Clenora F. Hudson-Weems (born July 23, 1945) is an African-American author and academic who is currently a professor of English at the
University of Missouri
The University of Missouri (Mizzou or MU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Columbia, Missouri, United States. It is Missouri's largest university and the flagship of the four-campus Univers ...
.
She coined the term "
Africana womanism
''Africana womanism'' is a term coined in the late 1980s by Clenora Hudson-Weems, intended as an ideology applicable to all women of African descent. It is grounded in African culture and Afrocentrism and focuses on the experiences, struggles, ne ...
" in the late 1980s, contending that women of African descent have always been Africana womanists by their very nature, dating back to Africana women in antiquity, even before the coinage of the word itself. Africana Womanism, a family-centered paradigm, observed this phenomenon, then proceeded in naming and defining a paradigm relative to who Africana women are and how they go about their daily lives in both the home place and the workplace.
Hudson-Weems wrote a research paper entitled "The Tripartite Plight of the Black Woman—Racism, Classism and Sexism—in ''Our Nig, Their Eyes Were Watching God'' and ''The Color Purple''" during her first semester as a Ph.D. student at the
University of Iowa
The University of Iowa (U of I, UIowa, or Iowa) is a public university, public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is organized int ...
in 1985.
She set up a panel on the need for prioritizing race, class and gender for Black women and presented it at the 1986
National Council for Black Studies
National Council for Black Studies (NCBS) is an organization dedicated to the advancement of the field of Africana/African American/Black Studies. It is a not-for-profit organization established in 1975. The National Council for Black Studies was ...
Annual conference, which was later published in the ''Journal of Black Studies'' in 1989.
Hudson-Weems has written many papers concerning the distinctions between Africana womanism, earlier called Black Womanism,
Womanism
Womanism is a feminist movement, primarily championed by Black feminists, originating in the work of African American author Alice Walker in her 1983 book '' In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens''. Walker coined the term "womanist" in the short story ...
and
Black feminism
Black feminism is a branch of feminism that focuses on the African-American woman's experiences and recognizes the intersectionality of racism and sexism. Black feminism philosophy centers on the idea that "Black women are inherently va ...
. She believed that Black Feminism was lacking some crucial ideas in its concept, which motivated her to come up with Black/Africana Womanism. She was concerned about how the already existing concepts such as feminism, black feminism, womanism, did not include an authentic agenda for Africana women.
Her book ''Africana Womanism: Reclaiming Ourselves'' was released in 1993 even though several publishers were hesitant to take on the manuscript due to the controversial issues surrounding black women's rejection of "mainstream" feminist ideology.
Hudson-Weems took a strong position that black women should not have to rely on Eurocentric feminism for their liberation when they have a rich history and legacy of women of African descent.
ill 1811ref name=":0" /> She believed that many people viewed Africana Womanism as risking their professional security and also as invalidating their years of research from the Black feminist perspective.
She wished people viewed the concept as "a natural evolutionary process of ideological growth and development" from Black feminism to Africana womanism (Hudson-Weems, "... Entering the New Millenium" 36).
Hudson-Weems criticized Black feminists because they did not acknowledge Africana feminism's essential and underlying foundation "nommo", its name.
She discusses Africana Womanism and compares it to other branches of feminism and explains what they are lacking in her book ''Africana Womanist Literary Theory'' in 2004.
Hudson-Weems is also the author of ''Emmett Till: The Sacrificial Lamb of the Civil Rights Movement'' (1994).
Distinctions
Some very clear distinctions exist between the terms womanist and feminist. Feminism is focused on the equal treatment of women in terms of social, political, and economic rights.
[ Dove, Nah. "African Womanism: An Afrocentric Theory." ''Journal of Black Studies'' 28.5 (1998): 515–39. ''JStor''. Web. November 16, 2016.] Despite the fact that there has been immense progress for women under this ideology, some feminist scholars argue that it has effectively upheld white supremacist thought and boxed out women of color.
[ Collins, Patricia H. "What's in a Name? Womanism, Black Feminism, and Beyond". '']The Black Scholar
''The Black Scholar'' (''TBS'') is a journal founded in California, in 1969, by Robert Chrisman, Nathan Hare, and Allan Ross. It is the third oldest Black studies journal in the US, after the NAACP’s ''The Crisis'' (founded in 1910) and the ' ...
