French Caribbean Women and the Other Colonial Experience

In discussing the political orientations of black colonial subjects in the French Atlantic, scholars often refer to Alexandre Isaac, a Guadeloupean man who became a prominent French colonial officer and politician in the 1890s; they examine the writings of René Maran, a colonial soldier who wrote Batouala, a prize winning novel that invited the French to reform colonialism; they analyze Aimé Césaire and Leon Damas’ poems and essays which indicted French universalism; they dissect the writings of Frantz Fanon and Edouard Glissant, two Martinican intellectuals and activists who described the brutality of French colonialism and the socio-cultural characteristics of French Caribbean societies respectively. But this constant emphasis on great male intellectuals and politicians has silenced the multi-dimensional experiences of French Caribbean women. Thus, my presentation focuses on the connections between French universalist ideals, colonization, race, and gender. It shows that reading the archive through gendered and racial lenses complicates our conception of colonial societies. By examining the accomplishments of women like Lumina Sophie, Paulette Nardal, Solange Fitte-Duval, and Ms. Dancenis, I offer a more nuanced understanding of French Caribbean colonial and postcolonial experiences, particularly in regards to movements for social justice and postcolonial migration to France.