Who defines what it means to be human? And how and to what extent? In a world of crises, this question is central. From a Black feminist perspective grounded in contemporary African thought, Minna Salami addresses this challenge.

Minna Salami studied political science and gender studies and is one of the most prominent thinkers on Black feminisms today. As an author, lecturer and advisor to governments on the subject of gender equality, she actively contributes to expanding the spaces of action of Black women. By turning to this question, the question of interpretive sovereignty, for her lecture at Ballhaus Naunynstraße, she bundles the areas of interest that drive her.

Recently she published an article entitled A Historical Overview of African Feminist Strands in which she attempted „to understand the contours of our ideological home“. To do so, she puts African feminisms in historical perspective, pointing out the centuries of contestation. And she reminds us that the references have been changeable, that the interests are different, indeed that there are divergent reasons to identify with the ideas of African feminism.

In her 2020 book Sensuous Knowledge, she writes against the „Europatriarchal construction of knowledge fixed on hierarchy.“ She writes to expand the categories into which domination forces, to generate and value new forms of knowing and experiencing. So here now: who defines what it means to be human? From a Black, feminist perspective.