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The Dynamics of African Feminism: Defining and Classifying African Feminist Literatures BY SUSAN ARNDT Trenton, NJ: Africa World P, 2002. 234 pp. ISBN 0-86543-898-6 paper. Foreword by Obioma Nnaemeka. Translation by Isabel Cole of Feminismus im Widerstreit: Afrikanischer Feminismus in Gesellschaft und Literatur. Munster: Unrast Verlag, 2000. 205 pp. ISBN 3-89771-20f-6 paper.
The first five chapters of Susan Arndt's monograph provide a clear overview of the various terminologies and ideas of African feminisms, such as Molara OgundipeLeslie's stiwanism, Catherine Acholonu's motherism, Obioma Nnaemeka's negofemimsm, and Mary Kolawole's and Chikwenye Ogunyemi's versions of womanism. Arndt shows how they do, or do not, relate to Western feminist concepts. With African feminists, Arndt criticizes African American feminists for speaking for black women and "women of color" internationally, thus claiming authority over African women with whose conditions and needs they may not be familiar. African feminists, in contrast, address African women's various different situations and needs...