Jasmine Brooks
December 10, 2011
Reawakening the Womanifesto and Defining the African-American Female
Throughout the survey of history and African-American literature, African-American
women endured hardships that create a negative cycle of constant degradation which still exists
in the twenty-first century. These cycles derived from the laborious jobs and harsh treatment that
African women received during slavery; they continue to possess jobs to represent the
occupations commonly held during slavery and times of segregation. As a result of the treatment
from the slave master, Black women are degraded for their bodies which were privately adored
and abused by the White men; however, modern Black women present their bodies in a negative
spotlight as a result of the attention from media. The amount of positive influences for AfricanAmerican women is increasing, but the cycles are not being broken as efficiently and rapidly as
they should be.
Jill Scott, an African-American musical artist, presents empowering music which depicts
the obstacles that Black women have to face, but her music also uplifts the Black female—
particularly her lyrical poem entitled Womanifesto listed on her
album The Light of the Sun released in 2011. Her powerful poem
strives to define the African-American woman, using historical
elements and forcing readers to accept the characteristics that
should be valued instead of her body.
Jill Scott & Her Origins
Jill Scott is a Rhythm and Blues singer, songwriter, poet,
actress born in 1972 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She began her
Figure 1
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performing career with spoken word until she joined the group called The Roots. Her first album
Who is Jill Scott? Words and Sounds Vol. 1 was released in 2000. She has published a
compilation volume of her poems, The Moments, The Minutes, The Hours in April 2005. Her
third album The Real Thing became a 2007 Grammy nominated Gold certified album. She has
won three Grammy awards and known to have infused jazz, R&B, spoken word, and hip hop to
create a neo-soul style. Her lyrical poem Womanifesto is one of many of her songs that contain
this unique fusion of styles including spoken word that Jill Scott continues to demonstrate.
In the beginning lines of the lyrical poem, Scott speaks on behalf of African-American
women who have been objectified due to certain body parts that are deemed attractive. The lines
also illustrate the liberation and authority that Scott is demanding. Beginning in the first stanza,
Scott depicts the duties and stigmatisms that are presented along with traditional AfricanAmerican women:
Clearly I am not a fat ass
I am active brain
and lip smacking peach deep
sometimes too aggressive in its honesty
and heart sweet
that loves wholly and completely
whom it may choose
whomever it may choose (Scott ll. 1-8)
The first line of the poem captures the reader or listener’s attention and places the focus on the
physical image of the Black female. Jill Scott’s public image conveys one of the two issues
concerning the female body and how it is presented to society.
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Redefining the Image of the Black Female Body
The image that is displayed above of Jill Scott represents a more elegant view of her
public appearance. Since becoming famous, Scott has always represented herself as a woman
with an afrocentric style. She wears natural hair, usually in afro, and remains healthy and fit
despite her size. However, the Black female faces several issues when being considered for a
position in the professional atmosphere. The controversy arises when encountered by the reason
that arrives before any heated event. Natural hair is not always great when perceived by other
members of society. Gaskins and Rooks share a story that shows the discrimination that Black
females face: “What she wanted to know was why her classmates made fun of her when she did
not straighten her hair and why her teachers treated her differently when she wore her hair in an
Afro. Most of all, she said, as tears slipped down her cheeks, she wanted to know what she was
supposed to do or say to people who made her feel badly about herself” (280). The incident
inspired the authors of the essay to discover the best answer for the young female’s question;
they have discovered that the style in which “African-Americans have chosen to adorn…has
long been inextricably linked with how others perceive us to be wearing and performing [their]
racial identity” (282). The ethnic identification that the two authors describe as being displayed
through a particular hairstyle is one that is perceived negatively through a stereotypical view
from the past.
The remaining lines in this section of the lyrical poem address some of these stereotypical
views as well as detest former negative views. Refuting any views of Black females being
ignorant or mentally incapable of anything, Scott adds a strong adjective to create the pair active
brain. Her next description contains a double meaning: one in which is a unique way to
describe her skin color instead of defining herself as Black; she recognizes that the race of Black
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people includes many shades. The other meaning includes an intellectual viewpoint that the
artist and other Black women are so intelligent that it behooves others who believed in the
stereotype of African-Americans not possessing the same intellectual capabilities of other races.
Scott admits to having an attitude sometimes and a hostile approach, but she counters her attitude
with descriptions of the sweet personality that she possesses.
Abuse of the Black Female Body
In the next lines of Scott’s poem, she offers words to play a double meaning but
emphasize the power that she asserts through her words. The lyrics read:
“I am not gonna lie and pacify
I am arms to hold
I am lips to speak
I am a muthafucking ‘G’” (Scott ll. 9-12).
The first line in this section of the poem offers the double meaning. One meaning is stating that
she refuses to misconstrue the truth for anyone. She will only inform others of true information.
