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Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg

“GLOBAL STUDIES PROGRAMME”

EUROPEAN SOCIAL THOUGHT

Women, identity and feminism in the

heterogeneous "Third World":

Gioconda Belli's poetry as a process of awareness and struggle of a woman in

postcolonial contexts

Lecturers: Faisal Garba / Florian Schumacher

Student: Melisa Gorondy Novak

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Abstract

Putting the focus on Chandra Talpade Mohanty theory about the understanding that

western feminist scholars have on women of the “third word”, this essay seeks to analyze

the artistic work of Gioconda Belli, a Nicaraguan poet, activist and feminist. In that sense,

the poetry of Belli is presented as an example of how western feminism has little to say

about women in the “third world” (about Latin American women). The complexity of the

context in which Belli wrote the poems shows the impossibility of analyzing a “third world

women” in universalistic terms. Thereby, western feminists generalization about women

in non-western countries misnamed or ignored the experience of too many women,

usually omitting or belittling vital information that stemmed from differences of class,

race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion, age and ability.

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“Open veins of Latin America”

Latin America continues in the present in its efforts to engage the XXI century and to the

coming promises. However, each of its multiple faces distills (and bleeds) past. None of

them get delete their inherited brands of domination and subjugation. Its history is

witness to the struggle of foreign and local powers. These historical processes of bids for

power have left marks on these lands, and many of those cracks continuing today.

According to the Latin American thinker Aníbal Quijano, under the idea of “modernity”,

clear expression of the subjective and material columns of western European society, in

the rest of the world, and in Latin America in particular, relations of exploitation and

domination were formed. In addition, that tension remains on tenterhooks in Latin

American countries nowadays.

In the words of Quijano, one of the fundamentals pillars of the patterns of the colonial –

modern - eurocentred domination of the capitalism was the “social classification of the

global population based on the idea of race, a mental construct that expresses the basic

experience of colonial domination”. In addition, within this process the place of women

was a key. Their location among the inferior races remained stereotyped with the rest of

the bodies. In addition, the lower their races were the closer to the nature they were, or

they were directly inside of the nature, as the black slaves women.

Therefore, the fight for the inclusion of those excluded (women, indigenous,

afrodescendants, migrants) that nowadays occupies a central place on the agenda of

social struggles is not an accident. What we must inquire is which are the theoretical basis

of these struggles.

Theory and struggles for inclusion

Despite that the new trends of western scholars as subaltern studies, cultural and

postcolonial studies have opened the possibility for silenced voices to express themselves

and become concerning proposals, here appears the question whether or not these

studies decentralize “the subject” as they claim to do. In addition, other inquire is the

following: are these studies new proposals for decolonization or colonization? In that

sense: do these new discourses, which talk about “the marginal” or “the subaltern”, seek

to achieve intellectual credits incorporating “the different” or “the other” as a strategy of

legitimation?

The main argument is that the colonial and androcentric bias remains property of these

thoughts. Therefore, postcolonialism theories from western European scholars, which

advocate overcoming the abstract universalism imposed by imperial conquest and

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colonization, can be understood, as Aime Cesaire pointed out, (Cesaire, 1955) as an

hegemonic European particularism which is housed in a global and imperial design, hiding

the epistemic localization of its enunciation. Thereby, feminists generalization about

women in non-western countries misnamed or ignored the experience of too many

women, usually omitting or belittling vital information that stemmed from differences of

class, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion, age and ability. Instead of that he

proposes an “universalism other”, a “concrete universalism” that, far away from a sneaky

provincialism, may be the depositary of all particularities, and the result of an horizontal

critical dialogue between the multiple cosmo-epistemological determinations.

Voices that are little known

In relation to the points above, the predominant analysis about women in the third world

are not made by women situated in that particular world, but is carried out by western

feminists. In that sense postcolonial theory made in the academy has an elitist and

androcentric position. Therefore, western scholarship and colonial discourses are those

primarily considered. Postcolonial theories made by non-western feminists (especially

Latin Americans), developed through their practices and struggles, most of the time are

ignored by the academy.

