Feminist Spaces and Places in Columbia and South Africa
Against patriarchy, for a self-determined life: A report on resistant practices in Colombia and South Africa.
26.01.2023
Colombia
Capital: Bogotá
Languages: the official language is Spanish.
Inhabitants: 50,9 Mio.
South-Africa
Capital: Pretoria
Languages: there are 11 official languages in South Africa – Afrikaans, English, Southern Ndebele, isiXhosa, isiZulu, Northern Sotho, Sesotho, Setswana, Siswati, Tshivenda and Xitsonga.
Inhabitants: 60,1 Mio.
Did you know?
Peace agreement
- 2012 – 2016: After almost 70 years of conflict between guerrilla groups, paramilitaries and the government, a peace agreement is negotiated. This includes a comprehensive gender perspective for a sustainable peace process.[1]
- 2016: Referendum on peace treaty: The narrow majority rejects this version of the treaty. This results in (among other things) the weakening of its gender aspects.[2]
Paro Nacional (National Strike)
- The 2019-2021 Colombian protests were a series of demonstrations that began on November 21, 2019.
- Hundreds of thousands of Colombians demonstrated for various reasons: against extreme income inequality, corruption, police brutality, violence against women and LGBTIQA*, various economic and political reforms proposed by Iván Duque’s right-wing government, and for the respect of the peace agreement.[3]
- Fuelled by the Covid-19 pandemic, April 2021 saw a renewed wave of protests against tax increases, corruption, and health care reform proposed by President Iván Duque’s government. The government responded to the protests with extreme repression, resulting in weeks of systematic human rights violations against the civilian population, especially by the Special Counterinsurgency Unit „ESMAD.“
- Since the 1950s, the government of the day privileged the white population over the non-white population. Apartheid refers to this policy of „racial segregation“ that prevailed until 1991. The black population was deprived of access to state institutions, politics, education, employment, justice, their civil rights and freedom of movement, and housing.[4]
- During the Apartheid regime, there were many riots and uprisings by the black population, which began with peaceful means of civil disobedience but later included an armed wing.[5]
- The end of the regime in 1994 and the first free elections for the entire population were accompanied by hopes for fundamental political, social, and economic change. After the end of Apartheid, a Truth and Reconciliation Commission was established. [6]
- The new South African constitution of 1996 is considered one of the most liberal in the world.[7]
- Nevertheless, the effects of Apartheid remain structurally entrenched: wealth, social resources, and South Africa’s recent history are still deeply marked by racism. Demonstrations and protests continue, including over the extent of sexual violence, poor health care, and persistent social inequalities.[8]
Feminisms are often the search for an answer to the problems of an unjust world. These answers are diverse and colourful, but also contradictory and complicated. At the same time, in the exchange with other feminists, one often feels strangely familiar and understood. Familiar because we all experience patriarchal, heteronormative violence and resist it. Understood because the resistance could not look more different and yet has a common goal: the transformation of the respective societies we live in. But which resistances do we encounter and what does feminist protest actually look like in Colombia and South Africa?
We encountered this question in our research project „Conflicting Genders“ (2020-2021) in focus group discussions with activists. We spoke with South African activists from the queer archive GALA, and the organization Embrace, which fights gender-based violence. From Colombia, we were joined by the feminist grassroots collective Tamboras Insurrectas, the student feminist collective Red Amaranta, and individual feminist and queer activists. The following article reflects their views in conjunction with our perspectives from Germany. Based on these particular and concrete narratives, we would – rather than asking a research question – like to present three theses from the extensive material:
1) Although intersectionality and inclusivity are jointly thought of in feminist struggles, mobilization remains marked by the global continuity of discrimination, gender-based and sexualized violence (hereafter abbreviated as GBV), and femi(ni)cides.
2) Feminist activism operates in a tension of contested spaces. On the one hand, feminist and intersectional actors experience an exclusion of their topics as secondary or incompatible with overall social issues. On the other hand, they fight for visibility and presence by occupying spaces.
3) Despite progressive legislation, discriminatory and misogynistic realities of life are omnipresent. Intersectional feminists therefore use multiple forms of activism with the aim of ultimately fundamentally changing society and its collective imaginaries.
