black feminism

Black feminism argues that sexism, class oppression, and racism are
inextricably bound together.[1] Forms of
feminism that strive to overcome sexism and class oppression. The Combahee River
Collective argued in 1974 that the liberation of black women entails freedom
for all people, since it would require the end of racism, sexism, and class
oppression.[2] One of
the theories that evolved out of this movement was Alice Walker's Womanism.Alice
Walker and other womanists pointed out that black women experienced a different
and more intense kind of oppression from that of white women. They point to the
emergence black feminism after earlier movements led by white middle-class women
which they regard as having largely ignored oppression based on race and class

negritude poetry

Birago Diop, “Spirits”
Listen toThingsMore often than
Beings,
Hear thevoice of fire,
Hear thevoice of water.
Listen
in thewind,To the sighsof the bush;This is theancestors
breathing.Those who aredead are not ever gone;They are inthe
darkness that grows lighterAnd in thedarkness that grows darker.The
dead arenot down in the earth;They are inthe trembling of the
treesIn thegroaning of the woods,In the waterthat runs,In
the waterthat sleeps,They are inthe hut, they are in the
crowd:The dead arenot dead.Listen tothingsMore
oftenthan beings,Hear thevoice of fire,Hear thevoice of
water.Listen in thewind,To the bushthat is sighing:This is
thebreathing of ancestors,Who have notgone awayWho are
notunder earthWho are notreally dead.Those who aredead
are not ever gone;They are in awoman’s breast,In thewailing of a
child,And theburning of a log,In themoaning rock,In
theweeping grasses,In the forestand the home.The dead arenot
dead.Listen moreoftenTo Thingsthan to Beings,Hear
thevoice of fire,Hear thevoice of water.Listen in thewind
toThe bush thatis sobbing:This is theancestors
breathing.Each day theyrenew ancient bonds,Ancient bondsthat
hold fastBinding ourlot to their law,To the willof the spirits
stronger than weTo the spellof our dead who are not really
dead,Whosecovenant binds us to life,Whoseauthority binds to
their will,The will ofthe spirits that stirIn the bed ofthe
river, on the banks of the river,The breathingof spiritsWho moan
inthe rocks and weep in the grasses.SpiritsinhabitThe
darknessthat lightens, the darkness that darkens,The quiveringtree,
the murmuring wood,The waterthat runs and the water that
sleeps:Spirits muchstronger than we,The breathingof the dead who
are not reallydead,Of the deadwho are not really gone,Of the
deadnow no more in the earth.Listen toThingsMore
oftenthan Beings,Hear thevoice of fire,Hear thevoice of
water.Listen in thewind,To the bushthat is sobbing:This is
theancestors, breathing.Source:The NegritudePoets,
ed. EllenConroy Kennedy. New York:Thunder’s Mouth Press, 1989.

negritude poetry

Birago Diop, “Spirits”
Listen toThingsMore often than
Beings,
Hear thevoice of fire,
Hear thevoice of water.
Listen
in thewind,To the sighsof the bush;This is theancestors
breathing.Those who aredead are not ever gone;They are inthe
darkness that grows lighterAnd in thedarkness that grows darker.The
dead arenot down in the earth;They are inthe trembling of the
treesIn thegroaning of the woods,In the waterthat runs,In
the waterthat sleeps,They are inthe hut, they are in the
crowd:The dead arenot dead.Listen tothingsMore
oftenthan beings,Hear thevoice of fire,Hear thevoice of
water.Listen in thewind,To the bushthat is sighing:This is
thebreathing of ancestors,Who have notgone awayWho are
notunder earthWho are notreally dead.Those who aredead
are not ever gone;They are in awoman’s breast,In thewailing of a
child,And theburning of a log,In themoaning rock,In
theweeping grasses,In the forestand the home.The dead arenot
dead.Listen moreoftenTo Thingsthan to Beings,Hear
thevoice of fire,Hear thevoice of water.Listen in thewind
toThe bush thatis sobbing:This is theancestors
breathing.Each day theyrenew ancient bonds,Ancient bondsthat
hold fastBinding ourlot to their law,To the willof the spirits
stronger than weTo the spellof our dead who are not really
dead,Whosecovenant binds us to life,Whoseauthority binds to
their will,The will ofthe spirits that stirIn the bed ofthe
river, on the banks of the river,The breathingof spiritsWho moan
inthe rocks and weep in the grasses.SpiritsinhabitThe
darknessthat lightens, the darkness that darkens,The quiveringtree,
the murmuring wood,The waterthat runs and the water that
sleeps:Spirits muchstronger than we,The breathingof the dead who
are not reallydead,Of the deadwho are not really gone,Of the
deadnow no more in the earth.Listen toThingsMore
oftenthan Beings,Hear thevoice of fire,Hear thevoice of
water.Listen in thewind,To the bushthat is sobbing:This is
theancestors, breathing.Source:The NegritudePoets,
ed. EllenConroy Kennedy. New York:Thunder’s Mouth Press, 1989.

negritude a definition

An aesthetic and ideological concept affirming the independent nature, quality,
and validity of Black culture.

negritude thought

Négritude is a literary and ideological movement, developed by francophone black
intellectuals, writers, and politicians in France in the 1930s by a group that
included the future Senegalese President Léopold
Sédar Senghor, Martinican poet Aimé Césaire, and
the Guianan Léon
Damas.The Négritude writers found solidarity in a common black
identity as a rejection of perceived French colonial
racism. They
believed that the shared black heritage of members of the African diaspora was
the best tool in fighting against French political and intellectual
hegemony and
domination. They formed a realistic literary style and formulated their Marxist
ideas as part of this movement

black consciousness thought

We have defined blacks as those who are by law or tradition
politically,economically and socially discriminated against as a group in
the South Africansociety and identifying themselves as a unit in the
struggle towards therealization of their aspirations.This definition
illustrates to us a number of things:1. Being black is not a matter of
pigmentation - being black is a reflectionof a mental attitude.2. Merely
by describing yourself as black you have started on a road
towardsemancipation, you have committed yourself to fight against all forces
that seekto use your blackness as a stamp that marks you out as a
subservient being.From the above observations therefore, we can see that the
term black is notnecessarily all-inclusive, i.e. the fact that we are all
not white does notnecessarily mean that we are all black

black consciousness movement

The Black Consciousness Movement (BCM) was a grassroots anti-Apartheid activist movement
that emerged in South Africa in the mid-1960s out of the political vacuum created by
the jailing and banning of the African National Congress and Pan Africanist
Congress leadership after the Sharpeville Massacre in 1960.[1] The BCM represented a social movement for political
consciousness