However, even though the predominance of western feminist discourse about the non-

western women, “racialized” feminists (most of them afrodescendants and indigenous)

have continued deepening about power in the framework of patriarchal and capitalist

structures, considering it as an interweaving of various domination systems (racism,

sexism, classism). Based on this postcolonial criticism they have defined their own political

projects. Therefore, many feminist writers contributed in different ways to the critique of

feminist false universalization.

Chandra Talpade Monhanty is one of them. She analyzed the distortion of the experience

of third world women in western feminist scholarship in “Under western eyes”

(Monhanty, 1993). Putting the focus on Mohanty theory this essay seeks to analyze the

artistic work of Gioconda Belli, a Nicaraguan poet, activist and feminist. In that sense, the

poetry of Belli is presented as an example of how western feminism has little to say about

women in the “third world” (about Latin American women). The complexity of the context

in which Belli wrote the poems shows the impossibility to analyze a “third world women”

in universalistic terms.

Think about the Colonialism

It is important to outline the primarily postcolonial studies which gave rise to the

arguments of feminist theories made from non-western scholars. Hence, making a

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genealogy, two thinkers have become significant theorist in the analysis of the effects of

the colonialism. On one hand, Aimé Cesaire, initiator of the Negritude movement during

the thirties, sustained his political proposes based on the analysis about colonialism and

racism as vectors of capitalism and modernity. Moreover, these vectors were extended

not only through the economic relations, but also to the Eurocentric ideas, and values.

Subsequently in the fifties, Frantz Fanon referred to a world as cut in two: the colonized

and the colonizer. In this regard, the first group, the colonized, had been constructed from

a metropolitan imaginary based on universalists European values which considered “the

other” as unprotected and ignorant. In addition, the “other” was not only understood in

geopolitical terms, but also as a way of thinking and as a base for political actions. In that

sense, Fanon highlighted the dehumanization caused by colonialism, which carried

phenomena such as racism, violence, expropriation of land by white European settlers,

and through other various mechanisms of power and domination. He also claims the

decolonization from the metropolis in terms of economic and cultural independence, as

well as the necessity of political struggles from the same colonized against the denial of

their identities, their cultures, and the reduction of their self-esteem.

Moreover, Fanon thoughts argued that the process of decolonization signified the

creation of solidarity between people in the struggle against imperialism. In that sense,

intellectual thought was very significant inasmuch as the decolonization required battles

against the ethnocentric and racist vision which reduces non-western cultures to marginal

and mysterious objects.

Fanon and Cesaire, among other postcolonial scholars, provide profound analysis of

colonialism from what is called “subaltern positions”. They challenged as intellectual black

people the Eurocentric thought and its political analysis. However, despite these great

contributions, nor Fanon neither Cesaire addressed deeply categories like sex and

sexuality. Nor do contemporary Latin American writes as Quijano, Mignolo or Dussel.

Although they mention race as a criteria of classification of the position in the sexual

division of labor, they only comment that relation with sex and sexuality. In that sense

new contributions from indigenous, afrodescendants and Latin-American feminist are

being created.

“Women” do not exist

In the text “Under Western eyes: feminist scholarship and colonial discourses”, Chandra

Talpade Mohanty proposes a political and intellectual project for the “third world

feminist”. On one hand she claims a review of the “western hegemonic feminism”. And,

on the other hand, she points out the necessity of the development of feminist strategies

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based on women’s autonomy, considering their geography, their culture and their own

stories.

As noted, Mohanty’s proposal is double: an initial project of “deconstruction”, reviewing

the recently written texts by western feminists about “third world women”, seeing as

singular monolithic subject. In addition, a second step should be the creation of both

academic discourse and political practices made by the same third world feminists.

Analyzing the western production of knowledge about “third world women”, the author

points out that white western feminisms homogenize the experiences of the named “third

world women”. That argument must be understood as a modern process of colonization.

In that sense, it presumes a structural domination and the destruction of the

heterogeneity of the individuals, their voices and their own struggles.

