Black French Women and the Struggle for Equality, 1848–2016 ed. by Félix Germain, and Silyane Larcher

Abstract

Reviewed by: Black French Women and the Struggle for Equality, 1848–2016 ed. by Félix Germain, and Silyane Larcher Severine Bates Germain, Félix, and Silyane Larcher, eds. Black French Women and the Struggle for Equality, 1848–2016. UP of Nebraska, 2018. ISBN 978-1-4962-0127-0. Pp. 294. Can Marianne be black? The debate remains open. Although France is a multicultural and multiethnic nation, Marianne—the national symbol of citizenry and of [End Page 214] a Republic promising liberty, equality, and fraternity for all, regardless of sex, gender, race, and religion—remains stubbornly white in the French collective imagination. Yet, as shown in Germain and Larcher's edited volume, since the abolition of slavery in 1848, people of color, in particular black French women, have continuously struggled against this hegemonic and racialized way of thinking in order to position themselves as legitimate citizens and a potent political force in (post)colonial France and its overseas territories. Showcasing the works of scholars from the African and Caribbean diasporas, this interdisciplinary and well-researched volume contributes to the field of French Black studies by shedding light on the multidimensional and complex nature of black women's experiences and their fight for justice and equality. Situating their analysis at the intersection of race, gender, sex, culture, nationality, and class, the contributors seek to make black French women an "objet de pensée"—as opposed to their historical discursive designation as a"non-objet de pensée" (xiv). Their goal is to dismantle "imagined notions of black female identity" (xvii) by examining the tensions, challenges, and ambiguities faced by black female activists over the span of three centuries. Divided into five parts, each focusing on a theme such as politics, black French feminism, representation, or respectability, this anthology brings attention to the often forgotten but profound historical, political, social, and cultural impact of black women's activism on a French polity faced with its own identity crisis. With essays on the groundbreaking work of famous figures such as the Martinican Nardal sisters, known for their role in the Negritude movement, this volume also examines less prominent but equally influential figures of black women's fight for justice, equality, and for improved political and aesthetic representation, such as Guadeloupean deputy Gerty Archimède, an architect, along with Aimé Césaire, of the 1946 "law of departmentalization." What these women share to varying degrees is a desire to assert their agency in order to redefine the gender, racial, and social status quo of their societies within a nation and empire which, for centuries, silenced them and treated them as inferiors under the objectifying gaze of racist, sexist, colonialist paternalism. Nevertheless, despite shared experiences and a common desire to challenge racism and sexism, the women, according to Jacqueline Couti, differ(ed) in their ideas and approaches to the fight for equality, especially in their unique understanding of blackness, womanhood, and "proper femininity" (144). Hence, the contributors to this volume call attention to the diverse ways in which class, gender, religion, culture, racial discrimination, and migration have contributed to a pluralistic formulation of blackness, femininity, and Frenchness that defies uniformity and fixation into a single category of thought. [End Page 215] Severine Bates University of Evansville (IN) Copyright © 2019 American Association of Teachers of French