Judy Croome: Author on the Prowl

Dr Maureen Uche’s glimpse into the spiritual practices of the Omu women is both fascinating and challenging. Listing ancient spiritual values of African holy practices, which still have relevance for the modern Western women, this is also a surprisingly feminist text, emphasising the power of women at the same time it proposes that today’s women could integrate the spirituality of the Omu mystics into their daily lives as a way of finding a life that is more spiritual than materialistic. The discussion on physical nakedness as a symbol of spiritual innocence and purity was interesting: in the pre-lapserian Garden of Eden both Adam and Eve walked naked and innocent; it was only after the Fall that they felt ashamed of their nakedness. The bared breasts of the Omu mystics correlate to the shaved heads of the Christian monks: it allows them to move closer to their Divinity.

I did not always agree with the author’s theories, but this only added to the book’s value as a thought-provoking read. For example, when Uche states that women are not the lesser sex, but the *better* sex, and that women should design a world by women and for women, this denies the male population their own value in much the same way that patriarchal societies denied women any value. Absolutely repudiating a male-centred world view and replacing it with a purely female-centred world view is too close to a different form of an old oppression. I prefer to respect the gifts and experiences of the opposite gender as being of equal, but different, value.

This short text is an important and thoughtful contribution to how modern women can embrace a deep inner spirituality that will benefit humankind’s spiritual evolution.

I read the Kindle edition.