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Epistemological Implications for Womanism
The foregoing discussion of the geopolitics of knowledge, location, context and naming regarding the womanist discourse explain the reasons for the choices we make in this thesis. It is evident that naming has and, to some extent, continues to spark much debate in feminist and womanist theories as evident in BTL. Feminism, black feminism and/or womanism, African womanism and white feminism are specific terms, and their specificity constitutes them as affirming names. The modifications and shifts in these names reveal the evolving character of these theories. Important to note also is that these theories are not entirely independent of each other; for instance, their area of commonality is their sex as they are all groups of females. However, their class and race differentiates them as women who have different experiences, oppressions and struggles, a point we will return to when we look at the relationship between white feminism and womanism closely.
If naming is power (Ogunyemi, 1985; Cannon, 2006; Mosala, 1987; Anderson-Rajkumar, 2010; Schüssler Fiorenza, 2011), to declare ‘I am a womanist’ is, in the researcher’s opinion, a conscious reclaiming of the voice and power which has always been held by someone else defining and even knowing what black women need for their well-being. Put differently by Thiam, “black women have been silent for too long… women must assume their own voices – speak out for themselves” (1978:11). Naming is a conscious undertaking; arguably, by naming themselves women, they assume their role as interlocutors and compatible dialogue partners with black men in pursuit of black personhood devoid of Eurocentric categories of knowledge, among other things. They are heeding the call to be at the forefront of their struggle as authors of their liberation, one may argue (Manasa, 1973; Landman, 1995; Mosala, 1986; Maluleke & Nadar, 2004). Schüssler Fiorenza observes, “After centuries of silencing and exclusion from the logical studies and religious leadership, wo/men have moved into the academy, assumed religious leadership, and claimed their religious agency and heritage”. While this portrays a kairos moment in liberation of women, the question of classism still lurks for as long as the voices that speak are limited to those in academia; this will be explored as we look at shortcomings and critiques later in the chapter. Having named and thus attained the power of voice, this discussion leads us to look at the autonomous discourse of womanism as a philosophy, its primary source and interlocution and its implications for liberation and the relation between womanism (black feminism as used by Walker) and white feminism.
Womanism as a Black Philosophy
In the previous chapter, we attempted to examine BC as a philosophy of BTL. We now need to examine what womanism, as a philosophy, entails for this thesis, especially with some key arguments related to faith by Katie Cannon and Mercy Oduyoye. The following insights on black womanism inspire our discussion on this philosophy.
Black womanism is a philosophy that celebrates black roots, the ideals of black life, while giving a balanced presentation of womandom. It concerns itself with the black sexual power tussle as with the world power structure that subjugates blacks. Its ideal is for black unity where every black person has a modicum of power and so can be a “brother” or a “sister” or a “father” or a “mother” to the other. This philosophy has a mandalic core; its aim is the dynamism of wholeness and self-healing that one sees in the positive, integrative endings of womanist novels (Ogunyemi, 1985:72).
Womanism, according to Ogunyemi, looks at black life comprehensively. Like BTL, he asserts that the first source of black theology is the black community itself (Mosala, 1987:36). Womanism’s primary source is black community. A womanist, according to Cannon, is one who values the soul and the well-being of Black community (Yamaguchi, 1998:256). Cannon states that womanists look at this community with the aim of exposing “… collective values that underlie Black history and culture” (Cannon, 1984:180). For her, black women’s “… ideas, themes and situation provide truthful interpretations of every possible shade and nuance of Black life” (1984:187). While a black community is core to the very existence of womanism, Cannon warns against romanticizing it, i.e. the black community. She critiques the sexism evident in the black church through its misogynist preaching and failure to recognize different virtues in the context of survival (Yamaguchi, 1998:256).
Aniagolu (1998:96) alludes to Sojourner Truth’s impromptu speech as a catalyst that brought with it a realization by many black women that their oppression was not the same as those of their white sisters. She argues that white feminism’s failure to recognize and incorporate this fact alienated many women of colour, giving rise to strong activism by black women in Africa and African Diasporas. They were not willing to be assimilated into a western white feminism, hence the birth of womanism. This point is well articulated by Davies and Graves (1986) as follows:
African feminism… acknowledges its affinities with international feminism, but delineates a specific African feminism with certain specific needs and goals arising out of the concrete realities of women’s lives in African societies… (It) examines African societies for institutions which are of value to women and rejects those which work to their detriment and does not simply import Western agendas. Thus, it respects African woman’s status as mother but questions obligatory motherhood and the traditional favouring of sons… it respects African woman’s self-reliance and the penchant to cooperative work and social organization… (it) understands the interconnectedness of race, class and sex oppression (1986:8).
An important point highlighted by Davies and Graves in their well-articulated concept of womanism is the interlocutor of womanism, i.e. a black African woman (added emphasis) and her unique situation, a “double jeopardy” of being black and female and “triple oppression” of race, class and gender. Experience, and in this case that of black African women is fundamental in liberation. As stated earlier by Gutiérrez, experience is core in the theology of liberation in its quest to fight injustice and thus reconstruct a new society. Gutiérrez suggests that any form of liberation must be premised on the experience of the poor and marginalised with the commitment to transform oppressive systems, and we have seen this in BTL.
Mercy Oduyoye and Masenya (ngwana’ Mphahlele) Madipoane
Mercy Amba Oduyoye, an Akan from Ghana, has played a pivotal role in the development of an African Women’s Theology. “Oduyoye has worked tirelessly to ensure that women’s voices and concerns have been heard…” (Pui-lan, 2004:7). Oduyoye’s central thesis is best captured as follows:
Liberation of the mentality that keeps women coping with marginalization and repression rather than resisting has become an area of much reflection. Several have turned to the study of African Traditional Religion and Culture as a source of both empowerment and dehumanization of women. Studying this undergirding factor of life in Africa, is required, if the liberating aspects are to be fully appropriated and the oppressive ones exposed and disposed of (1993:209).
