Graduate Topics in African American Studies (480-0-22)
Topic
Afrofeminists. Black Women Challenging Colorblindn
Instructors
Silyane Larcher
Meeting Info
Fisk Hall 114: Wed 2:00PM - 4:50PM
Overview of class
"Afrofeminism" is the label forged by a new generation of Afrodescendant women (mostly in their twenties and early thirties), born in Europe (often non-English-speaking), to define their black feminism in order to not only affirm their multiple African heritages while they live in Europe, but also to distinguish themselves from US Black Feminism. This triple gesture - linguistic, political and cultural - calls for taking seriously the original formation and expressions of Black feminisms in diasporic and global contexts. It also implies using an intersectional approach to analyze the enduring consequences of colonialism of former European empires on the very soil of their metropoles.
The course will therefore pay particular attention to the historical and social conditions of the emergence of black feminist struggles against patriarchy, racist minoritization and social inequality in a social and political context of white hegemony, where systemic racism is generally considered as "a notion imported from the United States".
The reflections and readings will more specifically focus on France, a country which is paradigmatic of institutionalized race denial in Europe. Formerly a slave-owning colonial empire which has been marked by massive immigration of workers from Africa, the Caribbean and the Indian Ocean from the 1960s to the 1990s, France still maintains ambiguous political and economic ties with these territories, while it actively excludes any reference to race from its official legislation and has made colorblindness the bedrock of its national republican ideology.
How do Afrofeminists in France, daughters of parents from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Senegal, Madagascar, Martinique or Guyana, challenge a national "racism without race"? To what extent are they crucially redefining the horizons of feminism, antiracism, emancipation and social justice in a context of structural denial? More broadly, what are the possible links between US Black Feminism, African Feminisms, Diasporic Feminisms, Pan-Africanism and Afrofeminism?
To better understand the forms and significance of Afrofeminism in a postcolonial and global context, the French case will be contrasted with the situation of other Afrofeminists in Europe (Belgium, Netherlands, Switzerland and Germany notably). To a wide extent, materials and data will be drawn from history, sociology, political theory (feminist studies and black feminist theory), but also literature and film.