The Scars of An African Girl

The Scars of An African Girl PDF Author: Esther Ebireri
Publisher: African Books Collective
ISBN: 9786086759
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 186

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Book Description
Muriel is watching her favourite TV programme when Izobo walks through the living room, into the bedroom she shares with her sisters. This is not the first time Muriel is seeing this woman in their house. Though only ten at the time, Muriel still remembers the horror that filled her heart; as the cries of Sandra (her eldest sister), filled the entire house after Izobo arrived in the house. On asking why Sandra was crying, her mother had told her that Sandra was being turned into a complete woman. Muriel didn't understand. When she tried to ask, Mother had dismissed her in one of her usual ways. But Muriel is determined to find out this time. So, she peeps through the keyhole, into the room where Christabel is locked in with the priestess. She watches with horror, as blood splashes on the mat on which Christabel lays: as the priestess bents over her. As Christabel lay on the mat, groaning in pains, Muriel remembers again, the sound of cries and screams that came out of that room the first time Izobo visited their house. Then, it struck her: sooner or later, it would be her turn! But Muriel was nothing like her sisters: she was strong-willed, resilient and obstinate; and would not let anyone lock her up in a room with a woman who brings nothing, but pain and agony into their home...

The Scars of An African Girl

The Scars of An African Girl PDF Author: Esther Ebireri
Publisher: African Books Collective
ISBN: 9786086759
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 186

Get Book Here

Book Description
Muriel is watching her favourite TV programme when Izobo walks through the living room, into the bedroom she shares with her sisters. This is not the first time Muriel is seeing this woman in their house. Though only ten at the time, Muriel still remembers the horror that filled her heart; as the cries of Sandra (her eldest sister), filled the entire house after Izobo arrived in the house. On asking why Sandra was crying, her mother had told her that Sandra was being turned into a complete woman. Muriel didn't understand. When she tried to ask, Mother had dismissed her in one of her usual ways. But Muriel is determined to find out this time. So, she peeps through the keyhole, into the room where Christabel is locked in with the priestess. She watches with horror, as blood splashes on the mat on which Christabel lays: as the priestess bents over her. As Christabel lay on the mat, groaning in pains, Muriel remembers again, the sound of cries and screams that came out of that room the first time Izobo visited their house. Then, it struck her: sooner or later, it would be her turn! But Muriel was nothing like her sisters: she was strong-willed, resilient and obstinate; and would not let anyone lock her up in a room with a woman who brings nothing, but pain and agony into their home...

White Tears/Brown Scars

White Tears/Brown Scars PDF Author: Ruby Hamad
Publisher: Catapult
ISBN: 194822674X
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 305

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Book Description
Called “powerful and provocative" by Dr. Ibram X. Kendi, author of the New York Times bestselling How to be an Antiracist, this explosive book of history and cultural criticism reveals how white feminism has been used as a weapon of white supremacy and patriarchy deployed against Black and Indigenous women, and women of color. Taking us from the slave era, when white women fought in court to keep “ownership” of their slaves, through the centuries of colonialism, when they offered a soft face for brutal tactics, to the modern workplace, White Tears/Brown Scars tells a charged story of white women’s active participation in campaigns of oppression. It offers a long overdue validation of the experiences of women of color. Discussing subjects as varied as The Hunger Games, Alexandria Ocasio–Cortez, the viral BBQ Becky video, and 19th century lynchings of Mexicans in the American Southwest, Ruby Hamad undertakes a new investigation of gender and race. She shows how the division between innocent white women and racialized, sexualized women of color was created, and why this division is crucial to confront. Along the way, there are revelatory responses to questions like: Why are white men not troubled by sexual assault on women? (See Christine Blasey Ford.) With rigor and precision, Hamad builds a powerful argument about the legacy of white superiority that we are socialized within, a reality that we must apprehend in order to fight. "A stunning and thorough look at White womanhood that should be required reading for anyone who claims to be an intersectional feminist. Hamad’s controlled urgency makes the book an illuminating and poignant read. Hamad is a purveyor of such bold thinking, the only question is, are we ready to listen?" —Rosa Boshier, The Washington Post

