The Colonial Logic of Severance

Adoption, Child Removal, and the Separation from the Past

Abstract

This article introduces severance as a decolonial concept with a particular focus on adoption. Severance names the Euromodern/colonial violence of separating children from their families in order to constitute more desirable forms of family and identity.  Countering the oft-assumed exceptionality of adoption, we locate severance through a continuum of practices across the globe, ranging from genocidal attacks, forced child displacement, separation and adoption. Central to colonial practices of child separation and nation-building, we approach adoption as one of the sinews of the (Euro)modern/colonial systems of targeting children and family-governance based on systemic attacks on the past and “illegitimate” forms of kinship. First, we introduce ourselves and our different positions in relation to adoption, exploring the varied, but interconnected ways in which families, national identities and individual subjectivities become constituted through the erasure, transformation and re-arrangement of communal and kinship ties. Then, we introduce the concept of severance by addressing multiple cases in their interrelation. Thirdly, we trace recent developments in Scandinavian adoption practices and debates, to show how despite documentation of malpractices there is ongoing investment in practices of severance. We approach this reflection as a plurilogue, maintaining a plurality of voices in an attempt at coalition-building across fragmented identities.