Reconstructing Womanhood, Reconstructing Feminism Reconstructing Womanhood, Reconstructing Feminism is the first British feminist anthology to examine concepts of womanhood and feminism within the context of ‘race’ and ethnicity. Challenging contemporary feminist theory, the book highlights the ways in which constructions of womanhood have traditionally excluded Black women’s experience—and proposes a reconsideration of terms such as ‘feminist’. The research subjects and methods of many of the contributors have been shaped by the specifics of the Black British experience and context. Representing a variety of backgrounds including sociology, literary criticism, history and cultural theory, the collection makes new information accessible, adds fresh nuances to well-explored areas, reexamines old ideologies and uncovers previously concealed ones. This volume brings together various perspectives about ‘difference’ and identity. It covers a diverse range of social and cultural issues including the position of Black women in the church, lesbian identity in fiction, contemporary African feminism, and British immigration law. Delia Jarrett-Macauley is a writer, a researcher into Black women’s history and feminist politics in Britain, and an arts management consultant. Reconstructing Womanhood, Reconstructing Feminism Writings on Black Women Edited by Delia Jarrett-Macauley London and New York First published 1996 by Routledge 11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005. “To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.” Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001 © 1996 Selection and editorial matter, Delia Jarrett-Macauley; individual chapters, the contributors. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book has been requested ISBN 0-203-99382-9 Master e-book ISBN ISBN 0-415-11648-1 (hbk) ISBN 0-415-11649-X (pbk) For my mother, Lily Macauley Contents Notes on contributors vii Editor’s introduction ix Acknowledgements xvi Part I Introduction 3 1 From sexual denigration to self-respect: 5 resisting images of Black female sexuality Annecka Marshall 2 Exemplary women 37 Delia Jarrett-Macauley 3 Those whom the immigration law has kept 59 apart—let no-one join together: a view on immigration incantation Deborah Cheney 4 ‘A mouse in a jungle’: the Black Christian 87 woman’s experience in the church and society in Britain Valentina Alexander 5 Naming and identity 111 Felly Nkweto Simmonds Part II Introduction 119 6 Creative space?: the experience of Black 121 women in British art schools Juliette Jarrett vi 7 ‘White’ skins, straight masks: masquerading 137 identities Helen (charles) 8 Literature, feminism and the African woman 157 today Ama Ata Aidoo 9 The rough side of the mountain: Black women 177 and representation in film Lola Young Index 203 Contributors Ama Ata Aidoo was a lecturer at the University of Cape Coast, 1970–83, and Minister for Education (Ghana), 1982–83. Her numerous novels and anthologies have been widely published and translated, including No Sweetness Here (1970, Longman) and Changes—A Love Story (1991, The Women’s Press). Ama is currently a full-time writer, living in Harare. Valentina Alexander is completing a PhD on the response to oppression within the Black Led Churches in Britain at Warwick University. She has carried out freelance training in Black studies, Black women’s literature, creative writing and Black theology and history, and has also coordinated and taught on Saturday schools and other Africentric child development programmes. Helen (charles) is an activist and writer, giving lectures and facilitating workshops at a variety of organizations, groups and educational institutions. Her recent publications include chapters in S.Wilkinson and C.Kitzinger (eds) Heterosexuality: Feminism and Psychology Reader (1993, Sage) and in J.Bristow and A. Wilson Activating Theory: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual Politics. The shape of her name reflects the origin of many Black family names in the nomenclature of European slave-owners. Deborah Cheney is a lecturer in criminal law at the University of Kent. She is the author of Into the Dark Tunnel— Foreign Prisoners in the British Prison System (1993, Prison Reform Trust) and The Foreign Prisoner Resource Pack (Prison Reform Trust and HM Prison Service). Deborah is the Executive Committee member of the Association of Members of Boards of Visitors, and Editor of the journal AMBoV Quarterly. viii Juliette Jarrett was educated at St Martin’s School of Art and at the Institute of Education, London University. She is currently programme manager for Science and Technological courses at Lambeth