note

Opening, questioning: Feminism for whom?*

Introduction

Introduction*

We lack creation. We lack resistance to the present!

(Deleuze and Guattari, 1994: 108)

It’s only another fold

You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them. (Exodus, 20: 4-5)

[Initially]…There was no foreign portfolio investment in emerging markets. In fact, the name was designed to give a more uplifting feeling to what we had originally called the third world fund.

Former Deputy Director, The International Finance Corporation (IFC)

Nairobi, Kenya (spring 2011):

As I am to walk out the door of our apartment in central Nairobi where we have been living for a few months, in order to go to the grocery store, the cleaning lady, Imma, who has become almost like a family member, stops me and asks:

‘Matilda, while you are going out, could you please tell Fred at the gates to send me 20 shillings^[1], because I need to make a call?’

Introduction

On May 3^rd, 2013, Keguro Macharia wrote a piece for The New Inquiry called ‘On quitting’. It was a courageous, painfully beautiful piece that started with a diagnosis: ‘bipolar disorder, an oscillation between periods of frenetic activity and periods of profound depression’ (Macharia, 2013). This is a condition perfectly compatible with the academic calendar, he added, chronicled by an alternation of almost drug-induced bursts of mental productivity followed by a near-catatonic state of exhaustion and prolonged delays.

Introduction

Introduction