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This Bridge Called My BAck - Page 2

© Moira Richards

Speaking in Tongues (The Third World Woman Writer): The essays in this section address, from various perspectives, black literary criticism and the uses of both the pen as a tool and as a weapon. The writers argue for the right to be able to claim their own means and standards by which to evaluate particularly their own expressions, and to resist the appropriation by white Western women of the rights to speak and to write. Agenda 54 has also included three articles that explore the issue of African women being empowered to create and to own their own literature and the interpretation of it.

El Mundo Zurdo (The Vision): The last section, as with all those preceding it, contains a collection of upbeat writings and these assess the complexities of the intersections of race, sex, class and culture and they examine some of the possible ways that women can go forward to combat sexism despite these challenges. It is a call to arms for Third World Women that 'Hand in Hand, we brew and forge a revolution' (218) to 'transform the planet.' (233)

Johanna Brenner writes in her recent book, Women and the Politics of Class, that 'There is often more lipservice paid [by white feminists] than substance to the idea of diversity' (2000:256), and it seems that there is certainly a need for women of colour the world over, to remain radical in their pursuit of feminism. Sisonke Msimang, in her introduction to African Feminisms, reiterates many of the issues that are raised in This Bridge Called My Back - writings by radical women of color, as does Mary Modupe Kolawole in her 'Briefing' item in the same issue of Agenda. In pessimistic moment, it may seem as if nothing much has changed in twenty years of feminism, but a careful look will show that many of the challenges are new and invigoratingly so.

REFERENCES Agenda No. 54 (2002) African Feminisms Two

Brenner, J (2000) Women and the Politics of Class, New York:Monthly Review Press.

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