Meet Dr. Francesca Sobande: The Scholar-Activist Who Is Uncovering The Digital Lives of Black Women in Britain
Scholar, activist, and organizer, Dr. Francesca Sobande. Photo courtesy of Dr. Francesca Sobande.
By Jaimee A. Swift
In her powerful scholarship, Francesca Sobande (she/her) explores the intersections of race, gender, feminism, and popular culture in the lives of Black women in Britain.
An educator, researcher, and scholar-activist, Dr. Francesca Sobande is on a mission to ensure that the politics and perspectives of Black women in Europe are interrogated, included, and centered in the larger Afro-descendant feminist project. Born in Edinburgh, Scotland, Sobande, 28, has experienced first-hand the erasure and the chronic structural oversight of Black women in Britain and their productions and the subsequent impact that has on their historical memory and even spiritual and political psyches. Tired of the national and even global imagery that postures Europe as a “white-only” continent void of Black citizenry, Sobande’s research is continuing in the radical, Black feminist tradition in Britain by showcasing how Black women and non-binary people resist de-racialized narratives that seek to portray Europe as “less racist” than other countries.
Sobande is a lecturer in digital media studies and the course director of the Media, Journalism, and Culture undergraduate program at Cardiff University in Wales. Prior to her position at Cardiff, she was a lecturer in marketing and advertising at Edge Hill University in Ormskirk, England, and was a tutor in marketing and management at the University of Dundee in Dundee, Scotland. Sobande is the author of the forthcoming book, The Digital Lives of Black Women in Britain (2020), which examines how media and media representations, activism, culture, Black women’s digital productions, and counter-cultural consumerism impact the online and offline experiences of Black women.
Sobande is the co-editor with Dr. Akwugo Emejulu of To Exist is to Resist: Black Feminism in Europe (2019). Sobande and Emejulu are also co-organizers of the Black Feminism Remixed Lab, “which aims to examine the past and present of Black feminism in Europe and how Black feminist activists are organizing and mobilizing today.” Her scholarship also includes Black women’s experiences on YouTube and on “woke-washing”, which entails “how brands (mis)use issues concerning commercialized notions of feminism, equality, and Black social justice activism.” Her other research interests focus on race, gender, authenticity, and celebrity; fast-fashion and feminism; and gender archetypes in marketing.
Black Women Radicals spoke with Dr. Sobande about the importance of interrogating the digital presence and productions of Black women in Britain; her experiences as a Black woman growing up in Edinburgh, Scotland; on why Afro-feminist perspectives of Black women and non-binary people in Europe need to be centered in the larger Black and Afro-descendent feminist project; and what a Black Woman Radical means to her.
Your scholarship and research interests have a particular focus on digital culture, Black identity and diaspora, feminism, celebrity, the creative and cultural industries, and popular culture. May you please discuss and share more about what motivated you to pursue this important research?
Francesca Sobande (FS): “I have always been interested in digital culture, pop culture, and media. Really since the days of being online and looking at things such as Limewire or Xanga or in the U.K., having access to things such as the television channel, Trouble, I was always really drawn to different types of pop culture. When I was younger, I would come across blogs and things like “Racialicious”, which explored the intersections of race and pop culture. It really started to spur my interests to specifically focus on the media experiences of Black women and just thinking about the context I was in. I was really keen to do work that focused on their experiences in Britain and different parts of it. I guess for me, I started off in undergraduate studying sociology and politics. Even though I have had experiences across different disciplines since then, I have always felt very strongly about how there are a lot of forms of power and political expressions involved in digital culture and pop culture sites. I really wanted to do work on how they connect and collide with the creativity of Black women in various different ways that can range from fueling their forms of resistance; encouraging forms of community formation; and also be implicated in different types of harassment and abuse and violence that is directed to them as well.”
Do you mind sharing your experiences of being a Black woman growing up in Edinburg, Scotland and the similarities and differences of your experience in the various places that you have lived in Britain?
