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For Beginners
Black Women for Beginners
Chronicles the experiences of Black women throughout history, describing Black women in various roles, and discussing the challenges African women from around the world have overcome
192 pages, Paperback
First published August 1, 1993
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
September 16, 2012
I guess you could say this is an interesting book about black women. It features a lot of pictures and historical facts about what black women have achieved in history. It also touches on how important it is to have a healthy self-esteem so as not to experience an identity crisis.
I felt the book just touched on the basics, understandable I guess since it's a beginner guide. However, I found the writing style a bit too chatty, and filled with African-American slang (since I would say most black women are not African-American, I didn't really see the point), swear words and way too much sarcasm. It was kind of hard to take the book seriously at times.
Also, as much as I believe that loving and appreciating your heritage and culture is a must, I don't think that gives anyone the right to put down or belittle another group of people, and I felt this is what the author was doing.
The view on Creationism (a black Eve) is afrocentric which I believe is just as bad as being eurocentric. There's no evidence to suggest Adam and Eve were black or even white so that part of the book was just odd.
I appreciate that the book wrote about the history and struggles of black women in other parts of the world, such as Asia, Africa and South America, as well as their achievements.
Anyway, it was a pretty quick read and I did enjoy the historical points, although I thought they could have been developed better, even though this is a beginners guide.
I felt the book just touched on the basics, understandable I guess since it's a beginner guide. However, I found the writing style a bit too chatty, and filled with African-American slang (since I would say most black women are not African-American, I didn't really see the point), swear words and way too much sarcasm. It was kind of hard to take the book seriously at times.
Also, as much as I believe that loving and appreciating your heritage and culture is a must, I don't think that gives anyone the right to put down or belittle another group of people, and I felt this is what the author was doing.
The view on Creationism (a black Eve) is afrocentric which I believe is just as bad as being eurocentric. There's no evidence to suggest Adam and Eve were black or even white so that part of the book was just odd.
I appreciate that the book wrote about the history and struggles of black women in other parts of the world, such as Asia, Africa and South America, as well as their achievements.
Anyway, it was a pretty quick read and I did enjoy the historical points, although I thought they could have been developed better, even though this is a beginners guide.
April 28, 2026
Author Saundra Sharp wrote in the ‘Acknowledgements’ of this 1993 book, “I would not have had the courage to tackle this expansive subject without the knowledge, wisdom and blessings of my Historical Consultants, the beloved Dr. John Henrik Clarke, and the passionate scholar Runuko Rashidi.”
She begins, “The BW comes from Africa, which holds (to date) the only evidence of humans living more than a million years ago. Her most famous known ancestor of ‘Lucy’… whose skeleton was at least 3 million years old when they tripped over it in an Ethiopian desert back in 1974… However, Lucy hadn’t finished evolving into a ‘human’ as we know them today. That took another 2,800,000 years.” (Pg. 9)
“Which brings us to the first known diva, SISTUH EVE---our ‘Mitochondrial Mother’ or CELL mother. Through modern technology, scientists have isolated the DNA in our gene cells, and determined that a Sistuh (whom them nicknamed ‘Eve’) lived some 200,000 years ago… claimed Africa as her hometown, and liked to travel. Which is to say, scientifically, that everybody came from one woman, and she was Black!!” (Pg. 10)
“In ancient times Africa and Asia were connected by land, so Sistuh Eve sent some of her children out to play---in what we know today as Asia, India, Europe and the Americas.” (Pg. 14) “How long were they gone? Long enough for Sistuh Eve’s children to change their physical appearance. Sistuh Eve’s descendants provided the seed for all the non-Black populations known today.” (Pg. 19)
“Starting in the late 1300s the BW … was taken from West Africa to the West Indies to be ‘trained’ for slavery… She was taken by Arabs from East Africa to Turkey and other slave centers around the Black Sea… She was taken to Jamaica… She was sent to the Dominican Republic, Brazil, Surinam, Cuba… She was taken from the Sudan, Libya and Chad to Yugoslavia… Only the money was counted, not the victims. So the numbers on slavery are not in yet. But historians’ estimates show from 5 to 30 million BWs taken from Africa.” (Pg. 24-27) “Not all Blacks during the period of slavery were slaves.” (Pg. 28)
“Despite all this, the BW has an IMAGE problem. It’s been usurped, manipulated, exalted degraded, altered, exploited, suppressed and turned back against her. Things have been so bad that a lot of sistuhs just gave up, went on over and adopted somebody else’s image… Because men rewriting the Bible … changed ‘I am black AND comely’ to ‘black BUT comely.’” (Pg. 52)
“Hair became the first line of defense. Hair was stretched, painted, beaten, crimped, curled, burned, lied about, covered up and prayed over. Some started borrowing hair from other people. Sistuhs could finally shake their tresses in the wind.” (Pg. 65)
