The importance of self-definition: An interview with Djarah Kan

ABSTRACT

This interview with Djarah Kan was conducted via email during May and June 2022. Djarah Kan discusses the importance of self-definition as a political act and highlights the power dynamics connected to the process of naming. Starting from her book Ladri di denti (Tooth Thieves), her short story “Il mio nome” (My Name) (published in the anthology Future), and some articles published in Italian journals and magazines, Kan addresses the issue of immigration, highlights the close connection between racism and sexism in the Italian cultural debate, and questions the idea of “universal sisterhood”. She also emphasizes the importance of knowing the past (and, in particular, Italy’s colonial past) in order to decolonize the present and build a more just future, discusses the meaning that white privilege takes on for her, and speaks about the limits and potential of social media as platforms that enable the creation of spaces of self-representation.

KEYWORDS:

• Djarah Kan
• intersectionality
• white privilege
• racism
• sexism
• self-definition

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Djarah Kan

Djarah Kan is a Ghanaian Italian writer and cultural activist. She is the author of the short story “Il mio nome” (My name), published in the anthology Future. Il domani narrato dalle voci di oggi (Futures: Tomorrow Narrated by the Voices of Today) (Effequ 2019) and of Ladri di denti (Tooth thieves) (People 2020). Her articles and interviews have appeared in Jacobin Italia, L’Espresso, Vanity Fair, Vogue Italia, Gli Stati Generali, and LaEffe.

Caterina Romeo

Caterina Romeo is an Associate Professor at Sapienza University of Rome, where she teaches Literary Theory, Gender Studies, and Migrations Studies. She is the author of Interrupted Narratives and Intersectional Representations in Italian Postcolonial Literature (2022), Riscrivere la nazione (2018), and Narrative tra due sponde: Memoir di italiane d’America (2005). She has co-edited the volume Postcolonial Italy: Challenging National Homogeneity (2012), and the Special Issue of the journal Postcolonial Studies titled “Postcolonial Europe” (2015).

Giulia Fabbri

Giulia Fabbri has completed a postdoctoral fellowship in gender studies at Sapienza University of Rome, where in 2020 she obtained a PhD in gender studies. She is the author of Sguardi (post)coloniali. Razza, genere e politiche della sessualità [(Post)Colonial Gazes. Race, Gender, and the Politics of Visuality] (ombre corte 2021) and her research interests include gender and racial representations in visual culture, social media activism, and the cultural production of Italian women of African descent.