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In Africa, marriage was only seen to be complete if there were offspring and for that matter, male offspring. In cases of childlessness or bearing of only girls, woman-to-woman marriages were explored as an alternative to siring of a male offspring. An elderly childless lady or one bearing only girl children would marry a young girl who for one reason or another would be able to get offspring to inherit the name and the property of the older woman. However, in the present situation the practice of woman-to-woman marriage is facing various challenges, health, legal, economic, social and religious implications. In this paper we will look at the past and present status of the practice and then give a summary of the practice in the African continent in general, in Kenya and within the Nandi community in Nandi in particular. We will show how this practice was done in the past as discussed by the ethnographies and we will show some of the changes that have come up in the modern context. We will also use two modern case studies to highlight the challenges that this practice is facing in the modern situation. We will specifically discuss the challenge that this poses to the church and how the church can respond to it. In the end we will provide some theological guidelines to the church even as they provide guidance for the adherents who are faced with challenges on this matter

The choices and opportunities of Bena Bena women of the Eastern Highlands Province of Papua New Guinea in both a pre-contact and contemporary context were shaped by systems of both age and gender stratification. this paper explores both the past and contemporary nature of this hierarchical system and considers how various cultural patterns created differences in the lives of younger and older women. This differentiation meant that older women had greater access to valued social roles and rewards, had increased authority within their households and played crucial roles in the education and ritual transformation of younger men and women. Culture change and economic development have altered the lives and activities of Bena Bena women in various ways. The differential access of women to these new opportunities is now the basis for a new system of age stratification in which older women occupy the top rung.

A team of seven anthropologists conducted a coordinated, cross- cultural investigation to examine how structural and cultural variables shape the strategies people employ to assure themselves a secure old age. Central to the investigation was the goal of determining how people in the societies involved (Hong Kong, the United States, Ireland, and Botswana) perceive old age and its place in the adult life course, e.g. whether they view old age as an improvement or a decrement compared with other stages of life and the characteristics on which they base their views. The seven sites were selected to ensure broad representation in terms of the key structural variables of scale, complexity, subsistence pattern, residential mobility, and population structure. Both across and within sites people differed in their willingness and ability to discuss the concept of the life course. We attribute this variation to five factors: (i) characteristics of the social field, (2) education, (3) cultural salience of age categorisation, (4) predictability of life events, and (5) variability in timing of normative social or work roles.