Naked Agency

Naminata Diabate is Assistant Professor of Comparative Literature at Cornell University.

“This is an expansive but nuanced and thought-provoking study of female nakedness as political intervention around Africa. Naked Agency offers a rich analysis of the many potential meanings of defiant disrobing as a signifying shorthand in relation to questions of agency within, but also potentially outside of an African context.” - Moradewun Adejunmobi, coeditor of (Routledge Handbook of African Literature) “Bringing new insights to discussions of biopolitics and subjectivity, Naminata Diabate explores African women's naked protests to illuminate the contradictory nature of women's agency and the paradox of aggressive disrobing as a counter to globalization that depends on the globalized meaning of state power. She also makes a strong case for avoiding the problems found in most writings on African women of seeing women as either victims or heroic agents while doing an especially great job of exposing the double-edged nature of secularization in the postcolonial world.” - E. Frances White, author of (Dark Continent of Our Bodies: Black Feminism and the Politics of Respectability) “Bold and erudite, Naked Agency analyses strategic skirt-lifting to shame, take revenge on or punish offensive men by exposing the vulva.... Naked Agency has made a profound impression on me.” - Tobe Levin Von Gleichen (Canadian Journal of African Studies) “With a mixed method of textual analysis validated by ethnography, Naked Agency stands out among most scholarships that employ either one or the other, to arrive at a contextually nuanced epistemology. . . . I hope this book helps reconstruct and decolonize the mind of the West about the cultural practices of the other.” - Oladoyin Abiona (Journal of Postcolonial Literary Inquiry) “Naked Agency is a book that challenges censorship and manipulations of African modes of being, knowing, thinking, and theorizing about itself. . . . Naked Agency is what happens when scholars theorize and write from an Africa centered perspective.” - Marame Gueye, Kenneth Harrow, Adélékè Adé?`k?´ (Journal of the African Literature Association) “The strengths of Diabate’s work rest not merely rest in her extensive review of theories of power but also in her ability to interweave multiple narratives. . . . Thought-provoking for students at any level.” - Cathy Skidmore-Hess (Journal of Global South Studies) “[Naked Agency] is flawless, in its arguments, its language, and its clarity. . . . Although [Diabate’s] book may seem to be targeted at academics, her conceptualization of agency is relevant to anyone trying to understand the dynamic aspect of agency and resistance in complex bio-political arenas in the world.” - Supriya Joshi (Rural Sociology) “Naked Agency [is] extraordinarily capacious in its geographical, cultural, and generic scope. . . . By reading openly, the author is able to read across actors, sites, languages, cultures, genres, etc.” - Chijioke K. Onah (Research in African Literature)

• Acknowledgments  ixIntroduction: Exceptional Nakedness  1Section I. Restriction  Scene 1. Exceptional Conditions and Darker Shades of Biopolitics  29Scene 2. Dobsonville and the Question of Autonomy  43Section II. Co-operationScene 3. Africanizing Nakedness as (Self-)Instrumentalization  65Scene 4. In the Name of National Interest  89Scene 5. Film as Instrumental and Interpretive Lens  107Section III. RepressionScene 6. Secularizing Genital Cursing and Rhetorical Backlash  131Scene 7. Epistemic Ignorance and Menstrual Rags in Paris  149Scene 8. Mis(Reading) Murderous Reactions  175Epilogue: Defiant Disrobing Going Viral  191Notes  197References  219Index  251