Beyond Negritude: Essays from Woman in the City (Suny Series, Philosophy and Race)

Beyond Negritude

SUNY series, Philosophy and Race Robert Bernasconi and T. Denean Sharpley-Whiting, editors

Beyond Negritude Essays from Woman in the City

PAULETTE NARDAL Translated with an introduction and notes by

T. DENEAN SHARPLEY-WHITING

Published by State University of New York Press, Albany © 2009 State University of New York All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher. For information, contact State University of New York Press, Albany, NY www.sunypress.edu Production by Ryan Morris Marketing by Michael Campochiaro Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Nardal, Paulette, 1896– Beyond negritude : essays from Woman in the city / Paulette Nardal ; translated with an introduction and note by T. Denean Sharpley-Whiting. p. cm. — (SUNY series, philosophy and race) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-4384-2947-2 (hardcover : alk. paper) ISBN 978-1-4384-2946-5 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Black race—History. 2. Women, Black—Martinique—Social conditions. 3. Martinique—Politics and government. 4. Women, Black— Intellectual life. I. Sharpley-Whiting, T. Denean. II. Femme dans la cité. III. Title. HT1581.N37 2009 305.4889607298'2—dc22 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

2009008522

In memory of the intellectual legacy of Paulette Nardal

Contents Acknowledgments

ix

Introduction: On Race, Rights, and Women T. Denean Sharpley-Whiting

1

Paulette Nardal’s Woman in the City Annotated Translation by T. Denean Sharpley-Whiting 1 Woman in the City (January 1945)

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2 Setting the Record Straight (February 1945)

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3 From an Electoral Point of View (March 1945)

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4 Poverty Does Not Wait (May 1945)

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5 Martinican Women and Social Action (October 1945)

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6 And Now, What Are Our Objectives? (November 1945)

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7 To Work (February 1946)

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8 Martinican Women and Politics (July 1946)

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9 Facing History (October 1946)

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10 Abstention: A Social Crime (November 1946)

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Contents

11 United Nations (January 1947)

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12 About a Crime (October 1948)

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13 On Intellectual Laziness (November 1948)

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14 Editorial (July 1951)

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Selected Bibliography of Paulette Nardal’s Writings

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Index

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Acknowledgments I would like to thank Jane Bunker, the editorial team at SUNY Press, and my series co-editor and enduring friend Robert Bernasconi. I would also like to thank the Bibliothéque nationale de France in Paris and Archives départmentales in Martinique for their assistance and permission to reprint La femme dans la Cité. And last but not least, Emily Devoe, my undergraduate research assistant whose work was essential to getting this project off the ground. And to Haviland and Gilman, for your patience and love, I am eternally grateful.

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Introduction

On Race, Rights, and Women T. Denean Sharpley-Whiting

A number of scholarly volumes, essays, and book chapters have been dedicated to exposing the complicated and seemingly intentionally marginalized relationship of black French-speaking women to Negritude. In particular, the philosophical and political contributions of the Martinican journalist, activist, salonist, and director of a chorale society in her native land of Martinique, Paulette Nardal, have come under closer scrutiny. While some biographical information about Paulette Nardal can be found here and there, it is worth providing a brief summary here. Paulette Nardal was born in 1896 in François, Martinique.1 She was one of seven daughters born to Paul Nardal and Louise Achille. Her mother was a piano teacher and her father worked “for more than sixteen years” as manager of the island’s Department of Highways and Bridges.2 Nardal attended Colonial College for Girls in Martinique, then after perfecting her English in the British West Indies, she moved on to Paris to pursue a licence in English at the Sorbonne in the mid-1920s. She and her sisters Jane and Andrée are the names most associated with various black diasporic journals of the 1920s–1930s such as La Dépêche africaine, Nancy Cunard’s massive anthology Negro, and Paulette Nardal’s own foray into publishing as an editor of La Revue du monde noir. While Jane

