Rebecca Florence Osaigbovo
IVP Books, 151 pp., $15
You’ve read the marquees: Mars Needs Moms. Rebecca Florence Osaigbovo is thinking closer to home. “The ‘hood needs moms,” she writes. Moms need moms. While Osaigbovo appeals occasionally to her African-American heritage and the traditional image of a grandmother living with or near her children’s families, taking an active part in teaching the mothers and raising the children, the author bases her generally applicable mentor-mothering model primarily on Titus 2:3-5. Osaigbovo takes very seriously and literally the charge to teach younger women how to be better wives and mothers. Her mentoring tips combine Scripture, experience and basic common sense with a few concrete steps for getting started in forming intentional relationships. The main contribution of Spiritual Sisterhood takes the form of testimonials to the power of having a younger or older woman in one’s life from whom to teach and learn. There’s little, however, that speaks specifically to why or how women mentoring each other is of particular value to the African-American community. If that’s the read you’re after, you might start with Osaigbovo’s Chosen Vessels: Women of Color, Keys to Change.
