NIPIAC - Núcleo Interdisciplinar de Pesquisa e Intercâmbio para a Infância e Adolescência Contemporâneas

One example is taken from Ashis Nandy’s work The Intimate Enemy (1983), the other from Tsitsi Dangarembga’s novel Nervous Conditions (1988). It is argued that domination deeply scars the human psyche so that the successful pursuit of the political emancipation of oppressed individuals and collectives depends on how the abhorred reality of oppression is dealt with, not only externally but – mainly – internally. In this vein, political emancipation consists of a politics of identification in that it must address both collective action towards freedom and an inner reconstruction of a vilified and downgraded self.