"Africana Womanism" is a term coined in the late 1980s by Clenora Hudson-Weems intended as an ideology applicable to all women of African descent. It is grounded in African culture and Afrocentrism and focuses on the experiences, struggles, needs, and desires of Africana women of the African diaspora. It distinguishes itself from feminism, or Alice Walker's womanism. The Africana Womanism Society lists eighteen characteristics of The Africana womanist, including self-naming, self-defining, family-centered, flexible and desiring positive male companionship.