Nina Simone Four Women Analysis

Black womanhood is still as important as feminism. Women, in general, are still not being treated as an equal, but for a black woman it is even worse. The song “Four Women” by Nina Simone shows how black women were being categorized and struggling with a sense of belonging, acceptance, and ownership. First, a young woman in the song is named Saffronia she is mixed. She says “she does belong” she knows she belongs to two worlds, but it is more about being accepted. She has long hair and is described as yellow. The year is 1966,a year where people are still dealing with separation. Saffronia knows she belongs in both worlds, but which world will accept her the way she is. Even though she classifies as both races the majority of people only see her as being a black woman, but the black races do not classify her as black they classify her as being a shade closer to white. Nina Simone writes about Saffronia to show how women of the mixed race were treated. Her hair is very important because black people had kinky hair while the white people hair was long and straight. In the book Naked, the author explains how black women can have many different hair lengths and different textures. Every black person will not have kinky or nappy hair, some will have long and straight hair or long and curly . Nina Simone then goes on to explain how Saffronia mother

She is from the enslavement time period. She is described as being black with wooly hair and having a strong back1. Her name is Aunt Sarah, Aunt Sarah is the oldest of the four women described in the song. She has been beating on before, Nina Simone really emphasized on that to make sure people knew what black people went through and the suffrage, black people had to endure and show how strong a black woman really is. Aunt Sarah has to deal with ownership because she is a slave. She is treated like an animal and has been beating on again and