From mourning mothers to revolutionary mothering

Abstract

In this article, I critically engage with the literature on Black feminism to follow a notion of public motherhood that exceeds biological reproductive mothering in favour of looking at a conception of motherhood in cultural and linguistic terms, as a political symbol and a framework for thinking about women's power. I oppose a strategic vision of motherhood to privilege the role mothers play at grassroots level. I go beyond the portrayal of Black mothers as victims and irrational subjects to discuss specifically how grief unleashes an activism to change unjust social relations. I foreground the futural dimension of motherhood, using Heidegger's temporality based on care, Sorge. Revolutionary mothering is an act of care but also a political re-imagining that overcomes loss and pain by overhauling existing political and social configurations. I discuss mourning as a performative act, following James Baldwin's call to remember the dead and contemplate loss in a public way.