"Illuminating and liberating as it blends scholarship, reportage and personal experience, this trailblazing work charts the author’s year-long analysis of body politics, with no colonial or patriarchal stone left unturned."
Punch-packingly personal and enlightening, Afua Hirsch’s Decolonising My Body: A radical exploration of rituals and beauty unpacks Eurocentric notions of beauty and the body from every angle, through every stage of life. Opening with an anecdote about an impactful exchange the author — an esteemed journalist, broadcaster and professor — had with Oprah Winfrey, the stage is set for an explosive exposé of how personal relationships with the body are seen through the lens of the colonial and patriarchal gaze.
Puberty and menstruation. Ageing and death. Body modification in the form of hair removal, piercings and tattoos. Such topics are explored with reference to present-day cultures, and across history and the globe. With a powerful emphasis on reconnecting with one’s ancestry, Decolonising My Body also shows the possibility of finding ways to “inhabit the body I was always meant to have”, free from oppressive cultural systems.
'Exceptionally rich, inspiring, challenging'Bernardine Evaristo |'Something on every page that you didn't know before'Sathnam Sanghera |'Celebrates women how they are, as they are' |Gillian Anderson
Our bodies tell our story. This powerful global history of beauty by Sunday Times bestselling Brit(tish) author Afua Hirsch dismantles the colonial falsehoods that shape our sense of belonging and celebrates the pioneering stories and ideas of women from marginalised groups.
'A remarkable journey to unlearn western beauty standards and explore ancestral skin, hair and body modification rituals' Funmi Fetto, Observer
'A vital, challenging account of reassessing body image beyond the colonial, patriarchal gaze' I newspaper
'A generous offering, and a joy filled testimony' Nana Darkoa Sekyiamah, author of The Sex Lives of African Women
Exceptionally rich, inspiring, challenging, wise and moving. I didn't realise I needed this book until I read it and felt stirrings towards my own ancestral awakening of African female cultural beliefs and practices that were sadly long ago lost to the colonial project. This is a ground-breaking book that speaks to all women. - Bernardine Evaristo, author of 'Girl, Woman, Other'
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