ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author explores the theme of what she call communal connection as she describe her experiences as a Black woman leader in education. While each character has her own respective awakening experience, she arrives at this experience as a result of the sense of mutuality she shares with the women with whom she commingles. The author utilise the laying on of hands metaphor not to make light of the practice’s religious or spiritual significance, but to offer that the communal connection among Black women in professional settings is edifying as well. This connection captures the depth of our humanism towards one another—the recognition of likeness—resulting in the cultivation of professionally enhancing beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors. Hill Collins suggests in her elucidation of Black feminist thought that “US. Black women encounter a distinctive set of social practices that accompany our particular history within a unique matrix of domination characterized by intersecting oppressions”.