FS: “Oh wow, where to start! [Laughs] So, I was involved in the core organizing of the inaugural “Black Feminism, Womanism, and the Politics of Women of Color in Europe” symposium, which took place in Edinburgh in 2016. It was led by Akwugo Emejulu, who I met in 2015 and shortly after I started my Ph.D. I remember being so encouraged and excited about the prospect of that event happening. When Akwugo pushed me to be involved, it was just really brilliant because at that point, I had been in Scotland since 1991 and I hadn’t seen anything like that in Edinburgh. That is not to say there hasn’t been Black women organizing in previous years and previous decades in Scotland but the reality is, the demographic has changed over the decades. Even though there still aren’t that many Black women in Scotland, particularly from the viewpoint of people who will dismissively say things like, ‘You are statistically insignificant’, there is more of a critical mass now than say in the ‘90s. During the decades I spent living in Scotland, I had various experiences––some of which were my own and some of them that I saw happen to friends and family. This made me want to do more research on the history and contemporary experiences of Black people there, particularly Black women. This included some of my own research and some collaborative, on-going independent work with a friend of mine, Layla-Roxanne Hill, who is a writer, curator, and collective organizer who pursues non-commodifiable forms of liberation. Before I moved to England in 2017 and then to Wales in 2019, I was involved in the co-founding of a Black women-led collective in Scotland. That really sort of garnered momentum in the weeks that followed the symposium in 2016 and also, various events including, “Women of Colour, the Media & (Mis)Representation”, which took place in Glasgow in October of that year.”
“It is particularly the case that in public discourse including narratives that not only circulate in Scotland but narratives that circulate beyond, there is often this perspective that Scotland is significantly less racist than other parts of Britain and the world.”
“I guess there is no shortage of forms of structural oppression and challenges that Black women face in Scotland including doing resistance work. For me, one of the big ones is often this assumption that racism isn’t an issue there. It is particularly the case that in public discourse including narratives that not only circulate in Scotland but narratives that circulate beyond, there is often this perspective that Scotland is significantly less racist than other parts of Britain and the world. Further still, there is sometimes this idea that mistakenly people think there is no form of institutional racism in Scotland at all. So in the context of Britain, quite often the conversations to do with racism or conversations to do with forms of oppression that Black women face, sometimes might involve this implication, ‘Well, it is not that bad in Scotland.’ That can be difficult when you are in that setting because people are quick to really weaponize this myth of Scottish exceptionalism against Black people and try to deny their experiences of anti-Black racism and xenophobia and Black women’s experiences of anti-Black sexism. So, really the work of grassroots organizers there is particularly crucial, especially the work of those who really maintain an un-compromised position and sustained efforts to pursue equity for people who are more structurally oppressed. I think unfortunately, whether it is mainstream media or on a national level or on a global scale, there is this critical implication that somehow Scotland is a bit of a utopia in comparison to maybe England and other parts of Britain. It can just be dismissive of the lives of Black people and there has been quite a lot of these conversations these past weeks based on the British elections due to Scotland’s different political landscape in comparison to what impacts London, the rest of England, and Wales.”
“I have lived in Edinburgh and Dundee, Scotland. I lived relatively briefly in Liverpool and in England and I am now based in Cardiff in Wales. Some of the commonalities I guess between the experiences of Black women in Scotland and Wales is just that in the context of Britain, there are parts of the U.K. that tend to receive less mainstream national media coverage. Quite often, people are sometimes still surprised that in parts of Britain other than England there are Black people. So it is not to say, as I mentioned earlier, that there haven’t been populations of Black people who haven’t been here because there are decades and generations of Black communities in Scotland and Wales but partly because of the dynamics between countries within Britain and the lack of national and global attention that tends to be directed at Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland, there is less of an understanding of the experiences of Black women in those parts of Britain. And this is where social media and the internet can be helpful.”
“That can be difficult when you are in that setting because people are quick to really weaponize this myth of Scottish exceptionalism against Black people and try to deny their experiences of anti-Black racism and xenophobia and Black women’s experiences of anti-Black sexism.”
