Black Madonnas

About the Book

In the 1993 edition, I considered black madonnas a metaphor for a memory of the time when the earth was belived to be the body of woman and all creatures were equal, a memory transmitted in vernacular traditions of earth-bounded cultures, historically expressed in cultural and poltical resistance, and glimpsed today in movements aiming for transformation.

Sine then my understanding of black madonnas has been deepened by genetics finding that the orgin of modern humans is Africa, that migrations from Africa carried a primordial belief in a dar woman divinity to all continents. Black madonnas and other dark women of the world suggest a metaphor for healing millennial divisions of gender and race and concerted movements for justice.

About the Author

Lucia Chiavola Birnbaum, womanist/feminist cultural historian, is engaged in exploring the transformative potential of submerged beliefs. Her books include Liberazione Della Donna: Feminism in Italy (Wesleyan University Press, l986, l988) and Black Madonnas: Feminism, Religion & Politics in Italy (Northeastern University Press, 1933, Palomar Editrice, 1997). The Italian edition of Black Madonnas won the Premio Internazionale di Saggistica. Lucia’s Dark Mother: African Origins, Godmothers, and the “Uncruel Revolution”, is forthcoming. She is Professor of Women’s Spirituality, California Institute of Integral Studies, San Francisco, California.