African Canadian
Feminisms: Back to the Drawing Board
Njoki
Nathani Wane, Katerina Deliovsky and Erica Lawson
While Back
to the Drawing Board identifies experiences of people from different
classes, sexualities and origins, these experiences have shared backgrounds and
histories in relation to oppression as a consequence of racism and the effects
of colonialism. Njoki Nathani Wane Tamari Kitossa and Dolana Mogadime all offer
differing perspectives that unite through their comments on Black feminist
thought. Njoki Nathani Wane’s writing Drawing
on the Experiences of my Sisters comments on Black feminist thought from a
Canadian perspective. Throughout this essay Wane identifies the issues inherent
within feminism, she stresses the fact that White feminisms do not include
Black feminist thought, “Theories such as Western feminism, which seek to
explain the nature of women’s oppression, may not speak directly to the
experiences of Black women” to which she lays out the focus of her essay by
posing the question: ‘is Black feminist thought no more than White mainstream
feminism with a prefix?’ Her research she carried out with her class of
students in 1999 carried her to this conclusion, -“Black feminist thought is a
theoretical tool meant to elucidate and analyse the historical, social,
cultural and economic relationships of women of African descent as the basis
for development of a laboratory praxis. It is a paradigm that is grounded in
the historical as well as the contemporary experiences of Black women as
mothers, activists, academics and community leaders. It can be applied to
situate Black women’s past and present experiences that are grounded in their
multiple oppressions.” Throughout
this essay Wane also wishes to articulate the issue that Black feminist though
on African-American theory doesn’t speak to Canadian experience and she
stresses the importance of the need for a theoretical framework that doesn’t
fragment African-Canadian women’s experiences.
Tamari Kitossa’s writing Criticism, Reconstruction and
African-Centred Feminist Historiography looks at African-centred feminist
historiography. Throughout his essay, Kitossa raises important issues with the construction
of Western feminism and brings to the foreground questions about racial
representation and the idea that Western feminism chose to neglect radicalized
women, thus setting up a framework that misrepresents and entire gender.
Dolana Mogadime’s work approaches Black
feminist thought through more of an educational stance, her chapter looks at
Black women in graduate studies and offers a ‘critique of the limitations that
contribute to the oppressive reproduction of Black women who are marginalized
in the world of academia.’ Dolana introduces her essay by stating, ‘the institutional
climate at the departmental level in higher education poses particular
challenges to Black women and other women of colour who are graduate students
and faculty’, ultimately supporting Linda Carty’s argument that her work as a
Black woman teaching at university level is ‘rare’ and how this in turn
highlights the unacceptably low level of racial inclusion of Black women in
high education institutions. Dolana Mogadime carried out a study at two
universities where she looked at how the professional social environment and
socialization plays a role in the development of academic careers. Throughout
he study she found that Black students faced more scrutiny and underwent
significantly more constraints as they went through the socialization process,
outlining that White graduate students were more supported for academic
positions while Black graduates were not, thus identifying the racial lines and
limitations prevalent in the academic sphere and calling for a self critique
and change in Canadian institutions of education.
Furthering Dolana Mogadime’s argument,
Wane’s final essay addresses African-Canadian Women and the Academy. Wane
addresses the issue that ‘marginalized groups show how the educational system
has been locked into a paradigm of Euro centrism.’ Wane highlights that one of
the most prominent issues within education results from the fact that the
validation of information on certain subjects relies on the hegemony of White
males, they set the criteria and information on what is regarded as valid
knowledge, ‘the knowledge produced by marginalized groups is subjugated by the
dominant group and the exclusion of Africa-Canadian women scholars from
academic courses demonstrate the euro-patriarchal structure in place.’ To
conclude her work, Wane articulates the need for African-Canadian women to talk
about their experiences and the need for these realities to be translated into
the academies so that a critical space for Black feminist thought can thrive.
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