Antispeciesism, the struggle for animal liberation, has been given a particular treatment within social movements, often leaving it on the sidelines and sometimes even viewed as a matter of privilege or intellectual luxury. However, the notion that antispeciesism is a "white" struggle is increasingly being exhausted. Why is it crucial to discuss antispeciesism in contextual terms? What are the connections between colonialism and speciesism? Between race and species? In this talk, Chams Barkaoui and Myriam Bahaffou will open up questions from a North African and decolonial perspective on our (non-)consumption of non-human animals and its political implications.

about

Chams Barkaoui is a trans medium author and artist. They graduated from the Beaux-Arts of Grenoble and now live in Marseille, France. Inspired by queer and decolonial ecologies, they view their work as a tool to form, transmute, and nurture interspecies and interdimensional relationships. They advocate for a counter-humanity aiming for total liberation, making animal, plant, mineral, spiritual, and technological categories porous through storytelling processes. Committed to collective practices, they lead workshops focused on community care and collaborate with other authors, researchers, and artists. In parallel, their writing takes the form of maps, essays ("Manifesting Magic," self-published, 2020), and fictions published in journals (Censored, Woman Journal) or read publicly in various art venues. They are creating a stage form to embody the stories of Foussana, set in central-west Tunisia. They will be in residence at Maison Poème (Brussels) in November 2024, at Point Ephémère (Paris) in December 2024, and at Artagon Marseille until April 2025.

Myriam Bahaffou is a doctoral student in feminist philosophy (at the Université de Picardie Jules Verne, Centre Universitaire de Recherches sur l'Action Publique et le Politique - CURAPP), an ecofeminist activist, an aquaphile fascinated by sea cucumbers, a joyful anti-speciesist and an outspoken hero politician. Her work takes an intersectional approach to anti-speciesism, focusing on the dynamics of animalisation and the humanisation of minorities, particularly racial minorities. Her book "Des paillettes sur le compost, écoféminismes au quotidien" was published by Le passager clandestin in 2022.