Oduyoye argues, “African Women’s Theology is developing in the context of global challenges and situations in Africa’s religion-culture that call for transformation” (2001a:38). She contends that not everything in African culture is liberating; therefore, African Women Theologians do not romanticise African culture but expose elements of patriarchy and further critique both internal and external forces. They allude to a capitalistic system, colonialism, racism, modernism colonialism and Christianisation of Africa. In attempting to critique African culture’s complicity, Oduyoye (1995a:4) points us to one aspect of women’s experience in Africa, where the idea of a free woman evokes negative images. She exposes the flaws attached to the upbringing of Africans who were made to believe that they are complete as women only under the guardianship of men, be it a father, uncle or husband. She writes:
A free woman spells disaster. An adult woman, if unmarried, is immediately reckoned to be available for the pleasures of all males and is treated as such. The single woman who manages her affairs successfully without a man is an affront to patriarchy and a direct challenge to the so-called masculinity of men who want to ‘possess’ her. Some women are struggling to be free from this compulsory attachment to the male. Women want the right to be fully human, whether or not they choose to be attached to men (1995a:4-5).
Oduyoye (1995a:9) says, “I seek the quality of life that frees African women to respond to the fullness for which God created them.” Arguably, she is attempting to evoke positive images of women and further address one of her major concerns, that of an ordering of society that assumes that the concept of maleness encompasses the whole of human being (1986:122). While embracing married women’s roles as mothers and wives, she seems to suggest that whether married or not, they are free to be humans whose call is to live in fullness.
As stated earlier, Madipoane Masenya (ngwana’ Mphahlele) introduced the term womanist theology to South Africa (Landman, 1995:145). As a Biblical scholar, Masenya (ngwana’ Mphahlele) is well known for her Bosadi (Womanhood) approach to scripture and African culture. She argues that the Bosadi approach, like any women’s liberation approach, foregrounds the liberatory elements of the Bible and challenges as well as resisting oppressive ones. She defines her approach as a woman’s liberation perspective, which takes seriously the unique experiences of African women in South Africa (Masenya (ngwana’ Mphahlele), 1998:277), a point emphasised by Oduyoye and also by others.
CHAPTER 1 Mapping the Context
1.1. Introduction
1.2. Background to the problem
1.3. Literature Review
1.4. Defining the Research Problem
1.5. Hypothesis
1.6. Objectives
1.7. Purpose
1.8. Research Methodology
1.9. Delimitation
1.10. Chapter Outline
1.11. Conclusion
CHAPTER 2 Black Theology of Liberation and Patriarchal Violence
2.1. Introduction
2.2. Notions of Liberation in Black Theology of Liberation
2.3. The Roots of Black Consciousness in BTL
2.4. The Problem of Patriarchy in BTL
2.5. Steve Biko’s Black Man and the Plight of Black Humanity
2.6. Black Consciousness is good news from a black theological perspective
2.7. The Task of Black Theology of Liberation in the 21st Century
2.8. Conclusion
CHAPTER 3 A womanist, not a feminist!
3.1. Introduction
3.2. Setting the Scene
3.3. Womanism and its Geopolitics of Knowledge
3.4. Epistemological Implications for Womanism
3.5. Womanism as a Black Philosophy
3.6. Black Women as Epistemological Agents of Womanism
3.7. Culture: a unique contribution to the womanist discourse
3.8. Womanism and Racism
3.9. Critiques and shortcomings
3.10. Conclusion
CHAPTER 4 Judith Butler’s Gender Trouble and Womanism
4.1. Introduction
4.2. Gayatri Spivak and Judith Butler
4.3. Gender as a construct
4.4. Gender as Epistemological disturbance
4.5. Power, life and knowledge
4.6. On Being Black and Human
4.7. ‘White’ feminism
4.8. Black women’s experiences as disturbers of Eurocentric epistemology
4.9. Conclusion
CHAPTER 5 A Womanist dialogue with the grassroots
5.1 Introduction
5.2. On the Dilemmas of Dialogue with the Grassroots for a Womanist
5.3. The Circle’s Vision for Encounter with Grassroots
5.4. On Dialogue with Broken African Women’s Bodies in Democratic South Africa
5.5. The Lived Experiences of black African Women for Theological Connection with the Grassroots
5.6. Black African Women Bodies that Matter
5.7. The Genesis of the Struggle of African Women
5.8. Conclusion
CHAPTER 6 Walking together to the Promised Land: a Womanist dialogue with Black Theology of Liberation in the 21st Century
6.1. Introduction
6.2. The fragmented community of Black humanity
6.3. Dialogue
6.4. White South African academia and alien fraudsters
6.5. African culture, patriarchal violence and Womanism
6.6. Black humanity, patriarchal violence and BTL
6.7. Womanists and Black Theologies walking together
6.8. Conclusion
CHAPTER 7 Decentring the West: The praxis of Womanism
7.1. Introduction
7.2. The West as the Centre
7.3. Decentring the West with BTL
7.4. Body of a black woman is knowledge to decentre the West
7.5. Pseudo-spirituality of an oppressed black woman
7.6. Conclusion
CHAPTER 8 Conclusion
8.1. Introduction
8.2. Recapitulating the Major Discussions of the Thesis
8.3. Contribution to Black Theology of Liberation
8.4. Tentative Future Research Questions for the School
8.5. Conclusion
EPILOGUE
BIBLIOGRAPHY
