“Amplifying Black Italian voices”: An interview with Leaticia Ouedraogo

ABSTRACT

This interview with writer and activist Leaticia Ouedraogo was conducted via email during May and June 2022. Ouedraogo discusses what the concept of intersectionality means to her on a personal, political, and theoretical level, and how it is necessary to adopt an intersectional perspective, along with a decolonial practice, to fight sexism and racism. Starting from her short story “Nassan Tenga” (published in the anthology Future. Il domani narrato dalle voci di oggi [Future: Tomorrow Narrated by the Voices of Today]), the author also discusses the consequences of racism from a psychological and inter-generational perspective. The themes of structural racism, white privilege, decolonization, and intersectionality are articulated by Ouedraogo within the Italian postcolonial context, where they take on specific meanings in light of Italy’s (often removed) colonial history.

KEYWORDS:

• Leaticia Ouedraogo
• intersectionality
• Black Italia
• racism
• activism
• white saviorism

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Correction Statement

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Notes on contributors

Leaticia Ouedraogo

Leaticia Ouedraogo is an Italian activist and writer. She recently received a Master’s degree from the École Normale Supérieure in Paris in geography, sustainability and development studies applied to emerging countries, and her research focuses on academic migration within the African continent, decolonial and inclusive pedagogy, and environmental issues in West Africa. She is the author of the short story “Nassan Tenga,” published in the anthology Future. Il domani narrato dalle voci di oggi (Futures: Tomorrow narrated by the voices of today) (Effequ 2019).

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.

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).