Is there a need for Black Feminism in South Africa? an exploration into systematic and intersectional exclusion

M.A. (Philosophy)Abstract: Much of mid- to late 20th century (postmodern period) socio-historical narratives, particularly pertaining to the meaning of black womanhood in post-colonial societies have noted black women’s plight as that characterized by intersectional oppression. Black women cannot adequately pronounce on the experience of being ‘a black person’ without that conversation encompassing the experience of being a woman (including from a certain class grouping, sexuality etc.). This is because how they experience the world (how they participate and how world/others respond to them) is linked to the matrix of domination (racism, sexism, and classism) that informs their lived experiences. South African black women are the highest demographic group in the country, but they are also the poorest. The minor dissertation serves as an exploration into whether Bblack feminism as a guiding principle to ensure radical inclusion, is significant to begin the cultural shift in South Africa’s racist, patriarchal, and classist society. Although black women in South Africa have historically shunned Feminism as mostly serving the interests of white, Western, middle-class women; or black feminism as mostly serving the interests of Western black women – black feminism is used here as a notion able to hold the same meaning insofar as describing a movement that denounces anti-racism and anti-sexism is concerned. Therefore, the idea is that if the values of a society are flexible to change– and if we believe that values can be taught – South Africa’s culture of anti-black sexism ought to be radically replaced with values that espouse black feminism. Furthermore, if the government of South Africa adopted a black feminist praxis as its “Founding Document for an Equal Society”, recognizing it as a politic whose radical singularity finds a healthy alternative to anti-black sexism; in addition to recognizing and thus promoting the notion of intersectionality as a healthy alternative to liberal heteronormative standards of human life, South Africa would realize its true potential of an antisexist and antiracist country