The universal and etnocentrical theories of western feminists create an imaginary and

homogeneous “third world woman”: underdevelopment, oppressed, victim of particular

socio-economic systems and of male control, politically immature needing to be

continually challenged, and so on. Summarizing, the “third world women” are considered

as an “homogenous powerless group located as victims”. That brings as consequence the

consideration of women as a group with similar problems, needs, interests and goals.

The intellectual production of the “third world difference” means the appropriation and

colonization by the western feminisms of the complexity that involves women’s life in

their own communities. In addition it means the negation of the geographic, historical and

cultural contexts where the identities are constructed.

This production can be understood as a political strategy from western society. In words

of Mohanty: “western feminist is not only a production of knowledge about certain

subject, (…) is a political and discursive action, (…) a mode of intervention into particular

hegemonic discourses.(…) Therefore, feminist scholarly practices must be understood as

inscribed in relations of power” (Mohanty, 1991)

After that process of deconstruction of this “homogenous identity”, the struggle that

women from non-western countries must start is the visibility of what has been invisible.

Women must divest from the identity as “oppressed” without voice and jump in to the

political arena, making their voices being heard.

In this process, the experiences are relevant to understand the differences between every

woman and the plurality within the society. The identities are results of heterogeneous

representation about race, gender, class, built through languages and culture, experiences

and history.

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Equal to whom?

The challenge is also to recover the “subject” based on the differences. However, this

process is in tension with the notion of equality defined by the illustration. The step then

will be finishing this dualism based on sexual difference. Struggles must be against the

systems that generated dual structures where women can be seen in opposition to men

or, on the other hand, the same as men. Both considerations rob from them their

historical and political agency.

The sexual difference should be understood as a sign of many differences that requires an

open and flexible definition of the subject. Each women and men are result of multiple

identities, which can change through the time.

Gioconda Belli, her poetry and her multiple identity

The region of Central America implies a long history of incredible struggles against several

modes of oppression. In addition, in this scene European explorers have played an

important role because they shed indigenous blood. Moreover, in contradiction with

those arguments from most of western feminist about women in the “third world”, as

oppressed, illiterate, without voice and capacity to act, the roles most women have played

in the revolutionary struggle in Nicaragua were really important.

Therefore, analyzing women actions in Nicaragua struggles under the gaze of Mohanty, it

can be inferred that, as the author demanded, the two processes of deconstruction of the

identity imposed from outside as an homogenous, and also the construction of new

feminists strategies in order to change their situation, were followed by the activists-

scholars in this country. Consequently, while mainstream, patriarchal and Eurocentric

visions have downplayed or totally disregarded the roles that women in could played in

revolutionary struggle, a number of activist-scholars in this Central American country

could made a massive contribution.

In addition, many Central American women involved in feminist movements have resisted

being pigeonholed by white western feminist projects of “global sisterhood”, which they

understood as the permanence of colonial processes. In that sense, as Mohanty argued,

Nicaraguan feminists reject this programme promoted from European feminists because

of the bias that characterizes these projects. The “global sisterhood” ignores differences

of class, race, nationality, and other markers of unequal power-relations.

The simplicity of the concept “third word women” and the list of adjectives that this

concept involves, in terms of a whole homogeneous, disappear immediately when

Nicaraguan case is analyzed. Contrary to the idea of passivity, inability and even useless to

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perform a change, it is very difficult to discuss feminist movements in Central America

without talking about revolution and without thinking about women being part of this

process. In that sense, Gioconda Belli in an interview affirms: “No revolution without

women’s emancipation: No emancipation without revolution”.

Most of women’s movements in Central America and, in fact, the majority of successful

achievements in women’s liberation have risen out of the people’s struggle against the

violence’s of capitalism, colonialism, and racism. Hence, is in this context in which

intermixed systems of oppression-patriarchy, capitalism, colonialism, and racism where

we can find forms of struggle based on oppositional women’s writing.

Drawing from the insights of non-western feminists theories such as Chandra Talpade

Mohanty, I attempt to illustrate the theory with an example of anticolonial-antiracist-

feminist poetry. In that sense, Nicaraguan women writers are not just doing an academic

or esthetic exercise, but also aiming to build a feminist strategy (using art as a tool of

transformation) which provides spaces for action and change.

