Avtar Brah - Decolonial Imaginings: Intersectional Conversations and Contestations

Decolonial Imaginings

This book is a transdisciplinary study of the ways in which mobilities take social forms and result in multiple belongings. Situated within the confluence of decolonial feminist theory, border theory, and diaspora studies, it explores borders and boundaries and how politics of connectivity are produced in and through struggles over difference. It examines multiple formations of power embedded in the intersections between gender, race, class, ethnicity, and sexuality. Inter alia, the text analyses this intersectionality in relation to diaspora; theorises the relationship between diaspora, law, and literature; and between affect, memory, and cultural politics.

In detailing crossings of impervious borders, the book foregrounds the economies of abandonment such as the plight of people in boats in the Mediterranean when a number perished because of a catalogue of failures by NATO warships and European coastguards. Such examples of violent histories leave deep scars and traumas, yet there can be a creative reckoning and resistance in biographies marked by them, as exemplified here by the lives and mobilities of young Black women at the turn of the twentieth-century USA mapped by Saidiya Hartman who describes the women as making a sexual revolution. The book revisits the Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattaris notion of nomad thought and seeks to assess this frameworks value today. It analyses the politics of Black in Britain with a focus on feminism constituted by women of African-Caribbean and South Asian background. The book also explores stereotypic representation of Muslim women in the context of Islamophobia and anti-Muslim racism, and the complexities of the #MeToo movement and how whiteness is configured in these contestations.

Decolonial Imaginings

Intersectional Conversations and Contestations

Avtar Brah

Copyright 2022 Goldsmiths Press

First published in 2022 by Goldsmiths Press

Goldsmiths, University of London, New Cross

London SE14 6NW

Printed and bound by Versa Press, USA

Distribution by the MIT Press

Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, and London, England

Copyright 2022 Avtar Brah

The right of Avtar Brah to be identified as the Author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 in the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. Every effort has been made to trace copyright holders and to obtain their permission for the use of copyright material. The publisher apologises for any errors or omissions and would be grateful if notified of any corrections that should be incorporated in future reprints or editions of this book.

All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means whatsoever without prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations in critical articles and review and certain non-commercial uses permitted by copyright law.

A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 978-1-913380-08-3 (pbk)

ISBN 978-1-913380-07-6 (ebk)

www.gold.ac.uk/goldsmiths-press

d_r0

In memory of my brother Tar
Much loved, much missed

Contents

One of the pleasant tasks of writing this book is the opportunity it gives me to thank all those who have encouraged and supported me while it was being written. The idea for the book came from Yasmin Gunaratnam, who nudged me into action through continuing encouragement. I am deeply grateful to her for that. Sreya Banerjeas assistance in preparing the manuscript has been indispensable. Thanks to Susan Kelly and Ellen Parnavelas at Goldsmiths Press for their enthusiasm for the project.

I am incredibly lucky to have very supportive friends. They have provided encouragement throughout this project. Special thanks go to: Floya Anthias; Les Back; Filomena Fernandes; Irene Gedalof; Catherine Hall; Sushila Khoot; Gail Lewis; Lata Mani; Sulekha Nath; Ann Phoenix; Nirmal Puwar; and Nira Yuval-Davis. Irene Gedalof, Catherine Hall, and Sarah Kember read the manuscript in its entirety. I am grateful to them for their valuable comments.

Until recently, I have been a long-term member of the Editorial Collective of the journal Feminist Review. I am grateful to the members of the Collective for making this an important political and intellectual experience. I have also been a trustee of the Feminist Review Trust, which has been providing grants to projects in the UK and internationally that support women. I would like to acknowledge the support of my fellow trustees of the Feminist Review Trust.

I wish to thank Klaus Stierstorfer for convening the stimulating colloquia at Villa Vigoni, German-Italian Centre for the European Dialogue, on Lake Como, Italy, where some of the work in the book was first presented. Thanks also to Nilufer Bharucha and Sridhar Rajeswaran whom I met at Villa Vigoni, and who have since become friends. I appreciate their support.

I wish to remember the late Stuart Hall for his friendship and inspiring work.

I am grateful to my family for their support over the years. No words can fully express my debt to my late parents, Dhan Kaur and Bachan Singh. Very special thanks to Bhupinder, Sareeta, Balraj, and Amerjit for their ongoing encouragement and support. Much love to the youngest members of the family, Amara and Yash, children still, with the future yet to unfold. They never fail to bring a smile to my face.

I am immensely thankful to Pervaiz Nazir for constant help, support, and encouragement.

This book is dedicated to the memory of my brother, my namesake, Avtar Singh Brah, whom we lovingly called Tar and who left us while I was working on the book. We spent a carefree childhood together in Jinja on the banks of Lake Victoria and at the source of the River Nile. In London, he was a means of great support. I always knew I could rely on him. I will always miss him.

Acknowledgement of Sources

Some of the chapters that follow are revisions of material published previously. For permission to reprint I would like to thank the following: For

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