Sensuous Knowledge: A Black Feminist Approach for Everyone
About this ebook
Sensuous Knowledge is a collection of thought provoking essays that explore questions central to how we see ourselves, our history, and our world.
What does it mean to be oppressed?
What does it mean to be liberated?
Why do women choose to follow authority even when they can be autonomous?
What is the cost of compromising one’s true self?
What narratives particularly subjugate women and people of African heritage?
What kind of narrative can heal and empower?
As she considers these questions, Salami offers fresh insights on key cultural issues that impact women’s lives, including power, beauty, and knowledge. She also examines larger subjects, such as Afrofuturism, radical Black feminism, and gender politics, all with a historical outlook that is also future oriented. Combining a storyteller’s narrative playfulness and a social critic’s intellectual rigor, Salami draws upon a range of traditions and ideologies, feminist theory, popular culture—including insights from Ms. Lauryn Hill, Beyoncé, Audre Lorde, Toni Morrison, and others—science, philosophy, African myths and origin stories, and her own bold personal narrative to establish a language for change and self-liberation.
Sensuous Knowledge inspires reflection and challenge us to formulate or own views. Using ancestral knowledge to steer us toward freedom, Salami reveals the ways that women have protested over the years in large and small ways—models that inspire and empower us to define our own sense of womanhood today.
In this riveting meditation, Salami ask women to break free of the prison made by ingrained male centric biases, and build a house themselves—a home that can nurture us all.
- A Black Feminist Approach: Drawing on the wisdom of thinkers like Audre Lorde and Toni Morrison, Salami forges a path for liberation that is centered in the experiences of women of African heritage.
- Rethinking Knowledge: A powerful critique of what Salami calls "Europatriarchal Knowledge" and an introduction to "Sensuous Knowledge"—a philosophy that blends intellectual rigor with emotion, spirit, and ancestral wisdom.
- Decolonization of the Mind: Explore what it means to break free from ingrained biases and see the world through a new lens, moving beyond protest to a place of progress and healing.
- Philosophy Meets Pop Culture: From the lyrics of Lauryn Hill to the symbolism in African myths, this collection uncovers profound truths in both ancient traditions and contemporary art.
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About the author
Minna Salami is Nigerian, Finnish, and Swedish author, blogger, and social critic, and international keynote speaker. She is the founder of the multiple award-winning blog, MsAfropolitan, which connects feminism with critical reflections on contemporary culture from an Africa-centered perspective. Listed by Elle Magazine as “one of twelve women changing the world” alongside Angelina Jolie and Michelle Obama, Minna has presented talks on feminism, liberation, decolonization, sexuality, African Studies, and popular culture to audiences at the European Parliament, the Oxford Union, Yale University, TEDx, The Singularity University at NASA, and UN Women. She is a contributor to The Guardian, Al Jazeera, and the Royal Society of the Arts, and a columnist for the Guardian Nigeria. She lives in London.
