From: rhuffman@diana.cair.du.edu (Robert T. Huffman)
Subject: Re: Feminists!
Organization: University of Denver, Denver, Colorado
Date: Fri, 10 Apr 92 13:32:08 GMT

In article <204678@unix.cis.pitt.edu> pmmst8@unix.cis.pitt.edu (Paul M Mweene) writes:
>
>Obviously this explains you have taken it upon yourself to speak for them. 
>So even thouh you are not one of them, have never live with any of them, have
>never had one of them as your lover, you still care more about them than I do.
>Thats both eye opennin and instructive. Carry on`

What exactly makes you think I have never lived with an African woman or
had one as a lover?  And even if I had not, how does this exclude me from
opinions about the status of women in Africa?  You have also taken it upon
yourself to speak for African women, haven't you?  By your logic, the fact
that you are a man should also preclude you from stating opinions.
>
>Let me say I know and care nothin about the
>so called conservatives based here or else where. And also, I have never fami
>liarized myself with their philosophy and never plan to.

If you suspect you disagree with someone, it is certainly safest not to
listen to them.

 If it so happens that
>my statements seem conruent with with their belief, that is purely coincidental.There is however, here a disturbin pattern. It seems that everythin I do or say
>must have a source in this or another non-African country. Obviously the perce
>`ption here is that I am incapable of preparin a rational thouht process in 
>support of any thin I believe without plagiary.

I never said you lifted you opinions from the Republican Party platform
(In fact, I don't think any Republican could get away with some of the
extremely conservative opinions you have stated, such as approving of
African illiteracy so that African women can't read publications which
may increase their demands for social justice).  I merely said that they
seemed to coincide with many conservatives' opinions in this country.

 But again this is consistent
>with the foregoing comments on behalf of the unconsulted female portion of the African population

In fact, an African woman has responded to your postings.  In fact, her
response and mine were very similar.  Yet you have never replied to her
arguments.  Furthermore, if you send me a copy of your original posting,
the one which initially attacked *Off Our Backs*, I will be happy to
show it to some African women I know and have them respond.  (Of course,
I will be open to the same charge that you levelled at *Off Our Backs*,
that the replies would not really be by African women, but I don't see
any way around this problem.)

>Other than to wish you all well, I will not participate in a discussion of the
>above subject matter. The reason is that the dosmetic problems of Americans are
>for Americans to solve. I am not entiled, uninvited as I am, to opine these matters or to impose my kind of logic. I conceed that I come from a different cultu
>al backround and may not always adequately understands the cause of the problem
>`and the consequence of usin my solutions on them. I respect Americans on these
>matters even as I may disagree with hteir methoids to solve them.

Once again I have to disagree with you.  I simply do not understand why a
non-American cannot have opinions about American problems.  Furthermore, it
seems to me that a non-American can offer insights into American society
by being more detached from it.  Alexis de Tocqueville visited the US from
Great Britian in the 19th century, and his views of the country are still
quoted.  I, for one, would welcome "foreign" comments about domestic
problems, because we Yanks are certainly doing something wrong.

>So my statements would be regarded doubtful until such a time that they were corroborated by an "expert" on African culture.

I don't take the statements of any one person as fact, whether it is someone
with whom I disagree on just about everything or my own mother.  My whole
point, though, is that I'm not sure there is such a thing as one African
culture.  Africa's a big place, and from what I have seen of it, the cultures
can be vastly different from place to place.  I guess my question is, are
there truly cultural norms that hold throughout the continent and are
uniquely African?  (I place this last condition in my question because I
believe there are norms that are universal and would thus hold throughout
Africa but also throughout the rest of the world and would thus 
be rather uninteresting.  An obvious example might be taboos against incest.)

Robert Huffman
rhuffman@diana.cair.du.edu