The sixth edition of Africana Womanism provides important updates to the classic text in which Clenora Hudson (Weems) sets out a paradigm for women of African descent. Differentiating itself from the problematic theories of Western feminisms, Africana Womanism allows an establishment of cultural identity and relationship directly to ancestry and land.
Introduced in the mid-1980s, Africana Womanism offers a new term and paradigm for women of African descent, a family-centered concept, prioritizing race, class, and gender. This new edition includes an Africana Womanist reading of Angie Thomas’ twenty-first-century novel, The Hate U Give, continuing existing Africana Womanist readings of twentieth-century novels by Hurston, Bâ, Marshall, Morrison, and McMillan; a Prologue, a previously unpublished interview with the author; a revised conclusion; updated bibliographies; an updated annotated bibliography; and a new section outlining key questions, clarifications, considerations, and commentaries surrounding Africana Womanism in relation to other female-based theories.
Africana Womanism remains 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.
Foreword from the 1st edition ‘Zulu Sofola
Foreword to the 5th edition James B. Stewart and Ama Mazama
Preface from the 1st edition Clenora Hudson (Weems)
Introduction Daphne Williams Ntiri
Prologue
PART I Theory
1. Africana Womanism
2. Cultural and agenda conflicts in academia: critical issues for Africana women’s studies
3. Africana Womanism: a theoretical need and practical usefulness
4. The agenda of the Africana womanist (revised)
PART II Six Africana Womanist Novels
5. Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God: seeking wholeness
6. Bâ’s So Long a Letter: a family affair
7. Marshall’s Praisesong for the Widow: authentic existence
8. Morrison’s Beloved: all parts equal
9. McMillan’s Disappearing Acts: in it together
10. Thomas’ The Hate U Give: collectivity and connectivity for social justice
PART III From Africana Womanism to Africana-Melanated Womanism
11. Authenticating and validating Africana-Melanated Womanism: a global paradigm for human survival
12. Africana Womanism’s race, class, and gender: pre-intersectionality
13. Africana-Melanated Womanism: forging our way via securing each other (2019 Keynote Address—2nd International Africana-Melanated Womanism Conference)
14. Africana-Melanated Womanism and the King-Parks-Till connection
15. Conclusion (revised)
Afterword Mark Christian
Key Questions, Clarifications, Considerations & Commentaries
Bibliography
Annotated Africana Womanism bibliography: a blueprint
Appendix: Africana-Melanated Womanism syllabus
Index
Biography
Clenora Hudson (Weems) coined the concept of Africana Womanism in the 1980s. She has written several books on the subject, in addition to significant works on Emmett Till—being the first to establish him as the true catalyst of the Civil Rights Movement in her 1988 Ford doctoral dissertation, “Emmett Louis Till: The Impetus of the Modern Civil Rights Movement”—and Nobel Laureate Toni Morrison. She was distinguished Honoree for the First International Africana Womanism Conference at the University of Zimbabwe, and the Ida Beam Distinguished Visiting Professor at the University of Iowa 50th Anniversary of African American Studies, delivering the Keynote Address, “Nobel Laureate Toni Morrison as a Model Africana Womanist Artivist for Social Justice”. She also delivered the Opening Keynote Address, “Why Africana Womanism? Authenticity and Collectivity for Social Justice” at the Conference on Women at the University of Zimbabwe.
"In this sixth edition of Africana Womanism, Clenora Hudson (Weems) delivers an unparalleled masterpiece informed by critical analysis of texts from the Africana village, which includes nineteenth-century church Black women activists, Africana historians, social and cultural theorists, poets, and novelists. Africana Womanism’s fate is sealed as an enduring classic that adeptly and precisely articulates the origins and conceptualization of a wholistic multi-diasporic womanism. It is a finely curated expanded assemblage of wisdom that includes an annotated bibliography, a complete syllabus for teaching Africana womanism and an instructive interview on topics from Alice Walker’s "womanist" to polygamy and globalization. We are in it together!"
Mitzi J. Smith, New Testament Professor and author of Womanist Sass and Talk Back: Social (In)Justice, Intersectionality, and Biblical Interpretation and I Found God in Me: A Womanist Biblical Hermeneutics Reader
"Reflecting the heartbeat of Africana women globally, Clenora Hudson (Weems) unapologetically chronicles the desires and will of Black women to affirm their humanity, and to reimagine, and reinvent a world more just, while embracing their authentic selves. The current discourse on justice and equity is incomplete without an Afrocentric Africana Womanism lens to fortify the authentic inclusion of Africana women, families and communities. It challenges systemic racism, classism and sexism from an Africana cultural epistemology to recenter Africana phenomenon. Therefore, Africana Womanism serves as a critical disruptive paradigm that dismantles oppressive ideologies and restores Africana family heritage to its rightful and victorious place in Africana communities. This new edition encapsulates the terminological evolution of Africana Womanism to Africana-Melanated Womanism pedagogy, for it continues to champion Africana family systems as central to the advancement and liberation of Africana women and their communities."
Marquita Gammage, Professor & Chair of Africana Studies Department at California State University, Northridge, and author of Representations of Black Women in the Media (Routledge)
"Clenora Hudson (Weems) continues her robust theoretical and analytical inquiry into the nature of Africana Womanism with this powerful work. Unquestionably, Hudson-Weems is the most important theorist writing on this aspect of the African world. I recommend this book and suggest that it should be high on the list of valuable contributions to your syllabus and general reading. Salute!"
Molefi Kete Asante, Professor and Chair, Department of African American Studies at Temple University; author of The History of Africa
"Three things are primary to any discussion of Womanist thought: the people, the language and the land. In this New Edition, Clenora Hudson (Weems) links these key features while reminding us of race, gender and family centrality to Black communal wholeness. As one of the originators of womanist thought, everything Hudson-Weems has to say about the subject is important to know. The book’s new section makes this text not only important but also essential to any serious study of Africana womanist thought and its contemporary development. She offers complex and provocative discussions that deepen our consideration of what an Africana womanist is, does, perceives, and preserves. I recommend it for courses and personal, intellectual gratification."
Debra Walker King, Professor of English, University of Florida; author of African Americans and the Culture of Pain
"Congratulations to Dr. Hudson (Weems) for yet another pace-setting and mind-liberating volume. Africana Womanism (New Edition) is not just an idea in the academe. More important, it is a living part of the everyday energy and struggles for self-definition and self-naming that Africans, wherever they are, pursue with unmitigated commitment."
Itai Muhwati, Professor and Dean of Arts, University of Zimbabwe; editor of Dariro: African Theory of Participation and Performance
"Clenora continues to advance Africana Womanism theory in this important volume, wherein the process began with self-naming and self-defining. This allows for a solid identifying and refining of an African-centered paradigm for worldwide Africana-Melanated women. From this, the ultimate ensues, as the theory, characterized by affirmation and engagement, seeks to unite the Africana woman and man in the on-going struggle for human survival. In so doing, the struggle continues in their communities, their countries and the world until ultimately total equity prevails."
Adele S. Newson-Horst, Professor of English, Morgan State University; editor of Winds of Change
"Africana Womanism represents Dr. Clenora Hudson (Weems)’ perception about the urgent need for Africana-Melanated people to strategize workable means by which to solidify true survival for our own. The question is, "If we don’t, then who will make possible the continuation of our legacy?" This book speaks directly to the issue of justice, and that means real equity for all on all levels, race, class and gender. It’s a meaningful book for all to read!"
Lillian A. Smith, Entrepreneur and Former Senior Producer for the Phil Donahue Show
