Africana Studies : Africana Womanism

"Africana Womanism" was a term that was coined in the late 1980s by Clenora Hudson-Weems,intended as an ideology applicable to all women of African descent throughout the African Diaspora. It is centered in African Culture and the concept of Afrocentrism and focuses on the experiences, struggles, and needs of Black Women from the African Diaspora.

It distinguishes itself from Feminism, or Alice Walker's Womanism. Africana Womanism pays more attention to and focuses more on the realities and the injustices in society in regard to race^. Hudson-Weems sought to create an ideology specific to African women and women of African descent. Hudson-Weems believes that the creation of the ideology separates African women's accomplishments from African male scholars, Feminism, and Black Feminism.The Africana Womanism Society lists 18 characteristics of the Africana Womanist, including being self-naming, self-defining, family-centered, flexible, and desiring positive male companionship.