Book Review: A Contested Ground Through Women by Joshua Maponga III

Joshua Maponga III’s A Contested Ground Through Women is a daring meditation on womanhood told unapologetically from a man’s lens. Drawing from the Bible, Afrikan philosophy, and lived experience, Maponga situates women as the heartbeat of creation-the custodians of family, and the silent engineers of society.

The book begins with a striking claim: “The power of God has been planted in the loins of Eve.” For Maponga, woman is not merely a vessel, she is the altar of divine celebration. “Every day, in the wombs of women, the mystery of creation unfolds”. The womb is not just biological; it is spiritual, a daily theatre where God’s creative power is made flesh.

From this foundation, Maponga expands into the contested grounds where women exercise influence: the kitchen, the bedroom, and the home. He presents both the literal kitchen where nourishment is prepared and the symbolic kitchen, where women wield the power to shape, direct, and sustain life. These roles, often trivialised by patriarchal narratives, are reframed as positions of profound authority. What looks “ordinary” is in fact extraordinary; the space where women’s choices, hands, and presence leave lasting imprints on families and societies.

Importantly, Maponga is not asking women to imitate men. His call is clear: “Women, stand your ground. Learn to use your power.” True empowerment, he argues, is not in competing for male-defined roles but in embracing and revaluing the power inherent in women’s own. Whether nurturing in the kitchen, shaping intimacy in the bedroom, or directing the atmosphere of the home, women possess an influence that outlives them, etched into the lives they touch.

A Contested Ground Through Women is part celebration, part provocation. Maponga categorises women in their different expressions; mothers, wives, leaders, nurturers, Delilahs, highlighting both their struggles and their victories. His use of Afrikan wisdom and biblical imagery challenges readers to rethink the very ground upon which womanhood stands.

Some may wrestle with the book’s unapologetically patriarchal vantage point, but therein lies its power: it forces both men and women to reconsider what has been dismissed as “women’s work” and to see it instead as sacred labour and divine assignment.

Ultimately, Maponga’s work is a call to transformation. It reminds men to honour the power they too often overlook, and it calls women to recognise the sacred imprint of everything they do. In the womb, the kitchen, the bedroom, and beyond woman is revealed not as subordinate, but as the true architect of society’s future.

Closing Reflection: This book does not hand power to women; it unveils the power they have always carried. It is a reminder that the ordinary is sacred, that the simple is profound, and that woman has always been the ground where life and destiny are shaped.

-by Celuxolo Stewart, TDr.