When Feminism Goes Wrong: The Creation of Africana Womanism Clenora Hudson-Weems, founder of Africana womanist theory, defines Africana womanism as “an ideology created and designed for all women of African descent. It is grounded in African culture, and therefore, it necessarily focuses on the unique experiences, struggles, needs and desires of Africana women” (Hudson-Weems, 2007). Finding the existing philosophies dealing with women’s issues lacking, Hudson-Weems sought out a new perspective that would reflect the unique experience of Africana women. This paper explores the formation of Africana womanism and how it departs from traditional feminist theory. While Africana womanism claims to better meet the needs of Africana women than traditional feminism, there are a number of fundamental deficiencies in that theory as well. This paper will focus specifically on Black feminism in examining this failings. Hudson-Weems emphasizes the importance of a theory that examines the plight of Africana women that is created for and by Africana women. This is the only way to ensure that their particular needs would be addressed. This Afrocentric ideology is better equipped to empower the Africana woman and place her fight in her own hands. Even the approach’s name is rooted in African culture. It adheres to the concept of nommo, the proper naming of a thing which calls it into existence. “The terminology Africana womanism…more appropriately fits the Africana woman, who is both self-namer and self-definer. It is true that if you do not define yourself, someone else surely will” (Hudson-Weems, 2007). Naming has played a large role in empowering and uniting Africana people, particularly in the United States, as shown by the evolution of naming ... ... middle of paper ... ...g their academic theories accessible to common people through grassroots campaigns and political action. Practically, Africana womanism is still vastly underdeveloped and leaves much to be desires outside of academia. In summation, Africana Womanism seeks to address a number of issues that feminism seems ill-equipped to deal with. By creating a theory that is derived from African culture, Hudson-Weems hoped to create a movement that is more considerate to the specific concerns of the Africana woman. However, her stringent requirements of what constitutes a legitimately Africana woman excludes a large group from adopting the Africana womanism as their own. While each have very different histories and ideological standpoints, both Africana womanism and Black feminism offer authentic ways of approaching the question of race, class, and gender for Black women worldwide.
*Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham. "African American Women's History and the Metalanguage of Race" in Feminism and History, ed. Joan Wallach Scott (NY: Oxford University Press, 1996), 201.
As both Tracey Reynolds and Audre Lorde have emphasized, Black women are not perpetually passive victims, but active agents. It is totally possible for Black women to seize a form of empowerment, whether that be alternative education, or the creation of organizations that weren’t situated in either the Civil Rights movement or Women’s
The Author of this book (On our own terms: race, class, and gender in the lives of African American Women) Leith Mullings seeks to explore the modern and historical lives of African American women on the issues of race, class and gender. Mullings does this in a very analytical way using a collection of essays written and collected over a twenty five year period. The author’s systematic format best explains her point of view. The book explores issues such as family, work and health comparing and contrasting between white and black women as well as between men and women of both races.
Collins, Patricia Hill. "Mammies, Matriarchs, and Other Controlling Images." Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment. New York: Routledge, 2000. 89. Print.
It must be noted that for the purpose of avoiding redundancy, the author has chosen to use the terms African-American and black synonymously to reference the culture, which...
The aspect of African-American Studies is key to the lives of African-Americans and those involved with the welfare of the race. African-American Studies is the systematic and critical study of the multidimensional aspects of Black thought and practice in their current and historical unfolding (Karenga, 21). African-American Studies exposes students to the experiences of African-American people and others of African descent. It allows the promotion and sharing of the African-American culture. However, the concept of African-American Studies, like many other studies that focus on a specific group, gender, and/or creed, poses problems. Therefore, African-American Studies must overcome the obstacles in order to improve the state of being for African-Americans.
It is believed by the author that the feminist movement in many ways parallels the struggles faced by African Americans in the US during the same time period. The authors will offer ideas on where the pro...
One main factor related to the development of the Black feminist ideology are the formation of organizations. The definition of an organization is: an organized body of people with a particular purpose, especially a business, society, association, etc. As a society we know very little about the formality of organizations that helped shaped feminist consciousness. Women’s movements organizations are not always built on structure; as we discussed in class many women’s organizations do not have delegated
• AW calls herself “a womanist “, her term for a black feminist. She is one of the female Afro-American writers founding the concept “New Black Renaissance” .
The writings of women in West Africa are similar to the writings of men in reaction to the distorting images and representation projected by the imperial colonial masters. Authors like Chinua Achebe and others wrote to tell the African man’s story by an African in order to set ‘the record straight.’ In doing this, they bring to the fore their own bias and stereotypes about women in the society. Their writings were replete with the ‘African way’ of treating women – objects, properties, and expendable (Boyce Davies 1994). While women like Flora Nwapa and other earlier writers told the African woman story without an appearance of opposition to the male hegemony, “male literary critics have tended to marginalize women’s writing and to dismiss foundational
In the book Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center written by bell hooks, an African-American author, social activist and feminist first published in 1984 the author explains what she believes are the core principles of feminism. Throughout the book the author examines the early feminist theory and goes on to criticize it saying that it did not aim for a systematic change also that the movement has the potential to improve the lives of both men and women immensely. In the book the author investigates the performance of African-American women in the movement and what is needed to drive the movement towards ending oppression of all kinds.
Social constructions including race, political class, degree of wealth, moral codes, and of course gender are really hot topics today. We shall focus on women in this paper and their role in wars; African women in particular have a different way of life than European women. Obioma Nnaemeka, in her article “Bringing African Women into the Classroom: Rethinking Pedagogy
The New Feminist Movement of 1968 became also accessible [at least partly] to women in developing countries, where they suffered an exploitation of societies usually characterized by high levels of male power . In this regard, here I would like to recall the words on a protest banner written by some black women,
In her blog posting “ ‘Noting to Say’: ‘Black Skin, White Masks’ and Gender,” Emma Jeremie Mould discusses the double bind women of color find themselves in. First, they are overdetermined by the racist discourse of the Whites. Second, black women find themselves codified within the discourse of native men. In addition, she contends that some Western feminists analyze the plight of black women from the top down, through an approach that reinforces a racialized hierarchy among women.
Nnoromele, Salome C. "Representing the African Woman: Subjectivity and Self in The Joys of Motherhood." Critique 43.2 (2002): 178-190.