1. Breeding ground for GBV: patriarchal, conservative societies
Sandwiched between the far-right Alternative for Germany (AFD) party and the abortion debate over the still-unabolished Paragraph 218a, we could almost instinctively understand the feeling of cutting our teeth on patriarchy in feminist protest. At this point, we do not want to equate the extent of gender-based and sexualized violence in Germany, Colombia and South Africa. It is imperative to include the different country contexts and dimensions of violence in any analysis. Nevertheless, in this virtual space, we once again felt that the struggle for an emancipatory and open society in a conservative and patriarchal system is arduous. This knowledge connected us all together. Every change in thinking is preceded by countless conversations and protests; every change in the law is hard fought for and fought over. But it takes these protests and struggles because women and LGBTIQA*[9] are still being sexually abused and killed and thus become victims of gender-based violence and misogyny.
Our interlocutors trace this violence back to the conservative South African and Colombian societies. Lee-Anne describes South Africa as:
South Africa is a very conservative society. We are in no way as liberal as Europe, for example. Despite what our Constitution has written in it, which is fantastically progressive. […] I think you can probably talk [it] down to the fact that the majority of South Africans live in urban areas and come from disadvantaged backgrounds. So, […] I would very easily say that the majority of South Africans are influenced by their traditional and religious leaders. And you can imagine how conservative all of that is. I mean, police officers still think that prostitutes can’t be raped, that it’s just not possible (Lee-Anne, FGG3, 00:56:58 ff).
On paper there are many laws and programs for comprehensive equality and the feminist movement has celebrated some successes in recent decades. However, everyday life is still experienced as very patriarchal by both Colombian and South African participants. The most drastic demonstration of the power of this patriarchal order is sexualized and gender-based violence.
According to the UN Women – Global Database on Violence against Women, 18.3% of Colombian women, 86% of South African women and 3% of German women have experienced sexual or physical violence by their partner in the last 12 months.[12][13][14] Data on femi(ni)cides, sexual violence outside of partner relationships, and violence against LGBTIQA* are unfortunately difficult to compare but should not go unmentioned here. However, it should be noted that statistics on gender-based violence should generally be treated with caution due to high levels of underreporting, inconsistent definitions, varying rates of reporting, recording, and prosecution and conviction.
Even before the pandemic, South Africa was considered one of the countries with the most rapes in the world. In 2015 and 2016, for example, police recorded more than 50,000 sexual offenses-an average of 85 per day. In the first week of the spring 2020 lockdown, the South African Police Service reported 2,300 emergency calls related to gender-based violence. In these cases violence comes primarily from members of one’s own household. Only about eight percent of the reports result in a conviction.[15]
Gender relations as power relations: assertion of power through GBV
Our interviewees also report various moments in which sexual violence was experienced. It becomes clear that this exercise of violence serves to maintain a patriarchal, conservative, and anti-emancipatory system. Thus, all interviewees repeatedly report assaults in various social spaces such as the family and relationships, the university, on the streets, or by the police. In this context, asserting one’s rights is difficult or even impossible as police and judiciary often do not treat gender-based violence with the necessary consistency and in turn become perpetrators of institutional GBV themselves.
In Colombia, it is generally very difficult to take these complaints to the legal process. Because once the person involved is finally ready to do so, there are a lot of tricks and problems, starting with the police, who often […] scoff or don’t take the complaints seriously.
(translated, focus group conversation 2, Valentina, 00:14:29 ff.)
Through this systematic protection of perpetrators and the defamation of those affected, social power is once again cemented. The patriarchal power imbalance of gender relations has long-term physical, psychological and economic effects that prevent women and LGBTIQA* from equal and comprehensive participation in society.
GBV as a structural problem that needs collective ownership and protest
Here, we see that sexualized violence remains a structural problem that invades every social space. This becomes clear when Valeria reports sexualized violence within leftist street protests and an exclusion of feminist issues, but also when Siya denounces ableist and transphobic positions within feminist working groups.
