Women and the Black Diaspora

Table of Contents

Editorial/Éditorial
by Darcy Ballantyne, Sylvia D. Hamilton, Katherine McKittrick, Andrea Medovarski, Leslie Sanders, Esther Tharao-Lyaruu, D. Alissa Trotz, Njoki N. Wane 3,5

Memory

A Daughter’s Journey
by Sylvia D. Hamilton 6

The Spirit of the Ancestors: The Photography and Installation Art of Albert Chong and Wura-Natasha Ogunji
by Ana-Maurine Lara 14

Slavery, Portraiture and the Colonial Limits of Canadian Art History
by Charmaine Nelson 22

Waking the Gone: Nine Night as Cultural Remembrance of an Afican Heritage in Belizean Literature
by Julie E. Moody Freeman 30

Dialoguing Borders: The African Diasporic Consciousness in Erna Brodber’s Louisiana
by Reginald Khokher 38

Creole Portraits (2002-2003)
by Joscelyn Gardner 44

Belonging

Les sans pays: langue, écriture, exil et identité diasporique!
par Angèle Bassolé 46

By Hair and Skin: Growing Up in the UK
by Janet Kofi-Tsekpo 49

Open Roses, Closed Gardens and Invisible Women: Queering the Tropical Garden in the Poetry of Ida Saloman Faubert
by Natasha Tinsley 52

“In the Middle of Becoming”: Dionne Brand’s Historical Vision by Joanne
Saul 59

Diaspora, Citizenship and Gender: Challenging the Myth of the Nation in African Canadian Women’s Literature
by Andrea Davis 64

Defying Categorization: The Work of Suzette Mayr
by Katie Petersen 71

Journeys of Détour in Maryse Condé’s A Season in Rihata
by Piper Kendrix Williams 76

When the Question of Dreadlocks Leads to Knowledge and Empowerment: The Translatlantic Slave Trade and Its Legacy of Westernized Education
by Jean Daniels 82

La question de l’identité dans mons écriture
par Marie-Celie Agnant 86

Work

African Canadian Women and the New World Diaspora, c.1865
by Nina Reid-Maroney 92

African-Caribbean Women, Diaspora and Transnationality
by Charmaine Crawford 97

Black Self-Employed Women in the Twenty-First Century: A Critical Approach
by Mélanie Knight 104

The Shattered Dreams of African Canadian Nurses
by Najja Nwofia Modibo 111

Mothering the Motherless: Portrayals of Alternative Mothering Practices within the Caribbean Diaspora
by Amanda Putnam 118

Questioning

A/li(f)ve to tell
by njeri-damali (campbell) 127

Situating Older Caribbean Canadian Women in Feminist Research: A Reflection
by Delores V. Mullings 134

An African Child Becomes a Black Canadian Feminist: Oscillating Identities in the Black Diaspora
by Notisha Massaquoi 140

Black Canadian Feminist Thought: Tensions and Possibilities
by Njoki N. Wane 145

From the Point of No Return to the Women’s Prison: Writing Spaces of Confinement into Diaspora Studies
by Julia Sudbury 154

Diaspora? by Carol Latchford 164

Poetry

Spaces of my Empowerment by Marilyn Patricia Yearwood 13
Unknown by Danielle Villeneuve 20
An Amazing Story by Rhoma Spencer 21
Declonise Your Mind … Not Mine!!! by Judith McKeown 43
Femme par Giliane Obas 51
Untitled par Joujou Turenne 59
Forgive and forget by Alison Pryer 63
In a manner fantastic by Gabriele D. R. Guenther 69
Les Porteuses d’Afrique! par Angèle Bassolé 70
Farm Wife Anne Duke Judd 91
Perles Noires par Micheline Mercier 110
revelations by karen (miranda) augustine 125
Dionysus in the Diaspora by Anne-Marie Brumm 126
Ellen Between the Lines by Anne Duke Judd 133
Hudson by Holly Lalena Day 153

Book Reviews

I Know Who I Am: A Caribbean Woman’s Identity in Canada
reviewed by Amoaba Gooden 167

L’Esclave
par Jeanne Maranda 168

Where I Come From reviewed
by Dana Palrascu-Kingsley 169

Bodies in a Broken World: Women Novelists of Color and the Politics of Medicine
reviewed by Stephanie Hart 170

Women and the Historical Enterprise in America: Gender, Race and the Politics of Memory
reviewed by Jennifer Harris 171

Unequal Freedom: How Race and Gender Shaped American Citizenship and Labor
reviewed by Sandra Tam 172

Heart of a Stranger reviewed
by Laura McLaughlan 173

The Voice of Harriet Taylor Mill reviewed
by Judy Steed 175

Setting the Agenda: Jean Royce and the Shaping of Queen’s University
reviewed by Clara Thomas 176

Queen Elizabeth the First reviewed
by Nanci White 177

Eighteenth-Century Fiction on Screen
reviewed by Natalie Neill 178

About the Artwork

Front Cover
Marie-Denise Douyon, “Massai,” oils and engraving inks on masonite, 30″ x 40″, 2004. Photo: Paul Simon

Back Cover
Marie-Denise Douyon, “Soleil du midi, soleil du soir,” oils and engraving inks on masonite, 20.75″ x 42.5″, 2003. Photo: Paul Simon

Born in Haiti, Marie-Denise Douyon studied visual arts in New York before returning to her country of origin for a few years. Since she immigrated to Montreal in 1991, her artwork has translated an identity rooted both in her country of origin and her adopted country.

Marie-Denise Douyon’s inspiration plunges back in the homeland of the Haitian culture, the Dahomey kingdom. As an artist of the Diaspora, marked by nomadism, her concern with human migrations focuses from the terrifying route of slavery to the mass contemporary exodus. To discover more of the artist’s works, visit her website at: www.mariedenisedouyon.net.