Abstract
This chapter shows how the fight for disability rights has been made part of a bigger enterprise, emblematized by the government-sponsored attitudinal change campaign, destined to transform Sierra Leonean subjectivities in a way to fit neoliberal governmentality, producing at the same time the ideal of the civilized subject, imbued with rationality, individualism and modernity, on the one hand, and the figure of the uncivilized other, captive of traditional beliefs and harmful culture, on the other hand. In this way, disability is taken hostage by a colonial form of power, sustained both by the governors and the governed, maintaining and reinforcing a social hierarchy in which race, class and disability gets entangled. And yet, disability is not only a concept which is easily colonised but is also a place from where decolonization and re-politicisation might start.
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Notes
- 1.
One exception is an empirical research conducted by the international charity Leonard Cheshire Disability on the situation of disabled people in selected towns and villages in urban areas. Research (Trani et al., 2009). The study systematically compares numerous domains of life for disabled and non-disabled people living in the same geographical area. The quantitative data shows a complex and nuanced picture, which is not always rendered by the textual explanation.
- 2.
Meekosha and Soldatic use ‘Southern’ as an unacknowledged synonym for ‘Periphery’, while North and West stand interchangeably for the ‘Centre’. I adopt this vocabulary, taking similarly the terms ‘West’ and ‘North’ for interchangeable metaphors expressing political, economic and cultural power unevenly distributed in geographical space. ‘Southern’ countries are, broadly, those historically conquered or controlled by modern imperial powers, leaving a continuing legacy of poverty, economic exploitation and dependence. The ‘North’ refers to the centres of the global economy in Western Europe and North America (Meekosha & Soldatic, 2011:1384).
- 3.
My translation. Source: http://www.gazeta-antropologia.es/?p=4162.
- 4.
I use the term ‘class’ here in a rather loose sense. Marxist definitions are not of much help in the contemporary West African post-colonial context simply because such a large proportion of the population has no relation whatsoever to the formal labour market. Weber’s concepts of ‘social honour’, life chances and prestige might be more appropriate, but even these rely on concepts of property ownership and a labour market that do not fit.
The interested reader is encouraged to pursue extant theoretical debates on the existence, shape and meaning of class in Africa and Sierra Leone (e.g. D. O’Kane & T. Scharrer, 2018). Anthropology and Class in Africa: Challenges of the Past and Present. Middle Classes in Africa: Changing Lives and Conceptual Challenges (Frontiers of Globalization). Lena Kroeker, David O’Kane and T. Scharrer, Palgrave Macmillan; Kandeh, J. D. (1992). “Politicization of Ethnic Identities in Sierra Leone.” African Studies Review 35(1): 81–99, Mukonoweshuro, E. G. (1993). Colonialism, Class Formation and Underdevelopment in Sierra-Leone, University Press of America. For the purposes of my analysis, it is sufficient to distinguish class in terms of ‘lifestyle and aspirations’ (O’Kane & Scharrer, 2018:87) with the acknowledgement that these derive from the subtle interplay between economic, cultural and social capital (P. Bourdieu, 1986). The forms of capital. Handbook of Theory and Research for the Sociology of Education J. Richardson. New York, Greenwood: 241–258., and with the caveat that class is never a fully made thing, but rather a thing in the making (E. P. Thompson, 1996). The Making of the English Working Class. New York, Vintage Books.
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Szántó, D. (2020). Perceptions, Representations and Coloniality. In: Politicising Polio. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-6111-1_6
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