To Exist is to Resist

Description

This book brings together activists, artists and scholars of colour to show how Black feminism and Afrofeminism are being practiced in Europe today, exploring their differing social positions in various countries, and how they organise and mobilise to imagine a Black feminist Europe.



Deeply aware that they are constructed as 'Others' living in a racialised and hierarchical continent, the contibutors explore gender, class, sexuality and legal status to show that they are both invisible - presumed to be absent from and irrelevant to European societies - and hyper-visible - assumed to be passive and sexualised, angry and irrational.



Through imagining a future outside the neocolonial frames and practices of contemporary Europe, this book explores a variety of critical spaces including motherhood and the home, friendships and intimate relationships, activism and community, and literature, dance and film.

List of Figures

Part I: Introduction

1. Introduction: On the Problems and Possibilities of European Black Feminism and Afrofeminism - Akwugo Emejulu and Francesca Sobande

Part II: Resistance, Solidarity and Coalition-Building

2. The Collective Mobilisation of African Women in Athens 'United We Stand' - Viki Zaphiriou-Zarifi

3. Making Space: Black and Womxn of Colour Feminist Activism in Madrid - Nadia Nadesan

4. Those Who Fight For Us Without Us Are Against Us: Afrofeminist Activism in France - Mwasi Collectif

5. Afro Women's Activism in Belgium: Questioning Diversity and Solidarity - Nicole Grégoire and Modi Ntambwe

6. A Black Feminist's Guide to Improper Activism - Claire Heuchan

Part III: Emotions, Affect and Intimate Relations

7. Revisiting the Home as a Site of Freedom and Resistance - Gabriella Beckles-Raymond

8. Uses of Black/African Literature and Afrofeminist Literary Spaces by Women of Colour in French-Speaking Switzerland - Pamela Ohene-Nyako

9. 'Blackness Disrupts My Germanness.' On Embodiment and Questions of Identity and Belonging among Women of Colour in Germany - Johanna Melissa Lukate

10. Love and Affection: The Radical Possibilities of Friendship Between Women of Colour - Ego Ahaiwe Sowinske and Nazmia Jamal

11. Black Pete, Black Motherhood and Womanist Ethics - Lubumbe Van de Velde

12. Warriors and Survivors: The Eartha Kitt Files - Alecia McKenzie

Part IV: Surviving the Academy

13. In the Changing Light; Daring to Be Powerful - Yesim Deveci

14. Cruel Ironies: The Afterlife of Black Womxn's Intervention - Cruel Ironies Collective

15. Creating a Space within the German Academy - Melody Howse

16. A Manifesto for Survival - Sadiah Qureshi

17. At the Margin of Institutional Whiteness: Black Women in Danish Academia - Oda-Kange Midtvage Diallo

18. Africanist Sista-hood in Britain: Creating Our Own Pathways - Chijioke Obasi

Part V: Digital and Creative Labour

19. But Some of Us Are Tired: Black Women's 'Personal Feminist Essays' in the Digital Sphere - Kesiena Boom

20. Coming to Movement: African Diasporic Women in British Dance - Tia-Monique Uzor

21. Through Our Lens: Filming Our Resistance. Does the Future Look Black in Europe? - Dorett Jones

22. When We Heal: Creative Practice as a Means of Activism and Self-Preservation - Stacie CC Graham

Notes on Contributors

Index

Sujets

• Minority Studies
• Ethnic Studies
• Political Advocacy
• Political Process
• Social Science
• POLITICAL SCIENCE
• Sociologie, société et politique
• Franz Fanon
• África
• Sara Ahmed
• 21st century
• Sociology
• African studies
• African diaspora
• Activism
• African American
• Blackness
• Union européenne
• Africa
• Black
• Eartha Kitt
• Frantz Fanon
• Discrimination
• Europe

Informations

• Publié par: Pluto Press
• Date de parution: 20 mai 2019
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781786804587
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 3 Mo

Extrait

To Exist is to Resist
To Exist is to Resist
Black Feminism in Europe
Edited by Akwugo Emejulu and Francesca Sobande
First published 2019 by Pluto Press
345 Archway Road, London N6 5AA
www.plutobooks.com
Copyright Akwugo Emejulu and Francesca Sobande 2019
The right of the individual contributors to be identified as the authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 978 0 7453 3948 1 Hardback
ISBN 978 0 7453 3947 4 Paperback
ISBN 978 1 7868 0457 0 PDF eBook
ISBN 978 1 7868 0459 4 Kindle eBook
ISBN 978 1 7868 0458 7 EPUB eBook




