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Delores S. Williams
Delores S. Williams is best known for her book Sisters in the Wilderness and as a renowned Professor in Theology more specifically Womanist Theology. Her writings over the years have discussed and contrasted the oppression of African-American woman and that of the Anglo-American woman. Williams as a Professor in Theology attributes the triumphs of the African- American woman is closely linked to their being empowered by an understanding of their relationship with god and religion. According to Aaron McEmrys, “Williams offers a theological response to the defilement of black women… Womanism is an approach to ethics, theology and life rooted in the experiences of African-American women”. The term “Womanism” was coined by a contemporary of Williams, Alice Walker, in her 1979 short story “Coming Apart” and again in 1983 in her essay collections “Search of Our Mothers Garden”.

Womanism is a byproduct of Black Feminism for which both are derivatives of Feminism. The emergence of both Black Feminism and later Womanism is due to the African-American woman not being able to identify with the issues presented by the Feminist Movement lead by Anglo-American woman who were more or less looking for various forms of both individual and relational equality with the Anglo-American male thus eliminating sexism. For the African-American woman equality would include the elimination of racism and classism, something that the Feminist did not directly address. Feminist main focus encompassed the disparity between the Anglo-American male and female and did not consider any of the plights of the African-American woman in relation to her counter-part and the other oppression that would have a direct impact on the African-American woman’s true liberation. The theory of womanism is to provide African-American woman a platform where they can freely relate their stories of oppression which are inherently different from the feminist groups which are led by mostly middle-class Anglo-American woman. The goal of the womanist movement was not only to eliminate inequalities but to assist the African American women to reconnect with their roots in religion and culture and to reflect and improve on “self, community and society ”. Williams eloquently articulated the plight of African–American women by comparing the plight of the biblical character Hagar, a concubine of Abraham. Hagar was servant to both Abraham and his wife Sarah. Hagar’s role was to bring them as a family comfort, much like the role the African-American woman had in comparison to their Anglo-American counterpart whom they would have to serve and bring comfort. Hagar was also presented to Abraham by Sarah in order to bare offspring. Again Williams made the comparison to the part African-American was forced to participate in the breeding of offspring to their Anglo-American masters. This too is another role that the Feminist would not be able to identify with these issues presented to the African-American woman. Williams was not so closed minded as not to address the inclusion of the feminist to open up the dialogue between the two groups to achieve a greater good. Williams was not so naïve as to believe that this would eradicate racism amongst the two groups; however, Williams is assured that “all women regardless of race or class, have developed survival strategies that have helped [them to] arrive sane at [their] present social and cultural locations”. Williams recognizes that “there has been little to no conversations among women for the purpose of swapping stories about the nature of these survival strategies.” Williams states in the Journal of Feminist Studies in religion, “[w]e feminist-womanist women need to remember, commemorate, and lift up for ourselves and subsequent generations of women the resistance events and ideas that have birthed and kept alive women’s rights struggle…create resistant rituals that can be enacted wherever feminist and womanist meet to share survival strategies and plan attacks upon patriarchal and white supremacist mind-sets and practices in American institutional life.”