Bringing African Women into the Classroom: Rethinking Pedagogy and Epistemology

Abstract

Explorations into the character, possibilities, and survival of feminism and sisterhood on a global scale have led me to revisit the evolution of feminism in the West, especially in the United States, since the 1960s and to examine the question of identity in structuring and destructuring alliances. The crisis in the feminist movement in the United States is a microcosm of the problems that militate against women forming alliances across continents. The troubled history of second-wave feminism in the United States chronicles the movement from the radicalism and sexual politics of the 1960s to the theorizing and feminist politics of the late 1970s and early 1980s to the narcissism and identity politics of the 1980s. A study of this evolution raises some epistemological and pedagogical questions: How do the ways in which we construct, teach, and disseminate knowledge of the Other undermine or promote alliances between women?

Nothing so sentimental (or arrogant) as ignoring differences, nor so cowardly (or lazy) as overemphasizing them.

—Robin Morgan

Knowledge leads no more to openings than to closures. … Between knowledge and power, there is room for knowledge at rest …” the end of myths, the erosion of utopia, the rigor of taut patience.”

—Trinh T. Minh-ha

Borders are imaginary lines.

—Anonymous