The Torture Letters

The Torture Letters PDF Author: Laurence Ralph
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022672980X
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 267

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Book Description
Torture is an open secret in Chicago. Nobody in power wants to acknowledge this grim reality, but everyone knows it happens—and that the torturers are the police. Three to five new claims are submitted to the Torture Inquiry and Relief Commission of Illinois each week. Four hundred cases are currently pending investigation. Between 1972 and 1991, at least 125 black suspects were tortured by Chicago police officers working under former Police Commander Jon Burge. As the more recent revelations from the Homan Square “black site” show, that brutal period is far from a historical anomaly. For more than fifty years, police officers who took an oath to protect and serve have instead beaten, electrocuted, suffocated, and raped hundreds—perhaps thousands—of Chicago residents. In The Torture Letters, Laurence Ralph chronicles the history of torture in Chicago, the burgeoning activist movement against police violence, and the American public’s complicity in perpetuating torture at home and abroad. Engaging with a long tradition of epistolary meditations on racism in the United States, from James Baldwin’s The Fire Next Time to Ta-Nehisi Coates’s Between the World and Me, Ralph offers in this book a collection of open letters written to protesters, victims, students, and others. Through these moving, questing, enraged letters, Ralph bears witness to police violence that began in Burge’s Area Two and follows the city’s networks of torture to the global War on Terror. From Vietnam to Geneva to Guantanamo Bay—Ralph’s story extends as far as the legacy of American imperialism. Combining insights from fourteen years of research on torture with testimonies of victims of police violence, retired officers, lawyers, and protesters, this is a powerful indictment of police violence and a fierce challenge to all Americans to demand an end to the systems that support it. With compassion and careful skill, Ralph uncovers the tangled connections among law enforcement, the political machine, and the courts in Chicago, amplifying the voices of torture victims who are still with us—and lending a voice to those long deceased.

Scars

Scars PDF Author: A. Breeze Harper
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 9462097615
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 220

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Book Description
Scars is a novel about whiteness, racism, and breaking past the normative boundaries of heterosexuality, as experienced through eighteen year old Savannah Penelope Sales. Savannah is a Black girl, born and raised in a white, working class, and rural New England town. She is in denial of her lesbian sexuality, harbors internalized racism about her body, and is ashamed of being poor. She lives with her ailing mother whose Emphysema is a symptom of a mysterious past of suffering and sacrifice that Savannah is not privy to. When Savannah takes her first trip to a major metropolitan city for two days, she never imagines how it will affect her return back home to her mother ... or her capacity to not only love herself, but also those who she thought were her enemies. Scars is about the journey of friends and family who love Savannah and try to help her heal, all while they too battle their own wounds and scars of being part of multiple systems of oppression and power. Ultimately, Scars makes visible the psychological trauma and scarring that legacies of colonialism have caused to both the descendants of the colonized and the colonizer ... and the potential for healing and reconciliation for everyone willing to embark on the journey. As a work of social fiction born out of years of critical race, Black feminist, and critical whiteness studies scholarship, Scars engages the reader to think about USA culture through the lenses of race, whiteness, working-class sensibilities, sexual orientation, and how rural geography influences identity. Scars can be used as a springboard for discussion, self-reflection and social reflection for students enrolled in American Studies, Sociology, Women's Studies, Sexuality Studies, African American Studies, human geography, LGBTQ studies and critical whiteness studies courses, or it can be read entirely for pleasure. Social Fictions Series Editorial Advisory Board: Carl Bagley, University of Durham, UK Anna Banks, University of Idaho, USA Carolyn Ellis, University of South Florida, USA Rita Irwin, University of British Columbia, Canada J. Gary Knowles, University of Toronto, Canada Laurel Richardson, The Ohio State University (Emeritus), USA A. Breeze Harper has a BA in feminist geography, from Dartmouth College, a MA in Educational Technologies from Harvard University, and a PhD from the University of California, Davis, where she studied applications of critical race feminism, critical whiteness studies, and critical food studies within cultural geography. Harper is also the author of the book, Sistah Vegan: Black Female Vegans Speak on Food, Identity, Health, and Society (Lantern Books 2010). www.abreezeharper.com

