About the Book
Elevating Humanity via Africana Womanism is a short, but powerful book, advocating synergy via unity/collectivity as a panacea for all societal ills. It discusses the Africana Womanism theory - an authentic family centered concept for all women of African descent - as a grid upon which to erect the private and public personae of all positive Africana people. Within the context of our cultural and historical matrix, it opens with defining the paradigm, while promoting the importance of prioritizing race, class and gender, the triple plight of Black women. A workable strategy for ensuring equality for all, it closes on a note of love and spirituality, while embracing the special connection between Africana men and women, the 2-sided human coin.
This introduction logically and convincingly speaks truth to power about who we, Black women are, beginning, in Part One, with naming and defining ourselves, with the foreknowledge of the seminal role of our male counterparts. It identifies the 18 descriptors of the true Africana woman and her male counterpart. Part Two offers fruitful commentary, via sharing some of the many contributions we have given to society, which could enhance self-esteem among our people, many of whom have come to not love themselves and even their own, due to inadequate historical documentation.
Table of Contents:
Introduction
PART I Africana Womanism: Flipsides of the Human Coin
1 Africana Womanism: What It Is/What It Ain’t
2 “Cultural and Agenda Conflicts in Academia: Critical Issues for Africana Women’s
Studies”
3 The 18 Descriptors of the Africana Womanist
4 The Africana Womanist Male Counterpart
PART II Social Justice Long Overdue: Standing Strong
5 Debunking Excuses for Racism: Africana Legendaries A to Z
6 Racism & Misogamy against the Black Family: From the Bible to the Street
7 James Baldwin and Toni Morrison: Literary Crusaders for Social Justice
8 Conclusion
Coda
Epilogue
Afterword
About the Author :
Clenora Hudson (Weems) is a Professor, Theorist, Film Writer, and an Honored Listee in Marquis Who’s Who 2024. She is the author of six books on Africana Women and 4 on Emmett Till, having established him as catalyst of the Civil Rights Movement in her 1988 dissertation. She is editor of Africana-Melanated Womanism: In It Together(2002); Africana Paradigms, Practices & Literary Texts: Evoking Social Justice (2021); Physical and Intellectual Lynchings: An Emmett Till Continuum (2007); and Contemporary Africana Theory, Thought & Action: A Guide to Africana Studies (2007). She is the recipient of the Ford and National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowships and, with her co-author, the 1998 Toni Morrison Society National Book Award. She was an Ida Beam Distinguished V. Professor, U of Iowa, AAS, delivering the Keynote Address "Nobel Laureate Toni Morrison as Model Africana Womanist Artivist for Social Justice" for its 50th Anniversary.
Review :
“Elevating Humanity via Africana Womanism gives us a greater sense of what has been missing and what is still needed to bring wholeness, peace and justice for all humankind. Having identified the key unaddressed issues, often buried in hidden truths, Clenora, then, offers a corrective, thereby making progress via conceivable possibilities for ending the race divide within the human race.”
Gail Baker, PhD, Senior Vice President. & Provost; Interim Dean, School of Peace Studies, U of San Diego
“Dr. Hudson (Weems) continues to encapsulate the importance of community, synergy & collaboration within the Black family. As an aspiring 3rd generation Black physician (my father is a gastroenterologist; grandfather was a urologist), with an ambition to learn, serve, progress & elevate our communities, I, too, practice Africana Womanism’s family centrality, epitomized in its mandate for Collectivity for social justice.”
Benjamin Jones, MD Candidate Class of 2025, U of KS School of Medicine; my former student and an Africana Womanism mentee
“Guided by Dr. Clenora Hudson (Weems), Africana Womanism continues to ‘elevate humanity,’ shining indelible light in a cloudy landscape of yesterday and today. In embracing her insights for ending social injustices, we, then, would be that collective force needed to end inequities at last.”
Alveda C. King, PhD, Evangelist; Niece of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.; Founder: speakforlife.org and Leader of Civil Rights for the Unborn
“Africana Womanism elevates humanity by building a sense of community like Ubuntu. Through the ethics of caring & solidarity, our humanity carries the sense of justice from one to another among Africana men, women, & children. All lives are fulfilled when Africana people are fulfilled. Africana Womanism elevates its community through loving ourselves, our neighbor, & nature. It moves the world & the individual in every family to live in love & shared experiences. Africana Womanism is the act of witnessing the worth of those who came before us ;& are still among us.”
Suzete de Paiva Lima Kourliansdsky, Mahura Collective -- Paris, France
“Dr. Clenora Hudson (Weems) has once again broken new ground. This massive, little book is an indispensable resource for those wanting a theoretical framework that eschews division and, instead, embraces unity in the Black Family, and beyond. To be sure, a global concept, with conceivable workable solutions, it merits the status of being required reading for all humanity.”
Pamela Reed, PhD, Professor & Founding Executive Director, James Arthur Baldwin Africologic Institute, Virginia State U; Interview, with Clenora Hudson, Prologue, Africana Womanism 6th Edition
“The Africana Womanism paradigm justifiably centers the Africana woman in her community, via establishing a learning objective that can eradicate white supremacy. The author elucidates a smooth & awe-inspiring claim that if we seek justice for the most vulnerable & mistreated, it could result in an overdue snowball of global justice, thereby, advancing the condition for all humanity.”
Jacqueline Roebuck Sakho, PhD, Assistant Professor, Leadership Studies, North Carolina A & T State U
“Elevating Humanity via Africana Womanism, a wholesome book that reaches readers inside & outside academia, offers Africana people the reflection needed to improve our living conditions. It guides us through a family-centered dynamics to help harmonize the roles of our women & men in nurturing our children through a pathway of a new paradigm, finally detached from the misguided ideas that were the basis of the exploitation of global melanated people for centuries.”
Helen Santos, Afro-Latina linguist in US – translator for Mulherismo Africana group-- currently working with communities, emancipatory perspective of language acquisition
“Intra-connecting Africana Womanism and Healing Our Youth -- Dr. Clenora Hudson (Weems) has introduced an authentic blueprint for the community to reconnect with God, demystify Eurocentric behaviors, and reclaim our love for one another –men, women & children. Our youth are in dire need of being replenished and involved in the process of collectively healing their wounds as they are guided by the principles of Africana Womanism.”
Denisha Seals, Artist, filmmaker & author of Children’s books (i.e. The Butterflies in Me)
“Clenora’s theory expounds on the importance of sticking together for true security and success. The beauty of it all is the inclusivity of its participants and its audience – men, women and children, of all ages. Let’s step it up, while beautifully embracing each other to make it happen for us all!”
Lillian A. Smith, Entrepreneur, former Senior Producer of the Phil Donahue Show, and former Executive Producer for Fox TV in LA.
“A principal figure in the sub-field of Africana Women’s Studies, Clenora has received national & international attention. This book -- an empowering overview of her paradigm, considered by many a global signature concept on the subject -- continues her solid scholarly record of crafting means by which we can better secure true social justice. Congratulations on another milestone!”
James B. Stewart, PhD, Inaugural Dir. of the BERC-21, Senior Fellow at the Institute on Race, Power & Political Economy, The New School (NYC); Professor Emeritus & Vice Provost, Penn State U.
