household — Blog — Kwasi Konadu

Kwasi Konadu

household

Gendered | Intimate | Household | Violence

EssaysKwasi KonaduComment

Born into a family, we recreate it so others can cycle in and out. With each entry and exit, we accrue unresolved-ness that plays out in our being and in our family, at times violently. My view is simple: the source of and success against gendered intimate household violence is our families. If Covid-19 exposes, laying bare more than some imagined, the (ill-)health of family discloses intergenerational violence while granting us the tools to expunge it. I’ve digested Oyèrónkẹ́ Oyèwùmí’s The Invention of Women, as well as Tommy Curry’s The Man-Not and Ta-Nehisi Coates’s Between the World and Me. And yet, I’m unconvinced the central problem is nor can be resolved by focusing on women/girls or men/boys as if contestants in the oppression game—jostling for who is the most oppressed. These approaches seem too schizophrenic and divisive. They fall short because they embody rather than challenge assumptions about the common denominator—gender.