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Abstract

The COVID-19 restrictions that require the lockdown of public and economic activities heighten the levels of sexual and gender-based violence against women and girls with disabilities. As the COVID-19 pandemic spreads across the globe, particularly in Africa, women and girls with disabilities become vulnerable to sexual and gender-based violence, highlighting that the home is no longer a safe space for the vulnerable. The restrictions have eroded the community structures that are promoted by Ubuntu to protect vulnerable community members from violence and different forms of abuse. This article grapples with the question of African women’s theology of disability and Ubuntu in the context of COVID-19. It seeks to address the vulnerability of women and girls with disabilities to sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) in private homes. The question, therefore, that this article seeks to answer is how African women’s theology of disability informed by Ubuntu can curb the violence and abuses perpetrated on women and girls with disabilities in the context of COVID-19.

Author Biography

Dr Sinenhlanhla S. Chisale (DTh, UNISA; MA-Sociology (Cumulaude) UNISA, MTh Theology and Development UKZN) is a research associate at the University of Pretoria. She is currently working on a research project titled: ‘Gender Studies and Practical Theology Theory Formation’, with Prof. Dr Yolanda Dreyer, Department of Practical Theology and Mission Studies. Her research focuses on Ubuntu, children, migration, pastoral care, gender, gender-based violence, sexuality, disability, and religion. She has published over 30 articles in accredited IBSS prestigious local and international academic journals and book chapters. She is an Assistant Editor in HTS Theological Journal, and her current book Mother Earth, Mother Africa and Theology (2021) was published by AOSIS book publishers. Email: sinengwenya@gmail.com. Her ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7227-2206

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