“I know you mentioned that you found out about [Black women activists] by doing some of your own personal research and you found out about stuff that you would have never been taught at school. That is exactly the same as some of my own experiences. When I think of all the work and the history of Black people in Britain that was so scarcely or never touched upon as part of my experiences of formal education. When I started to say, ‘look out for that’ and doing it partly online, it was just incredible and also frustrating to see how much stuff was there but is actively ignored by institutions. It is so hard, I think, because without being proactive and seeking this stuff out, how would you ever necessarily know when institutions so rarely take it upon themselves to bring that into forms of education? I think it can be a really incredible moment when you come across information, writing, and archival stuff that you never knew existed. There can also be this bittersweetness to it when you think about how long it has taken you to even find out about it and gain access precisely because how this stuff is so often dismissed elsewhere.”
You are the co-editor of the book, To Exist is to Resist: Black Feminism in Europe. You and co-editor, Dr. Akwugo Emejulu, both interrogate the importance of Afrofeminism in understanding the everyday lives, experiences, and activism of Black women in Europe and particularly, European Black feminism. You both write:
“...Afrofeminism insists on grounding analysis and action in the particular and specific histories of colonialism, racial formation, and gender hierarchy of the various European nation-states in which Black women live. Thus, when we speak of European Black feminism, we must ensure that the lived experiences and theorising of Black women on the continent and across different countries and languages is at the forefront of our work” (Emejulu & Sobande, 2019, p. 5)
Moreover, you both write that, “[t]oo often, when we think about Black feminist theory and activism, we look to the particular Black American experience and seek to universalize and apply it to Europe” (Emejulu & Sobande, 2019, p. 5). With this, do you mind sharing how you and other Black queer, transgender, and cisgender women activists and non-binary activists in Europe are centering your leadership, perspectives, activism, and organizing as an important component of and to the Afro-feminist radical tradition in Europe and in the African Diaspora?
FS: “One of the best parts really about doing work such as the edited collection that I did with Akwugo and various different other projects that I have been involved with in regards to work on Black women in Britain and other parts of Europe over the years, is about finding out how much has been happening right now. Certainly in terms of Afro-feminism right now that is occurring in Europe is the work of Mwasi Collectif in France, who wrote an excellent chapter in To Exist Is To Resist. They are doing really brilliant grassroots work and are doing incredible stuff around Afro-feminism that is so insightful but that is also directive as well––whether that is creating political tools and organizing vital activities and events. What they are doing is really important around Afro-feminism and the work of Black women in France and Black women elsewhere. Across Europe, there are significant forms of Black collective organizing that focuses on the experiences of Black queer, transgender, and cisgender women activists and non-binary activists as well.”
“Many of the different issues being addressed by activists include workers’ rights, colorism, forms of reproductive justice, abolitionist approaches, and addressing violence faced by Black immigrants and refugees. I think one of the things that I continue to learn a lot about and continue to be encouraged by is seeing how Black women and non-binary people are organizing not always necessarily on a really large scale––sometimes it only takes a few people––but are coming together in different areas and are really addressing issues that are particular to the local environments they are in but are also trying to forge transnational solidarity. So I think there is exciting activity around Europe. At the same time, I recognize the significant amount of work and the significant amount of risks that can be involved for the Black people who are doing that.”
Dr. Francesca Sobande delivering a keynote on “Black Lives, Labour, and Liberation: Tuning In, Turning Off, and Taking Back” at the New Perspectives in the Digital Humanities Conference 2018, King's College London. Photo Credit: Rianna Walcott. Photo courtesy of Dr. Francesca Sobande.
Do you mind expanding on what you mean by “risks”?
FS: “What I mean is in Europe and in different parts, like France, where public conversations that have to deal with race are incredibly discouraged and there is not a lot of data there compared to other countries in Europe, there can be many risks. There are also people who still try to perpetuate the idea that Europe is not as racist as North America. That is another thing I think people try to sometimes fall back on, which is to try to deny anti-Black racism in the context of Europe. Many risks can be involved when a Black woman is visible in a predominantly white society, especially in countries and cities where they are one of few and there is also the exposure to both online harassment and offline abuse. Violence is ever-present. I think people like to make claims about the “post-racial” nature of places–– whether it is claims about Europe or claims about the U.S.––but the reality is to do resistance work as Black women and Black non-binary people is always to be exposed to the different types of risks that aren’t going away anytime soon.”