Now, like globally, the conversation, in feminist movements is about equality. It’s about sexual reproductive health. And they demand access to the same privileges that the masculine population get access to. And I would say that when it comes to trans communities and those who have gender diverse, for example gender non-binary persons, people who don’t necessarily identify as male or female, often find themselves marginalized, or outcast from their communities and discriminated against. And I’d say that the most primitive, and the most critical element in the narrative of transness and gender nonconformity in the global sense, is the unanimous manifestation of violence, so Gender Based Violence or femicide.
(translated, focus group conversation 1, Siya, 00:50:02)
Siya emphasizes that the trans community in South Africa has always fought side by side with feminist movements because the common goal – equal rights for all – is paramount. Our interlocutors understand their feminisms as social critiques: Feminism should change the dominant society and be a counterproposal to the current social order. For the fight against gender-based violence, our interlocutors therefore want society as a whole to take collective responsibility. This also means that the entire system in which the violence has taken place must take responsibility for those affected, the person perpetrating the violence, and the structures that have made the violence possible.
The different examples of our interlocutors and last but not least our own experience of the topic in Germany show us: Sexualized violence works intersectionally in and on different spaces and tries to enforce the social (patriarchal) order violently against women and LGBTIQA*. Thus, the issue remains a central mobilizing factor for feminist protest and brings different actors to the streets for joint struggle. To combat this, our interlocutors and we would like to see a rethinking of society as a whole and a commitment to changing the political conditions that promote oppression and violence. At least we can see a glimmer of hope for feminist change in the high mobilization power of violence.
Colombia
Colombia’s Constitutional Court legalized abortions in February 2022. It decided that abortions are legal up to the 24th week of pregnancy. Previously, such procedures were only allowed if the mother’s life was in danger, the foetus showed life-limiting deformities, or the pregnancy was the result of rape. However, barrier-free access to information and medical care still has a long way to go.[16]
South Africa
Abortion has been legalized in South Africa since the end of Apartheid. Pregnant people can have abortions during the first three months of pregnancy, and thereafter for medical reasons with the consent of medical personnel. However, access to information and safe procedures remains limited, in part because of a general lack of health care.[17][18]
2. A field of tension of contested spaces
The activism of our participants takes place in areas of tensions between contested spaces. On the one hand, there is always the threat of exclusion of feminist issues and opinions and a classification as secondary or competing with struggles in society as a whole. On the other hand, activists fight for visibility and a voice by actively occupying (protest) spaces.
Exclusion from protest spaces
The mechanism of exclusion takes multiple forms. As described earlier, exclusion is manifested in the omnipresence of sexualized violence against women and LGBTIQA*. In broad leftist movements, such as the student protests in South Africa in 2015/16 and the national strikes 2019-2021 in Colombia, the historical experience of negated patriarchal structures as a crucial category of social injustice is repeated. Even today, the feminist perspective is always subordinated to socialist demands, explains Valeria from the student feminist collective Red Amaranta in Colombia. This exclusion of opinions is further compounded by accusations of dividing the movement: „When we women want to speak […] we turn into dividers. We are constantly told that we (would) divide the movement“ (translated, focus group conversation 1, Luisa, 01:48:13 ff).
Exclusion, our participants from Colombia explain, is also carried out in leftist and supposedly feminist spaces through the use of sexualized violence. This was the experience of women in the national strikes in Colombia in the spring of 2021: „Women’s bodies […] continue to be oppressed, they continue to be raped, but the cause of protest is more important, so to speak.“ (translated, focus group conversation 1, Luisa, 01:47:22). Although our interlocutors report different levels of violence in (leftist) spaces, the lack of safe spaces for women and queers* leads to the need to create their own safe (protest) spaces from within feminist movements.
Taking public space
Women and trans* people in both countries actively counter this displacement by taking public spaces. Performances from the trans* community do not only aim at empowerment for the performers. By breaking (gender) roles through the use of bodies, the interventions in the context of the national strikes in Colombia in the last two years in particular had an impact on public opinion. An impressive example was the Vogue performance, which went viral as a video in Colombia and worldwide.
In another form of taking public space, approximately 20,000 feminist activists signed a petition against GBV and femi(ni)cide to the South African Parliament in Pretoria to build pressure on the government in August 2020. A third form of feminist space-taking occurs in social networks. Here, experiences of gender-based violence are shared, creating a space for awareness-raising and education. In addition, Lee-Anne of Embrace describes that victims in situations of partner or pandemic isolation can find easier access to a digital community and supportive peers online.
