Black women in the department of Chocó, Colombia, respond to the violence endemic to their region with activism and storytelling. Tania Lizarazo focuses on members of COCOMACIA, a Black farmers’ association that defends communities and territories along the nation’s Pacific lowlands’ rivers. Drawing on the life stories of members, Lizarazo explains how Chocó’s Black Colombian women answered firsthand experiences of violence with a dedication to survival and activism. Survival amid armed conflict proves to be an embodied practice. Day by day, the women imagine what memory, peace, and justice could look like when the bloodshed ends. Though peace may seem impossible, wishing and working for a better world motivates these women to steadily dismantle the scaffolding of violence built around their lives.

A merger of eyewitness accounts and theory, Postconflict Utopias explores the links between lived knowledge and survival while revealing the power unleashed when women ask the simple question, “Why not?”

Tania Lizarazo is an associate professor in the Department of Modern Languages, Linguistics, and Intercultural Communication at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.

Acknowledgments

Introduction    Utopias as Why Nots

1. Utopian Rehearsals: Ethical Considerations on Moving Beyond Victimhood
2. Utopian Stories: Survival Technologies in Mujeres Pacíficas
3. Utopian Archives: Turning Trauma into Memory
4. Utopian Memories: Documenting Collective Territories
5. Utopian Networks: Showing Up as a Durational Performance
6. Everyday Utopias: Ethics and Care as Peacemaking

Conclusion    Performing Why Nots

Notes

Index