You are one of the co-organizers of the Black Feminism Remixed Lab, which “aims to examine the past and present of Black feminism in Europe and how Black feminist activists are organizing and mobilizing today.” What was the impetus to organizing the Black Feminism Remixed Lab and what future outcomes would you like to see come from the project?
FS: “I think developing the Black Feminism Remixed Lab with Akwugo seemed like the pretty natural next stage of some of the work we have been doing together since 2015. We really wanted to try to create something that can specifically support the activism of Black women and non-binary people of African-descent in Europe through intergenerational, in-person dialogues, and creative activities that reflect on archiving past, present, and anticipated futures of Black feminism organizing in Europe. We wanted to try to facilitate a setting that is not necessarily about it being large scale but it is about us creating a space for us to have one-on-one conversations and pause and think through some of the issues that get side-lined on a day-to-day basis.”
“We really wanted to try to create something that can specifically support the activism of Black women and non-binary people of African-descent in Europe through intergenerational, in-person dialogues, and creative activities that reflect on archiving past, present, and anticipated futures of Black feminism organizing in Europe.”
“Some of the future outcomes we are hoping to see come from the project include a collaboratively created and remixed Black feminist manifesto that is connected to Black transnational liberatory praxis. We are really wanting to have conversations with different people about the different ways they are organizing and the works of different Black feminists they are drawing upon and the commonalities but also differences between the challenges people are facing and thinking through how we can work together as a part of different liberationist goals.”
Your book, The Digital Lives of Black Women in Britain, which will be published this year by Palgrave Macmillan, focuses on the digital activity and experiences of Black women in Britain, as they contribute to Black diasporic digital knowledge and pedagogical work. Why is it critical to focus on the digital experiences of Black women? In your opinion, how can we examine the power of Black feminist digital knowledge production and community building as a part of the Black diasporic radical tradition?
FS: “For me, the book is some thoughts of what I have been working on. I have been noticing in recent years––particularly over the last five years or so but it has been definitely longer than that––how Black women are increasingly identified as digital trendsetters. In the U.S., Nielsen released a couple of reports over the years really emphasizing how Black women are ahead of digital trends, are setting them, and are doing incredible stuff online. I noticed these conversations and also noticed the way exploitative commercial entities were also erasing Black women as creators, knowledge producers, as innovators, and social movement builders. I was also thinking about the more quotidian aspects of things and just conversations I’ve had with friends and my own experiences. I was just thinking about the different ways that Black women experience digital spaces. For me, it felt particularly crucial to focus on the experiences of Black women in Britain because of the many ways they contribute to creativity, knowledge production, and historicizing work and resistance, which is often trivialized and often co-opted by various corporations and institutions who definitely do not have the interests of Black women in mind.”
“So when I think of the power of Black feminist production around the world, I think it is evident and there are many examples of whether it, including offline community-building that offers some sort of a digital component or Black diasporic traditions being articulated and documented using digital technologies. It is also important to look at the creative ways that technology and forms of communication have been used by Black feminists for centuries. As a part of my research, I have spent much time reading about Black feminists and organizing particularly in Britain over the decades, including accessing materials at the Black Cultural Archives and seeing when information communication and technology was on the rise and seeing how Black women were making use of that a couple decades ago. My book is the outcome of over five years of research and more years of continued conversations and experiences with friends, family, and loved ones. The idea is based on and I suppose has been developing from my own experiences since I was an early teen.”
“For me, it felt particularly crucial to focus on the experiences of Black women in Britain because of the many ways they contribute to creativity, knowledge production, and historicizing work and resistance, which is often trivialized and often co-opted by various corporations and institutions who definitely do not have the interests of Black women in mind.”
