When Women Fail Women: a Hybridized Postcolonial Reading of Lydia’s Collaboration in Acts 16:11–18

Abstract This article presents a hybridized postcolonial analysis of Acts 16:6–18, focusing on Lydia’s offer to support and host Paul and his companions while juxtaposing this with her failure to provide any aid to the slave girl in Philippi, whose divining spirit is exorcised by Paul. This analysis is situated within the author’s positionality as a middle-class white woman. The study begins by situating the Philippian narrative within Musa Dube’s framework of type-scenes of land possession, highlighting its imperialistic undertones. Lydia is then positioned as a hybridized figure who collaborates with Paul’s missionary efforts, ultimately contributing to the abandonment of the slave girl, who is left outside of the Christian community without spiritual or socio-economic support. The article closes with proposing strategies for those seeking to resist the structures of whiteness and imperialism in contemporary contexts, offering an alternative framework to avoid the limitations exemplified by Lydia.