During this week’s 28th annual Kemetic Studies Conference of the Association for the Study of Classical African Civilizations (ASCAC) a panel was convened on the continuing relevance of Kemetic Womanhood.  Dr. Valethia Watkins presented a paper on “Reconceptualizing the Gender of Africana Women,” in which she criticized the Eurocentrism of “Feminism” and referred to Susan B. Anthony as “the Sarah Palin of her day.”  Yaa Ashantewaa Archer-Ngidi presented on “Womancentricism – Restoring Ancient Principles” and Dr. W. Joye Hardiman gave a talk titled “From Ancient Kemet to ASCAC: Sistas Holding up their Part of the Sky…” **  

**The conference was held at Howard Unviersity’s Blackburn Center during the weekend of March 18-20, 2011.

4 Replies

  1. These 3 sisters over all IMO gave a good presentation. I’m glad Sis Joye Hardiman [reiterated by Sis Yaa Ashantewaa Archer-Ngidi] talked about unity within the African sisterhood- from Africa to Cuba to Brazil [even to the point of ‘man-sharing’] & also the need for unity between African sisters w the African Brotherhood [IE: African sisters should not see themselves as separate & certainly not in conflict w their African Men / Brothers].
    But I’m going to focus on Sis Dr Valethia Watkins’ point about how the white westernized bourgeois lame-stream feminist movement has often been a ‘frenemy’ to the Black sisterhood. [ditto for the white led LGBT movement & also most of the US’ white working-class contrary to white Marxist-Leninist theories re: ‘hypothetical’ working-class ‘solidarity’ across race-lines]
    The US’ white led lame-stream feminist movement has indeed too often showed itself to be a ‘frenemy’ / friend of convenience to the Black freedom struggle in general & the Black sisterhood in particular.
    1} there’s Susan B. Antony & Liz Cady Staton’s dissing Fredrick Douglass over the 15th Amendment- Even to the point of race-baiting for Southern Belle’ support in the KKK / ‘Jim Crow’ south.
    -2} The suffragette movement deal to back racist POTUS Woodrow Wilson re the US entering WWI to get their 18th Amendment [= white women’s right to vote] passed. [FYI: many anti-war progressives were attacked by the Wilson Regime spear-headed by a young Gay Edgar Hoover among others]
    -3} Avowed Eugenicist Margarette Sanger’s Rockefeller backed ‘Negro Project’. MS Sanger had written disdainfully re: what she termed ‘slam mothers’ over-breeding.
    -4} Modern feminist ‘icon’ MS Gloria Steinem’s documented links to the CIA. FYI: MS Steinem was the 20yr common-law wife / intimate partner of a key official of the Nixon-Ford Regime, one J.Stan Pottinger, a [Jr] colleague to folks like Kissinger & Mr ‘CIA’ Bush Sr [Ford’s CIA chief]. Yet at the same time MS Steinem declared to sisters that they had ‘as much need for a man as a fish has for a bicycle’.
    Ms Steinem’s role re: hyping the ‘Color Purple’ & ‘Black Macho & the Myth of the Super-woman’ IMO shows her undue interference in Black Male-Female relations, by hyping Black men [including radicals] as inherently abusive.
    This view of abusive Black men is being perpetuated by the white controlled corp media’s promotion of misogynistic ‘Gangster Rap’- & now the video of Black NFL star Brandon Marshall slugging his wife [& other cases re: Black NFL & College Football stars]. Yet according to FBI crime stats white men commit 2/3s of total cases of domestic violence & RAPE in the US [vs white women & kids], & they kill almost 2Xs more white women than Black men kill Black women,! One study shows that 92% of middle class / working class white women have either been abused by &/or seen their mothers / daughters / sisters abused by white male family members vs 60% of Black women re: Black men. And a recent article shows that WHITE FRAT-Boys are 3Xs more likely to be Campus RAPISTS, than non-Frat male alumni. Thus if Black men are violent & abusive, it’s because they’ve had really effective white-male role-models for teachers of violence [as American as Apple-pie]. Now go run tell that MS Steinem!!!

    PS: In lieu of the up coming 2016 POTUS race; watch MS Steinem & other white bourgeois lame-stream feminists hype Hitlery / Killary for POTUS & insist that Black women vote for her in ‘sisterhood solidarity’. So the sisters are supposed to just forget Killary {I Came, I Saw, He Died… Ha, ha, ha!} Clinton’s along w Sue Rice, & Sam Power’s key role in the slaughter of a true son of Africa Col M.Khadaffi’s. Khadaffi had a real track-record of not just talking the talk but walking the walk. Mandela even slighted Slick Willy by honoring Khadaffi as a true friend in need RE: the ANC’s fight against the Apartheid regime. He tried to establish an alliance w 2 of Africa’s most revolutionary leaders in the 1980s-, Ghana’s Jerry Rawlings & the late Thomas Sankara. Khadaffi footed most of the bill to launch Africa’s own communication satellite system, & was working to establish Africa’s own investment bank [to cut Africa’s stiffing link to the IMF & World Bank] when OBomber/ Killary / Rice / Power backed FUK-US NATO’s ruthless bombing assault on Libya- which unleashed an AL-CIAeda linked hard-core RACIST LYNCH Mob on African migrant workers & also Black Libyan Muslims. Yet ‘feminists’ like DN!’s Amy.G helped hype those Racist Hard-core Islamicist Misogynists counter-revolution as a revolutionary victory for Libyan women vs Khadaffi- who had among the most ‘progressive’ track-records re: women in the Arab world [IE: increased women’s literacy from barely 10% to over 75% including collage attendance, restricted polygamy & forced-marriages if the woman was opposed, allowed women into non-traditional roles & posts, etc].
    So the Sisters will must decide who word carries the most weight re Khadaffi- Progressives IE: Black Woman ex-CBC member Sis Cynthia McKinney [& even white progressives IE: Kucinich & Nader] who said said what FUK-US NATO did in Libya & to Khadaffi was illegal & a travesty- or MS Steinem, Amy G as they again hype Killary for POTUS in 2016.[Note: Sis McKinney, Kucinich & Nader all ran for POTUS in 2008- but MS Steinem supported neither- not even Sis McKinney]

  2. It is very difficult listening to this… in the first presentation there was so much talking about white woman and their white supremacy that there was no time to affirm Black women’s sisterhood. Also, how many women did the first speaker quote (Jacob H. Carruthers, Carter G Woodson, Wade Noble, but no women on women’s issues)? Also, the 15th Amendment covering both Black women and men? I am sure Harriet Tubman and Sojourner Truth would have known if they had the right to vote.

    Throughout the whole presentation, there was so much focusing on not offending the delicate sensibilities of Black men that there was truly no focus on the Black woman as a cohesive and self-sustaining group with their own needs outside of male dominated Black nationalism (my personal definition of Womanism as opposed to white supremacist Feminism). Wonder about how hard men clapped and hollered when an anti-feminist statement was said? Screw feminism, but ponder the thought. That corny “lets share” men joke around the 33:00-34:00 mark kinds of sums up my disappointment in any discussion concerning Black women in these types of environments. How does that have to deal with sisterhood in any shape of fashion?

    However, the second woman did bring some interesting information about various sisterhoods around the world. So it wasn’t too too harsh, it at least gave some primary source information for individuals to research.

    Peace

    1. but you did get something new and helpful from our organizations presentation. Great. That is our purpose. To share information that will help rescue, and restore .the African mind and heart of African people.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *