Reading the Combahee River Statement pt. 1
This is a “Weekly Spotlight” feature piece
The genesis of Contemporary Black Feminism
We would like to affirm that we find our origins in the historical reality of Afro-American women’s continuous life-and-death struggle for survival and liberation … There is undeniably a personal genesis for Black Feminism, that is, the political realization that comes from the seemingly personal experiences of individual Black women’s lives … However, we had no way of conceptualizing what was so apparent to us, what we knew was really happening … Black feminists often talk about their feelings of craziness before becoming conscious of the concepts of sexual politics, patriarchal rule, and most importantly, feminism, the political analysis and practice that we women use to struggle against our oppression. The Combahee River Collective Statement, April 1977
I was born screaming Without cotton on my back Or a theory to my body My first introduction to a politics of liberation was the day-to-day Push to be more lady like Less objectionable in the eyes of men And that meant closing my legs To take up less space And perhaps be less inviting It required I learn to distinguish myself from The women who are abused, and punished Walked over, and forgotten It forced me to shroud my body Then blamed me when I was mistaken for invitation It bloodied me and forced me to clean up the mess In an effort To stave off the pressure of A livelihood so foreign I scratched up my skin And learned ways of fitting into the pockets Of oppression that granted me infrequent breath Only to be swallowed again In the mass of hands and fists Pushing me to the margins And further away from the radical femme I was born to be
© Ama Akoto (2018)