Parable of the Brown Girl

Parable of the Brown Girl PDF Author: Khristi Lauren Adams
Publisher: Fortress Press
ISBN: 1506455697
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 164

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Book Description
The stories of girls of color are often overlooked, unseen, and ignored rather than valued and heard. In Parable of the Brown Girl, minister and youth advocate Khristi Lauren Adams introduces readers to the resilience, struggle, and hope held within these stories. Instead of relegating these young women of color to the margins, Adams bring their stories front and center where they belong. By sharing encounters she's had with girls of color that revealed profound cultural and theological truths, Adams magnifies the struggles, dreams, wisdom, and dignity of these voices. Thought-provoking and inspirational, Parable of the Brown Girl is a powerful example of how God uses the narratives we most often ignore to teach us the most important lessons in life. It's time to pay attention.

Scarred

Scarred PDF Author: Joanne Macgregor
Publisher: Joanne MacGregor
ISBN: 9780620678599
Category : Young Adult Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 250

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Book Description
Life leaves you scarred. Love can make you beautiful. Seventeen year-old Sloane is trying to reboot her life after a serious accident left her badly scarred and emotionally traumatized. Luke Naughton, whom she once had a crush on, now seems to despise her. No matter how hard she tries to keep out of his way, life keeps bringing them together.

Little Bee

Little Bee PDF Author: Chris Cleave
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1416589643
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 304

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Book Description
Millions of people have read, discussed, debated, cried, and cheered with Little Bee, a Nigerian refugee girl whose violent and courageous journey​ puts a stunning face on the worldwide refugee crisis​. “Little Bee will blow you away.” —The Washington Post The lives of a sixteen-year-old Nigerian orphan and a well-off British woman collide in this page-turning #1 New York Times bestseller, book club favorite, and “affecting story of human triumph” (The New York Times Book Review) from Chris Cleave, author of Gold and Everyone Brave Is Forgiven. We don’t want to tell you too much about this book. It is a truly special story and we don’t want to spoil it. Nevertheless, you need to know something, so we will just say this: It is extremely funny, but the African beach scene is horrific. The story starts there, but the book doesn’t. And it’s what happens afterward that is most important. Once you have read it, you’ll want to tell everyone about it. When you do, please don’t tell them what happens either. The magic is in how it unfolds.

Tribal Scars and Other Stories

Tribal Scars and Other Stories PDF Author: Ousmane Sembène
Publisher: Heinemann Educational Books
ISBN:
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 136

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Book Description


Ama, a Story of the Atlantic Slave Trade

Ama, a Story of the Atlantic Slave Trade PDF Author: Manu Herbstein
Publisher: Moritz HERBSTEIN
ISBN: 150804080X
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 473

