Abstract
Gender-based violence is one of the major problems faced by post-colonial societies today. This is evident when one considers the alarming recent increase in cases of violence against women and children. Statistics show, for example, that despite its strong constitution, South Africa, still has one of the highest rates of gender-based violence in the world. While gender-based violence is a problem everywhere, in previously colonised countries it takes on a unique character because of its entanglement with issues such as race, gender, class and sexuality which are all related to the colonial legacy. I am interested in how the problem of gender-based violence in post-colonial societies could be attributed to the structural violence that was imposed by colonialism. I argue that gender-based violence is not a self-generated problem whose understanding should be confined to personal violence. Rather it should also be engaged using structural violence. In an attempt to conceptualise the problem of gender-based violence in post-colonial societies I rely on feminists' understanding of structural violence. I use the work of Franz Fanon as a decolonial theorist and argue that it offers insights into the structural violence of colonialism, and by extension the problem of gender violence in postcolonial societies. I respond to Elena Flores Ruíz’s critique on Fanon’s analysis of violence who argues that Fanon’s analysis of colonial violence is problematic because it does not address the underlying logic and mechanisms that lead to gender-based violence.