💡 2-Sentence-Summary
“Sensuous Knowledge” by Minna Salami is an eye-opening read emphasizing the importance of embodied and sensory experience as a source of knowledge and power. Salami argues that by reconnecting with our bodies and the natural world, we can transform ourselves and society towards greater empathy, creativity, and justice.
💭 What I think about it
This was one of the most refreshing reads this decade. Especially the first chapter on knowledge would make the book worth the purchase. Salami revealed my own biases when it comes to knowledgeable in the Europatriarchal context and surfaced how inherently oppressive it is. I loved how she suggested different forms of knowing. My favorite essays in this book were the ones on Knowledge, Womanhood, Blackness, Power, and Beauty.
🌟 Who benefits from reading this book?
I would recommend this book to anyone interested in feminism, social justice, and personal growth. This book is particularly relevant for those who want to explore the connections between the body, emotions, and knowledge, and how these can be harnessed to create positive societal change. It is also a great read for those who are looking for a fresh perspective on intersectionality and the role of culture in shaping our experiences and identities.
📚 How the book changed my life
Reading “Sensuous Knowledge” by Minna Salami can change your life in various ways. It can inspire you to challenge conventional norms and expectations and explore new ways of being and knowing that is grounded in empathy, creativity, and justice. It can help you to develop a more nuanced understanding of intersectionality and how different forms of oppression intersect and reinforce each other. It can encourage you to reconnect with your body and senses and develop a deeper understanding of how your cultural and social background shapes your experiences. Overall, the book can provide a powerful framework for personal growth and social transformation by highlighting the importance of sensuous knowledge and embodied experience in shaping our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.
✍️ My Favorite Quotes
- important to develop language and knowledge that works for and not against those excluded from the privileges of the status quo
- How we move and feel in the world, the air we breathe, the health of our trees, the food we eat, the ideologies we support, the way we dance and make love are all reflections of what we know.
- The idea that calculable reasoning is the only worthy way to explain reality through is one of the most dangerous ideas ever proposed.
- We need an approach to knowledge that synthesizes the imaginative and rational, the quantifiable and immeasurable, the intellectual and the emotional. Without feeling, knowledge becomes stale;
- We need an approach that measures wisdom not only by science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) or gross domestic product (GDP) but also by how ethically we develop our societies. We need knowledge that affects the interior as well as the exterior. Ogbon-inu and ogbon ori. Sensuous Knowledge.
- Instead of producing thriving, exciting, and wise societies, as knowledge should do, Europatriarchal Knowledge creates a world of social, political, psychological, and spiritual suffering.
- the more I resisted, the more I realized that to change society, one must first change oneself. But to change myself, I did not merely need new knowledge; I needed a new understanding of knowledge.
- What we can strive to do is cultivate a mind at rest and ease regardless of the fleeting events in life, which is necessary for making empowering choices. Feminism ought to focus more on providing tools that bring clarity.