Black female writers' perspective on religion: Alice Walker and Calixthe Beyala

24. Eva Lenox Birch, "Autobiography: The Art of Self-Definition" in Black Women's Writing. Gina Wisker (ed.). (London: Macmillan, 1993), p. 140.

25. Zora Neale Hurston's writings have served as an inspiration to most African American female writers. Her most influential works include: Their Eyes Were Watching God (London: Virago, 1980) and Dust Tracks on a Road (London: Virago, 1986).

26. It is noteworthy that some African American female writers have equally professed ancestral worship as the sole spiritual hope of not only black women but also black people in general. A most glaring example is Paul Marshal in her novel, Praisesong for a Widow. For this, and more, see Gay Wilentz, Binding Cultures: Black Women Writers in Africa and the Diaspora (Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1992), pp. 108-115.

27. Cathixthe Beyala, Lettre d'une Africaine d ses soeurs occidentales (An African Woman's Letter to Her Western Sisters) (Paris: Spenglers, 1995).

28. See Mariama BA's So long a Letter (Newborn: Ibadan, 1987) and Scarlet Song (London: Essex, 1981).

29. Contrary to the wide spread belief among critics that female sterility and childlessness is abhorred and considered a curse by most African societies, Flora Nwapa presents a subversive version in which Uhamiri, the goddess of sterility is rich and happy and worshipped by many women. See her Efuru (London:

Heinemann, 1966).

30. See Mary Daly, Beyond God the Father (Note 16).

31. Alice Walker in an interview with Claudia Tate in Black Women Writers at Work. Claudia Tate (ed.). (New York: Continuum Publishing, 1983), pp. 178-- 179.

32. The term "womanist" is culled from Alice Walker's work, In Search of Our Mother's Gardens (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovitch, 1983). She defines a "womanist" as "A black feminist or feminist of color... A woman who appreciates women's culture, women's emotional flexibility and women's strengths ... She is committed to the survival and wholeness of entire people, male and female", p. xii.

33. Alice Walker, The Color Purple (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovitch, 1982), p. 1. (Note the use of black vernacular English in the novel)

34. Alice Walker, The Color Purple, p. 1655.

35. Alice Walker, The Color Purple, pp. 166-167.

36. Alice Walker, The Color Purple, p. 168.

37. Alice Walker, The Color Purple, p. 168.

38. Alice Walker, The Color Purple, P. 68.

39. Alice Walker, Temple of My Familiar (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovitch, 1989), p. 89.

40. Alice Walker, Possessing the Secret of Joy (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovitch, 1993) p.253.

41. Alice Walker, Possessing the Secret of Joy, p. 171.

42. Alice Walker, Possessing the Secret of Joy, p. 172.

43. Alice Walker, Possessing the Secret of Joy, p. 203.

44. Calixthe Beyala, C'Est le Soleil qui ma bruMe (It is the Sun that Burnt Me) (Paris: Stock, 1987).

45. Calixthe Beyala, C'Est le Soleil qui m'a brulee, p. 88.

46. Calixthe Beyala, C'Est le Soleil qui m'a brulee, p. 88.

47. Calixthe Beyala, C'Est le Soleil qui m'a brulee, pp. 55-56.