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Beyond Negritude

pursued Classical Studies at the Sorbonne, Nardal would eventually write her thesis on Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Jane would also strike up a correspondence in 1927 with the father of the New Negro movement, philosopher Alain Locke, after being sufficiently moved by her witnessing Anna Julia Cooper’s dissertation defense at the Sorbonne in 1925 and after reading Locke’s edited collection The New Negro. She inquired as to the possibility of her and Paulette translating a pared down version of the volume with the French publisher Payot.3 The two serendipitous events seemed to have sparked both Nardals’ desire to do something for the “race.” Jane in particular, in a reference to James Weldon Johnson’s Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, playfully describes the narrative of her coming into race consciousness to Alain Locke as “An Autobiography of a Re-Colored Woman.”4 It was, though, in their roles as co-hosts of the famous Clamart salon on the outskirts of Paris where more substantial encounters with Harlem Renaissance and New Negro artists and writers such as Locke, Langston Hughes, Marcus Garvey, Claude McKay, and Augusta Savage were had. Interestingly, Paulette and Jane Nardal’s writing for La Dépêche africaine, a Garvey-linked newspaper,5 the witnessing of Anna Julia Cooper’s defense, the various encounters via the Clamart salon, and their voracious reading from Du Bois to Maran to Frobenius to McKay to Fauset would definitively mark their philosophies of race. The Nardal sisters were in fact Black Internationalists; they saw a world that linked a people by historical processes and conditions such as violent dispersal, a racialized identity (imposed from without), and a commitment to an originary homeland of Africa. They also saw this black diaspora as being part and parcel of world history and modernity. The influence and confluence of these philosophies of race, the rise of antiracist anthropology, and the pan–black internationalist movements in and around the city of Paris would also coincide

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with the studies abroad of Léon Damas, Aimé Césaire, and Léopold Sédar Senghor—Negritude’s founding fathers. For her part, Nardal helped found the bilingual editorial collective La Revue du monde noir in 1931 (The Review of the Black World), which published six issues on political, cultural, artistic, and economic conditions across the black diaspora that the three undeniably read. Her last essay, “The Awakening of Race Consciousness among Black Students,” which was published in the journal in 1932, provides insight into just how critical women’s voices were to the development of the primarily male-identified philosophical, literary, and cultural movement known as Negritude. Coined in 1936–37 by the Martinican poet Aimé Cesaire during the writing of his now celebrated Cahier d’un retour au pays natal (Notebook of a Return to the Native Land), the word Négritude, denoting a poetics, a literary, cultural, and intellectual movement, signaled the birth of a Pan-Africanist philosophy and literature among black Francophone writers, a “New Negro” from the Francophone world. Although the neologism is readily traceable to Césaire, mapping the concept of Negritude as the inauguration of a black humanism, as a theory of black cultural importance and autonomy”6 remains the stuff of a panoply of critical works. In efforts to provide a genealogy of Negritude, many literary historians and philosophers of race begin its evolution by simply recovering the works of Aimé Césaire, Léon Damas, and Léopold Senghor. This recovery generally begins in 1935 with the publication on the Paris Left Bank of a one-issue, eight-page journal sponsored by the Association des étudiants martiniquais en France (Association of Martinican Students in France). Initially known as L’Étudiant martiniquais (The Martinican Student), the primarily Antillean organ of expression was rebaptized L’Étudiant noir (The Black Student) in late 1934 before it was published that next year. Its objective became decidedly Pan-African; that is, the editorial collective attempted to foster dialogue between the ethnically

