Dr. Maulana Karenga | 03-14-22
Part 1.
This offering is in rightful homage and deep appreciation, not
only for Nana Ida B. Wells-Barnett, but also for the awesome and audacious
women of Us, the Malaika and Matamba, the Simba and Senut who created and put
forth in thought, dialog, discourse and practice what we now call Kawaida
womanism. It is they who engaged in the practice of Kawaida womanism
before it was given its name and challenged the Simba, Saidi and Senu, the men
of Us, to feel, think and act in ways more worthy of them and more in line with
the best of our culture and Kawaida philosophy. They asked us to rid ourselves
of oppressive practices of sexism in all its forms and to prefigure in our
practices and relations the good world we all want and work and struggle
together so hard to bring into being.
Here in this month and historical moment of uplifting and raising
Black women, we raise our beloved, beautiful, brilliant, sacred and soldier
sisters along with the models and mirrors they have learned so much from and
whose legacy they seek to emulate by the ways they live their lives, do their
work and wage their struggles. And we focus on the women, not in opposition,
erasure or superiority to the men, but always in principled and personal
interrelationships, stressing each of their own weight and ways and the special
and particular gift each gives in unique and equal measure and meaning.
Indeed, Seba Tiamoyo Karenga and Seba Chimbuko Tembo, Kawaida
womanism’s major theorists in defining it, state that “Kawaida womanism is
culturally grounded thought and practice directed toward the liberation of
African women as an integral and indispensable part of the liberation of
African people as a whole.” And this liberation “includes not only freedom from
oppression, but also the creation of conditions necessary for the well-being,
development and flourishing of women, men and children in family, community,
society and the world.”
Moreover, Seba Tiamoyo and Seba Chimbuko state in particular,
“Kawaida womanism involves struggles directed toward reaffirming the equal
dignity and divinity of African women, achieving and protecting their human and
civil rights, and increasing their capacity to live free, full and fulfilling
lives in relationships of reciprocity and good.” In this regard, Kawaida
womanism seeks to provide and practice an African-centered womanism as a culturally
distinct, self-determined and self-standing intellectual and social project,
not needing to turn or refer to others for vision, values or validation.
Therefore, Kawaida womanism seeks sources and support from African
culture, continental and diasporan, ancient and modern for its intellectual and
practical initiatives. The Kawaida term womanism, then, is not taken from Alice
Walker’s womanish womanist which she defines as “a feminist of color” and thus
a darker form of White feminism, i.e., purple v. lavender. Rather, the Kawaida
term womanism derives from Ida B. Wells’ category and concept of “womanly”
woman and her use of it in defining the mission and meaning of woman in an
expansive and open-textured way. Thus, in this and her other intellectual work
and personal and social practice in a wide range of activities, she provides a
critical source of Kawaida womanism. And we pay rightful homage to her and the
enduring model, mirror and legacy she left us.
It was not only in her incisive and insightful writings that Nana
Ida B. Wells Barnett defined the mission and meaning of woman and womanhood,
but also in the way she lived her life, did her work and waged her personal
struggles and participated in the collective liberation struggle of her people,
the African American people. For she, like other great leaders and activist
intellectuals at all levels realized that ultimately the criticism of the pen
must be joined with the criticism of practice, corrective and transformative
practice. And that practice is none other than righteous and relentless
struggle on every level of life.
Born in the hell and horror of the Holocaust of enslavement to
James and Elizabeth Wells, she was raised in resistance by her father and
mother who taught her the importance of education, the foundational value of
family and community, and the moral imperative of righteous and relentless
struggle. She comes into her own in the midst of struggle, resisting both
racism and sexism, wherever she found them. At the age of 16, Nana Ida assumes
the responsibility of guardianship for her surviving siblings after the tragic
death of her parents and infant brother during a yellow fever epidemic. She
also continues school, teaches and counts on her grandmother and aunt to assist
her in childcare and to ground her in the best of our culture, reaffirming
the foundational value of family and community.
She was also an activist and a wife and mother,
having married and produced four children with the distinguished lawyer
and rights activist, Ferdinand L. Barnett. And she writes of having to balance
different but interrelated duties without neglecting or being inadequately
attentive to each. Nana Ida is also famously a journalist, writer, researcher and
anti-lynching activist with an unbreakable courage and commitment, defying
death to do research, speak truth to the people and to power and organize to
resist the savagery of lynching, racism and other oppression in its various
forms. She defiantly asserted that “the way to right wrongs is to turn the
light of truth on them.” However, she knew this was a first step and ultimately
requires an active resistance at every level. She thus was an activist in a
wide range of fields, including racial justice, civil rights, human rights,
anti-lynching activism, voting rights for women, economic boycotts, political
organizing and confrontation, and the advocacy and practice of armed
self-defense.
Yet, she is in the context of her time also concerned with
considering, defining and the fulfillment of the mission and meaning of woman
and womanhood. Her writings vary in definitions with some commentaries in
contradiction with her best ideas and constant practice. When this occurs, it
seems to be focused around what all Black women had to deal with: defending
their reputation, reaffirming their moral character, and continuously waging
heroic struggles, as Nana Anna Julia Cooper wrote, “to keep hallowed their own
persons.” Thus, there is a constant need and will to defend the moral character
and bodily sanctity of the Black woman while not restricting or restraining her
to domestic life without the possibility and support for choice among many
paths to pursue in coming to the fullness of themselves.
In her important article titled, “Women’s Mission” (1885) written
in Thomas Fortune’s paper, New York Freemen, Nana Ida B. Wells outlines
essential aspects of her concept of the mission and meaning of being woman in
the world. Some of the context is particular to her faith, Christianity, but
her specific definition of women’s mission on earth speaks to central concerns
and concepts relevant and resonant in today’s dialogs and discourse on
being woman, especially Black women, African women in the world.
The anchoring idea in Nana Ida’s conception of the mission and
meaning of being woman in the world is agency, the capacity and will to
choose and act in the interest of good in the world. It is by social context
and self-determination, a liberational understanding and message. She asks,
“What is or should be woman?”, and dismisses trivialities, self-masking,
self-deforming, flesh-and-fashion focus, soullessness and selfish
self-presentations and practices as ultimately unworthy of woman. And she calls
instead for “a womanly woman” with inner strength, intellectual and spiritual
brilliance, ethical grounding, a world-encompassing consciousness and mission,
and a steadfast commitment to carry it out against all savage challenges and
seductive changes.
Dr. Maulana Karenga,
Professor and Chair of Africana Studies, California State University-Long
Beach; Executive Director, African American Cultural Center (Us); Creator of
Kwanzaa; and author of Kwanzaa: A Celebration of Family, Community and
Culture and Essays on Struggle: Position and Analysis, www.AfricanAmericanCulturalCenter-LA.org;
www.OfficialKwanzaaWebsite.org; www.MaulanaKarenga.org.
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