Abstract
Gender, behaviour, and the racialised experiences of clergywomen have long been debated within Christian ministry, women have rarely been permitted to assume sustained leadership roles in the church. While leadership studies on clergywomen have expanded in North America and other Western contexts, there remains a significant gap in scholarship that foregrounds the experiences of African women church founders, particularly from an African womanist and decolonial perspective. Although some literature suggests that Pentecostalism empowers women, spiritual antagonistic, discriminatory practices persist, and contradictory theological messages often undermine this empowerment. Using a qualitative, autoethnographic approach centred on the experiences of a South African Black woman church founder in Black townships, this study found that women’s leadership is simultaneously applauded and resisted, producing a dichotomous pattern of affirmation and dehumanisation. This paper argues that Pentecostalism in Black townships requires an African decolonial reorientation to confront these persistent forms of spiritual and social oppression. It concludes by proposing Ubuntulisation as an agentive and transformative framework for affirming women’s leadership. Ubuntu philosophy, which upholds human dignity, mutual respect, and relational personhood, aligns closely with biblical values and offers a critical resource for resisting the dehumanisation of women leaders and fostering genuinely inclusive Christian leadership.