Sat 11 October
19:00–22:00
Lecture Myriam Bahaffou — NOTES ON DECOLONIAL VEGANISM
Is veganism white? Is it racist to promote a universal plant based diet? What's the issue with analogies between slaves and animals from the farming industry?
While animal liberation is often presented as alien (and sometimes even opposed) to ecological struggle, the missing piece here might be decolonial praxis. In this talk, Myriam Bahaffou will present an overview of her research about intersectional veganism. She will first develop a critique of white veganism and why the mainstream version of animal liberation in the global North is unsatisfactory because of its racism. Then, she will focus on the proposition of decolonial veganism by analysing the concept of “sentience” and “marronage” from a new perspective that holds racism and speciesism as co-extensive. Decolonial veganism is then the only way of addressing issues of food, land, gender, class, race, species, altogether, as Franz Fanon phrased it, in a “total liberation” frame of emancipation.
SPEAKER BIOGRAPHY
Myriam Bahaffou is a PhD student in philosophy and feminist studies (Université de Picardie Jules Verne – CURAPP, and University of Ottawa – IEFG), a decolonial ecofeminist activist, an aquaphile fascinated by echinoderms and mermaids, a joyful antispeciesist and an outspoken eropolitician. Her PhD takes an intersectional approach to antispeciesism, focusing on how race and species intersect under modern coloniality. In France, she contributed to reshape the ecofeminist landscape towards a queer and decolonial direction, focusing on food and land justice, femininity, eroticism, and spirituality. She is the author of two books, Des Paillettes sur le compost, écoféminismes au quotidien (2022) and Eropolitique. Désirs, écoféminismes, révolution (2025) at Le Passager Clandestin.
PRACTICAL INFORMATION
⌀ Date: Saturday 11 October 2025
⌀ Doors open: 19:00 – 19:30
⌀ Start and duration lecture: 19:30 – 21:00
⌀ Drinks reception: 21:00 – 22:00
⌀ Main language: English
⌀ Admission: €10,00 (lecture), €15,00 (lecture + exhibition)
⌀ The exhibition WERKER COLLECTIVE: BECOMING UNCOMMON SUBJECTS can be visited on 11 October between 11:00 and 19:00.
⌀ Location: RADIUS Water Tower, Kalverbos 22
⌀ Note that the location is not wheelchair accessible. Please get in contact with us to discuss alternative ways to allow your participation.
⌀ This lecture is the second lecture of ARCHIPELAGO, a series of lectures convened by RADIUS and inspired by Édouard Glissant’s term “archipelagic thinking.” ARCHIPELAGO is made possible with the support of Institut français NL.