“Isis, acquiring the knowledge of good and evil, was divinized. The later Eve, acquiring the same knowledge, became the cause of man’s fall from grace… Mother/Female was dropped from the Trinity and Isis was sometimes derided as a ‘pagan’ goddess. The BW was worshipped as the virtuous Venus.” (Pg. 75)
“In Christianity, Isis became the Virgin Mary… Isis/Black Madonna images are everywhere, including some places where a REAL BW is not welcome.” (Pg. 77)
“[Cleopatra] was born in Africa in 69 B.C., and ascended the throne at age 18… Black civilization was becoming more White. Research indicates that her mother was Persian (that’s a bit African) and her father was a Greek, possibly born of an African slave woman.” (Pg. 87)
“The Modern Matriarchal Myth: It alleges that Black women have political and social power over their lives and use it to emasculate Black men (when in fact Black men and women both live primarily under decisions made by White males), and part of the solution was to make the Black man king of the castle---read: patriarchy.” (Pg. 108)
“After three centuries of chattel slavery world-wide, the movement to abolish it finally took hold. ABOLITION was the major movement of the 19th century. Despite his/story giving most of the credit to Whites, Black abolitionists carried equal weight, and BW were popular abolition speakers.” (Pg. 126)
“Blacks knew that education was something worth having ‘cause their oppressors tried to keep it from them. Even whites were jailed for the ‘crime’ of teaching slaves.” (Pg. 128)
While White women fought to obtain voting rights for the members of their SEX, BW fought to obtain the vote for their PEOPLE, and hoped that as women they would be included. When they were EXcluded, BW continued to battle to win suffrage for WOMEN, certain that they would be included… 40 years later many Blacks were still denied the vote through so-called literacy tests, real estate requirements, job loss, and outright physical terror.” (Pg. 135-136)
“Which is why there had to be a: Women’s Rights/Liberation Movement. But in a movement designed to eliminate restrictions on women, restrictions have fallen BETWEEN women. Like ‘Women’ being used in sociological writings to assume only ‘White Anglo-Saxon women’… as in the often-used term ‘Women and Blacks.’ Racism has been the thorn between White and Black women seeking the same political results.” (Pg, 146)
“THE CLUB MOVEMENT: Their mission was to challenge racism, protect the sisterhood and elevate the race.” (Pg. 149)
“Some Sistuhs moved and shaked to a spastic drummer, and became part of the PROBLEM instead of the SOLUTION… As an F.B.I. undercover agent, Julia Brown snitched on Black folks during the outrageous anti-Communist ‘witch hunts’ of the 1950s. She was praised by the U.S. Congress for her work.” (Pg. 152)
“Madame Walker, a woman with no formal education, helped fund Mary McLeod Bethune’s school, and scholarships at Tuskeegee Institute. She gave cash bonuses to her agents to be used for community upliftment.” (Pg. 163)
“In developing countries the BW is the least likely to be trained for industrial and high-tech jobs, earns approximately one-half the income of Black males and as little as 1% of the income of White males.” (Pg. 168)
“BW face long-term, carefully plotted programs of ‘de-population,’ initiated by the Western world’s leading governments, against people of color in areas (Africa in particular) where there are natural resources needed by the rest of the world.” (Pg. 178)
The book concludes, “Divas Don’t Die: They learn to love themselves. Today more concentration is focused on BW learning about each other than ever before---woman to woman, country to country, ancestor to ancestor. Divas… are the living stream, the divine and destined continuum of Black Women on the planet, connected to all who preceded them and all who follow.” (Pg. 185-186)
This is one of the most interesting ‘Documentary Comic Books’ I have read, and it is actually a quite respectable orientation to the subject.
She begins, “The BW comes from Africa, which holds (to date) the only evidence of humans living more than a million years ago. Her most famous known ancestor of ‘Lucy’… whose skeleton was at least 3 million years old when they tripped over it in an Ethiopian desert back in 1974… However, Lucy hadn’t finished evolving into a ‘human’ as we know them today. That took another 2,800,000 years.” (Pg. 9)
“Which brings us to the first known diva, SISTUH EVE---our ‘Mitochondrial Mother’ or CELL mother. Through modern technology, scientists have isolated the DNA in our gene cells, and determined that a Sistuh (whom them nicknamed ‘Eve’) lived some 200,000 years ago… claimed Africa as her hometown, and liked to travel. Which is to say, scientifically, that everybody came from one woman, and she was Black!!” (Pg. 10)
“In ancient times Africa and Asia were connected by land, so Sistuh Eve sent some of her children out to play---in what we know today as Asia, India, Europe and the Americas.” (Pg. 14) “How long were they gone? Long enough for Sistuh Eve’s children to change their physical appearance. Sistuh Eve’s descendants provided the seed for all the non-Black populations known today.” (Pg. 19)
“Starting in the late 1300s the BW … was taken from West Africa to the West Indies to be ‘trained’ for slavery… She was taken by Arabs from East Africa to Turkey and other slave centers around the Black Sea… She was taken to Jamaica… She was sent to the Dominican Republic, Brazil, Surinam, Cuba… She was taken from the Sudan, Libya and Chad to Yugoslavia… Only the money was counted, not the victims. So the numbers on slavery are not in yet. But historians’ estimates show from 5 to 30 million BWs taken from Africa.” (Pg. 24-27) “Not all Blacks during the period of slavery were slaves.” (Pg. 28)
