Surfacing: On Being Black and Feminist in South Africa

An anthology dedicated to contemporary Black South African feminist writing influential to today's scholars and radical thinkers Surfacing: On Being Black and Feminist in South Africa is the first collection dedicated to contemporary Black South African feminist perspectives. Leading feminist theorist, Desiree Lewis, and poet and feminist scholar, Gabeba Baderoon, have curated contributions by some of the finest writers and thought leaders into an essential resource. Radical polemic sits side by side with personal essays, and critical theory coexists with rich and stirring life histories. The collection demonstrates a dazzling range of feminist voices from established scholars and authors to emerging thinkers, activists and creative practitioners. The writers within these pages use creative expression, photography and poetry in eclectic, interdisciplinary ways to unearth and interrogate representations of blackness, sexuality, girlhood, history, divinity, and other themes. Surfacing asks: what do the African feminist traditions that exist outside the canon look and feel like? What complex cultural logics are at work outside the centers of power? How do spirituality and feminism influence each other? What are the histories and experiences of queer Africans? What imaginative forms can feminist activism take? Surfacing is indispensable to anyone interested in feminism from Africa, which its contributors show in vivid and challenging conversation with the rest of the world. It will appeal to a diverse audience of students, activists, critical thinkers, academics and artists.

Table of Contents:
Introduction: Being Black and Feminist - Desiree Lewis and Gabeba Baderoon Chapter 1 Winnie Mandela and the Archive: Reflections on Feminist Biography - Sisonke Msimang Chapter 2 Representing Sara Baartman in the New Millennium - Zoë Wicomb and Desiree Lewis Part I Unmaking Chapter 3 a playful but also very serious love letter to gabrielle goliath - Pumla Dineo Gqola Chapter 4 Teaching Black, Teaching Gender, Teaching Feminism - Mary Hames Chapter 5 Querying the Queer - gertrude fester-wicomb Chapter 6 South African Feminists in Search of the Sacred - Fatima Seedat Chapter 7 'Who Do You Think You Are to Speak to Me Like That?' - jackï job Chapter 8 Refining Islamic Feminisms: Gender, Subjectivity and the Divine Feminine - Sa'diyya Shaikh Chapter 9 Black Lesbian Feminist Thoughts of a Born Queer - Zethu Matebeni Chapter 10 Conversations about Photography with Keorapetse Mosimane, Thania Petersen and Tshepiso Mazibuko - Ingrid Masondo Part II Positioning Chapter 11 What We Make to Unmake: The Imagination in Feminist Struggles - Yewande Omotoso Chapter 12 Breathing Under Water - Danai S. Mupotsa Chapter 13 'Do I Make You Uncomfortable?' Writing, Editing and Publishing Black in a White Industry - Zukiswa Wanner Chapter 14 Echoes of Miriam Tlali - Barbara Boswell Chapter 15 My Two Husbands - Grace A. Musila Chapter 16 Hearing the Silence - Panashe Chigumadzi Part III Remaking Chapter 17 Thinking through Transnational Feminist Solidarities - Leigh-Ann Naidoo Chapter 18 The Music of My Orgasm - Makhosazana Xaba Chapter 19 Bringing Water to Krotoa's Gardens: Decolonisation as Direct Action - Yvette Abrahams Chapter 20 Living a Radical African Feminist Life: A Journey to Sufficiency Through Contemporarity  - Patricia McFadden Notes Contributors Acknowledgements Permission credits Index

About the Author :
Desiree Lewis (Editor) Desiree Lewis is Professor in the Department of Women and Gender Studies at the University of the Western Cape. She is the author of Living on a Horizon: Bessie Head and the Politics of Imagining (2007). Gabeba Baderoon (Editor) Gabeba Baderoon is a literary scholar, poet and Associate Professor of Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies, and African Studies at Pennsylvania State University, where she also co-directs the African Feminist Initiative. She is the author of Regarding Muslims: from Slavery to Post-apartheid (2014) and four books of poetry, most recently The History of Intimacy (2018).