| About the Contributors
Margaret Ann Reid, a native of
Cheraw, South Carolina, received her B.A. in English from Morgan
State College, her M.A. in English from the University of Iowa,
her M.L.A in Literature from the Johns Hopkins University, and her
Ph.D. in English from Indiana University of Pennsylvania. She
serves on the editorial boards of many academic journals, and
publishes on the literature of African Americans and African
women. A former Fulbright-Hays Scholar and Professor of English at
Morgan State University, Dr. Reid did summer study in Kenya and
Tanzania. Dr. Reid is the author of Black Protest Poetry:
Polemics from the Harlem Renaissance and from the Sixties
(Peter Lang, 2002).
Najat Rahman is an Assistant Professor
at the Department of Comparative Literature at the University of
Montreal, specializing in Arabic and Francophone literature, and
her research interests include translation, poetry, and
nationalism. Dr. Rahman has written numerous articles on gender
and her publications include essays on Assia Djebar, poetic
translations of Mahmoud Darwish and Al Bayyati, and reviews of the
work of Rachid Al Daif, Amin Maalouf and Leila Sebbar. Dr. Rahman
is co-editor of a forthcoming critical edition (by Interlink
Press) on the work of the poet, Mahmoud Darwish.
Pierre-Damien Mvuyekure is an Associate
Professor at the Department of English and literature at the
University of Northern Iowa, Cedar Falls, IA. His research areas
include African American literature and culture, rap and hip-hop
music, African literature, culture, religion and dance aesthetics.
Also a poet, he is editor of World Eras (volume 10): West
African Kingdoms 500-1590 (Gale 2004). He currently serves as
Coordinator for State Chairpersons and Area Coordinators of NAAS.
Marlene De La Cruz-Guzmán is Assistant Dean for
Intercultural Programs at Marquette University in Milwaukee,
Wisconsin. A native of Guatemala, she holds an M.A. in Literature
from Michigan State University and a B.A. in Literature and
Theology from Barry University. Her research interests include
third wave feminist theory, sub-Saharan African women writers, and
the work of Yvonne Vera, in particular. She is currently
conducting research in Southern Africa for a forthcoming project.
Lena M. Ampadu is Associate Professor at the Department
of English Towson University. She has scholarly essays published
in Callaloo, Composition Studies, African
American Rhetoric(s): Interdisciplinary Perspectives, and Journal
of the Association for Research on Mothering. Her current
research interests include the rhetoric of nineteenth-century
African American women and oral traditions in the literature of
women of African descent.
Ramenga Mtaali Osotsi (Ph.D.) is of the department of
English, James Madison University, Harrisonburg, VA. Originally
from Kenya, Dr. Osotsi taught for many years at University of
Nairobi, Kenyatta University, and Maseno University. Currently,
she serves as the Director of the World Literature Minor -- a
joint program of the Department of English and the Department of
Foreign Languages and literature of the James Madison University.
Blessing Diala-Ogamba has a Ph.D. in English from the
Federal University of Port Harcourt, Nigeria, an M.E. from
Worchester State College Massachusetts, an M.A. and a B.A.
Education/English from the University of Calabar, Nigeria. She is
presently Assistant professor in the Department of Humanities and
Media Arts at Coppin State University, Baltimore, Maryland.
Gloria Ifeoma Chuku (Ph.D.) is an Associate Professor of
History at Millersville University of Pennsylvania. She has
published numerous articles in national and international journals
including the Journal of Archaeological Association of Nigeria,
Journal of Rural Development and Administration, African
Economic History, UFAHAMU. Dr. Chuku also contributed a
chapter tot he book, Troubled Journey: Nigeria Since the Civil
War.
Deirdre Bucher Heistad is an Asiistant professor of
French and Francophone Studies at the University of Northern Iowa.
She received her Ph.D. in Interdisciplinary French Studies from
the University of Illinois at Urbana/Champaign in 2000. Focusing
her research on Francophone women writers, recent publications
include "Evelyne Accad, (fémi) humaniste" (co-authored
with Cynthia Hahn of Lake Forest College) in Revue des lettre
et de Traduction, "Beyond Mariana Bâ: Senegalese Women
Writers in the Classroom" in Women in French Studies,
and "Entretien avec Fouad Laroui" in CELAAN Review.
She is currently editing a book -- "Evelyne Accad:
Explorations."
M'baré N'gom (Ph.D., Paris-Sorbonne) is Professor of
Spanish and Latin American Studies/French and Francophone Studies
and the Chairperson of the Department of Foreign Languages, and
Director of the African Studies Program. His articles have
appeared in many international journals. He is the author of Diálogos
con Guinea: panorama de la literatura guineoecuatoriana de
expresión castellana a través de sus protagonistas (Madrid
1996), and co-author of Literatura de Guinea Ecuatorial (Antologia)
(Madrid 2000). He has traveled, studied, and lived in Africa,
Europe, South America, and Central America.