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fractured black student body around educational, philosophical, racial, and cultural issues. Within these pages was an article entitled “Guignol ouolof ” (“Wolof Puppetshow”) by Mademoiselle Paulette Nardal, the only woman featured in the journal’s pages. Like the rest of articles in the journal, Nardal’s ruminated on the questions of race, assimilation, and colonialism from an importantly woman-centered perspective. Situating herself as a “black Antillean woman perhaps too westernized,” she meditates on her responses to a “caricatural Black man” who represents “all things highly disagreeable to assimilated Blacks who take themselves seriously.” In the end, Nardal deduces that race transcends class, degrees of Westernization/assimilation, ethnicity, and nationality. “There is, however, between [me] and him,” she concludes, “in lieu of material solidarity, that relating to color.”7 Invited as the lone female contributor to the journal perhaps because of her Clamart salon in a Paris suburb of the same name, where Césaire, Damas, and Senghor could be found lulling away hours steeped in intellectual debate about the race, race consciousness, and colonialism in the company of men and women, black, white, French, African, and American, the fact of the matter is that the ideas laid out in L’Etudiant noir—the very ideas that have been identified as “sketch[ing] the contours of the matrix of the movement: the claiming, affirmation, and illustration of Negro identity”8—had been taken up three years earlier by Nardal and her editorial collective in La Revue du monde noir. The stakes for her inclusion then, among other women intellectuals and activists, are necessarily high given that the emergence of Negritude is considered a watershed moment in the histories of philosophies of race as well as in Francophone Caribbean literature; indeed, it is, as Maryse Condé notes, “the moment when French Caribbean literature was born.”9 The present volume will depart however from the terrain of Negritude and its contested Nardalian influences to undertake an exploration of Paulette Nardal’s post-Negritude, post-metropolitan

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French intellectual and political activities. After her heady years in France, Paulette Nardal returned to Martinique by passenger ship just as World War II emerged as an inevitable human crisis. Nardal’s ship, on its way to England, was caught in the crossfire of wartime volleys. She was wounded and walked with a cane for the rest of her life. Disembarking in the capital city of Martinique, Fort-de-France, Paulette Nardal found her homeland more socially and culturally provincial than cosmopolitan Paris. And so many of Martinique’s predominantly black and métisse (mixed-race) middle-class women had “envelop[ed] themselves,” as Nardal would write, “in a haughty indifference” to social issues.10 This indifference Nardal linked initially to their disenfranchisement in the political process because of gender. Hence, they were cloistered from political and public life. The years 1939–44 were bleak in Martinique, as France’s Vichy government reigned over this “colony of citizens.”11 In the comforts of her bourgeois household, the Sorbonne-educated, English-speaking Nardal pursued her musical inclinations as a chorale director and teacher during these years, and after. In the immediate aftermath of the second Great War, Paulette Nardal founded the monthly journal La Femme dans la Cité (Woman in the City). The journal’s arrival announced Martinican women’s entering the public sphere, the city, and from the journal’s internationalist perspectives, the world stage where they would take up their responsibilities as citizens of their little island and the greater French Republic. Every issue featured a fortress-like crenellated crown over the seal of a mother and child. On the one hand, the crenellated medieval crown is most associated with the Third Republic of France as a symbol of French national identity and Republicanism. In this Martinican context, Nardal uses both the crown and seal explicitly to represent Republican motherhood, French identity, as embodied by Martinique, a former plantocracy/current colony on the brink of becoming an overseas department.

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Interestingly though, the crenellated crown/fort atop the mother-child seal could also be read as a symbol of the sacred, and an allusion to the Fort Saint-Louis, located in the capital city in downtown Fort-de-France where the journal’s offices were housed. Nardal puts Catholic symbols to use as well but in more inclusive ways to reflect the journal’s and organization’s openness to all religious persuasions as well as nonbelievers. Hence, the mother and child is a reference to the Holy Mother Mary and baby Jesus; but represents more broadly Martinican mothers and children, with a particular nod to young female children—both of whom are the sources of the organization’s raison d’être. Using the Catholic Church’s elemental symbols of dark and light, the mother and child too are moving from the shadows, the darkness (ignorance, non-citizenship) into the light. The crown, at once a symbol of charity, righteousness, goodwill, also represents the fort as the quintessential symbol of the City that Nardal’s women seek to enter. Woman in the City’s first issue appeared in January 1945 and consistently thereafter for the next six years. With its Christian humanist undertones and feminist inclinations, Woman in the City represented in the French-speaking Caribbean the first theologically and philosophically woman-centered liberationist journal in print. For Nardal, a devout Dominican swept up in the immediate euphoria of a liberated France and the establishment of a New Republic, Christianity with its tenets of peace, humanity, generosity of spirit, and selfless sacrifice provided a framework through which women could enact the rites of citizenship and engage in civic, social, and, more importantly, political duties. Nardal used the journal and its organizational wing, Le Rassemblement Féminin Martiniquais (The Martinican Women’s Assembly), to further the interests of women on the island, particularly as they related to, among other matters, race and social justice and its intersection with women’s rights and duties as mothers, workers, citizens, and newly enfranchised voters and the colonial hangovers Martinique

