Adornment, Masquerade and African Femininity

“Adornment, Masquerade and African Femininity certainly equips us with a fresh theoretical lens not only for understanding femininity but also for thinking more critically about masquerade in relation to women’s identity in modern society. … Diop articulates her own position as follows: ‘Women are at their intersection. Their status as objects of desire is a stage of their evolution, until they get beyond the Other’s desire to chase their own: desiring themselves as powerful beings’ … .” (Xiaojuan Ye, The European Legacy, Vol. 30 (5), 2025)

“This book offers a thorough analysis of the interplay of adornment, masquerade, and African femininity. Theoretically, it sheds new light on how bodily adornment reveals the specifically African symbolic and social underpinnings of the feminine masquerade compared to its Western versions. … 
Adornment, Masquerade and African Femininity
certainly equips us with a fresh theoretical lens not only for understanding femininity but also for thinking more critically about masquerade in relation to women’s identity in modern society.” (Xiaojuan Ye and Pengfei Zhang, The European Legacy, Vol. 30 (5), 2025)