From his home in El Salvador, the author shares an intimate personal and political memoir that follows his remarkable journey from the comfort and security of a picturesque New England town to a stirring and heroic engagement in common cause with the struggle for peace and justice in El Salvador. After four years as a Peace Corp worker in northern Liberia beginning in the late 1960’s, followed by a stretch back in the United States as a street worker in the ghettos of North Philadelphia, McKinley finds himself in Central America as an aid worker in 1978. He quickly becomes engulfed by the political violence of the region and engaged with the people and their struggles against five decades of military dictatorship, centuries of poverty and exploitation. The story is marked by terror, adventure and courage, by trials and tragedy redeemed by the beauty and transcendence of people in struggle. Originally based in Guatemala heading up a Catholic relief agency, his commitment to the struggles for change in the country attracts the attention of the military, and his own government, forcing him to leave the country in late 1980. He moves to El Salvador where he begins a gradual incursion into the revolutionary struggle of this country, in a commitment that will last the rest of his life. Interwoven with this personal journey, is the story of Teresa Rivas, her husband Antonio, and their five children, a peasant family It also describes their life after the war, with resettlement in the lowlands of Guazapa where many ex-combatants were building a new life. It explains in detail the gradual emergence of the objective and subjective conditions for revolution in El Salvador, including the difficult choice for the use of violence as the only available option for transformative change in the country. The book also details the challenges of reconstruction after the Peace Accords that end the war in 1992, and the tragedy of opportunities lost during the immediate post-war period in the face of the ongoing resistance of traditional opponents to reform. As the memoir closes, the author reflects on his choice to be in El Salvador over the past 43 years, and the country as he finds it in these changing times; on the family with whom he has shared love and life there; on his continuing relationship with Antonio Rivas and his surviving family; and his gradual reconciliation, from a distance, with the country of his birth.
Alexandra Walker
Delinked:
A Review of Sylvia Tamale’s Decolonization and Afro-Feminism
By Alexandra Walker (Howard University C’27) as part of the Black Feminist Theory taught in Howard University’s Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies Program
Decolonization and Afro-Feminism by Sylvia Tamale is an intricate work that weaves together the intersectional relationship between racialism, capitalism, patriarchy, and gender roles within an African context to center decolonization as integral to the advancement of Afro-feminism. Professor Sylvia Tamale is a feminist, a legal scholar, and human rights practitioner whose fearlessness in speaking truth to power led her to serve as the first woman Dean of Makerere University School of Law. Fittingly, Tamale critically examines the historical, cultural, and socio-political dimensions of decolonization and its implications for the advancement of Afro-feminist thought.
Tamale begins by setting a historical backdrop for the work, because a clear understanding of the past enables one to walk with discernment in the present. In chapter one, Tamale explains that decolonization cannot be a one-time moment or thing. Decolonization and decolonial effects have historically been “Band-Aids” from people picking at the scabs that colonialism left on the continent. Tamale suggests that there needs to be more than a “Band-Aid” effort to fix the deep scars that have been left so to completely understand the complex damages left by colonization. The reversal of colonial legacies may take centuries and require unique and creative approaches.
Tamale’s notion of decolonization is multifaceted. Africans must think beyond “de-construction” of colonial structures and systems. Without a clear plan to rebuild and reconstruct there is no reason to de-construct and Tamale suggests that this sends Africans back into the arms of the colonizers. Moreover, the African agenda for decolonization and decolonial thought and activism should include reconstructions that prioritize: a) reclaiming humanity, b) reasserting self-determination, c) restoring spirituality, d) rebuilding territorial and bodily integrity, and above all, Africanness and the celebration of womanness.
Tamale makes one thing very clear, the goal of African decolonization and the decolonial project is about one thing: the restoration of dignity to the African people. Tamale does this by analyzing decolonization through a feminist lens. She asserts that decolonization cannot only address political independence but they must all challenge patriarchal structures inherited from colonial rule. Tamale draws attention to the often-overlooked contributions of African women in the struggle for liberation and asserts the need for an inclusive decolonization that recognizes and values the agency of women.
Later, Tamale breaks down some of the methods Europeans and Asians used to colonize Africa. From political colonization to the insidious and dangerous methods of psychological colonization, Tamale suggests that these same tactics can be used in reverse to decolonize and deconstruct colonial structures in Africa. She continues to say that Africans’ sense of history needs to be “delinked ” from the empire in order to delve deeper into Africa’s past (beyond the period of colonialism). Colonial powers were able to maintain their grip, influence, and imperialism through laws, education, religion, and pop culture. Tamale shows that through these mechanisms of globalization, naturalization, and rationalization colonists have been able to blur Africa’s vision to anything “indigenous”, which she aptly identifies as internalized colonization. Moreover, internalized colonization is so entrenched in global structures that the path to decolonization seems difficult and tortuous.
The intersectionality of identities is a central theme in Tamale’s analysis. She contends that Afro-feminism must confront the interconnected systems of oppression based on race, gender, and class. Tamale states that it is impossible to analyze race without also analyzing gender. Tamale continues to explain that until there is a shift to an understanding where there does not have to be an other to understand self, colonial structures will remain in place.
Sylvia Tamale’s Decolonization and Afro-Feminism is a groundbreaking exploration of the intersections between decolonization and feminism in the African context. The work explores and challenges prevailing colonial political, economic, and social structures. Tamale advocates for a more inclusive understanding of colonial structures as this is the only way to decolonize and delink African thought from colonial teachings. Tamale emphasizes the agency of women, while calling for a radical approach that recognizes the complexity and interconnectedness of racial, gender, and other colonial structures. Tamale’s book outlines key strategies, plans, and goals for the decolonization movement and the quest for the restoration of African dignity.
Tamale presents the possibility for a more just future in her critique of the present and suggestions for a pragmatic step forward. Tamale challenges reluctant minds, affirms African feminism as distinct within the spectrum of the global feminism, and places herself within the ever-developing canon of pivotal Black feminist thought for the 21st century. It becomes evident why the Black Feminist Theory course at Howard University incorporates Tamale into the list of authors and the book as assigned reading. It leads us to ask ourselves, “How do we get the work in front of the individuals who need to review them most?” whether in Africa or in one region of the global African Diaspora.