Before the 20th century, the colonial project used Black women's bodies as an instrument of political domination. They encouraged sexual relations between African women and European men to facilitate their integration into the social fabric of the colonized territories.
However, from the 20th century onwards, theories that defended the necessity to preserve racial purity inspired all colonial powers to prohibit interracial relations between Europeans and Africans, particularly between African women and European men. Such unions, and the children borne of them, were seen as undermining the colonial order and the racial categories that supported it.
In French, British, and Belgian colonies, regulating Black women’s bodies gave rise to abuse, including sexual assault and the abduction of children from their African mothers.
Our program on gender violence documents this form of racial violence against African women and their families and addresses its contemporary consequences.