Africana Womanism in Osonye Tess Onwueme’s Tell It to Women: An Epic Drama for Women

نوع المستند : المقالة الأصلية

المؤلف

Minia University, Faculty of Arts

المستخلص

Africana womanism is a terminology coined in the late 1980s by Clenora Hudson-Weems, the African American theorist and critic, to create a distinct paradigm for African women that expresses their demands, desires and unique experiences. Unlike western feminism, black feminism and Alice Walker’s womanism, Africana womanism prioritizes the racial plight over those of class and gender. For her new ideology, Hudson-Weems formulates eighteen characteristics that are: self-naming, self-definition, family centeredness, wholeness, role flexibility, adaptability, authenticity, genuine sisterhood, struggling with males against oppression, male compatibility, recognition, ambition, nurturing, strength, respect, respect for elders, mothering and spirituality. One of the main aims of this paper is to present a theoretical analysis of Hudson-Weems’s theory and its characteristics emphasizing the plausibility of the new ideology in the African context. Another important aim is to analyze Osonye Tess Onwueme’s play Tell it to Women: An Epic Drama for Women from an Africana womanist perspective. The paper also aims to analyze only twelve of Africana womanism  characteristics that  are the most salient ones exhibited by the female characters of Onwueme’s play. The selected characteristics are: self-naming, self-definition, family centeredness, wholeness, role flexibility, adaptability, authenticity, genuine sisterhood, male compatibility, respect for elders, mothering and spirituality.

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