At the Edge of Time: Postcolonial Temporalities in An Intimate Rebuke

Abstract:In this response I challenge the neglect of postcolonial theory in Laura Grillo's An Intimate Rebuke: Female Genital Power in Ritual and Politics in Côte d'Ivoire and argue instead for its inclusion as a resource for immanent critique. I argue that Grillo's text enhances and enriches the way we may think about time and politics in the postcolonial moment, but that it may in turn also be revitalised and strengthened by speaking with and to postcolonial thought, adding it to the lexicon and strategies of displacement Grillo identifies in practices of female genital power and the matri-archive they reference.