Moreover, it can be created a solidarity which both Mohanty and Cesaire propose as a

kind of network that takes into account “common differences”. A solidarity that

recognizes differences and specificities of the local sites of oppression, struggle, and

revolution, while also keeping focus the interconnected systems of oppression.

Thinking about places of oppression and opposition in Central America, it can quoted the

work of Barbara Harlow called “resistance literature”. In that sense poetry wrote by

Gioconda Belli developed a creative work which born in a process of everyday struggles

against various forms of violence. As she puts it in a brief sentence: “we make revolution

when we write a poem”.

It is estimated that over 30 percent of the soldiers who fought in the Sandinista National

Liberation Front guerrilla movement against the U.S. backed Somoza dictatorship in the

1960s and 1970s were women. Some of the most influential women-poets and

combatants involved in the Sandinista National Liberation Front were Gioconda Belli,

Daisy Zamora, Rosário Murillo, and Michéle Najilis. Through their poetry they mobilized

consciences of people to impulse them to get involve into the struggles against Somoza’s

henchmen. For instance, Gioconda Belli, a young university student who joined the

Sandinista National Liberation Front in 1970, wrote in her poem “Nicaragua Water Fire” of

the daily suffering and enormous bravery of women guerrilla fighters:

“I finger triggers

great wars

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pain the size of mothers’ eyes

unstoppable torrents

big white hands want to kill us

but we made hospital beds

where women cry out births

we spend all day with pounding hearts

tum tum tam tam

Indian pulses repeat history:

We don’t want children who’ll be slaves”

In this poem Gioconda Belli arguments implicitly to the racism of colonialism and the

colonialism of racism writing that “big white hands” are attacking people of color. She also

expresses poetically a cooperative sense of women’s compromise to the revolution for the

stealing of their own freedom and for their children’s freedom.

In addition, related to that poetry, Belli shared later in an interview: “the struggle for

culture is the struggle for social change” (Beverley and Zimmerman, 1988). Here the

perspective that Frantz Fanon held in The Wretched of the Earth can be found, the

reclaiming of culture itself as a revolutionary act.

Conclusion

The consequences of capitalism and imperialism have devastated and continue impacting

Central America. Nevertheless people’s resistance and incessant struggle become an

important factor in this process. In this context women have played an important role in in

the resistance that sprang up throughout Latin America in this century. The severe and

diverse realities that many women faced encouraged them to find creative ways to

express their fears, concerns, expectations, and delights (that are unique to each person).

A number of women daily exposed their lives, not only in direct combat, but also through

the power of the written word. In Nicaragua, a number of women have taken up weapons

and pens to be heard and fight for their rights. And there is where we can find Gioconda

Belli.

This poet and activist, use art as an instrument of changing. Through her words she also

shows the complexity of her own reality. As the theory of Mohanty points out, she is not

part of an homogenous group characterized as “women”. Her identity is the result of her

own history, geography, culture and experiences during her life. In that sense Gioconda,

as many other women in Latin America, becomes an example to understand that woman

cannot be taken in universalist terms.

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This idea of multiplicity is at the heart of Belli’s literature. Belli appoint this in the

following frase:

The essence of being multitudinous

and its multiplicity contains my name

To conclude, Gioconda Belli's poetry must be understood as a process of awareness and

struggle of a woman within complex postcolonial contexts. She puts it in her own writings.

Rivers flow through me

Mountains pierce my body

And the geography and history of my country

It is taking shape in my

Making me lakes and streams gaps

Land to till love

It is opening like a furrow

To view the free, beautiful

Full of smiles.

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Bibliography

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Belli, Goiconda (2010): El país de las mujeres. ebooks Patagonia.

Cesaire, Aime (1955): Discourse on Colonialism. New York and London: Monthly Press., 1 – 24

Fanon, Frantz. (1963): The Wretched of the Earth. New York: Grove Weidenfeld., p. 95-106

Fanon, Frantz (2008): Black skin, White Masks. [1952] New York: Grove Press, p. 89-119

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