So I've safely landed in Joburg thanks to all of the amazing donations I received through my Go Fund Me campaign. I'm here to present a paper of reproduction and climate change from a decolonial feminist perspective:
The conference states its mission as considering: 'The entanglements of feminism with colonialism and anti- colonialism...The theorizations of particularly white Western women have often obscured the struggles of all women, in addition to those who are queer, transgendered, or disabled.' It is also an 'African-feminist' as opposed to 'diaspora-feminist' centred conference, which I think is both extremely important and inspiring. The re-centering of black and queer feminist narratives at the heart of black and queer activists, both in the diaspora and on the African continent, has been the study of my literary and arts practices across performance art, fiction and other mediums for several years. I believe attending the Wits conference will be an invaluable opportunity to connect with other African feminists, to have my politics pushed, queried and challenged and to make cross-continental connections with whom to catalyse art, activism and change. The paper I am presenting is a passionate and to my mind fairly radical challenge to the European mindset of complacency when it comes to the legacies of European colonialism and its very tangible contemporary effects on the continent due to climate change. In other words the carbon that we are emitting in Europe now, which is directly endangering the livelihoods and lives of people across Africa cannot be considered outside of understanding colonialism. Black and brown bodies across the global south are at much greater threat to the affects of climate change than those in the global North - particularly Europe and North America, and that is not a coincidence. Centering around the conversation of reproduction and staring the frankly terrifying statistics that face us for the future, I discuss why this is essentially a decolonial conversation feminists need to be having, African feminists first.