Africana Womanism - Development

Development

Clenora Hudson-Weems, Professor of English, University of Missouri, author of Africana Womanism: Reclaiming Ourselves, coined the concept Africana Womanism in the late 1980s (Africana is the feminine form of the Latin Africanus, meaning Of Africa, and appears to be preferred by the movement over African). Hudson-Weems argues that "Africana Womanism is not an addendum to feminism, Black feminism, African feminism or Alice Walker's womanism" According to Patricia Collins, "Although some Africana women may support the very ideas on which feminism rests, however, many of them reject the term “feminism” because of what they perceive as its association with white women’s cause. They see feminism as operating exclusively within the terms white and American and perceive its opposite as being Black and American." Further many African men and women do not accept the ideology of feminism. According to Hudson-Weems, she states that "there is a general consensus in the Africana community that the feminist movement, by and large, is the White woman's movement for two reason. First, the Africana woman does not see the man as her primary enemy as does the White feminist, who is carrying out an age-old battle with her White male counterpart for subjugating her as his property. Africana men have never had the same institutionalized power to oppress Africana women as White men have had to oppress White women."

Africana Womanism contrasts feminist/womanist ideology and many Africana women (and men) have come to embrace it. Hudson-Weems (1998), Africana Womanism: Reclaiming Ourselves, explains the development of Africana Womanism:

Africana Womanism is a term I coined and defined in 1987 after nearly two years of publicly debating the importance of self-naming for Africana women. Why the term ‘Africana Womanism’? Upon concluding that the term ‘Black Womanism’ was not quite the terminology to include the total meaning desired for this concept, I decided that ‘Africana Womanism,’ a natural evolution in naming, was the ideal terminology for two basic reasons. The first part of the coinage, Africana, identifies the ethnicity of the woman being considered, and this reference to her ethnicity, establishing her cultural identity, relates directly to her ancestry and land base—Africa. The second part of the term Womanism, recalls Sojourner Truth's powerful impromptu speech ‘Ain't I a Woman?’, one in which she battles with the dominant alienating forces in her life as a struggling Africana Woman, questioning the accepted idea of womanhood. Without question she is the flip side of the coin, the co-partner in the struggle for her people, one who, unlike the white woman, has received no special privileges in American society.

Africana Womanist ideology contributes to Afrocentric discourse. Africana womanism fundamental foundation is built on traditional Africana philosophy and values, and Afrocentric theories:

Lastly, Nah Dove (1998), "African Womanism: An Afrocentric Theory", credits Hudson-Weems and other scholars in shaping the Africana womanist model. Dove asserts:

A concept that has been shaped by the work of women such as Clenora Hudson-Weems, Ifi Amadiume, Mary E. Modupe Kolawole, and others. African womanism may be viewed as fundamental to the continuing development of Afrocentric theory. Africana womanism brings to the forefront the role of African mothers as leaders in the struggle to regain, reconstruct, and create a cultural integrity that espouses the ancient Maatic principles of reciprocity, balance, harmony, justice, truth, righteousness, order, and so forth. (p. 535)