'' 26.1 (1996): n. p. Web. November 16, 2016.
Womanism, on the other hand, is the notion that women should be valued not only as much as men, but as much as other women—regardless of race, class, and other elements that dictate social order. Its origins trace back to
Sojourner Truth
Sojourner Truth (; born Isabella Bomefree; November 26, 1883) was an American Abolitionism in the United States, abolitionist and activist for African-American civil rights, women's rights, and Temperance movement, alcohol temperance. Truth was ...
's 1851 speech "
Ain't I A Woman?
"Ain't I a Woman?" is a speech, generally considered to have been delivered extemporaneously, by Sojourner Truth (1797–1883), born into slavery in the state of New York. Some time after gaining her freedom in 1827, she became a well known an ...
" where she calls into question this notion of womanhood that does not successfully encompass all the lives it seeks to control.
[Truth, Sojourner. "Ain't I A Woman?" Women's Convention. Ohio, Akron. 1851. Speech.] As a black woman, and a slave, Truth was denied the courtesies, the respect, and the basic human rights given to her white female counterparts.
This skewed social dynamic that glorified white womanhood transcended time periods, which is why distinctions between feminism and womanism are necessary today.
[Hubbard, Larese. "Anna Julia Cooper and Africana Womanism: Some Early Conceptual Contributions." ''Black Women, Gender & Families'' 4.2 (2010): n. p. ''JStor''. Web. November 16, 2016.] Womanism focuses specifically on the ties linking women of color to one another, while also creating a very distinct dichotomy between the ways in which women of color might operate differently than their white feminist counterparts under the same oppressive forces.
As
Alice Walker
Alice Malsenior Tallulah-Kate Walker (born February 9, 1944) is an American novelist, short story writer, poet, and social activist. In 1982, she became the first African-American woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, which she was awa ...
famously said, "Womanism is to feminism as purple is to lavender",
one pales in comparison to the other. Clenora Hudson-Weems contends that feminism, on its own, does not consider the intersectional realities of the lives of Africana women, thus, solidifying their position as "
the other".
The bias shown toward these individuals is upheld by the longstanding existence of patriarchy. It was noted that "...patriarchal societies have manifested a fear of foreigners or difference and have suppressed women in numerous ways".
In so doing, the delineation between which forms of womanhood are acceptable and which are not, is very clearly established. To combat this lack of inclusivity, womanism—as an ideology—acts as the voice of the unheard; it is "...an Afrocentric paradigm that can embrace the activism of all African women, recognized or ignored, who have struggled to liberate African people on a global scale".
This gives Africana women a platform on which they can stand up and be heard, a people with whom they can identify, and a voice with which they can actively speak.
An even more specific subset of womanism, which identifies African women as the focus, is Africana womanism. Some scholars argue that feminism in some ways waters down an individual's cultural identity and generalizes women to a non-inclusive umbrella category, while Africana womanism allows one to maintain their cultural identity.
[Blackmon, Janiece L. ''"I Am Because We Are: Africana Womanism as a Vehicle of Empowerment and Influence"''. Thesis. Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 2008. 1–58. Print.] In terms of its distinction from womanism, Africana womanism is very ethnically specific. It facilitates the distinction of individual self-identification, dependent upon one's cultural background.
The agency of Africana individuals is lacking, primarily because Western culture advocates Eurocentric beliefs rather than Afrocentric beliefs.
To consider one's ethnic identity in the context of patriarchy is to encourage women of African descent to acknowledge their own unique, situational experiences. This offers women a mechanism of self-identification that can ease the burden of everyday life under socially, economically, religiously, and culturally limiting structures.
References
External links
"'Africana Womanism': An authentic agenda for women of Africana descent" December 30, 2010.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hudson-Weems, Clenora
1945 births
African-American women writers
American women writers
American writers
Black studies scholars
American literary theorists
Living people
Womanist writers
African-American writers
University of Iowa alumni
University of Missouri faculty
American women academics
21st-century African-American people
21st-century African-American women
20th-century African-American people
20th-century African-American women