updated 2nd of march 2010Thank you for visiting my page |  | Al 20 jaar lang komen,iedere eerste zondag van de maand, , rond 3 uur , de vrouwen, met auto’s trein of fiets naar de Fornheselaan aanwaaien.
Zin om mee te doen ?stuur dan een email doreenjanet@kpnplanet.nl
| | | | Womanist Theology group The Netherlands
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The womanist theology is a recent theological trend, which has emerged from circles of black feminist theologians in the United States and in the Netherlands. The name for this way of practising theology derives from womanism. Womanism is black women's movement, women who see themselves as feminists. The concept 'womanism' has been introduced by Alice Walker, deriving from the word 'womanish'. This black popular expression is used by mothers towards their daughters when they are showing extreme behaviour, when they are defiant, enterprising, bold and want to know more than what is thought appropriate or good for them. You can compare the meaning of "don't be so womanish" with another black popular expression, namely "you trying to be grown". Which means: you behave as if you are an adult, responsible and serious. And this is meant negatively; such behaviour is not right for a young girl.
In Alice Walker's work the original negative load of 'womanish' is transformed, because she uses the term for those characteristics in black women which were traditionally condemned, but in fact constitute their strength. So the expression became a weapon in the struggle of black women in deciding for themselves about what is good for them. A woman who deserves the epitheton 'womanish', is characterized by the following characteristics. She loves other women, sexual or not. She appreciates the culture, the emotional flexibility of women (she knows the value of tears as a natural counterbalance to laughter) and also the power of women. Once in a while she also loves a man, sexual or not. She is dedicated to the surviving and wholeness of all people, both men and women. She rejects separatism, except when personal well-being makes it -temporarily- necessary. Universalism is her usual attitude in life, which the following example illustrates. A child asks her mother: "Mama, why are we brown, pink and yellow and our cousins white, beige and black?" The answer: "Well, you must know, the coloured race is just like a flower garden; all colours of flowers are represented". From her past experiences she knows how to survive. Another illustration: "Mama, I will go to Canada and I will take you and a lot of other slaves with me", says a child. Her answer: "It would not be the first time"2. She loves music, dancing, the Spirit, love, food and roundness. She also loves the struggle, the people, and herself no matter what. How does womanism distinguish itself from feminism? Alice Walker answers that womanism relates to feminism as purple to lavender; it has a deeper and fuller meaning. Feminism supposes that the patriarchate, the 'power of the fathers'3, is responsible for all forms of oppression; in breaking the power of the patriarchate, all (power)inequalities would disappear. By this presumption feminism is blind to the possibility that there are also other mechanisms maintaining inequality.
Womanism is based on the experiences of black women. Zora Neale Hurston once described the black woman as "the world's mule": as a woman, she knows what it is like to be oppressed by men, but as a black woman she also knows what it is like being oppressed by white women (and men), and as a poor woman by rich people. Hurston tells us about a black female slave, who was raped by her white master, got pregnant, and then abused by her white mistress (what do you mean, sisters?)4. Because of these experiences womanism turns against every form of oppression. Therefore it completes and intensifies feminism. Womanism offers an integrated analysis of the phenomenon of oppression, in stead of restricting itself to one certain aspect.
1. From: Alice Walker, "In search of Our Mothers Gardens", p. xi en xii. 2. Idem. Because Canada has never known slavery, the name of this land meant for the slaves in the South of the USA the same as 'freedom'. Many refugees did indeed find freedom there. 3. This
expression is from the definition which Adriene Rich gives to feminism in her book "Uit vrouwen geboren". 4. Zora Nealel Hurston: " Their eyes are watching God "
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Al 20 jaar lang komen,iedere eerste zondag van de maand, , rond 3 uur , de vrouwen, met auto’s trein of fiets naar de Fornheselaan aanwaaien.
Zin om mee te doen ?stuur dan een email doreenjanet@kpnplanet.nl
De werkgroep Womanistische Theologie
Vanuit de bevrijdingsstrijd van zwarte vrouwen die kracht putten uit hun zeer persoonlijk en concreet ervaren geloof, werd in 1988 in Nederland de Werkgroep Zwarte Feministische Theologie opgericht. Niet veel later werd zij omgedoopt tot Werkgroep Womanistische Theologie. De Werkgroep Womanistische Theologie is een landelijke werkgroep die bestaat uit zwarte vrouwen. De term ‘zwart’ is gekozen als verzamelnaam voor alle mensen van kleur. Wanneer ik de term 'zwart' hanteer, spreek ik over een bundeling van wat genoemd wordt allochtonen, buitenlanders, minderheden, derde wereld mensen, donker of licht gekleurden, tweede generatie kinderen en ga zo maar door. We hebben gekozen voor één term om de noodzaak van eenheid en solidariteit tussen deze groepen aan te geven.. Ook al zijn wij gekomen uit verschillende delen van de wereld - Afrika, het Caraïbisch gebied, Azië, Latijns-Amerika, Europa -, we zijn allen zwarte vrouwen. Verdere punten van overeenkomst zijn dat we gelovige vrouwen zijn binnen, buiten of aan de rand van de kerken. De behoefte om als zwarte vrouwen met elkaar te reflecteren en studie te maken van geloof en samenleving is daarom niet verwonderlijk.
Maya Angelou
Phenomenal Woman by Maya Angelou
Pretty women wonder where my secret lies.
I'm not cute or built to suit a fashion model's size
But when I start to tell them,
They think I'm telling lies.
I say,
It's in the reach of my arms
The span of my hips,
The stride of my step,
The curl of my lips.
I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.
I walk into a room
Just as cool as you please,
And to a man,
The fellows stand or
Fall down on their knees.
Then they swarm around me,
A hive of honey bees.
I say,
It's the fire in my eyes,
And the flash of my teeth,
The swing in my waist,
And the joy in my feet.
I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.
Men themselves have wondered
What they see in me.
They try so much
But they can't touch
My inner mystery.
When I try to show them
They say they still can't see.
I say,
It's in the arch of my back,
The sun of my smile,
The ride of my breasts,
The grace of my style.
I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.
Now you understand
Just why my head's not bowed.
I don't shout or jump about
Or have to talk real loud.
When you see me passing
It ought to make you proud.
I say,
It's in the click of my heels,
The bend of my hair,
the palm of my hand,
The need of my care,
'Cause I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.
Ain't I A Woman
by Sojourner Truth
That man over there say a woman needs to be helped into carriages
and lifted over ditches and to have the best place everywhere.
Nobody ever helped me into carriages or over mud puddles
or gives me a best place...And ain't I a woman?
Look at me Look at my arm! I have plowed and planted
and gathered into barns and no man could head me...
And ain't I a woman?
I could work as much and eat as much as a man- when I could get to it
and bear the lash as well and
Ain't I a woman?
I have born 13 children and seen most all sold into slavery
and when I cried out a mother's grief none but Jesus heard me...
And ain't I a woman?
That little man in black there say a woman can't have as
much rights as a man cause Christ wasn't a woman.
Where did your Christ come from? From God and a woman!
Man had nothing to do with him!
If the first woman God ever made was strong enough
to turn the world upside down, all alone
TOGETHER women ought to be able to turn it right side up again. |
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