The strength of our mothers : African & African American women & families : essays and speeches / Niara Sudarkasa.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Sudarkasa, Niara.

Contributor:

McAdoo, Harriette Pipes, writer of foreword.

Joanna Banks Collection of African American Books (University of Pennsylvania)

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

African American women--Social conditions.

African American women.

African American families.

Women--Africa--Social conditions.

Women.

Africa.

Social conditions.

Families--Africa.

Families.

Penn Provenance:

Banks, Joanna (donor) (Banks Collection copy)

Physical Description:

xxiv, 336 pages ; 22 cm

Place of Publication:

Trenton, N.J. : Africa World Press, Inc., 1996.

Summary:

This ambitious anthology marshals mountains of sociological and anthropological data to elucidate the essence of the Black family both in the Americas and in the African motherland. The author interprets the differences between African-American and Euro-American family patterns not as deviations from some pristine, universal, ideal family structure, but rather as a function of the ongoing survival strategy of a vibrant tradition that has weathered centuries of social upheaval. Only the enduring African communal principles of "respect, restraint, responsibility, reciprocity, reverence, reason, and reconciliation" could have ensured the survival of the far-flung "African-American Community" as it was uprooted from one continent, transplanted in another, and woven inextricably into the fabric of the same trans-Atlantic empire that sought to drain it dry.

"It is", says the author, "a fact, supported by evidence that accumulates with each new historical and sociological study of Black families, that African patterns of family organization survived among enslaved Blacks and continue to be manifest to the present day". Anyone seeking to shore up -- or to reinvent -- the institution of the family in our inherently and increasingly diverse world will do well to read this book before making any sweeping generalizations about "family values".

Contents:

Part I: Reassessing African American Families. Value Premises Underlying Black Family Studies and Black Families; Dispelling the Myths about Black Families; Female-Headed African American Households-Some Neglected Dimensions; Speaking up for Single Mothers; African-American families and Family Values

Part II: African and African American Families: Understanding the Links. Roots of the Black Family: Observations on the Frazier-Herskovits Debate; African and African American Family Structure; Interpreting the African Heritage in African American Family Organization; Timeless Values for Troubled Times: Strengthening Today's African American Families; Planning for the Family versus "Family Planning"-The case for national action in Nigeria

Part III: African Women: Patterns of Independence, Responsibility, and Leadership in their Families and Communities. The "Status of Women" in Indigenous African Societies-Implications for the study of African American women's roles; The Changing Roles of Women in Changing Family Structures in West Africa: Some Preliminary Observations; In a World of Women: Field work in a Yoruba community; Female employment and family organization in West Africa; Women and migration in contemporary West Africa; The effects of twentieth-century social change, especially migration, on women of West Africa; Gender roles, education, and development in Africa; Male/Female disparities in education and occupations in Nigeria: Implications for technological development

Part IV: African American Women: Building on the Strength of Our Mothers. African American Women-A case of strength without power?; Black women in higher education: movin' up but payin' the price; Comments on the National Centers for African American Women, with Special Reference to the International Development Center; Reflections on the positions and problems of Black women in America.

Notes:

"First Printing 1996."

"Book design: Jonathan Gullery. Cover design: Linda Nickens."

Foreword (pages [xi]-xiv) by Harriet Pipes McAdoo.

Includes bibliographical references (pages [323]-336) and index.

Local Notes:

Kislak Center Banks Collection copy presented to the Penn Libraries in 2018 by Joanna Banks.

ISBN:

0865434964

0865434972

OCLC:

33946901