WOMANISM IN JAMAICA KINCAID’S ANNIE JOHN

This research paper sets out to show that black women are custodians of culture even though most critics opine that women are weak, vulnerable and they have no value in the African society. Feminism (Womanism) has been used to carry out the research to explain how black women preserve their culture despite the inferior positions given to them in their society. Qualitative research was used to write this paper since it involves textual analysis. Information of this research paper was gathered from the primary sources and secondary sources. Womanism was first coined by Alice Walker in 1979 in her short story “Coming Apart” and was first used in her work In Search of our Mother’s Garden. She explains that the term womanist is derived from the southern folk expression “acting womanish” the womanish girl “exhibits wilful, courageous, and outrageous behaviour that is considered beyond the scope of societal norms”. A womanist is therefore a black feminist who is wilful and serious, loves women and men and is committed to the survival of the entire people. Aloysius GonzagasIkechukwuOrjinta’s definition of womanism would be used as our working definition in this paper. He defines Womanism as the name of the sociocultural awareness of African women in Africa and in the Diaspora. It understands women as matured, adult, responsible and honest. It rejects associations to women like girlish, passive, weak, vulnerable, and babyish. The womanist ideology is based on gender complementarities, motherhood, family, social and cultural change. Womanism is holistic in that it stands for the liberation and welfare of women and the liberation of the whole of the African and coloured people on the African continent and in the Diaspora: woman, man and child. This article further shows how the tenets of womanism are reflected in Kincaid’s Annie John. Womanism demonstrates how women fight against the marginalisation of all living things. Besides, it also highlights women’s ability in the daily survival of the community, and their relationship to nature since they preserve it as their companion. This preservation is today an essential issue in the political, economic and cultural circles. It will as well deepen discussion in the field of feminism.