Lola Olufemi: "We want to abolish the family so that love can be better."

BarcelonaHe's not yet 30, but Lola Olufemi (London, 1996) has been a leading author on feminism, racism, gender, and anti-capitalism for years. Her two books have been published in Catalan thanks to the publisher Raig Verd and the translator Josefina Caball. The first, Feminism interrupted (2023), aims to be a warning of the danger of feminism becoming a commodity and claims that it is "a weapon to fight injustice." The second, Experiments to imagine differently (2025), breaks down the traditional form of the essay to return meaning to words like future and revolution and for claiming "being able to be and live differently."

Your definition of feminism has brought headaches.

— Too often, feminism has been associated with women and the struggle for their liberation. I think it should rather be an analytical framework through which to understand the effects of capitalism, race, and gender. The goal of feminism's political project is the liberation of all of us.

In Feminism interrupted You explain that you first came into contact with feminism when you were a teenager. How was that?

— I came to the world through Black feminist theorists like Claudia Jones and Gail Lewis. Also through collectives like the Brixton Black Women's Group and the Organization of Women of African and Asian Descent, both very active in the 1970s and 1980s. Collectives are as important, if not more so, than individual figures when it comes to studying feminism: many of their members' names. The same goes for the voices that rose up against slavery, those who participated in general strikes, or in union struggles. No one remembers them, but their role has been crucial.

As in so many other fields, there is a feminist canon that you have challenged.

— Many voices have been excluded from more traditional narratives of feminism that have reached us, especially through academia.

You've sometimes refused to participate in festivals and conferences because of their anti-trans stance, right?

— TERF feminism has been one of my hobbyhorses.

In the book, you mention words by Claudia Jones that refer to the triple oppression Black women experience based on race, gender, and class. Growing up in London at the beginning of the 21st century, how did you experience this triple oppression?

— In my case, triple oppression has less to do with being born a Black woman than with the path I've taken to understand the world through my condition as a Black woman. It's shaped by living in a capitalist, imperialist society that excludes migrants.

Your proposal is to not settle for what we have and to protest to the extreme necessary. These words must be framed within a political and social context in which the far right is gaining ground year after year.

— When I wrote Feminism interrupted In English, I was 23 years old. My intention was to write a guide to introduce concepts of radical politics and feminism to young people. Demanding the return of women to the home, for example. And in matters of expanding the idea of femininity and the condition. queer There has also been a reversal: transphobia has grown. In the United Kingdom, there are attempts to regulate reproduction toward a more traditional view. To have a child, a man and a woman are necessary; the binary system cannot be broken, nor can direct blood ties.

In both of your essays, you defend the idea of family as a choice, not a biological imposition. Why?

— The nuclear family contributes to the reproduction of exploitation. Within the family, women find themselves in a subordinate role, which makes it possible for that same role to occur in the workplace. The family is incapable of fully providing care. There is also the issue of hierarchy between parents and children: the family prevents these relationships from developing in a healthy way. And another important issue is sexual violence: if you are a woman, it is much easier to suffer abuse from a family member than from a stranger.

You talk about the family as a repressive institution.

— If you don't follow the rules imposed by your family, you become an outcast. When we talk about abolishing the family, we mean ending the unequal relationships that exist within it. We want to abolish the family so that love can be better.

How would you define love?

— Love is loving and caring for someone, but also fighting for their autonomy in a world stifled by capital. A more radical way to approach care is to go beyond interpersonal relationships and consider the structures that determine them. Guaranteeing a place to live and ensuring access to healthcare and education is also about love, because it protects us from suffering injustices of all kinds.