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Book Description
"I am a human being; I am a woman; I am a black woman; I am an African. Once I was free; then I was captured and became a slave; but inside me, here and here, I am still a free woman." During a period of four hundred years, European slave traders ferried some 12 million enslaved Africans across the Atlantic. In the Americas, teaching a slave to read and write was a criminal offense. When the last slaves gained their freedom in Brazil, barely a thousand of them were literate. Hardly any stories of the enslaved and transported Africans have survived. This novel is an attempt to recreate just one of those stories, one story of a possible 12 million or more.Lawrence Hill created another in The Book of Negroes (Someone Knows my Name in the U.S.) and, more recently, Yaa Gyasi has done the same in Homegoing. Ama occupies center stage throughout this novel. As the story opens, she is sixteen. Distant drums announce the death of her grandfather. Her family departs to attend the funeral, leaving her alone to tend her ailing baby brother. It is 1775. Asante has conquered its northern neighbor and exacted an annual tribute of 500 slaves. The ruler of Dagbon dispatches a raiding party into the lands of the neighboring Bekpokpam. They capture Ama. That night, her lover, Itsho, leads an attack on the raiders’ camp. The rescue bid fails. Sent to collect water from a stream, Ama comes across Itsho’s mangled corpse. For the rest of her life she will call upon his spirit in time of need. In Kumase, the Asante capital, Ama is given as a gift to the Queen-mother. When the adolescent monarch, Osei Kwame, conceives a passion for her, the regents dispatch her to the coast for sale to the Dutch at Elmina Castle. There the governor, Pieter de Bruyn, selects her as his concubine, dressing her in the elegant clothes of his late Dutch wife and instructing the obese chaplain to teach her to read and write English. De Bruyn plans to marry Ama and take her with him to Europe. He makes a last trip to the Dutch coastal outstations and returns infected with yellow fever. On his death, his successor rapes Ama and sends her back to the female dungeon. Traumatized, her mind goes blank. She comes to her senses in the canoe which takes her and other women out to the slave ship, The Love of Liberty. Before the ship leaves the coast of Africa, Ama instigates a slave rebellion. It fails and a brutal whipping leaves her blind in one eye. The ship is becalmed in mid-Atlantic. Then a fierce storm cripples it and drives it into the port of Salvador, capital of Brazil. Ama finds herself working in the fields and the mill on a sugar estate. She is absorbed into slave society and begins to adapt, learning Portuguese. Years pass. Ama is now totally blind. Clutching the cloth which is her only material link with Africa, she reminisces, dozes, falls asleep. A short epilogue brings the story up to date. The consequences of the slave trade and slavery are still with us. Brazilians of African descent remain entrenched in the lower reaches of society, enmeshed in poverty. “This is story telling on a grand scale,” writes Tony Simões da Silva. “In Ama, Herbstein creates a work of literature that celebrates the resilience of human beings while denouncing the inscrutable nature of their cruelty. By focusing on the brutalization of Ama's body, and on the psychological scars of her experiences, Herbstein dramatizes the collective trauma of slavery through the story of a single African woman. Ama echoes the views of writers, historians and philosophers of the African diaspora who have argued that the phenomenon of slavery is inextricable from the deepest foundations of contemporary western civilization.” Ama, a Story of the Atlantic Slave Trade, won the 2002 Commonwealth Writers Prize for the Best First Book.

The African Lookbook

The African Lookbook PDF Author: Catherine E. McKinley
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 1620403544
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 218

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Book Description
Winner of the African Photobook of the Year Award A Choice Outstanding Title of the Year A USA Today "Must-Read for Black History Month" An NPR "Goats and Soda" Editors' Pick A BookRiot Favorite Nonfiction Book of the Year An unprecedented visual history of African women told in striking and subversive historical photographs-featuring an Introduction by Edwidge Danticat and a Foreword by Jacqueline Woodson. Most of us grew up with images of African women that were purely anthropological-bright displays of exotica where the deeper personhood seemed tucked away. Or they were chronicles of war and poverty-“poverty porn.” But now, curator Catherine E. McKinley draws on her extensive collection of historical and contemporary photos to present a visual history spanning a hundred-year arc (1870–1970) of what is among the earliest photography on the continent. These images tell a different story of African women: how deeply cosmopolitan and modern they are in their style; how they were able to reclaim the tools of the colonial oppression that threatened their selfhood and livelihoods. Featuring works by celebrated African masters, African studios of local legend, and anonymous artists, The African Lookbook captures the dignity, playfulness, austerity, grandeur, and fantasy-making of African women across centuries. McKinley also features photos by Europeans-most starkly, striking nudes-revealing the relationships between white men and the Black female sitters where, at best, a grave power imbalance lies. It's a bittersweet truth that when there is exploitation there can also be profound resistance expressed in unexpected ways-even if it's only in gazing back. These photos tell the story of how the sewing machine and the camera became powerful tools for women's self-expression, revealing a truly glorious display of everyday beauty.