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Begin forwarded message: > From: H-Net Staff via H-REVIEW <[email protected]> > Date: September 27, 2020 at 3:01:11 PM EDT > To: [email protected] > Cc: H-Net Staff <[email protected]> > Subject: H-Net Review [H-Diplo]: Zimmerman on Joseph-Gabriel, 'Reimagining > Liberation: How Black Women Transformed Citizenship in the French Empire' > Reply-To: [email protected] > > Annette K.. Joseph-Gabriel. Reimagining Liberation: How Black Women > Transformed Citizenship in the French Empire. Urbana University of > Illinois Press, 2019. 264 pp. $22.95 (paper), ISBN > 978-0-252-04293-5. > > Reviewed by Sarah J. Zimmerman (Western Washington University) > Published on H-Diplo (September, 2020) > Commissioned by Seth Offenbach > > The middle decades of the twentieth century were a thrilling time for > reimagining a new world order. Pan-Africanist intellectual and > political movements extended across francophone Afro-Atlantic worlds > and generated new ways of imagining shared identities and collective > action. Annette K. Joseph-Gabriel's _Reimagining Liberation _is a > timely monograph that recasts this history of anticolonial black > liberation to attend to what "decolonization [would] look like if we > took into account, even centered, women's visions for a decolonial > future" (p. 159). The women included in this book are already known > for their participation in Négritude or their membership in > political bodies like the Rassemblement Démocratique Africain and > the French Union's High Council (1946-58). Here, Annette > Joseph-Gabriel foregrounds the intellectual production and radical > politics of Suzanne Césaire, Paulette Nardal, Jane Vialle, Eugénie > Eboué-Tell, Andrée Blouin, Aoua Kéita, and Eslanda Robeson in a > history of intersectional feminist activism. These women had > revolutionary, at times discordant, aspirations for equitable > futures. Their actions add complexity to historical narratives of > mid-century electoral politics and black liberation movements. > _Reimagining Liberation _calls attention to important antecedents for > contemporary Afro-feminist and African feminist action in francophone > worlds. > > _Reimagined Liberation _contributes to recent scholarly work that > historicizes how black French women confronted Republican > universalism's gendered and racialized hypocrisies.[1] Citizenship > and its limitations are often central to these critiques. For > Joseph-Gabriel, citizenship is less a rights-bearing political status > and more an intellectual and political practice. Joseph-Gabriel uses > "decolonial citizenship" to frame the diverse means through which > black women struggled for their envisioned futures within and without > French civic identity in diverse geographies. "Decolonial," as > opposed to "anticolonial," accounts for intersectional political > activities and literary production that championed forms of > liberation that do not fit neatly within teleological narratives > featuring pan-African independence movements during the postwar era. > In pairing decolonial praxis with citizenship, Joseph-Gabriel seeks > to "untether citizenship from the narrow confines of the nation-state > as the only political community imaginable and advocates a shift > toward plural forms of belonging" (p. 11). Decolonial citizenship is > an analytical frame used to account for the incongruities and > manifold expressions of black women's struggles for cultural and > political transformation in arenas that scaled from village to > department to colony to empire. These women redrew the boundaries of > black political space and advocated for collective activism that > bridged the Caribbean archipelago, French Equatorial Africa, French > Soudan, and the transnational global South. > > _Reimagining Liberation_ acknowledges that the conventional colonial > archive is a product of patriarchal discrimination and anti-black > racism that preserves silences and biases around the women included > in this book. Joseph-Gabriel locates the political visions of black > women in biographical, epistolary, and literary texts produced by and > about them. Her examination of autobiographies and personal letters > illustrates how public and private spheres were mutually constitutive > in developing the intersectional feminist ideologies of these women. > Joseph-Gabriel combines historical and literary analysis to > interrogate a wide range of sources. Fictional materials--novels and > film--provide contextual and comparable examples of black women's > activism in order to "enlarge the field of possibility for imagining > and representing women's contestation of colonial exploitation" (p. > 27). This methodology importantly questions the historical > production, accuracy, and utility of any source. Joseph-Gabriel's > reliance on fictional sources for historical context is > methodologically unconventional. However, this strategy > uncompromisingly centers African women's important political visions > without eclipsing them with the masculine worlds they operated in. > > _Reimagining Liberation_ is organized around vignettes of African and > African-descended