Welcome to the 29th issue of The Funambulist, States of Emergency. Although the choice of its topic preceded of several months the various policies undertaken by nation states worldwide in reaction to the global COVID-19 pandemic — many of which have been effectively called “state of emergency” — we hope that this issue can be a useful tool to contextualize these policies within histories of state violence, in particular colonial ones. Throughout this issue, we alternate between various historical moments, as well as between various geographies of the Global South and the Global North. Our editorial argument is that none of the states of emergency presented in this issue constitutes “a state of exception” as they are usually presented: rather, they are the exacerbation of the normalized colonial/state violence whether in 1950s Malaya (Nnull), 1955 Algeria & 1985 Kanaky (Léopold Lambert), 1980s South Africa (Tshepo Madlingozi), 2015 Baltimore (Tara A. Bynum), or 2015-2017 France (Hassina Mechaï & Flora Hergon). The examples of the sustained emergency in Kashmir since 1953 in Kashmir (Mohamad Junaid) and between 1922 and 1998 in the North of Ireland (Fiona McCann) illustrate this permanence all too well. The issue ends with an interview with members of the Alliance of Middle East and North Africa Socialists calling for a transnational prison abolition front in a time of global emergencies as responses to the COVID-19 pandemic (Lara al-Kateb & Yasser Munif).

As usual, our News from the Fronts section that opens each issue and complements the main dossier, includes articles reflecting on ongoing struggles. In this issue, we cover the re-organizing of the Indigenous Left in Bolivia after last year’s right-wing coup (Ollie Vargas), the challenges that Afrofeminism has to face in France (Fania Noël), the need for a Palestinian national imaginaries that goes beyond the pictorial (Leila Abdelrazaq), as well as the corporeal haven Afro shops represent for the African diaspora in Berlin (Edna Bonhomme).

Editor-in-Chief: Léopold Lambert
Editorial assistant: Caroline Honorien
Head of Strategic Outreach: Margarida Nzuzi Waco
Contributing Copy Editors: Carol Que & Karim Kattan
Contributing Translator: Chanelle Adams
Proof Readers: Nadia El Hakim, Flora Hergon & Noelle Geller

 

CONTENTS ///

Cover FuturismsThe Funambulist 29 Index
COVER | 2019 STATE OF EMERGENCY IN ECUADOR
Axel Naranjo

— NEWS FROM THE FRONTS ///
2 | BOLIVIA’S INDIGENOUS LEFT: THE MOVEMENT THAT REFUSES TO BE CRUSHED
Ollie Vargas

5 | FEAR OF A BLACK FEMINIST PLANET
Fania Noël

8 | DISAPPEARING IN HIGH DEFINITION: ON ARCHIVAL PHOTOGRAPHY & PALESTINIAN NATIONAL IMAGINARIES
Leila Abdelrazaq

11 | WHAT AFRO SHOPS MEAN FOR THE AFRICAN DIASPORA IN BERLIN
Edna Bonhomme

— MAIN /// STATES OF EMERGENCY

14 | INTRODUCTION: A SHORT COLONIAL HISTORY OF THE FRENCH STATE OF EMERGENCY
Léopold Lambert

20 | PEOPLE’S POWER IN 1980S SOUTH AFRICA: REFUSING A PERMANENT STATE OF EMERGENCY
Tshepo Madlingozi

26 | A CURFEW’S TALE: BALTIMORE, APRIL 2015
Tara A. Bynum

32 | THE EXPELLED AND THE EXCLUDED: KASHMIRIS UNDER INDIA’S NEW CITIZENSHIP LAWS
Mohamad Junaid

38 | “MAKE YOURSELF AT HOME!”: THE FRENCH STATE OF EMERGENCY AND HOME SEARCHES IN 2015-2017
Hassina Mechaï & Flora Hergon

44 | ON THE 1948-1960 STATE OF EMERGENCY IN COLONIZED MALAYA AND THE EMPTINESS OF MY BIRTH CERTIFICATE
Nnull

50 | “SPECIAL POWERS” IN THE NORTH OF IRELAND: ABUSE, REPRESSION, AND RESISTANCE
Fiona McCann

54 | A CALL FOR A TRANSNATIONAL ABOLITIONIST FRONT IN A TIME OF STATE EMERGENCIES
Lara al-Kateb & Yasser Munif (Alliance of MENA Socialists)

 

 

About
The Funambulist is a magazine that engages with the politics of space and bodies. Our hope is to provide a useful platform where activist/academic/practitioner voices can meet and build solidarities across geographical scales. Through articles, interviews, artworks, and design projects, we are assembling an ongoing archive for anticolonial, antiracist, queer, and feminist struggles. The print and online magazine is published every two months and operates in parallel with an open-access podcast and a blog. The Funambulist is founded by trained architect and writer, Léopold Lambert.