Echoing the Voices of African American Women in Suzan Lori Park’s Venus

Abstract

This study examines the discrimination, exploitation and oppression of black African women in western societies in Suzan Lori Park’s Venus. Specifically, the study investigates how the playwright portrays liberation of the black African women from such oppression using Spivak’s concept of Essentialism and Mohanty’s transnational as part of modern postcolonial feminist theory. The study reveals many ways in which black African women could be emancipated from discrimination, exploitation, oppression and ensure their voices are heard. These include embracing education, creating awareness on racism and objectification of African-American woman, opposing the pseudoscientific belief of white supremacy, rewriting the history of black African women and recreating identity for African-American females.