This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental standards of the country of origin.
Typeset by Stanford DTP Services, Northampton, England
Simultaneously printed in the United Kingdom and United States of America
Contents
List of figures
PART I INTRODUCTION
1. Introduction: On the Problems and Possibilities of European Black Feminism and Afrofeminism
Akwugo Emejulu and Francesca Sobande
PART II RESISTANCE, SOLIDARITY AND COALITION-BUILDING
2. The Collective Mobilisation of African Women in Athens United We Stand
Viki Zaphiriou-Zarifi
3. Making Space: Black and Womxn of Colour Feminist Activism in Madrid
Nadia Nadesan
4. Those Who Fight For Us Without Us Are Against Us: Afrofeminist Activism in France
Cyn Awori Othieno and Annette Davis on behalf of Mwasi Collectif
5. Afro Women s Activism in Belgium: Questioning Diversity and Solidarity
Nicole Gr goire and Modi Ntambwe
6. A Black Feminist s Guide to Improper Activism
Claire Heuchan
PART III EMOTIONS, AFFECT AND INTIMATE RELATIONS
7. Revisiting the Home as a Site of Freedom and Resistance
Gabriella Beckles-Raymond
8. Uses of Black/African Literature and Afrofeminist Literary Spaces by Women of Colour in French-Speaking Switzerland
Pamela Ohene-Nyako
9. Blackness Disrupts My Germanness. On Embodiment and Questions of Identity and Belonging Among Women of Colour in Germany
Johanna Melissa Lukate
10. Love Affection: The Radical Possibilities of Friendship Between Women of Colour
Ego Ahaiwe Sowinske and Nazmia Jamal
11. Black Pete, Black Motherhood and Womanist Ethics
Lubumbe Van de Velde
12. Warriors and Survivors: The Eartha Kitt Files
Alecia McKenzie
PART IV SURVIVING THE ACADEMY
13. In the Changing Light; Daring to be Powerful
Ye im Deveci
14. Cruel Ironies: The Afterlife of Black Womxn s Intervention
Cruel Ironies Collective
15. Creating a Space Within the German Academy
Melody Howse
16. A Manifesto for Survival
Sadiah Qureshi
17. At the Margins of Institutional Whiteness: Black Women in Danish Academia
Oda-Kange Midtv ge Diallo
18. Africanist Sista-hood in Britain: Creating Our Own Pathways
Chijioke Obasi
PART V DIGITAL AND CREATIVE LABOUR
19. But Some of Us Are Tired: Black Women s Personal Feminist Essays in the Digital Sphere
Kesiena Boom
20. Coming to Movement: African Diasporic Women in British Dance
Tia-Monique Uzor
21. Through Our Lens: Filming Our Resistance. Does the Future Look Black in Europe?
Dorett Jones
22. When We Heal: Creative Practice as a Means of Activism and Self-Preservation
Stacie CC Graham
Notes on Contributors
Index
Figures
2.1 Members of UAWO take part in a workshop activity
2.2 Campaign poster for No to Racism from the Baby s cradle
2.3 UAWO pose for journalists with then Minister for Immigration, Tasia Christodoulopoulou, at a rally for second-generation rights outside parliament on the eve of a vote on changes to citizenship law, 24 June 2015
2.4 UAWO attends an anti-racism demonstration, Syntagma Square, 21 March 2015
2.5 Members of UAWO attending a fundraising event for Sierra Leone
2.6 UAWO dance group performs at a fundraising event for Sierra Leone
2.7 International Women s Day project, 8 March 2015
2.8 Women pose outside parliament for the International Women s Day project, 8 March 2015
2.9 A member of UAWO in a traditional Thracian costume
3.1 asturies femenista 8M
4.1 Coordination femmes noires
4.2 Lydie Dooh-Bunya
4.3 A 30 Nuances de Noires performance at Horizons N cessaires Festival, Paris, 18 June 2017
4.4 Mwasi marching at the 2015 MAFED ( Marche des Femmes Pour la Dignit ) Women s March for Dignity, Paris, October 2015
4.5 Nyansapo festival goers exit an afternoon workshop, Paris, July 2017
4.6 Nyansapo festival goers sit on the curb in front of La G n rale , Paris, July 2017 Women s March for Dignity, Paris, October 2015
4.7 An attentive audience listens to a roundtable talk on day 2 of the festival, Paris, July 2017
4.8 Festival goers chat in the foyer of La G n rale decorated with Mwasi fabrics and memorabilia, Paris, July 2017
4.9 Mwasi collective and volunteers pose at the end of the Nyansapo Festival, Paris, July 2017
14.1 The Trouble with Post-Black Feminist Intersectionality at the Amsterdam Research Centre for Gender and Sexuality
20.1 Shanelle Clemson and Habibat Ajayi in The Head Wrap Diaries (2016)
PART I
Introduction
1
Introduction: On the Problems and Possibilities of European Black Feminism and Afrofeminism
Akwugo Emejulu and Francesca Sobande
