Sojourner Truth 1851

1
Sojourner Truth (1851)

• . . . I think that 'twixt the negroes of the
  South and the women at the
• North, all talking about rights, the white men
  will be in a fix pretty
• soon. But what's all this here talking about?
• That man over there says that women need to be
  helped into
• carriages, and lifted over ditches, and to have
  the best place
• everywhere. Nobody ever helps me into carriages,
  or over mud-
• puddles, or gives me any best place! And ain't I
  a woman? Look at
• me! Look at my arm! I have ploughed 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 it
• and bear the lash as well! And ain't I a woman? I
  have borne
• thirteen children, and seen most all sold off to
  slavery, and when I
• cried out with my mother's grief, none but Jesus
  heard me! And
• ain't I a woman?

2
Alice Walker

• Womanist 1. From womanish. (opp. of "girlish,"
  i.e., frivolous,
• irresponsible, not serious.) A black feminist or
  feminist of color...
• Usually referring to outrageous, audacious,
  courageous or willful
• behavior. Wanting to know more and in greater
  depth than is
• considered "good" for one... Responsible. In
  charge. Serious.
• 2. Also A woman who loves other women, sexually
  and/or
• nonsexually. Appreciates and prefers women's
  culture, women's
• emotional flexibility (values tears as natural
  counterbalance of
• laughter), and women's strength... Committed to
  the survival and
• wholeness of entire people, male and female. Not
  separatist,
• except periodically, for health.

3
Rhoda Reddock (1990)

• For those of us former colonials who write in the
  
• English language, the contradiction of defining
  our
• cultural autonomy in the language of the
  colonizers
• is a problem we face daily and in some ways
• surmount. But possibly no other word in modern
• times has been so vilified for its European
  origins as
• feminism and its derivative feminist (Feminism,
• Nationalism, and the Early Womens Movement 61).

4
Patricia Mohammed (1998)

• I am interested in feminism and the feminist
• movement as an historically progressive movement
• engaged in shifting human consciousness towards a
  
• greater acceptance of equality of the sexes, as
  well as
• a celebration of difference, both sexual and
• otherwise not just lip service to equality and
• celebration of difference but that which is
  realized in
• policies, programmes and in individual human
• relationships (Towards Indigenous Feminist
• Theorizing (9).