from the Inter-Parliamentary Union and UN Women from January this year makes for more depressing reading for women in the UK.
According to the IPU, the UK is 48th in the world in terms of the number of female ministers, behind 25 African countries and 53rd, behind 15, when it comes to the figures for the number of female parliamentary represenatives.
Of course the situation in Africa for women is not perfect like in many parts of the world including the UK, but the developments like this sometimes surpass our own – a fact we would do well to take note of.
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