The other meaning is the idea of slaves having to lie and accept the abuse from their slave
owners. With this interpretation, Scott refers to the ancestral hardships of the Black slaves being
accessible to the owners at request. These instances and easy access angered the white female
slave-masters, although, they knew that it was not the slave’s fault; however, the White females
took their anger out on the Black women: “This construct of the licentious temptress served to
justify white men’s sexual abuse of Black women…White white women were placed on moral
pedestals, ‘[e]very black woman was, by definition, a slut according to this racist mythology’”
(Roberts 11). Society tried to blame the African-American population for their sexual scandals
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when the White men began and continued to expect to remain powerful and authoritative over
their bodies.
The sexual exploitation of African-American women
increased negatively throughout the years. At first, they
were exploited among the plantation although the affairs
were private. Their exploitation continued and became
worse. In recent times, Black females display their bodies
on rap videos, in strip clubs, on street corners, or some
women offer their bodies as a means of payment or gaining
Figure 2
a higher status. Figure 2 represents the cover of a book
published in 2006 by Karrine Steffans. The title of the book is Confessions of a Video Vixen.
This autobiographical book tells of Steffans’ rise to
fame through sexual exploitation. After suffering
abuse and degradation since childhood, she turns to
others for attention and seeks an easy means of
making money by stripping and getting sexually
involved with many hip hop artists. With the
publication of her book and the rise of degrading
images in rap videos, many African-American
women began to idolize this lifestyle of
exploitation instead of intellectual achievements of
African-American women.
Figure 3
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There is a desire for instant gratification and more attention drawn to the Black female
body. Instead of the Western European norm of possessing the smallest size possible, AfricanAmerican women are idolized with big breasts, buttocks and a small waist. This image of the
body leads some women to undergo plastic surgery to get enhancements of reductions and have a
Barbie-type body. Nicki Minaj (Figure 3) is the perfect example of a current hip-hop icon that
has underwent these changes for the media’s acceptance of her.
Recognizing the Past Struggles
The third stanza of the poem talks about the traditional occupations that many Black
women held and some still continue to hold jobs in these areas:
“Strong legs that stroll off the 33 bus
or out of a money green Phantom comfortably
Knees that bend to pray
clean from Ajax washings,
hair that is thick and soft,
thighs that be-twixt
an amazing all expense grand prize”
(Scott ll. 13-19).
This section of the poem infuses typical means of
transportation from the past with the accessibility of
new modes in the current decade. Line 15
demonstrates a religious group of people; slaves
were known to unite and escape to freedom by
Figures 4 & 5
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singing hymnals about God leading them to freedom and preach to one another in small
buildings. Line 16 refers to the many rooms that Black women had to clean. Not only were they
ordered to clean the entire house but they would sometimes go back to their home and clean up
after their family members. In Figures 4 & 5, Jacqueline Brooks, a certified nursing assistant, is
presented in scrub attire. Figure 4 shows her with her natural hair, half is plaited until the rest is
taken down and pinned up in the back of her head as shown in Figure 5. She is also shown
cleaning in figure 5. Although her occupation is slightly different as a nurse, she still cleans.
Her previous client was a Caucasian family where she went to their house to take care of their
mother. Her stance in Figure 4 represents the lyrics that Scott illustrates in this section of the
poem. Her knees are bent and she imitates the stance to almost sit as if in prayer. Although
Brooks went back to college to obtain an associate’s degree, she has always desired to be a
nurse. Her mother, who is two generations removed from slavery, cleaned houses as a main
source of income for years before working in a daycare. These are occupations that are similar
to the duties that Black slave women fulfilled inside of the slave master’s house.
There have been many African-American women who have bravely written about their
states of oppression in poetry, lyrics, and prose. These women encourage other AfricanAmerican women to not only express their creative talents but also to demand the attention and
respect that they deserve for their unique and ingenious creative abilities to qualify them as great
artists. In the 1920s and 1930s, artists such as Bessie Smith and Zora Neale Hurston worked to
publish their materials. Smith sang the blues to inform society about the pressures of daily
activities in which Black women were expected or demanded to participate. Hurston illustrates
her viewpoint regarding the lack of appreciation of Black women in her novel Their Eyes Were
Watching God. In the 1970s, movements started growing; people were becoming more radical
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about their opinions. Alice Walker wrote many essays and poems to display her belief about the
empowerment in African-American women.
At the time of Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, she received very
little recognition for the novel. She did not receive recognition for her creative abilities until
decades later when Alice Walker praised her talents. Hurston’s novel includes many instances
that show an accurate depiction of the view of African-American women. The protagonist Janie
has a grandmother who speaks with her about women being treated like “the mule of the world”
(Hurston 14). Throughout the novel, Hurston includes characters that devalue Janie in some way
according to the traditional and stereotypical view that African-American women were only
responsible for cooking, cleaning, and catering to the men of society. This theme is carried
throughout Hurston’s novel as the reader surveys Janie’s relationships. Janie finally meets a
character named Tea Cake who wants to cater to her instead, which becomes a turning point for
Janie to appreciate her true self instead of the identity that she absorbs while catering to her
previous husbands.
