Afrodiasporic Feminist Conspiracy: Motivations and Paths forward from the First International Seminar

Abstract

Abstract In this political statement, we summarize the major motivations and agenda of the First International Seminar “Afrodiasporic Feminist Conspiracy”. This event was held in Cali, Colombia, on June 24 and 25, 2011. The rationale for this gathering was to have a major intervention: in the twenty-first century, Black/Afro-descendent women need to conspire. We understand a conspiracy to be an act of love and care; a search for equity and equality; an affirmation of our beauty; a commitment to guaranteeing access to food, education and health care, as well as a home and a place of dignity in the world's history to millions of Black/Afro-descendent women. We need to conspire to secure access to adequate care and treatment to Black/Afro-descendent women living with HIV, and to preserve the land of deracinated women. Black feminism and all forms of diasporic feminism ought to conspire to invert the course of history, a history of marginality and oppression of Black/Afro-descendent women. To that end, we conceive of an Afrodiasporic Feminist Conspiracy as a strategy of social mobilization, a practice of solidarity, and a claim for reparative justice. We further propose concrete areas of conspiratorial action focused on deconstructing and challenging entrenched forms of thinking and representing Black/Afro-descendent women in the larger society, as well as practices of domination that divide our movements and communities along axes of race, ethnicity, gender and sexuality. We embrace previous contributions made in the Americas and develop new venues for Black feminist mobilization and research. We find that an Afrodiasporic Feminist Conspiracy that impacts the production of knowledge, the creation of public policies, the transformation of the gender and sexual politics of Black movements, and the everyday ethno-racial relations in the rural communities and barrios in the cities can be the most effective strategy to attain a life of dignity in the present.