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continued to face even at the dawn of the island’s becoming an overseas department of France. Nardal and the journal also continued moving in the black internationalist directions mapped out during her years in Paris. As a representative of the Martinican Women’s Assembly, she worked closely with women’s organizations in the United States, Latin America, Europe, and Africa, attending international summits and workshops to strategize globally about the condition of women. Nardal had the honor of representing women of the French Caribbean, as an official delegate of “non-autonomous territories,” at the 1947 United Nation Organization’s Commission on the Status of Women in New York. Her visit was reported in the T. Thomas Fortune-founded newspaper, The New York Age, by Gladys P. Graham. Nardal would write enthusiastically of her undertakings to her compatriots back in Martinique in the July–August 1947 issue of Woman in the City. In her “Letter from America” to “leaders, faithful readers, and subscribers,” she relates excitedly: Our publication, Woman in the City responds to numerous points of the questionnaire established by the Commission on the Status of Women. . . . It concerns the political, economic, social and cultural condition of women. . . . I cannot impress upon you what interest I had in following the debates . . . the resolutions made in order to accelerate the accession of non-citizens toward political rights and to facilitate the political education of women who have recently acquired these rights. . . . As for what concerns us more . . . the present circumstances strongly underscore the harsh realities that in spite of political upheavals have not changed, just as the need to act has not changed. . . . We would hope that like the nations who attempt to apply the message that emerged from the horrors of the Second World War, that is to say, the interdependence of all people, that all the women of the French Antilles understand the importance of not forgetting

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Beyond Negritude the social concerns and the efforts that the Women’s Assembly undertakes in order to improve the human condition of their sisters.12

Since her race and cultural transnationalist perspectives of the interwar period and the silencing of The Review of the Black World by French colonial authorities because of its politically subversive underpinnings, Nardal seems to have been particularly mindful of how to articulate her new humanism, one that meshed race, class, religion, and gender as part of a broader vision of local and international social progress. Whereas race and race consciousness were front and center in her interwar-period days, with gendered analyses ever so subtlety woven in the matrix, the return to Martinique signaled an interesting philosophical paradigm shift. Gender and women’s issues took center stage. Discussions of race, racism, and colonial injustices would be filtered through the prism of gender, class, and Christianity; race and criticisms of colonial policies and missteps that reified Martinique’s margin-center economic and political relationship to Hexagonal France would be subsumed under the category of class. Pummeling an already beleaguered France was not, for Nardal, an especially good use of renewed feminine energies in the post–World War II era. A staunch de Gaullist, her critiques were very often highly localized, reserved for what was happening on the ground in Martinique, while France, embodied through de Gaulle—“the Savior of France”—occupied, an exalted role for, in her words, “raising [women] to the dignified level of citizens.”13 Since the majority of the poor on the island were black women and children, Nardal could go about her business of tackling colonial and patriarchal privileges as issues of gender and poverty. And she took up the causes of the working class with fervor—even if that fervor was sometimes shot through with bourgeois paternalism.

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The Women’s Assembly and its monthly Woman in the City was not an independent undertaking. It was not launched in a salon with like-minded Left-leaning intellectuals and with funding from the Colonial Ministry.14 Rather, The Women’s Assembly was the Martinican branch of the Union Féminine Civique et Sociale in Paris (The Women’s Civic and Social Union). It must be noted as well that it is was during the fifteen years Nardal spent in Paris that she began her association with the Union Féminine Civique et Sociale. This association would greatly inform Nardal’s philosophies of gender, particularly when she returned to Martinique. Nardal’s ideas about race and race consciousness gelled in Paris; so too did her feminist inclinations. While The Review of the Black World was a mere flirtation with the colonial administration, The Women’s Union represented a full-on engagement of sorts, with the Union serving as an umbrella for the Martinican endeavor. Replicating in some respect the paternalistic relationship Martinique, still a colony in 1945, had with France, the maternalistic umbrella provided by the Union to the Women’s Assembly in Martinique allowed Nardal enough political wiggle room to inveigh against all and sundry social injustices in her editorials, particularly as they related to women. Gender (motherhood, womanhood), class, and religion provided safeguards that racial discourse simply did not afford. In Martinique, most blacks still did not identify themselves as black despite Aimé and Suzanne Césaire and René Ménil’s efforts with the racially infused surrealist journal Tropiques; Hexagonal France claimed that race did not exist. Hence, political movements and ideologies where racial unity was touted could have easily been interpreted as subversive to the democratic ideals of La Déclaration des Droits de l’Homme et du citoyen, as anti-French, and, as perhaps more dangerously, a pretext to the nationalisms that led to global wars—an immediate and salient memory, indeed a very present-past memory in 1945.

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The Paris-based organization, began in 1925, celebrated its twenty-fifth anniversary when Nardal ran a special issue in 1950 dedicated to “La Mère.” Though never a mother herself, Nardal regularly reserved an issue of the journal to celebrate Mother’s Day. Similarly, the journal had a commemorative issue in 1948 on one hundred years since the abolition of slavery in the Antilles. Opening with a prose poem in honor of Victor Schoelcher and other revered antislavery liberals, the issue was uncharacteristically more poetic, literary, and cultural than political. Like The Review of the Black World, Woman in the City was unevenly political as it too contained recipes for tarts, crossword puzzles, and a literary page; food for women’s culinary, mental, and intellectual interests. The April 1948 “100 Years since the Abolition of Slavery in the Antilles” (“Centenaire de l’Abolition de L’Esclavage aux Antilles”) issue most resembled Nardal’s Paris review with its articles on Martinican popular music, Creole folklore, and poetry. Again the question of race is muted in favor of a fêting of the cultural flowering and racial amalgamation that took root as a result of calamitous racial oppression—slavery. There were no lengthy analyses about whether what was contained in these pages was “authentically” Martinican versus imitatively French. The moment where one yowled about racial nuances as poetic/literary devices had come and gone. The abolition of slavery in 1848 had made citizens of Martinicans even as they existed in the matrix of colonialism. The lingering memory of fascism on the island orchestrated by the Vichy regime with Admiral Robert at the helm also bolstered identification with the partitioned and occupied mère-patrie. And by 1948, Martinique had voted itself out of its colonial status to an overseas department of France, and thus became wholly (at least as the rhetoric of nationhood and citizenship goes) rather than imitatively French. The stated aim of Woman in the City, while pithy, was as equally lofty as its race-conscious Parisian forerunner: “To create a

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new frame of mind favorable to the rapprochement of classes and races and to social progress. To undertake pressing social projects. To do civilizing work.”15 This last goal, while giving one immediate pause, relates specifically to Nardal’s new humanism—one in which women become the vessels of goodwill, charity, Christianity, justice, and world peace. For Nardal, the second Great War had certainly demonstrated the mess that men had made of the world, one in which women and children suffered the most. Hence, the aftermath of World War II was in her spirited hands “the Age of Women,” of mothers, and they had only to take up their collective responsibility with missionary zeal by, among other things, voting. Nardal ties a great number of her calls for direct political action by women to voting. The immediacy of her calls to voting as part of women’s duty is in no small part a function of the newness of enfranchisement. The end of World War II signaled the closing of a lamentable chapter in human history. The vote was the opening of a new book with blank pages for women. Women could write themselves into history, could indeed create it. In the first of a series of articles beginning in 1945 on women and voting, Nardal first dismisses the hoo-ha directed at the organization and its organ regarding the importance of women voting. Like her insistence about The Review of Black World and its intention as cultural rather than political, she again strategically attempts to divorce her efforts from any desire to express political objectives. By March 1945, she pens the article “From an Electoral Point of View” where she explains to her women readership their important role as voters in the transformation of France and Martinique. And by November 1946, all pretence regarding Woman in the City’s apoliticism is cast off with the editorial “Abstention, A Social Crime.” Nardal writes urgently to her readers of their political indifference, of their failure to take up their newly recognized status as “citizens.” The tenor of the article is at once messianic and damning. Punctuated with pointed questions, she writes:

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Beyond Negritude I call upon all the women who up to now have remained indifferent to politics. . . . I call upon all women who do not vote. You have the opportunity to change everything by just leaving behind your lethargy for one day, namely by going to cast a vote in the ballot box of a candidate of your choice. You are not aware of your own worth. You don’t count yourself as important to the nation. You are unaware of the great honor the Savior of France bestowed upon you by raising you to the dignified level of citizens. However, it is above all especially on that day, the day of the election that you become the equal of man. It is on that day, with all class distinctions abolished, that you like every woman, will apprise the nation of your autonomous will.16

The vote, or at the very least the act of voting, epitomizes for Nardal women’s ascension to citizenship status, their entry into the City of Men, their equality with men. Nardal would further go on to exhort the women readers as good Christians to assist Martinique and France in finding their true face through a Christian Humanism. This Christian Humanism was linked explicitly to social work among the working class, the poor, and the youth in Martinique. Once exposed to the goodwill of Martinique’s enlightened women citizenry, they too would assume their historic role in the development of Martinique and France, morally, spiritually, economically, politically, and artistically. Paulette Nardal and Essays from Woman in the City is an annotated collection of fourteen never-before-translated essays from the venerable Nardal. Each essay opens with a summary that provides the reader some historical context so that they may better grasp who the actors, allies, and opposition were; and what the stakes politically, economically, socially, and philosophically were. In the spirit of Nardal’s commitment to bilingualism in an era of evolving Black Internationalism, I have also included the original French. Nardal published at least twenty-three essays, letters, and commentaries in

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Woman in the City. I have selected those that best represent the cogent development of her thought and her political activism. That filmmaker Jil Servant released in 2005 the documentary biopic, Paulette Nardal, la fiérté d’être négresse (Paulette Nardal, Pride in Being a Black Woman), is a testament to Nardal’s enduring legacy on the island of Martinique and in scholarly circles in the United States and France. The screening of Jil Servant’s biopic at the September 2006 fiftieth anniversary of the Black Writers and Artists Conference in Paris, France, an event co-sponsored by UNESCO, the Sorbonne, and Harvard University’s W. E. B. Du Bois Institute, allowed Paulette Nardal a presence that she certainly did not have at the predominantly male inaugural conference of 1950 where Negritude, black identity formation and cultural and political theories and praxes, and the role of the intellectual were, as in 2006, debated in an internationalist context. Servant’s film takes us from Nardal’s departure from France back to Martinique; though the film provides a good deal of backgrounding regarding her accomplishments in France and her transnationalist tendencies, her struggle to reconcile her desire for the cosmopolitanism of France with her commitment to the island. Perhaps one of the most compelling examples in Servant’s biopic of Nardal’s “race” commitments, even as she maintained an unshakeable stake in her Frenchness, was when one fair-skinned Martinican woman stated repeatedly that Paulette Nardal taught them that “black is beautiful.” In an era (the 1940s–50s) when Césaire’s calls for an appreciation of Africa and blackness were outright mocked, and, per revolutionary theorist Frantz Fanon, darker and lighter-skinned Martinicans were socially and culturally inclined toward “lactification” and “denegrification,”17 Nardal appeared to have made some inroads. Though the words “black is beautiful” never appeared in any of her writings in Woman in the City, she obviously lived and repeated that particular philosophy robustly.

