A South African Woman’s Experience under Settler Colonialism: Re-reading Frantz Fanon’s ‘On Violence’ through a Decolonial Feminist Lens
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RUDY BRANDS | ACADEMIC SUBMISSION
The Graduate Inequality Review, Volume II (July 2023) |
Abstract: Though Frantz Fanon’s influence on contemporary postcolonial thought is undeniable, his work on violence lacks what decolonial feminist Françoise Vergès calls in her book A Decolonial Feminism, “multidimensionality” and “intersectionality.” This paper provides a re-read of Fanon’s ‘On Violence’ through a decolonial feminist lens and, with it, a critical examination of how postcolonial theories on violence write about gendered, racialized, and colonized bodies. Sindiwe Magona’s Mother to Mother offers a powerful narrative truth about encountering colonial violence and the aftercare necessary to live with the trauma of such inflicted violence in the context of South Africa during and after Apartheid. Problematizing Fanon’s insistence on writing the male body as the norm illustrates how colonized women are consistently written out of history. With the implementation of ideas from decolonial feminisms, it becomes clear how different bodies are treated differently und er colonial violence. Interweaving the narrative of Mother to Mother through the theorized experiences of colonial and gendered violence offers detailed and heartfelt illustrations of a (semi-)personal experience with such inflicted cruelty. The integration of the three texts provides a current and crucial theorization on such issues as colonial violence, decolonial feminisms, racial capitalism, multidimensionality, and cleaning and care work. This paper attempts to provide, with care, perspectives of decolonial feminisms as starting points for re-writing histories, this time with the inclusion of colonized and racialized women. |
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