Feminist intersectionality and the matrix of domination in South Africa

Abstract

During the recent student protests in South Africa African women students articulated their identities as “radical, intersectional African feminists”. This reintroduced discussions of the concept of intersectionality into public debate and academic scholarship. Intersectionality refers to the interlocking relations of dominance of multiple social, political, cultural and economic dynamics of power that are determined simultaneously by identity categories of race, gender, class, sexuality, disability and others. The aims of this focus piece are firstly to do a conceptual analysis of the concept of intersectionality, secondly to look at critiques of intersectionality, and thirdly to contextualise it for South Africa by illustrating it with student protests in a post-colonial context.