By Makalay Saidiatu Sonda
(An academic blog. It was written in February during Black History Month)
Black women in Africa and the Diaspora share the same black body and thus the same ‘otherness’ regardless of geographical location. In the diaspora, the twin oppression of gender and race intersect. In the African continent, imperialism, sexism, and patriarchy stood foremost as the greatest obstacles in realising the recognition of the full humanity of women. The feminist movement or feminism as an ideology, regardless of the typology, advocates for equal rights and opportunities for women. It advocates for the equality of the sexes, and the full humanity of women against the strong tides of patriarchy and oppression. As I write on this topic, in this Black History Month, I shall intentionally bring to life the voices of black women academics that have been remarkable in conceptualising, theorising and in lending their voices to the empowerment of black women everywhere. The quotes are intentionally in bold and italics to re-echo their voices.
bell hooks and many black feminist scholars and theorists have raised eyebrows and questioned mainstream feminism regarding race and its disregard for the black woman’s identity. In Aint I a woman: Black Women and Feminism, bell hooks (2014) aptly put this when she stated:
“ When black people are talked about, sexism militates against the acknowledgement of the interests of black women; when women are talked about racism militates against a recognition of black female interests. When black people are talked about the focus tends to be on black men ; and when women are talked about the focus tends to be on white women. No where is this more evident than in vast body of feminist literature.” (p.7)
In the U.S.A context, black women are seen only from the perspective of race. The movement only focuses on racial oppression, ignoring sexism and patriarchy that continue to oppress black women within and outside the black community. In the intersections of the inequalities and oppressions black women face, the black woman experience is increasingly distorted and almost erased.
“The stereotypical image of the “strong” black woman was no longer seen as dehumanizing, it became the new badge of black female glory.” (hooks,2014. p 6)
Black women are celebrated for their endurance of the things that oppress them- sexual objectification, tremendous burdens of mothering, silence, etc. Black women have been surviving oppression. However, survival does not mean transformation. In reaching out for that transformation, black women are conceptualising, theorising and on movement to transform black women’s lives in the diaspora and on the African continent. The black woman’s survival and transformation depend on her speaking up.
“For our survival, and their children’s survival, our foremothers knew the time would come when silence was no longer an option, when silence would not be enough. Speaking is such a contradictory act, a necessary yet dangerous resistance practice against white supremacy.” (Guillory, 2021. p 304)
I see this speaking up, in the various feminisms that black women have conceptualised. Feminisms that do not ‘other’ them, and feminisms that encompass their experiences, thoughts, history and the reality of their present and shared destiny as black women and black people.
Black feminism, African feminism, Africana feminism, womanism- all these various feminisms proffer ways to do away with imperialism, and white supremacy, and capture and contextualise the history of colonialism, post-colonialism, and pre-colonialism. In ‘African’ feminism, men are seen as allies and are called upon to open their eyes to the struggles African women face and the struggle of imperialism that affect African people. As Ama Ata Aidoo, the Ghanian author and academic, once said:
“…every woman and every man should be feminist, especially if they believe that Africans should take charge of African land, African wealth, African lives and the burden of African development.” (Aidoo 1998 as cited in Mekgwe 2007. p171)
Having been othered, a response to mainstream/western feminism is the different theorizing and conceptualising of feminism for Africans. Also, I see this as a way to fill the gap in the generalised contextualisation of feminism. Mainstream contemporary feminism in feminist literature generalises and presents feminism as a monolithic ideology that does not create space for other cultures. This thought is better expounded in Pinkie Mekgwe’s article ‘Theorizing African Feminism(s): The colonial Question (2007), as she reviewed and cited the seminal work of Mohanty’s ‘ Third World Women and the Politics of Feminism. Shestated:
“Mohanty questions the application of Western feminist theories to the writings of the ‘Third World’ woman. She argues that such theories, which are written in the West and therefore bear the authority of the West, perpetuate the Self/Other divide whereby discourses of developing nations are considered ‘politically immature’ and ‘underdeveloped’. Mohanty observes that Western feminist theory presents itself as a universal phenomenon in ways that disguise its profoundly Western concerns and biases.” (Mekgwe 2007. p167)
Theorising and conceptualising what feminism is to Africans is a mighty way of speaking up. What is greater than speaking up for yourself and telling your own story?
References
Guillory, N.A. (2021) ‘Remembering we were never meant to survive…1 Honouring Audre Lorde and the promise of Black women’s survival’, Curriculum inquiry, 51(3), 293-306, available:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03626784.2021.1941798.
hooks, b. (2014) Ain’t I a Woman : Black Women and Feminism, 2nd edition. ed., Boca Raton, FL: Boca
Raton, FL: Taylor and Francis, an imprint of Routledge.
Mekgwe, P. (2007) Theorizing African Feminism(s). The ‘Colonial’ Question’, Matatu, 35(1), 165-174,
available: http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/9789401205641_011
Leave a Reply