#MeToo beyond the Global North

BOOK REVIEW CHINTAN GIRISH MODI ow do we talk about the origin, evolution and afterlife of the #MeToo movement? When academics and activists narrate its history, where do the loudest voices come from and who gets muffled and silenced in the bargain? What can be done to ensure that knowledge production about feminist organising is interdisciplinary, multi-vocal and inclusive? If these questions interest you, read Intimacy and Injury: In the Wake of #MeToo in India and South Africa.

This book is edited by Nicky Falkof, Shilpa Phadke and Srila Roy. It grew out of a workshop in 2019 that "aimed to nurture a new generation of feminist scholars in India and South Africa". Dr Falkof is an associate professor in the media studies department at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, and Dr Roy is a professor of sociology at the same university. Dr Phadke is a professor at the School of Media and Cultural Studies at the Mumbai-based Tata Institute of Sciences.

It is rare to come across a volume that brings together perspectives on sexual violence from two post-colonial states like India and South Africa that cannot be "easily dismissed as locations of poverty" because of their development trajectories but also have a "shared reputation as 'rape capitals' of the world". In the chapter "South Africa's own 'Delhi moment': News coverage of the murders of Jyoti Singh and Anene Booysen", journalist Nechama Brodie examines how the Nirbhaya rape case in Delhi and the public protests after that struck a chord in South African media and society because of the country's struggles with sexual violence.