This is a collection of anthropological and sociological articles on the black woman. Essays cover the experiences of black women in Africa, the Caribbean, South America, and the United States in politics, business, the community, the arts, the family, and social change. Several themes are present throughout this anthology, including black women's common African heritage, economic exploitation and marginalization of black women, their negative images in literature, and the development of an ideology of self-reliance by these women in order to survive. Issues of race, sex and class are explored in relation to both Western and "African" conceptions of feminism. An extensive cross-cultural bibliography on black women is also provided. (APM)