Womanism vs. Feminism: Exploring the Roots, Differences, and Global Perspectives
Black feminists and womanists are similar in many ways, but once you learn the depth of knowledge held within Womanist thought, you will be able to scope out the subtle differences. Those differences are like the tiny crests that form into a large wave. All together, it makes Black feminism and womanism very different.
Going back to Walker’s definition, womanism encompasses feminism. This means that womanism is concerned with all the same things as feminism, and more.
Black feminists make use of Kimberle Crenshaw’s concept of intersectionality, which she coined in 1989. Many of the major social justice movements, like #MeToo and “body positivity”(though, from a Black perspective, is body liberation), have been co-opted by white feminists.
Intersectionality has even morphed into one of those buzzwords people use who have no idea what they’re talking about. However, in the 70’s, many Black feminist organizations were already utilizing a form of intersectionality. These groups had to be concerned with more than just gender, and they had to go beyond what the white feminists and the Black men were doing.
That is why there has been the formation of so many Black feminist groups, like the Combahee River Collective, and the National Black Feminist organization.
Dr. Crenshaw reflected on intersectionality in 2020 with Times in an interview
“It’s not identity politics on steroids. It is not a mechanism to turn white men into the new pariahs. It’s basically a lens, a prism, for seeing the way in which various forms of inequality often operate together and exacerbate each other.”
African Womanism
Womanism has its roots firmly planted in the multitude of West African cultures and practices. Alice Walker’s way of defining womanism was created with the consciousness that it is not a new concept. It is only a term to name something that has already existed. Alice Walker was the first to put it on paper, but women many generations before her were using womanist ways of thinking.
African womanism addresses the unique experiences that African women have. Those issues, Ogunyemi believes, that do not explicitly intersect with Black American women are the issues that African womanism deal with.
Chikwenye Ogunyemi is a womanist literary critic, and the foremother of African womanism. Her publications include Juju Fission: Women’s Alternative Fictions from the Sahara, the Kalahari, and the Oases In-between and Africa Wo/Man Palava: The Nigerian Novel by Women.
In an interview with Ogunyemi and African feminist activist Wanjira Muthoni, the two talked about the relationship between (white western) feminism and African feminism/womanism.
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Ogunyemi defined issues “like extreme poverty and in-law problems, older women oppressing younger women, women oppressing their co-wives, or men oppressing their wives” as ones that are particularly relevant for African women.
There is a deliberate turning away from feminism, specifically because it only focuses on gender, as well as many white feminists ignoring and marginalizing the concerns of African women.
What stood out to me was the issue of marriage. It has caused women of the current generation to rearrange how they want to be married. This is something that Black women in the U.S. think about as well, but the context is not the same.
In Kenya (compared to other African countries), it is more common for young graduated women to have children with a man who is married. That way, they can have the freedom that their mothers and grandmothers did not have. They do not have to be concerned with cooking or cleaning for the in-laws. It frees up a lot of time to focus on whatever they want to.
Ogunyemi pointed out that one way African womanism calls men into dialogue is by not referring to it as “feminism”:
“So you call it something else because it is something different. Then we do not quarrel about having a colonized mentality. If you begin to name your own activity yourself, there is power in that naming. And when they see that there is power in the naming and also that you do not take them as enemies, men agree to be a part of the change that we envisage.”
American Womanism and African Womanism both have these similar ways of including men in the conversation; the same kind of framework. But the issues they deal with as a whole are vastly different. This is only the first signs of a bloom, when it comes to African womanism.
Africana Womanism
Africana womanism is grounded in intersectionality, and has always dealt with the multitude of identities that intersect and impact Black women’s life from its inception.
Dr. Clenora Hudson-Weems is the foremother of Africana womanism and an English professor at the University of Missouri. She is also the author of five Africana womanist books.
She sat down with the largest non-profit media organization for Black Americans, PushBlack, and talked about the differences between Africana womanism and Black feminism. She believes that Black feminism is too “individualistic” while womanism address the true needs of the community.
Black feminism privileges the academic space over what I have previously referred to as “the vernacular”(the everyday). This is why Dr. Hudson-Weems’ has a problem with Black feminism, which led to her coining the term Africana womanism.
African womanism and Africana womanism has its similarities when it comes to its focus on lived experiences. They are less inclined to generalize groups of people outside of the U.S., and that is because they are community focused.
To the Africana womanist, it is not right to earn success based on the exploitation of ones own community. It does not matter about the PHD’s or the accolades that someone receives when they are fighting for liberation. That is why Africana womanism turns away from the academic space.