“Despite all this, the BW has an IMAGE problem. It’s been usurped, manipulated, exalted degraded, altered, exploited, suppressed and turned back against her. Things have been so bad that a lot of sistuhs just gave up, went on over and adopted somebody else’s image… Because men rewriting the Bible … changed ‘I am black AND comely’ to ‘black BUT comely.’” (Pg. 52)
“Hair became the first line of defense. Hair was stretched, painted, beaten, crimped, curled, burned, lied about, covered up and prayed over. Some started borrowing hair from other people. Sistuhs could finally shake their tresses in the wind.” (Pg. 65)
“Isis, acquiring the knowledge of good and evil, was divinized. The later Eve, acquiring the same knowledge, became the cause of man’s fall from grace… Mother/Female was dropped from the Trinity and Isis was sometimes derided as a ‘pagan’ goddess. The BW was worshipped as the virtuous Venus.” (Pg. 75)
“In Christianity, Isis became the Virgin Mary… Isis/Black Madonna images are everywhere, including some places where a REAL BW is not welcome.” (Pg. 77)
“[Cleopatra] was born in Africa in 69 B.C., and ascended the throne at age 18… Black civilization was becoming more White. Research indicates that her mother was Persian (that’s a bit African) and her father was a Greek, possibly born of an African slave woman.” (Pg. 87)
“The Modern Matriarchal Myth: It alleges that Black women have political and social power over their lives and use it to emasculate Black men (when in fact Black men and women both live primarily under decisions made by White males), and part of the solution was to make the Black man king of the castle---read: patriarchy.” (Pg. 108)
“After three centuries of chattel slavery world-wide, the movement to abolish it finally took hold. ABOLITION was the major movement of the 19th century. Despite his/story giving most of the credit to Whites, Black abolitionists carried equal weight, and BW were popular abolition speakers.” (Pg. 126)
“Blacks knew that education was something worth having ‘cause their oppressors tried to keep it from them. Even whites were jailed for the ‘crime’ of teaching slaves.” (Pg. 128)
While White women fought to obtain voting rights for the members of their SEX, BW fought to obtain the vote for their PEOPLE, and hoped that as women they would be included. When they were EXcluded, BW continued to battle to win suffrage for WOMEN, certain that they would be included… 40 years later many Blacks were still denied the vote through so-called literacy tests, real estate requirements, job loss, and outright physical terror.” (Pg. 135-136)
“Which is why there had to be a: Women’s Rights/Liberation Movement. But in a movement designed to eliminate restrictions on women, restrictions have fallen BETWEEN women. Like ‘Women’ being used in sociological writings to assume only ‘White Anglo-Saxon women’… as in the often-used term ‘Women and Blacks.’ Racism has been the thorn between White and Black women seeking the same political results.” (Pg, 146)
“THE CLUB MOVEMENT: Their mission was to challenge racism, protect the sisterhood and elevate the race.” (Pg. 149)
“Some Sistuhs moved and shaked to a spastic drummer, and became part of the PROBLEM instead of the SOLUTION… As an F.B.I. undercover agent, Julia Brown snitched on Black folks during the outrageous anti-Communist ‘witch hunts’ of the 1950s. She was praised by the U.S. Congress for her work.” (Pg. 152)
“Madame Walker, a woman with no formal education, helped fund Mary McLeod Bethune’s school, and scholarships at Tuskeegee Institute. She gave cash bonuses to her agents to be used for community upliftment.” (Pg. 163)
“In developing countries the BW is the least likely to be trained for industrial and high-tech jobs, earns approximately one-half the income of Black males and as little as 1% of the income of White males.” (Pg. 168)
“BW face long-term, carefully plotted programs of ‘de-population,’ initiated by the Western world’s leading governments, against people of color in areas (Africa in particular) where there are natural resources needed by the rest of the world.” (Pg. 178)
The book concludes, “Divas Don’t Die: They learn to love themselves. Today more concentration is focused on BW learning about each other than ever before---woman to woman, country to country, ancestor to ancestor. Divas… are the living stream, the divine and destined continuum of Black Women on the planet, connected to all who preceded them and all who follow.” (Pg. 185-186)
This is one of the most interesting ‘Documentary Comic Books’ I have read, and it is actually a quite respectable orientation to the subject.
March 15, 2019
So inspiring!
March 7, 2021
Very inspiring to read about the original race
May 5, 2022
Beautiful Book
August 10, 2016
This has made me think about feminism so much. More so than anything I've read in a long time. About the feminism that I was introduced to and involved in around universities created for a specific audience. This was book was an introduction to black women and black history which is something that I haven't been taught at all. The women are incredible and people that we should be learning about, and from, at all times. Amazing and eye opening.
July 29, 2009
"I immediately started thinking about how to use this book with a library ‘rights of passage’ program. What I like most about your
book is that it is an amalgam of other scholarly works… and it is
easy enough for our young people to read.”
Joan N. Eldridge, Compton [CA:] County Libraries
book is that it is an amalgam of other scholarly works… and it is
easy enough for our young people to read.”
Joan N. Eldridge, Compton [CA:] County Libraries
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews