Intro to 2nd report: The Cases of France, Belgium, Senegal and the Democratic Republic of Congo by Daphné Budasz, PhD

Starting from two European contexts (Belgium & France) and two African contexts (Senegal and the Democratic Republic of Congo), this research project aims to resituate the violence and discrimination suffered by African and Afro-descendant women in contemporary societies in the continuity of colonial and slavery history. Indeed, this project shows how women have historically been (mis)treated and dehumanized by European powers and how the resulting degrading representations influence current stereotypes. These representations thus influence the way these women are perceived today in terms of sexuality, motherhood, professional skills, and more broadly, their place in society.  

This research project resulted in three reports that focus on different types of violence. The first report, "Between Sexual Fetishization and Physical Denigration: Colonial Stereotypes of Black Women's Bodies and Their Violent Consequences," focuses on the sexualization and denigration of their bodies, as well as the resulting physical and symbolic violence.  The second report, "Primitive bodies insensitive to pain: stereotypes against Black women in medical practices" focuses on medical violence, in particular gynecological and obstetric violence. The third report, "Black Women in Africa and Europe: Economic and Political Marginalization and Confinement to the Domestic Space" deals with socio-economic inequalities. These three themes specifically reveal how colonial legacies continue to weigh on the lives of African and Afro-descendant women.  The types of violence addressed in these three reports are said to be "structural", i.e., they are not simple isolated individual acts but phenomena that arise from existing power imbalances. In other words, such violence reflects forms of oppression and discrimination rooted in institutions, political, economic structures, or social norms that systematically disadvantage certain groups.

These three reports shed light on how the violence that Black and Afro-descendant women face today was historically constructed and institutionalized during the colonial period. The aim is to understand how historical processes have shaped cultural representations, thought patterns, norms, and practices that continue to legitimize relations of domination and to perpetuate inequalities and violence inherited from colonialism.  This perspective makes it possible to complicate the analysis of the mechanisms of injustice and discrimination deployed against women today by observing the interaction between gender violence and racial violence. The analysis focuses on four countries in particular, chosen because of their shared colonial history: France and Senegal on the one hand, and Belgium and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) on the other.       

The analysis is based on a body of academic work and reports produced by organizations engaged in the field in France, Belgium, Senegal and the DRC. It also incorporates the perspectives of a dozen experts: researchers, activists and professionals working in organizations that support women victims of violence in the field.           

This report focuses on African and Afro-descendant women in four countries. It should be emphasized at the outset that the category "woman" cannot be considered a natural or universal condition. Far from being a homogeneous group, the women in question here have experiences that are profoundly differentiated according to their social status, class, sexuality, age, religion, and level of education. Thus, when this report uses the category "woman", it does so in full awareness of its historically situated and politically constructed character, while acknowledging that this category remains operative to analyze specific forms of violence and discrimination that target people perceived and socially treated as women in the contexts studied.   

Finally, it is worth noting the predominantly heterosexual setting of this work. These three reports deal primarily with gender-based violence that is part of presumed heteronormative reports, in particular because of the preponderance of these configurations in historical research and in the contemporary data available. However, it is crucial to emphasize that GBV also concerns African and Afro-descendant people whose gender identities or sexual orientations are perceived as "non-conforming" in contemporary societies. The specific violence suffered by LGBTQI+ people since the colonial period is an important phenomenon that cannot be ignored.