Browsing by Subject "African"

Now showing 1 - 5 of 5

Genital power : female sexuality in West African literature and film
(2011-05) Diabate, Naminata; Moore, Lisa L. (Lisa Lynne); Hoad, Neville Wallace, 1966-
This dissertation calls attention to three important contemporary texts from West Africa that resist the tacit cultural taboo around questions of sexuality to imagine empowering images of female sexuality. Using postcolonial feminist approaches, queer theory, and cultural studies, I analyze two novels and a film by T. Obinkaram Echewa, Frieda Ekotto, and film director Jean Pierre Bekolo to retrieve moments in which women characters turn the tables on denigrating views of their sexuality and marshal its power in the service of resistance. I show how in these texts, women bare their nether parts, wield menstrual cloths, enjoy same-sex erotic acts, sit on men's faces, and engage in many other stigmatized practices in a display of what I call "genital powers." These powers are both traditional to the cultures analyzed here and called into new forms by the pressures of decolonization and globalization. Through more complex representations of female sexuality, these texts chart a tradition in which stale binaries of victims and oppressors, the body as an exclusive site of female subjugation or as a site of eternal female power are blurred, allowing a deeper understanding of women's lived experiences and what it means to be a resisting subject in the postcolonial space. By broadly recovering women's powers and subjectivities, centering on sexuality and the body, I also examine the ways in which this mode of female subjectivity has thus far escaped comprehensive theorization. In this way, my project responds to Gayatri Spivak's call to postcolonial intellectuals to unlearn privileged forms of resistance in the recognition of subjectivity, and to develop tools that would allow us to "listen" to the voices of disenfranchised women - those removed from the channels of knowledge production. However, my study cautions that the recognition of genital powers should not be conflated with the romanticized celebration of female bodies and sexuality, since West African women continue to struggle against cultural, political, existential, and physical assaults.
Racial identity, ethnic identity, and the link between perceived racism and psychological distress in African and Afro-Caribbean Blacks
(2013-12) Awosogba, Olufunke Rachael; Cokley, Kevin O. (Kevin O'Neal), 1969-
Numerous studies confirm the relationship between perceived racism and psychological distress. Scholars have incorporated group identification to understand this relationship among Black Americans; however, there is a dearth in the literature on other Black ethnic groups. The influx of African and Afro-Caribbean immigrants continues to change the demography of Black America. Despite being racially categorized as Black, these groups have different social and cultural experiences, which influence self-concept and psychological functioning. The proposed study seeks to examine moderation effects of racial identity and ethnic identity in relation to perceived racism and psychological distress in African and Afro-Caribbean Blacks.
The Relationship between Social and Economic Marginalization and Alcohol Abuse within the African Racial Group
(2018) Ingle, Tanvi
Sticks and stones : analyzing the Museum of Modern Art’s values through language
(2017-05) Tisher, Kelcie Katharine; Bolin, Paul Erik, 1954-
This historical study investigated portrayals of non-Western objects, culture, and people in two museum catalogs. Performing content analysis on The Museum of Modern Art’s (MoMA) exhibition catalogs from African Negro Art (1935) and “Primitivism” in 20th Century Art (1984), the researcher found a presence of Western bias and racist language directed toward African makers and their art. The language used in the African Negro Art (1935) catalog isolates Africa from Western culture and art by describing African objects and culture as being of less value and different from traditional art in the West. Analysis of language seen in African Negro Art (1935) revealed a trend of utilizing language that belittled African objects, people, and culture. Through a consideration of language used in the “Primitivism” in 20th Century Art (1984) catalog, the researcher found examples of embedded racist and oppressive language. Yet, a comparison of these two catalogs from MoMA revealed less evidence of derogatory words and terminology in the more recent publication than seen in the exhibition catalog from fifty years earlier. In analyzing the changes seen in language evident in these two museum catalogs, the researcher explored civil rights events that took place in and around New York City which may have influenced the writer of the latter MoMA catalog. Historical research uncovered actions such as anti-discrimination protests, which helped to alter the cultural climate of New York City between 1935 and 1984. It is argued here that these historical events and changes that occurred in New York City’s cultural arts society may have affected the shift seen in MoMA’s use of language to discuss African objects, culture, and people. The researcher concludes that museum generated texts may likely impact how visitors perceive non-Western cultures, and thus strongly encourages museum personnel to be thoughtfully aware of how language is used in their publications.
Trials of identity : investigating al- Jāḥiẓ and the Zanj in modern pro-Black discourse
(2015-08) Ingram, Paige Mandisa; Spellberg, Denise A.; Berry, Daina
Scholarship about the Muslim philosopher al-Jāḥiẓ and the Zanj revolt of the same era has focused primarily on a specific set of historiographical questions. What was the relationship between al-Jāḥiẓ's explorations of skin color and the revolt of the largely dark-skinned Zanj slaves in Basra, if any? Was the Zanj revolt essentially a class or race rebellion? Such questions, while significant, speak to the specific historical concerns--about the social relations and political-economic systems--of Abbasid-era Baghdad and Basra. Somewhat neglected are the modern uses of this figure and moment in discourses outside the purview of academic study, particularly among politicized Black Americans and Black Muslims, for whom (in some quarters at least) al-Jāḥiẓ and the Zanj revolt hold special import. The rise of Sunni Islam among Black Americans since the 1960s has presented an array of challenges to the unique sociopolitical and religious circumstances in which practitioners are mired. How to develop a religious tradition able to answer to the unique sociopolitical challenges faced by Black Americans, and how to develop simultaneously a religious practice centered on God rather than sociopolitical systems? At the cross-section between politics and religion, Blackness and orthodox Sunni Islam, the answers to these questions have already begun to be attempted, with al-Jāḥiẓ and the Zanj revolt sometimes playing a pivotal role.