Afrofeministisk analyse som antikolonial metode

Resumé

Afrofeminist analysis as anticolonial method is an exploration of Danish mainstream representations of Victor Cornelins as exceptional and of how he chose to narrate his own story. I seek first and foremost to read his story through a lens that recognizes his human experience, especially as a small child. This includes but goes beyond Victor Cornelins and his companion Alberta Viola Roberts being held in a cage at a colonial exhibition in the amusement park Tivoli in 1905. This story is continuously retold with outrage in Danish media; however, these retellings often reproduce some of the violence they intend to trouble. My reading aims to disturb accounts in which only the cage is made outrageous, and Black pain is otherwise normalized or overlooked. Reading the pain of colonial Black-child subjects with care, I am interested in the very human reactions to inhuman circumstances. I do this by reading about his experiences as ordinary rather than spectacular. This is part of my commitment to a Black feminist ethic of caring: emphasizing the importance of individual expressions, the validity of feelings, and empathy as central to Black and afrofeminist knowledge production. I propose afrofeminist analysis as a method to unsettle default colonialist representations of the past.