Joyce Mlenga was married with two children and worked to support her husband as he went to college. He then supported her as she pursued higher education, despite opposition from her parents and his. She now is dean of academics at the University of Livingstonia in Malawi, which has a longstanding relationship with Westminster Presbyterian Church in Chehalis and Centralia College.
Joyce Mlenga navigates the expectations and beliefs of many worlds.
As a member of a tribe from north Malawi, she has experienced the traditional beliefs of witch doctors, ancestral spirits and faith healing.
As a mother and woman, she has raised two children, spent five straight days in a funeral vigil and faced the immense obstacles that make attaining higher education so difficult for women, especially after they are married.
As a college professor and dean of academics for the University of Livingstonia, she is a rare example for girls and women of all ages, many of whom are intimidated by her achievements.
And as a Christian, she believes firmly that all of her challenges, joys and tasks are done for God, not for men.
“We are encouraged by the fact that our God is able and he is our provider,” she told a recent gathering of local Presbyterians. “We continue to serve him despite the challenges because we know that our labor is not in vain.”
Jenny Kirk, Chehalis, who has worked with Mlenga for years, calls her a remarkable woman who is an important role model for an entire generation of African women.
“She lives her Christian beliefs and passes along wonderful things to all her students,” Kirk said. “Joyce and her husband walk by faith every day.”
Of 15,000 people who live, work and study on the lakeside plateau that is home to the University of Livingstonia, there are only three Malawian woman who can embrace the many community, family and educational roles that Mlenga manages to fill, Kirk said.
Mlenga, 42, is the only woman faculty member of the University of Livingstonia. An instructor in the College of Education, she is also the university’s dean of academics.
Able to speak in four languages, including fluent and precise English, she is in the middle of a 3½-month visit to the United States to work on her doctor's degree in theology and religious studies.
Her dissertation topic is dual religiosity — specifically, the ways in which many members of her tribe, the Ngonde, embrace Christianity while retaining strong beliefs in traditions such as ancestral spirits and witch doctors.
Mlenga, a Christian, will make recommendations to pastors about how they can use some of these retained beliefs as touchstones to help tribal members better understand and fully embrace Christianity.
She speaks of the Apostle Paul in Athens, who used a shrine to an unknown God to explain Jesus to unbelieving Greeks.
“I’m aiming to propose something that can help for people who are clinging to both, to drop one and focus on one,” Mlenga said.
She grins, acknowledging how impossible the task seems. “This is very hard,” she said, but “I think I can propose something. Keep the old traditions that are useful.”
In a recent address to a regional Presbyterian meeting in Olympia, Mlenga quoted 1 Cor. 15:58: “Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.”
She said that verse has been helpful to her as she continued to work in a society that does not fully appreciate the contributions of professional, educated women.
At times she works until 1 a.m. in her role as dean, only to find her contributions dismissed in the morning.
That verse, she said, is her consolation.
“God is the one who sees us, and he will reward us at his appointed time.”