“I feel various digital places and platforms can present this potential for Black women around the world to depict themselves, document their histories, steer public discourse, and counter-narratives about their lives, and the discrimination that is directed at them. Ultimately, there is this tension in doing so because often they will find that their digital discussions are used and framed in ways that serve with conflicting and commercial interests. For me, digital spaces are always a part of these much broader societies of capitalism and there are always many constraints of Black women’s digital experiences. There is surveillance that Black women are subject to which can be difficult and strip the radical potential of what they want to do online. But still, as important as it is to be realistic about the difficulties and structural obstacles that Black women face in digital spaces and offline, I definitely stand by the fact they are continuing to find creative and collective ways to generate and share Black feminist knowledge and cultural production and forms of resistance with the use of digital technology. That is just a testament to Black feminist organizing and some of the different directions it is going in.”
In building transnational Black feminist solidarities, imaginations, and futures, how can Black feminists do more in regards to understanding, interrogating, and centering the lives and radicalism of Black women in Europe?
FS: “When I think about building transnational and Black feminist solidarities and imaginations and futures, some of the ways Black women and non-binary people can learn more, understand, and support other Black women and non-binary people in other countries is partly by seeking out writing and work by Black women and non-binary people elsewhere. That maybe an attempt at centering, examining, and interrogating the lives of Black women and non-binary people’s radicalism in Europe. That would include for me to search for readings and writings of those people, including online, and perhaps often in offline settings, too. When we are speaking about people at the level of scaling the continent, it is important to engage with experiences across different parts of it and across different decades. I am well aware that the experiences of Black people who are in central or in eastern or western parts of Europe can be drastically different. The main thing for me is actively seeking out the work that is being done by those individuals in those places that are expressed in their own words.”
“My first thoughts were writing but I also am thinking about the visual and sort of the audio and sonic creative work of Black women and non-binary people, including in Europe and in countries outside of it. That can also communicate much about their lives and different challenges and forms of oppressions they encounter. Whether it is a zine or a long form book, or an online article, painting, a poem, or song, I think that Black women and non-binary people in Europe and around the world are constantly creating different ways of sharing information about what they are doing; they are sharing and creating different cultural artifacts; and just sources of Black feminist and liberationist-based knowledge and insights of what it means to be a Black person in a particular place in a particular moment in time, whilst recognizing that they can be a part of centuries or the legacy of what it might mean to be a Black person there.”
Photo of Dr. Francesca Sobande smiling. Photo courtesy of Dr. Francesca Sobande.
What does a ‘Black Woman Radical’ mean to you?
FS: “That is such a good question! [Laughs] To me, being a Black Woman Radical or feminist means being a Black woman or non-binary person–who upholds different expressions and experiences of Black feminism–––and embodies different expressions and experiences of Blackness. It is a Black person who is committed to fulfilling and inhabiting themselves and working towards forms of liberation on a collective and sustained scale and in ways that involve pursuing liberationist goals that don’t solely benefit themselves but that will ultimately help those who are the most oppressed.”
Who are Black Women Radicals who inspire you?
FS: “There are so many! Current Black liberationist feminists across Europe inspire me. There are just so many great and encouraging examples right now. What is nice is also seeing the intergenerational nature of what is going on. I am grateful for the work of many Black women in Britain across the decades such as Beverley Bryan, Stella Dadzie, and Suzanne Scafe, who co-authored The Heart of the Race: Black Women's Lives in Britain, which is such an incredible book. Among the other Black women who inspire me are Maud Sulter and their creative practice and their writing and all that they did is so meaningful as I spent most of my life in Scotland. I am thankful that I can continue to learn about the work of Black women that is archived in so many different places. So whether that is in the Glasgow Women’s Library in Scotland or learning from the personal archives Black women and non-binary people have been creating over years and years. There are a lot of people who inspire me. I am thankful for the work that has happened before because I am well aware that paves the way for the work that is happening now.”
You can follow Dr. Francesca Sobande on Twitter at @Chess_Ess.
To read more about Dr. Sobande’s work, please visit here.