Decolonising My Body - by Afua Hirsch

Book Synopsis

A 2023 POLITICAL BOOK OF THE YEAR (WATERSTONES) 'GROUND-BREAKING' Bernardine Evaristo 'UNIVERSAL AND TIMELY' Elif Shafak 'IMPORTANT' Sathnam Sanghera 'A GENEROUS OFFERING' Nana Darkoa Sekiyamah 'QUIETLY RADICAL' Evening Standard 'INTIMATE' Guardian 'I LEARNT A LOT' Gillian Anderson
What can ancestral practices teach us about how to live fuller lives today?
Upon turning forty, Afua Hirsch had an encounter that forever altered her preconceived notions of ancestry and body image, making her question everything from body-modification rituals such as tattoos and piercings to the foundations of sexuality, as well as attitudes towards puberty, ageing and death. This book charts her year-long journey of radical unlearning. Bringing together global scholarship, on-the-ground reportage, personal anecdotes and interviews with beauty experts, practitioners and service users, she reassesses notions of body image beyond those of the colonial, patriarchal gaze.

Decolonising My Body is a powerful excavation of the Eurocentric beauty standards that have long shaped how, in particular, those from the Global Majority are perceived and view themselves. Taking us from puberty to end-of-life, Hirsch shows us that the ways in which we adorn and present ourselves have spiritual implications and shape the possibilities we see for ourselves in the world.
These insights and discoveries will empower you to reconnect with your own ancestry, better understand the link between beauty, history and (respectability) politics, and liberate yourself from mainstream standards and systems that aren't serving you.
*Co-host of the LOYALTY podcast with Peter Frankopan*

Review Quotes

Exceptionally rich, inspiring, challenging, wise and moving. I didn't realise I needed this book until I read it and felt stirrings towards my own ancestral awakening of African female cultural beliefs and practices that were sadly long ago lost to the colonial project. This is a ground-breaking book that speaks to all women.--Bernardine Evaristo, author of 'Girl, Woman, Other'

We're talking a lot about identity and race and politics, but also about the impact of colonialism on body image, and it's just something that I had never considered before. I felt like I was learning a lot in reading her book ... Celebrates women how they are, as they are.--Gillian Anderson

I would wholeheartedly recommend Decolonising My Body by Afua Hirsch. It is a very brave and honest exploration, almost and excavation of Eurocentric standards of beauty and perceptions of body, particularly of the female body. It is also a calm and wise call of an awakening, a friendly - or sisterly - invitation to a transformative journey beyond these mental walls that have been erected around and between us by capitalism and patriarchy and colonialism. I found it both universal and timely--Elif Shafak, The New Statesman Books of the Year 2023

There's something on every page of this book that you didn't know before, or makes you look at things a new. An important publication.--Sathnam Sanghera, author of 'Stolen History' and 'Empireland'

Disarmingly honest... quietly radical--Evening Standard

A remarkable journey to unlearn western beauty standards and explore ancestral skin, hair and body modification rituals.--Funmi Fetto, Observer

Decolonising my Body is both a generous offering, and a joy filled testimony. Afua skilfully pulls us into her world, and generously allows us to accompany her on a journey of questioning and unpacking notions of beauty. This exploration lights a path for all people who seek to (re)connect with more expansive understandings of beauty.--Nana Darkoa Sekyiamah, author of 'The Sex Lives of African Women'

Afua has cut through so much of the noise to provide an enlightening and necessary reflection on how we can learn from the wisdom and beauty of our ancestors to become spiritually healthier humans. This book is a knowledge gift to us all.--Naomi Evans, author of 'The Mixed Race Experience', co-Founder of Everyday Racism

The journalist, commentator and author of Brit(ish) reflects on twelve months radical unlearning of Eurocentric and patriarchal conventions of beauty in this powerful and challenging volume.--Waterstones, 'Best Books of 2023: Politics'

Afua Hirsch's Decolonising My Body is a breath of fresh air and is a travel book, a beauty book, and a history book all in one. It made me think about capitalism and race and the body in a new way--New Statesman

About the Author

Afua Hirsch is a writer, filmmaker, and journalist. She is the author of Brit(ish), the Sunday Times bestseller that explores Britishness, identity and belonging, for which she was awarded the Royal Society of Literature Jerwood Prize for Non-Fiction. She co-presented Enslaved, a 6-part series about the transatlantic slave trade with Samuel L Jackson. She is the presenter of the Audible podcast series We Need To Talk About the British Empire, and Africa Rising, an ongoing flagship series about art and culture for the BBC, through her production company Born in Me Productions. She is a longtime columnist for the Guardian and is a professor of journalism at the University of Southern California.