Interseccionality and Amefricanity in Lélia Gonzalez

Abstract

In this paper, we present reflections developed from the reading of Lélia Gonzalez and how her work is to this day still up to date concerning intellectual, social and political debates on decoloniality and intersectionality. We followed an exploratory path of bibliographic research to produce three analytical inferences. In the first place, we identify the intersectional and decolonial plots in the fourth (and most recent) wave of feminism, considering that its mediated influence interfered in its own foundations and conceptions as a movement of democratic and universal pretension. Next, we discuss the way in which the intersectionality between gender, race and social class is approached in the work of Gonzalez and why it outlines her as a pioneer Brazilian (feminist) thinker in the intersectional reading of reality. In addition, we explore her proposition of “Amefricanity”, a category of great relevance for the understanding of local and regional reality, which presents contours clearly aligned with the perspectives that would come to be called decolonial. At the end, we conclude on the importance of the work of Lélia Gonzalez and her critical point of view to inspire feminism to be a movement that leaves no one behind.