This volume discusses two highly discussed contemporary phenomena: namely, closing the gap between high school, college and university readership, and generational wealth for Blacks. A comprehensive book that spans the totality of life, bringing together perceptive writers, embracing inherent challenges in their fields via the Africana Womanist lens, it speaks truth to Africana women and their families, while offering plausible solutions for correcting historical and current societal ills. It shows how Africana women prioritize race, class and gender in combatting daily racial dominance, utilizing the 18 distinct characteristics of Africana Womanism.

This volume discusses two highly discussed contemporary phenomena: namely, closing the gap between high school, college and university readership, and generational wealth for Blacks. A comprehensive book that spans the totality of life, bringing together perceptive writers, embracing inherent challenges in their fields via the Africana Womanist lens, it speaks truth to Africana women and their families, while offering plausible solutions for correcting historical and current societal ills. It shows how Africana women prioritize race, class and gender in combatting daily racial dominance, utili.

First published in 1993, this is a new edition of the classic text in which Clenora Hudson-Weems sets out a paradigm for women of African descent. Examining the status, struggles and experiences of the Africana woman forced into exile in Europe, Latin America, the United States or at Home in Africa, the theory outlines the experience of Africana women as unique and separate from that of some other women of color, and, of course, from white women. Differentiating itself from the problematic theories of Western feminisms, Africana Womanism allows an establishment of cultural identity and relationship directly to ancestry and land. This new edition includes five new chapters as well as an evolution of the classic Africana womanist paradigm, to that of Africana-Melanated Womanism. It shows how race, class and gender must be prioritized in the fight against every day racial dominance. Africana Womanism: Reclaiming Ourselves offers a new term and paradigm for women of African descent. A family-centered concept, prioritizing race, class and gender, it offers eighteen features of the Africana womanist (self-namer, self-definer, family-centered, genuine in sisterhood, strong, in concert with male in the liberation struggle, whole, authentic, flexible role player, respected, recognized, spiritual, male compatible, respectful of elders, adaptable, ambitious, mothering, nurturing), applying them to characters in novels by Hurston, Bâ, Marshall, Morrison and McMillan. It evolves from Africana Womanism to Africana-Melanated Womanism. This is an important work and essential reading for researchers and students in women and gender studies, Africana studies, African-American studies, literary studies and cultural studies, particularly with the emergence of family centrality (community and collective engagement), the very cornerstone of Africana Womanism since its inception.

This book argues that African women's lived experiences are often spoken about authoritatively by people who are not included within this demographic, relegating these women to the role of spectators in their own stories. The dominant narratives of African womanhood, legitimized by intellectual discourse, are neither written by African women nor Africans in general. This book seeks to place feminism in Africa into its historical context by revisiting the experiences, practices, vision, and theories of feminism and gender in Africa. It is intended to serve as a comprehensive introduction to the field and provide a starting point for further and more advanced study of the nexus of feminism, gender, and development in Africa. Women Empowerment and the Feminist Agenda in Africa is designed to initiate post-graduate research and studies in the social sciences for directed and critical inquiry into the nature of feminist and gender politics and power relations in Africa. It is written for researchers, academics, and advanced tertiary studies, although professional gender and feminist organizations, especially those in Africa or focusing on Africa, will also find a wealth of information. The book is recommended for university libraries, post-graduate students and staff, the non-governmental community in Africa, women movement organizations in Africa, independent researchers and academics, and the African community at large.

AFRICANA WOMANISM: RECLAIMING OURSELVES poses new challenges for the feminist movement. In fact, in the words of Delores P. Aldridge it is "unquestionably a pioneering effort whose time has come. It provides an exciting & fresh approach to understanding the tensions existing among the mainstream feminist, the Black feminist, the African feminist & the Africana womanist." Hudson-Weems examines the perceptions women in the African diaspora have of their historical & contemporary roles. It is within this comparative framework that the work advances the state of knowledge on the lives of women in color. Since the initial appeal of feminism was & continues to be largely for educated, middle-class white women & not black working class women, the onus of responsibility for the destiny of the Africana woman rests on her. The growing need to be self-named & self-defined, the desire for reclamation of her historical past, the search for a stronger sense of belongingness & the greater call for cultural rootedness provide the rationale & justify the urgency for a new direction. AFRICANA WOMANISM is timely, theoretically fitting & intrinsically advantageous to the Africana woman. In the triple marginality of black women, race rises above class & gender. Distributors: Baker & Taylor; Midwest Library Service.

"By placing Africana womanism, an evolutionary Africana paradigm, within a literary context, this book expands the layered meanings of this family-centered, race-based theory and applies them to the works and ideas of renowned international literary figures such as Toni Morrison, Paula Marshall, and Buchi Emecheta."