How might we theorise and practise Black feminism and Afrofeminism in Europe today? This is a provocative question for Black women, as our politics are too often erased from or misrecognised in the European imagination. 1 We define Black feminism as a praxis that identifies women racialised as Black as knowing agents for social change. Black feminism is both a theory and a politics of affirmation and liberation. Black feminism names and valorises the knowledge production and lived experiences of different Black women derived from our class, gender identity, legal status and sexuality, for example. This insistence on Black women as human, as agents and as knowers is critical to any kind of Black feminist thought. It radically dissents from and subverts the hegemonic constructions of Black women as either irrelevant and invisible objects or alien Others who disrupt the taken for granted racialised and gendered social and economic order. Crucially, Black feminism is also a politics of liberation. Our struggle for our humanity is revolutionary political action that imagines another world is possible beyond the plunder, exploitation and expropriation that are the bedrock of liberal democracies. It is important to stress that Black feminism does not merely operate against violence and exclusion but creates and fosters a different way of seeing and being in this world. Black feminism is always a creative and dynamic production of thinking and living otherwise.
We can trace Black feminism back to the earliest days of slavery and colonialism. Where the historical record survives, we find the narratives of displaced and enslaved Black women analysing the violence of their everyday lives and resisting those forces of dehumanisation to assert their belonging in humanity. From abolition to anti-colonial movements, Black women have been at the forefront of liberation struggles and have made clear that no emancipatory movement is to be taken seriously unless the specific oppression faced by Black women - based on race, class, gender and sexuality - are addressed. This enduring lesson from Sojourner Truth to Jeanne and Paulette Nardal to Claudia Jones to May Ayim has yet to be learned.
Feminism has always been an uncomfortable coalition between Black and white women. Because white women benefit from white supremacy, they can be, at best, unreliable actors for liberation and at worst, active and willing agents for Black women s oppression. Black feminism is oftentimes positioned as a reaction to white-dominated feminism but this is a gross misreading of Black feminist history and theory. In fact, Black women have always been leaders of women s liberation and have had to struggle against and defeat white women so that everyone - and not just white men and women - can be free. Any honest history of white women s roles in abolition, for example, and how their experiences in this movement radicalised them to demand the vote - ahead of Black men and Black women - demonstrates the point. Black feminism is in no way an afterthought or a derivative of white feminism but rather a radical praxis for the liberation of everyone - starting with Black women.
However, Black feminism is too often limited in how it conceives of itself and Black women. Black women in Europe must struggle for our humanity while simultaneously negotiating the dominant discourses of racial, gender and intersectional politics of North American Black feminists that make it difficult to name and take action on our particular racialised, gendered and classed experiences in a European context. Because the United States is the global hegemonic power, it imposes and transmits its values and culture across the world. Much of what we understand as American culture is actually Black American culture popularised through social movements and social media. Black American culture is a key way the United States exercises its soft power. In the Black diaspora, Black American culture looms large and has a tendency to crowd out and misunderstand other histories and understandings of Blackness and resistance. For example, pretty much everyone knows the basic story of the American Civil Rights Movement and some of its key players from Rosa Parks to Martin Luther King Jr. However, the same popular knowledge does not exist about liberation struggles outside (and against) the United States and from which American activists drew inspiration. So, there is a constant tension within the Black diaspora of having