By the time Hurston wrote the novel, women were becoming more involved in the
feminist movement; they had earned the right to vote, at least white women. African-American
women were still earning a living by cleaning the homes of some of the feminist advocates.
Alice Walker emerged in the 1970s as a strong advocate for African-American rights. Walker
made it her political responsibility to make society aware of the lack of appreciation that many
had for African-American women and their creative abilities. One of her famous essays In
Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens forces readers to be aware of the hardships that African-
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American women have overcome, but it also uplifts African-American women for their triumphs
and courage to continue to express their creativity in a society that does not value the Black
female. Walker is another artist that links the historical past to the modern and current issues in
society. She illustrates her deep appreciation for African-American women, especially those
who have sacrificed for the benefit of younger generations:
They were women then
My mama’s generation
Husky of voice—Stout of
Step
With fists as well as
Hands
How they battered down
Doors
And ironed
Starched white
Shirts
How they led
Armies
Headragged Generals
Across mined
Fields
Booby-trapped
Kitchens
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To discover books
Desks
A place for us
How they knew what we
Must know
Without knowing a page
Of it
Themselves (Walker 675)
Alice Walker recounts the same themes that Jill Scott includes in her poem. Walker
incorporates the duties of cleaning that most Black women performed. In this poem, ironing is
mentioned. The women characters in the poem seem to appear confident and as strong as the
army figures. Confidence is emphasized along with education or some type of intellectual
knowledge.
Importance of Literacy for African-American Women
As a part of African tradition, storytelling is an essential
element in African-American culture. Figure 6 shows an example
of the traditional scene of children gathering to listen to the wise
elder of the village tell stories about life, morals, or historical
Figure 6
events. One commentator called Pastor Craig even says that the
oral tradition was important in Biblical times because Jesus
always gathered with townspeople and taught them about the Gospel. Pough agrees that
“African Americans have used the autobiography not only to tell their life stories and document
their own personal truths, but also as vehicles for social justice and social change” (103).
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Writing and literacy is a key element to preserve and enhance the storytelling for the AfricanAmerican culture. Jill Scott demonstrates in the middle of Womanifesto that she has knowledge
of the importance of storytelling:
“I am friend to pen
and a lover of strong women
A diamond to men
I am curious and interested like children
I welcome the wise to teach
appreciator of my culture
Thick not just from bone dense and eat” (Scott ll. 31-37).
Scott has shown her talents and creative writing abilities through her songs, poems, and spoken
word which both she and Alice Walker encourages more Black women to do; however, Scott
also recognizes that the wise should teach others. She describes herself as an “appreciator of
[her] culture” and acknowledges that it needs to be preserved with the help of others who
appreciate it.
Literacy is so important to African-American literature and culture in order to preserve it
but also to teach future generations more about their past. Most African-American literature is
written with these ideals in mind. The publication of Harriet Jacob’s Incidents in the Life of a
Slave Girl is important to the culture because it allows readers to obtain knowledge of times of
slavery through the perspective of a slave woman who was brave and fortunate enough to make
it to publication.
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Resolution
The problem regarding the lack of appreciation and value of African-American women
seems to have become less of an issue to some people in a society. There are possible solutions
to rectify the issue. One solution contains more educational and leadership training for AfricanAmerican females. The training would be more beneficial for those of an adolescent age. The
workshop would take place over the course of a week or throughout four weekends. During the
workshops, females would be taught to conduct themselves in an ethical manner. The
workshops will contain sessions that focus on building self-confidence, recognizing and
increasing their value, remaining confident and brave in their opinions and standing strong
throughout the obstacles that they face. These workshops would be beneficial to foster strong,
independent African-American women. They will also help in personal experiences to prevent
them from turning to prostitution or negative means of earning a living that will devalue them.
Throughout these workshops, the influence of the creative arts will be emphasized.
Poetry, music and prose are great examples of ways to advertise and influence younger
generations to gain a greater sense of appreciation of the African-American females and race, in
general. The creative expressions of Hurston, Walker, and Scott are examples of ways to
increase awareness of the problem as well as to increase confidence and value in AfricanAmerican women who read and listen to the words of empowerment. However, the young
women will be taught about the problems with the degradation of women that the media portrays
every day. They will be influenced to know that they are valuable and capable of anything that
they put their minds to do, regardless of the roadblocks.
It is a long struggle to try and influence all of society, but when African-American
women value themselves and present themselves in a confident manner, then society shall soon
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embrace the same beliefs. The end result after the problem is fixed, all women will agree with
the end of Scott’s Womanifesto:
I am gifted
I am all of this
And indeed the shit
Clearly I am not just an ass (ll. 46-49)
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