College, South London. Delia Jarrett-Macauley is a writer and has researched and taught Black women’s history and feminist politics in Britain and the Caribbean. She was a lecturer in Women’s Studies at the University of Kent from 1989–94. Since the 1980s she has worked in cultural management—on which she now lectures in Europe. Annecka Marshall is completing a doctorate in sociology at the University of Warwick where she is also a part-time tutor. She has taught feminism and anti-racist courses for both the University of North London and for Birkbeck College, London University. Felly Nkweto Simmonds is a senior lecturer in sociology at the University of Northumbria at Newcastle. Her recent publications include chapters in H.Hinds et al. (eds) Working Out: New Directions for Women’s Studies (1992, Falmer Press) and in T. Lovell (ed.) British Feminist Thought (1990, Basil Blackwell). Lola Young is Senior Lecturer in Media and Cultural Studies at Middlesex University and has written extensively on issues of ‘race’, gender and representation in films. Her book Fear of the Dark: ‘Race’, Gender and Sexuality in the Cinema was published by Routledge in late 1995. Editor’s introduction There is a picture in my room, It is a picture Of a beautiful white lady I used to think her sweet But now I think She lacks something. I was so ugly Because I am black But now I am glad I am black There is something about me That has a dash in it Especially when I put on My bandanna. (Marson, ‘Black is fancy’, 1937) Of all the poems I know about Black women’s ability to find beauty in themselves, in the face of negative stereotypes, this one is particularly important to me. Written long before the slogan, ‘Black is Beautiful’ became the vogue, it evokes a transforming moment in which the poet recognizes the need to abandon anything which would impede her sensitive development and fulfilment. More than half a century later, this poem affirmed my desire to encourage other Black women to put their dash into British scholarship. This book is, in part, the fruit of that desire. It is about the need to reject obsolete images and instead enjoy the enormous flexibility of self- definition. The denial of freedom of self-expression which began with chattel slavery in the sixteenth century has taken many forms. African people, whether living on the continent or as part of the growing African Diaspora, have been recast in colonial and racist images as sexual, deviant, bestial, ‘Other’. The x stereotypes persisted, multiplied like lice, and found their way into every form of contemporary media. As the Trinidad-born activist Claudia Jones wrote in 1949: In the film, radio and press, the Negro woman is not pictured in her real role as breadwinner, mother and protector of the family, but as a traditional ‘mammy’ who puts the care of children and families of others above her own. This traditional stereotype of the Negro slave mother, which to this day appears in commercial advertisements, must be combatted and rejected as a device of the imperialist to perpetuate the white chauvinist ideology that Negro women are ‘backward’, ‘inferior’ and the ‘natural slaves of others’. (quoted in Johnson 1984) Black women in Britain today represent a permanent and talented part of the community, and yet Britain has responded to them in only the most grudging way. Still, for all the hype and the hyperbole which surrounds ‘Black womanhood’, we are still under-produced, under-explored, under-researched. We are a long way from the dynamic cultural and literary activities of African-Americans and in any event, our specific histories are quite different, as are the political practices and ideologies that have developed out of these. But we have not been silent. From the early 1950s when significant numbers of West African and West Indian people arrived in Britain, we have learnt how to negotiate the island’s selective welcome in both public and private spheres. This hands-on education has ranged from dealing with hostile neighbours, understanding the possible strains of ethnically mixed intimate relationships, to challenging the lack of accountability enjoyed by immigration officials, headteachers or doctors. The lesssons of the 1950s and 1960s sunk in deep, and we have long since graduated to new schools. Since the early 1980s there have been a number of published works by and about Black women in Britain. The majority of these are creative works, some of which are implicitly critical of Euro- American feminist theory.1 A handful of non-fiction works published during the last decade have raised awareness of the position of Black women in this society; (Amos and Parmar 1984; Bryan et al.