Acknowledgments
Editing this anthology has been a challenging and enriching
experience. I thank the scholars who submitted the essays
that make up this book: Gloria Chuku,
Ramenga Mtaali Osotsi, Margaret A. Reid, Pierre-Damien
Mvuyekure, Najat Rahman, Deirdre Bucher Heistad,
M'bar N'Gom, Blessing Diala-Ogamba, Marlene de la
Cruz-Guzmn and Lena Ampadu. Many of these notable
scholars worked really hard to satisfy the parameters
set out for this study.
As
usual, I express my undying gratitude to my husband Sebastian
Okechukwu Mezu, poet, novelist, Pan-Africanist scholar,
publisher, political theorist, businessman - genius and
Renaissance man -- without whose encouragement I would have
abandoned this work because of its scope and complexity.
Time and again, he would push and push until I would dust off and
go back to work. Certainly, it is largely because of his
unflagging commitment to excellence and completion which his name,
Mezu, symbolizes, that this anthology has come to fruition.
Source: Rose Ure Mezu, ed. A History of Africana
Women's Literature. Baltimore:
Black Academy Press, 2004 *
* * * *
Other essays by Dr. Rose Ure Mezu:
An Africana
Blueprint for Living in the 3rd Millennium
Global Community1: An Essay
Pope
John Paul II: A Life with a Mission: A Mission of Grace and Moral
Strength
A History
of Africana Women's Literature (Introduction)
Africana
Women: Their Historic Past and Future
Activism
Black
Nationalists: Reconsidering: Du Bois, Garvey, Booker T., &
Nkrumah (Introduction)
Chinua Achebe The
Man and His Works (Introduction)
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 |
The Price of Civilization
Reawakening American Virtue and
Prosperity
By
Jeffrey D. Sachs
The Price of Civilization is a
book that is essential reading for every
American. In a forceful, impassioned,
and personal voice, he offers not only a
searing and incisive diagnosis of our
country’s economic ills but also an
urgent call for Americans to restore the
virtues of fairness, honesty, and
foresight as the foundations of national
prosperity. Sachs finds that both
political parties—and many leading
economists—have missed the big picture,
offering shortsighted solutions such as
stimulus spending or tax cuts to address
complex economic problems that require
deeper solutions. Sachs argues that we
have profoundly underestimated
globalization’s long-term effects on our
country, which create deep and largely
unmet challenges with regard to jobs,
incomes, poverty, and the environment.
America’s single biggest economic
failure, Sachs argues, is its inability
to come to grips with the new global
economic realities. Sachs describes a
political system that has lost its
ethical moorings, in which ever-rising
campaign contributions and lobbying
outlays overpower the voice of the
citizenry. . . . Sachs offers a plan to
turn the crisis around. He argues
persuasively that the problem is not
America’s abiding values, which remain
generous and pragmatic, but the ease
with which political spin and
consumerism run circles around those
values. He bids the reader to reclaim
the virtues of good citizenship and
mindfulness toward the economy and one
another.
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Sister Citizen: Shame, Stereotypes, and Black Women in
America
By Melissa V.
Harris-Perry
According to the
author, this society has historically exerted
considerable pressure on black females to fit into one
of a handful of stereotypes, primarily, the Mammy, the
Matriarch or the Jezebel. The selfless
Mammy’s behavior is marked by a slavish devotion to
white folks’ domestic concerns, often at the expense of
those of her own family’s needs. By contrast, the
relatively-hedonistic Jezebel is a sexually-insatiable
temptress. And the Matriarch is generally thought of as
an emasculating figure who denigrates black men, ala the
characters Sapphire and Aunt Esther on the television
shows Amos and Andy and Sanford and Son, respectively.
Professor Perry
points out how the propagation of these harmful myths
have served the mainstream culture well. For instance,
the Mammy suggests that it is almost second nature for
black females to feel a maternal instinct towards
Caucasian babies.
As for the source
of the Jezebel, black women had no control over their
own bodies during slavery given that they were being
auctioned off and bred to maximize profits. Nonetheless,
it was in the interest of plantation owners to propagate
the lie that sisters were sluts inclined to mate
indiscriminately.
|
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* * * * *
The White Masters of the
World
From
The World and Africa, 1965
By W. E. B. Du Bois
W. E. B. Du Bois’
Arraignment and Indictment of White Civilization
(Fletcher)
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Ancient African Nations
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Enjoy!
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The Death of Emmett Till by Bob Dylan
/
The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll
/
Only a Pawn in Their Game
Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson Thanks America for
Slavery /
George Jackson /
Hurricane Carter
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The Journal of Negro History issues at Project Gutenberg
The
Haitian Declaration of Independence 1804
/
January 1, 1804 -- The Founding of
Haiti
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updated
10 June 2008
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