Middle Passages: Gendered Diasporas

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International trafficking in Black women “La africana” and “la mulata” out in the world: African women and women of African descent By Marion Douglas

· Douglas’s abolitionist paradigm
· Is sex work a sad situation or an empowering situation?
· Dichotomy: lady/whore
· Is poverty the force behind sex work? And if so, should all situations of sex work be considered a result of capitalism and oppression? Job vs. Dehumanizing End Result
· How should women that are “business partners” in the trafficking and prostitution arena be viewed? (In Erzulie’s Skirt a woman tricked them into leaving DR for PR, and a woman enslaved them in PR)
· Does the feminist view of the situation diminish the mental capacity of women in “3rd World" countries? Dichotomy: 3rd World Women/Western Women
· The work of Anti-trafficking advocates is often reflected in opposition to the work of Rights for Sex Workers Advocates. The language of one hurts the other. “Forced prostitution, child prostitution, and sex tourism are linked together and made indistinguishable,” which creates a situation where rights for sex workers are overshadowed by mass hysteria. How is this conflict to be solved?
· Why are there a disproportionate number of Black women involved in prostitution in modern day Europe?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfOKS22CotA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akKzsWyjL5w
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-Tne0Brdic&feature=related

Presented By: Amelia D. and Mariah D.

Presentation: Talking Points
The co-existence of Catholicism and Voodoo and its difference from Protestantism
-“The colonized…are not swallowed up by the coercions and productions of the colonizer, but bend and adapt these facts to their own uses. Vodoun testifies to that labor of resistance and change, comprehending multiple histories in what Roger Bastide has argued to be a syncretism that defies “the logic of Western thought, which is based on the principle of identity and noncontradiction.
-Erzulie’s Skirt—understanding the difference between Mama Housin and Ligia; How is identity discerned by religion?

The many faces of Erzulie

-Virgin vs. Venus
-Erzulie-Ge-Rouge (Literally Erzulie-eyes-red) vs. Goddess of luxury &love
-Erzulie Freda(mulatto or white) vs. Erzulie Dantor (black)
Does Erzulie have the power to define a distinct kind of femininity or does she possess a façade of power under subjection to gender and social constructs? How can we make sense of her contradictory existence?

Erzulie Freda Erzulie Dantor

Finding Connections
-How does Erzulie function for Miriam and Micaela? In slavery conditions? For
homosexuality in Haiti now?

Thoughts on “Of Men and Gods” documentary
http://www.der.org/films/of-men-and-gods.html

Murray, Stephen. Roscoe, William. "Boy-Wives and Female - Husbands: Studies of African Homosexualities."

West African Homoeroticism: West African men who have sex with men
By: Nii Ajen

Norms in Society

1. Western versus African Perception of what is deemed homosexual classifications
2. Sex as a discussion topic
3. Boarding Schools in Africa- Do you feel that English Boarding schools in Africa promoted homosexual activity in Africa?

"When a Woman Loves a Woman" in Lesotho: Love, Sex, and the (Western) Construction of Homophobia.

By: Kendall

1. What are the metaphoric connections between water and Black queerness? How does it bring women in the black Diaspora together?

- The theme of struggle and oppression.

2. Language and culture: What constitutes sex? Western women verses African women. The concept of Western sexual freedom.

3. The disconnection between sex and love.

Recent news story. South African lesbian raped and stabbed 25 times in the face, chest, and legs. This story is connected to the article by M. Jacqui Alexander and the issue with heterosexual violence towards homosexuals.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/mar/12/eudy-simelane-corrective-rape-south-africa

Presenters: Jenesha and Shantala

Imperial Leather

• Sara Baartman
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQ7mmMe4klQ

Imperial Leather

• Racial degeneration in art
• Munby's ethnological studies of the archetypes of female labor
• Women perceived as "seducers"
• Women perceived as "objects to possess"
• The value Cullwick placed on her work, her "slave band"
• Domestic labor and demarcation of boundary between "dirty" and "clean"
• Denial of female sexuality except on terms initiated by men
  
• Freud and Lacan's theories, how women are portrayed in each
  
• Transformation of female work into male power

Afua Cooper

Afua Cooper


1. Biography

2. The poems, "Africa Wailin" and "Negro Cemeteries":http://www.afuacooper.com/home_page.html

3. Scholarly works



The Search for Truth in history

1.The need to explore the true history of the peoples of the Diaspora

2.The erasing of the slave past

3.The gendered slave experience

4.The cost of captivity