Discursive spaces and street protest as safe space
Valentina, on the other hand, experiences a safe space in a community of solidarity in separatist-feminist spaces[19] in Bogotá. Instead of accepting public space as a misogynistic, dangerous place for women and queers, a discursive space is created for the event of a street protest in which marginalized groups „formulate oppositional interpretations of their identities, interests, and needs (…).“[20] The need for such discursive spaces arises not least from the failure of state institutions, so that women and trans* people (have to) create their own safe networks and spaces independently and in solidarity. The protesters of the Bogotá street protest create an opportunity to experience a space of nonviolent empowerment. In these spaces, Valentina and her fellow protesters thus realize a feminist utopia of freedom and security and create conditions for the further formulation of interests and the realisation of their own anti-patriarchal identities.
Ultimately, our conversations show that women and trans* people actively participate in broad social movements and mobilizations. However, they often experience exclusion and are made invisible as soon as the movement enters political spaces of negotiation. This experience repeatedly confronts feminist groups with the question of whether there is a contradiction between supporting broad social movements and implementing feminist demands. Far too often are feminist activists pushed into the corner of so-called „women’s issues.“ And yet, our interviewees again see this as the occasion to take up every corner of social protest: „The task is rather for feminist women to participate in scenarios of social mobilization and to advance [feminist] concerns.“ (translated, focus group conversation 2, Valeria, 01:17:18 ff). The range of activism of our interlocutors reveals that, on the one hand, feminist movements undertake a strategic reflection on their own, specifically feminist agendas in order to implement their goals in a concentrated way. On the other hand, for Valeria and Valentina, the experience of exclusion from broad social protests results in the goal of penetrating the larger movements, „[…] our aspiration is to be part of the general social mobilization.“ (translated, focus group conversation 2, Valeria, 01:19:58 ff).
3. Change as a Goal: Creative Protest and Utopia.
In this capturing of larger protest spaces and through their own actions, our interlocutors use multiple forms of activism. In doing so, their protest is motivated by a desire for change, especially against a backdrop of discriminatory, patriarchal realities. Siya speaks of „the crucial role of protest in narratives of change“ (focus group conversation 4) and the need to make new narratives and utopias accessible and shareable. Intersectional feminist activists pursue the goal of fundamental change in society to bring an end to the discriminatory and misogynistic realities of life that continue to exist.
Progressive legislation, patriarchal realities of life
Despite progressive legislation, discriminatory and misogynistic realities are omnipresent – our interviewees describe daily lives marked by security concerns, exclusion procedures, and efforts to fight discrimination and conservative societies:
And it draws attention basically to the fact that the constitutional rights which South Africa fought so hard for, are not equally enjoyed by men and women. (…) The problem is implementation. The government and South African society haven’t really caught up to how progressive our constitution is.
(translated, focus group conversation 3, Lee-Anne, 00:04:00)
Goal: Fundamental Change
Our interviewees repeatedly emphasized the need for fundamental change and positioned this goal as central to their activism. Instead of (only) suggested change at legislative levels, the goal is to make gender inequities visible and thus bring about social change at all levels as well as a disruption of what already exists: „The core of our work is to provoke change, sometimes to inspire, sometimes to force“ (focus group conversation 1, Siya, 00:38:48).
This is another reason why spaces are always actively taken as discussed in Section 2 – to gain attention through shock on the street or the presence of feminist activists* in larger movements and to generate understanding and rethinking in the long run. Diana emphasizes that through this disruption of public space, combined with art and educational processes, new imaginative worlds can be created:
And it breaks [non-violently] into the public space and creates an impact on the people who are watching us, with issues that are not so funny in a society that is as clearly conservative as Colombia’s. […] I believe that through art and these pedagogical processes we can change people’s imaginary worlds.
