Abstract
This chapter examines the disclosures or ‘tellings’ (Summit, 1983) of child sexual abuse (CSA) experiences by seven African-Caribbean British victims/survivors. Based on the findings of a doctoral thesis, the chapter uses the concept of ‘maternal mimesis’ (Wilson 2017) to explain intergenerational (re)productions of the ‘strong black woman’ racial stereotype as a co** strategy for victims/survivors (Beauboeuf-Lafontant 2009) of CSA. I argue that this historical racial stereotype, which was created to justify the ‘de-gendering’ of African womanhood for the purposes of additional slave labour, continues to be a template of resilience used by African and African-Caribbean British women to cope with their CSA experiences (Crenshaw 1991). The participants’ ‘tellings’ (1998, p. Opcit; Alaggia 2004, 1213–1227) and the maternal responses to them are located within (Taussig 1993) theory of alterity and mimesis.
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Wilson, J. (2022). Maternal Mimesis: The Impact of Intersectional Abuse on African-Caribbean British Maternal Responses to ‘Tellings’ of Child Sexual Abuse by Daughters. In: Gill, A.K., Begum, H. (eds) Child Sexual Abuse in Black and Minoritised Communities. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-06337-4_4
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