Black women's leadership: indigenous knowledges for empowerment

The result of the study shows that transnational Black women's leadership use African indigenous knowledge retained from Africa and the African Diaspora, inclusive of the Caribbean where many of my participants were born. African women in leadership in Canada are simply Africans in the wider African Diaspora using African indigenous knowledge different embodied forms of knowing. Most importantly, the participants showed that Black women's leadership represent junctures of cultural resistance, transformation and empowerment through their agency where they set the stage to empower themselves and others as admired Black women and role models. A new dominant paradigm of leadership has become more inclusive through making room for women's ways of leading while implying that all women are included within this approach. This study attempts to challenge the dominant paradigm, which only expresses the thoughts and experiences of White European leadership while negating Black women's leadership. The critical element of my research is to examine the retention and continuity of indigenous knowledge in transnational Black women's leadership through investigating ways in which indigenous knowledge informs transnational African Canadian women's leadership practices in the Black grassroots community, organization and continuity of indigenous knowledge in transnational Black women's leadership through investigating ways in which indigenous knowledge informs transnational African Canadian women's leadership practices in the Black grassroots community, organization and workplace. The study uses data collected from 15 participants from the African Canadian Diaspora while utilizing a qualitative approach of employing oral narratives through semi-structured interviews. This research on leadership takes a race, gender, class, historical and cultural approach where it begs the question, what happens when the indigenous woman from the South is represented in the geopolitical space of leadership in Canada, through transnationalism? Does the Black woman bring the epistemology of transnational African indigenous knowledge into her position of leadership? How has Black women's leadership empowered the self and others for political action and what are the theoretical and pedagogical implications?Furthermore, the study highlighted ways in which transnational, transformational, womanist and indigenous knowledge perspectives of leadership should be taught and learned while making use of the oral tradition of success stories. Generally, the research project shows the difference and importance of Black women's leadership. The study showed that there were a number of indigenous knowledge practices influencing Black women's leadership. They include the problematics of indigenous knowledge; culture of spirituality; intuition and memory; and sharing and collectivism. Several tenets of Black women's leadership supported the continuity and retention of indigenous knowledge. They include community support and a gift to be shared; culture, value and belief; re-memory and activism; and admired Black women and role models.

Keywords: Women, Black
Women, Black, Canada
Leadership in women
Ethnoscience