ABSTRACT
Central to the theory of Africana Womanism is the idea expressed in the above quotation by Africana novelist and literary critic Toni Morrison. The Africana womanist, focusing on her particular circumstances, comes from an entirely different perspective, one that embraces the concept of a collective struggle for the entire family in its overall struggle for liberation survival, thereby resolving the question of her place in the venue of women’s issues. The modern feminist movement, a vague reflection of Africana women in action in the Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and the 1960s, was originally identified with the upper-middle-class White woman’s restive feelings of unhappiness. The primary goal of Africana women, then, is to create their own criteria for assessing their realities, both in thought and in action. To be sure, the feminist either lacks the recognition or refuses to acknowledge that her issues and methods are not the same as those of the Africana woman.