(translated, focus group conversation 1, Diana, 01:30:27)
Diverse groups, diverse perspectives
Accordingly, our interlocutors use diverse forms of activism, far beyond protest in the form of a demonstration. In doing so, they actively seek to engage with those who think differently. In these forms of feminist protest, our interlocutors are already turning their ideas and utopias into reality. In order to have broad support, activists in both countries try to include diverse groups, characterized by an understanding of different perspectives of the world as „it is important to remember the voice of other people who come from somewhere else“ (translated, focus group conversation 2, Diana, 01:05:20). In South Africa, Lee-Anne includes men in her work to construct alternative masculinities:
And the purpose behind the campaign is also to draw men, finally, into the conversation around gender-based violence and femicide recognising that, although women are the predominant victims, it is men who are the predominant perpetrators of gender-based violence.
(translated, focus group conversation 3, Lee-Anne, 00:35:20)
Creativity as a catalyst, music as a form of protest
In addition to „classic“ protests such as petitions and proposed legislation, our interlocutors use creativity, art, and symbols as catalysts for change. This includes, but is not limited to, music, specific colours, social media work, short stories, and poetry. GALA in South Africa, for example, captures and preserves queer people’s stories as an archive, giving visibility and space to their voices and narratives. The intersectional activism of our interviewees „uniquely combines art and advocacy“ (focus group conversation 3, Lee-Anne, 00:45:20) with political, feminist demands and utopias. For example, the Tamboras Insurrectas in Colombia use music from their drum group and connect diverse people through it:
I at least feel that people react differently when this is done through music. Because the drum, because the music is transversal, that is, someone may not know what they are singing and then realize it later.
(translated, focus group conversation 1, Diana, 01:30:27)
Through created safe spaces, as well as the horizontal, autonomous and self-managed collectives in which some of our interlocutors are active, they create alternatives to dominant social structures. In this way, they show other possibilities for change, for transformation and the realization of feminist ideas and utopias.
Ultimately, our interlocutors pursue the goal of fundamentally changing their societies and their collective imaginary worlds. To do this, they use diverse forms of activism in which they creatively and inclusively try to reach diverse groups of people and make new, different narratives possible for them.
Conclusion
We were not able to find a unanimous answer to our question of what feminist protest and resistance can look like, but we were at least able to show many facets of an answer. That the answer to our question is so complex may be due to the many spaces where feminists fight for a more just world. The struggle for a self-determined treatment of one’s own body and against sexualized assault can be mentioned, but also the ongoing commitment against conservative backlash. Here our interlocutors continuously oppose – with creativity and mobilization – the patriarchal structure and fight for their feminist utopias. This diversity of resistant practices and the intersectional space in which our interlocutors move also show us that a response must be diverse. But this also shows us why an answer to the question is possible after all: Feminist protest lives from the exchange with other feminists. We are all united by the desire for a more just world.
Authors
Elisabeth Winterer, Carlotta Rudolph and Hannah Tegtmeier
Sources
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- LGBTIQ* abbreviates „Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals, Transgender, Intersex & Queers“. The asterisk is added here as an opening and placeholder for other, unnamed identities. However, there are numerous other local and indigenous self-definitions.The use of the acronym was chosen here to be able to talk about a wide variety of sexual orientations and gender identities across all cultural, geographic, linguistic, and temporal boundaries. However, its use also presents some problems, which we want to mention here: Even though the abbreviation contains the „I“ and „T“, especially inter*, but also trans* activists* and their concerns are hardly represented in the LGBTIQ movement. At the same time, bisexual and queer positions are often not reflected in lesbian-gay identity politics. The abbreviation LGBTIQ* thus has a restrictive and uniforming character that must also be viewed critically in the context of postcolonial discourses. For more information: Sauer, Arn (2018): LSBTIQ-Lexikon. Grundständig überarbeitete Lizenzausgabe des Glossars des Netzwerkes Trans*Inter*Sektionalität. Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung, Bonn
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- Fraser, N. (1996). Widerspenstige Praktiken: Macht, Diskurs, Geschlecht. Suhrkamp, s. 163. Translated into english.
- Human Rights Watch (2016, 28. April). Colombia: Corte Constitucional avala matrimonio entre personas del mismo sexo. Human Rights Watch. https://www.hrw.org/es/news/2016/04/28/colombia-corte-constitucional-avala-matrimonio-entre-personas-del-mismo-sexo
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