Remarks for a Roundtable on Transnational Feminism

In 1977 a collective of Black Lesbian Feminists published the Combahee River Collective Statement, a manifesto that defined and described the interlocking oppressions that they and other women of color were experiencing and the deleterious impact of these oppressions upon their lives. They committed themselves to a lifelong collective process and nonhierarchical distribution of power as they struggle(d) to envision and create a just society. Twenty-nine years after the appearance of the Combahee River Collective Statement, over one hundred African Feminists met in Accra, Ghana to formulate their own manifesto and ultimately adopt the Charter of Feminist Principles for African Feminists, which was first published in 2007 simultaneously in English and French. This paper reviews both statements and acknowledges their critical contributions to the evolution of Transnational Feminisms.