An Analysis of Black Womanhood and Female Identity in Africa and its Diaspora

Abstract

 In exploring the idea of black womanhood and female identity in Africa and its diaspora it is necessary to examine the questions of black womanhood in consonance with the cultural notions of black women and analyse the ways in which they perceive and represent themselves both within and outside the traditional moulds of their societies.    

           It is important to look at how black women from Africa and America write their experiences as women and specifically explore, the histories and self-perceptions as articulated in the writings of the two contemporary black women writers from Africa and America; namely Bessie Head and Alice Walker. Reacting against distorted and marginalizing constructions in black men’s texts, these writers depict a black womanhood which challenges this very marginality in literature as well as society. I understand that the writers’ concerns, focus and narrative strategies contribute to an understanding of the ways in which black women perceive themselves.  Their varied experiences, perceptions and sensibilities as women are informed and shaped by their geographical locations, backgrounds and relationships to their societies. Their narrative points of view grounded in their history, reflect the diversity and complex reality of black women’s lives and thereby contribute to the current debate on black womanhood. Thus, these two writers create a variety of characters, who portray individual as well as communal, class and gender-specific conflicts rendered by their socio-historical realities.