Talking Feminist, Talking back: Sarojini Nadar’s African Feminist Transdisciplinary Study of Religion

In this chapter I trace the ways in which Sarojini Nadar has negotiated, shaped and challenged the study of faith and feminism – what she refers to as “the f- words” – in contemporary South Africa. I draw on Nadar’s academic writings, notable oral presentations, interviews, as well as my own personal interactions with her as my doctoral supervisor, mentor, manager, and sister-friend. I frame Nadar’s contribution to the study of gender and religion in relation to her analysis of violence in Biblical text, in church and public life, and in higher education. Through her scholarship and embodied work, I argue that Nadar has created a toolkit for talking back to patriarchal and heteronormative power in these various spheres. Not only does Nadar provide young black African scholars of religion with crucial underpinnings from which to continue to talk back, but she also demonstrates how this can be done in socially just and transformative ways.