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ABSTRACT--Terminology Evolution: From Africana Womanism to Melanated Womanism
For over 3 decades, Africana Womanism, earlier called Black Womanism in the 80s, has been authentically operating and working from a family-centered perspective within the context of the reality of global Africana Women, both cross-culturally and multi-disciplinarily, commanding a different paradigm from the traditional established female-based ones. This paradigm has always insisted upon the critical need for properly naming and defining women of color as a part of an overall collective movement, which includes the entire family (men, women and children) for the ultimate survival of humankind, while at prioritizing race, class and gender. Manifested in a call for Africana Womanism in “Cultural and Agenda Conflicts in Academia: Critical Issues for Africana Women’s Studies,” this need was first published in 1989 in The Western Journal of Black Studies, later reprinted as Chapter II for the subsequent Africana Womanism book publications—Africana Womanism: Reclaiming Ourselves (1993), Africana Womanist Literary Theory (2004) and Africana Womanism and Race and Gender in the Presidential Candidacy of Barack Obama (2008). Many of diverse ethnic backgrounds found themselves identifying with the concept and its agenda, outlined in Chapter IV, entitled “The Agenda of the Africana Womanist,” of the first Africana Womanism book. As Aubrey Bruce, founder of Urban Pulse Network and Senior Sports Columnist for New Pittsburgh Courier, who co-hosted the 1st National Africana Womanism Symposium in 2009, asserts,
As we access the needs of the global woman of color, that mission has now pulled back the layers to reveal a rainbow and myriad of colors, revealing and accentuating an already pre-existing, inclusive, and diverse paradigm birthed from Africana Womanism and now extending to Melanated Womanism.
These women of diverse ethnicities identified with the terminology and its overall agenda, as the essence of Africana Womanism seemed more relatable and appropriate, strongly justifying the fact that the struggle and priorities of Africana women were more akin to the global struggle of melanated women. The eighteen distinct characteristics of the Africana Womanist are as follows:
Self Namer, Self Definer, Family Centered, Genuine in Sisterhood, Strong, In Concert with Male in Struggle, Whole, Authentic, Flexible Role Player, Respected, Recognized, Spiritual, Male Compatible, Respectful of Elders, Adaptable, Ambitious, Nurturing and Mothering. (Africana Womanism, 55-73)
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