women that illustrate their decolonial praxis and > their radical imaginings of future worlds. Early chapters address > Martinicans Suzanne Césaire and Paulette Nardal, who advocated for > postwar departmentalization yet remained critical of racial > discrimination in mainland France and new forms of imperialism at > home. In the face of US imperialism in the Western Hemisphere, > Césaire championed an archipelagic, Caribbean-based > anti-imperialism. Nardal portrayed Martinique as a Caribbean space > with histories both distinct from and entangled with France. The next > chapter addresses the political dynamism of French Guianese Eugénie > Eboué-Tell and French Equatorial African Jane Vialle. Both women > capitalized on their participation in the French Resistance to win > seats in the High Council of the French Union. From within the French > government, Eboué-Tell and Vialle endorsed legislative reform that > would increase equality for inhabitants of overseas France. They, > along with Césaire and Nardal, sought radical social and legal > change without advocating for independence from France. > > The final chapters focus on women whose decolonial politics aimed for > political independence. Andrée Blouin, Aoua Kéita, and Eslanda > Robeson respectively championed pan-Africanism, grassroots rural > organizing, and South-South transnationalism. For Blouin, a _métisse > _Central African women, pan-Africanism allowed her to claim > citizenship in plural registers at a time when black nationalism > influenced the discourse of liberation politics across the African > continent. Kéita, a professional midwife, renounced French > citizenship in order to run for local election in French Soudan. At > this level, Kéita was better positioned to meaningfully challenge > French colonialism and patriarchy in local government. The Blouin and > Kéita chapters use fictional literature and film to contextualize > the radical politics of these women. In the case of Kéita, > Joseph-Gabriel entangles her life history with images and storylines > from Ousmane Sembene's film _Emitaï_ (1971) and his book _God's Bits > of Wood _(1960)--fictional portrayals of anticolonial historical > events in French West Africa. Unlike the other women in this book, > Eslanda Robeson was not of French Empire. Her travels in Francophone > Africa convinced her that ending colonialism was a necessary step for > black liberation across the global South. In the epilogue, > Joseph-Gabriel examines the postcolonial black internationalism on > display in the pages of _AWA. _Produced by an all-female Senegalese > editorial team during the 1960s and 70s, this French-language > magazine promoted a "global black feminism at the height of African > nationalist movements" (p. 190). The pages of _AWA _promote > discordant visions of liberation that convey the complexity of > postcolonial black feminine life. > > _Reimagining Liberation_ celebrates the diverse epistemologies and > broken lineages of black feminist thought occurring within postwar > francophone worlds. This generative study innovatively employs an > interdisciplinary methodology that foregrounds and takes seriously > black women's decolonial practices and futurity. In doing so, > Joseph-Gabriel has added significantly to histories of black > intellectual and political movements, as well as Atlantic and French > colonial history. Race and gender are dealt with deliberately and in > nuanced ways throughout the book. A critique of class and educational > background would add further complexity to a project that exposes the > coloniality of power, as well as champions international and > intersectional activism. Ultimately, Joseph-Gabriel's first monograph > serves as a model for decolonizing history and prioritizing the > intellectual labor of black women in the past. _Reimagining > Liberation _is a book for our times. > > _Sarah J. Zimmerman is an associate professor of history at Western > Washington University. Her research focuses on the experiences of > women and the operation of gender in West Africa and French Empire. > She recently published _Militarizing Marriage: West African Soldiers' > Conjugal Traditions in Modern French Empire_ (Ohio University Press, > 2020). Her work has appeared in the _International Journal of African > Historical Studies_ and _Les Temps modernes_._ > > Note > > [1]. Lorelle D. Semley, _To Be Free and French: Citizenship in > France's Atlantic Empire_ (New York: Cambridge University Press, > 2017); Félix F. Germain and Silyane Larcher, eds., _Black French > Women and the Struggle for Equality, 1848-2016_ (Lincoln: University > of Nebraska Press, 2018). > > Citation: Sarah J. Zimmerman. Review of Joseph-Gabriel, Annette K.., > _Reimagining Liberation: How Black Women Transformed Citizenship in > the French Empire_. H-Diplo, H-Net Reviews. September, 2020. > URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=55560 > > This work is licensed under a Creative Commons > Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States > License. > > -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. 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