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Cet article vise à analyser un symbole qui distingue les femmes afro-descendantes : leur chevelure crépue. Ces dix dernières années, denombreuses afro-féministes (aux États-Unis, en France, dans la Caraïbe et ailleurs) ont repris possession de leurs cheveux comme partie essentielle de leur héritage et ont choisi de garder leur état naturel, souvent surnommé « nappy » (contraction de l’anglais « natural » et « happy »). Dans notre analyse, nous comparerons les approches de l’écrivaine Léonora Miano et celles de l’activiste Rokhaya Diallo telles qu’elles apparaissent dans leurs oeuvres respectives, à savoir le roman Blues pour Élise et la nouvelle « Corpus Christi » pour la première et le roman graphique Pari(s) d’amies ! pour la seconde. Dans leurs oeuvres, Léonora Miano et Rokhaya Diallo souhaitent déconstruire les discours et les représentations négatives des cheveux et du physique des afro-descendantes, en revendiquant l’amour de soi. Bien que certains personnages résistent à l’idée du cheveu naturel, nous verrons que cette réappropriation constitue un acte performatif.
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The life story of Mrs. Daisy Sweeney, an African Canadian native of Montreal, Quebec, helps fill a void in the historical documentation of Montreal Blacks (especially female elders). Of particular significance is her prominence as a music educator and othermother during her life. The current literature on African Canadian othermothering experiences is not synonymous with both White or African American females and inclusion of their voices in academic, as well as mainstream spaces, is virtually non-existent. This dissertation asks: What did it mean to be a first generation 'Negro' working class bilingual female in a largely hostile White francophone Quebec metropolis in the early 20th Century? How can her narratives help shape and inform life history and African Canadian othermothering research? My sojourn with Mrs. Daisy Sweeney referenced African centered epistemology in my conceptual understanding of herself and community mothering. Capturing her conversations meant engaging with multiple methodologies articulated through African oral traditions, life history, archival canons and interdisciplinary inquiries. It is striking to note that there were not only certain tensions associated with memory loss and physical limitations (prompted by the aging process) that destabilized and enriched our 'interactive' communication, but also revealed a rupture and reversal of the participant/researcher dynamic. In spite of blatant racial discrimination that plagued Montreal's Black communities during that time, Daisy Sweeney fulfilled a life-long dream and taught hundreds of children the canon of classical piano for over 50 years. She lived her voice through her music, finding ways to validate her own identity and empowering others in the process. She used the musical stage as her platform to draw invaluable connections between race, gender, language and social class. Daisy Sweeney's generation of othermothers is dying out and, as the carriers of culture, the urgency to tell their stories must be emphasized. The account respects, reclaims and reflects those voices. It is time to write in African Canadian female elders and diversify the exclusionary genre of life history and archival research.
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In this lively and engaging book, Lisa Gail Collins examines the work of contemporary African American women artists. Her study comes at a time when an unprecedented number of these artists-photographers, filmmakers, painters, installation and mixed-media artists-have garnered the attention and imagination of the art-viewing public. To better understand the significance of this particular historical moment in American visual arts, Collins focuses on four "problems" that recur when these artists confront their histories: the documentation of truth; the status of the black female body; the relationship between art and cultural contact and change; and the relationship between art and black girlhood. By examining the social and cultural histories which African American women artists engage, Collins illuminates a dialogue between past and present imagemakers. The Art of History is a major contribution to the study of American visual culture. It will be of use to both scholars and students in art history, African American studies, American studies, and women's studies.