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Beyond Negritude Notes

1. See Louis-Thomas Achille, “In Memoriam: Paulette Nardal,” Présence africaine 133–134 (1985): 291. 2. From Paulette Nardal’s interview with Eslanda Goode Robeson, “Black Paris,” Challenge (June 1936): 9–11; also see Achille, “In Memoriam,” 291–92. 3. Jane Nardal to Alain Locke, December 27, 1927. In Alain Locke Papers. Moorland-Spingarn, Howard University. 4. Nardal to Locke, December 27, 1927, Alain Locke Papers. 5. T. Denean Sharpley-Whiting, Negritude Women (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2002), 36. 6. Janet Vaillant, Black, French, and African: A Life of Léopold Sédar Senghor (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1990), 1. 7. Paulette Nardal, “Guignol ouolof,” L’Étudiant noir 1 (March 1935): 4. 8. Georges Ngal, Lire “Le Discours sur le colonialisme” (Paris: Présence Africaine, 1994), 3. 9. Maryse Condé, “Unheard Voice: Suzanne Césaire and the Construct of a Caribbean Identity,” in Winds of Change: The Transforming Voices of the Caribbean Women Writers and Scholars, ed. Adele Newson and Linda Strong-Leek (New York: Peter Lang, 1998), 62. 10. See Paulette Nardal’s “Martinican Women and Social Action” in this volume, Woman in the City/La Femme dans la Cité. 11. Taken from Laurent Dubois, A Colony of Citizens: Revolution and Slave Emancipation in the French Caribbean, 1787–1804 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2006). 12. Paulette Nardal, “Lettre d’Amérique,” La Femme dans la Cité 30 (July–August, 1947): 4. 13. See Paulette Nardal’s “Abstention, A Social Crime,” in this volume. 14. The Colonial Commission did regularly fund some of the efforts of the Women’s Assembly. 15. Mission Statement: Woman in the City. 16. In Paulette Nardal’s “Abstention, A Social Crime,” in this volume. 17. See Frantz Fanon’s Black Skin, White Masks (New York: Grove Publishers, 1967).

WOMAN IN THE CITY Monthly Review of the Women’s Assembly Published in Fort-de-France (Martinique) Founder-Director Ms. Paulette Nardal

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Woman in the City (January 1945) The first essay in the series of essays written by Paulette Nardal between 1945 and 1951, “Woman in the City” is perhaps the most important as it announces not only Martinican women’s ascension to the status of citizen with the ratification of the vote for women in 1944, but their entry into public life via the Women’s Assembly and its journalistic organ La Femme dans la Cité. With these claims to full citizenship come certain duties, particularly as they relate to the public good. Nardal is careful to map out gendered spheres of influence. Women and men excel in different areas by virtue of biology and psychology. When one thinks of these two spheres of science in the 1940s and theories about their relationship to women, one cannot help but think immediately of Nardal’s hexagonal French feminist counterpart Simone de Beauvoir. Simone de Beauvoir and Paulette Nardal would have certainly found themselves circling about and through various cafes and seminars at the Sorbonne in the late 1920s. But unfortunately, an encounter seems not to have taken place. Beauvoir was a very young woman of twenty-one years old in 1929, having just received her agrégation in philosophy at the Sorbonne. She would certainly not have been at that juncture the feminist pioneer that would go on to write The Second Sex. Indeed, she did not write it until 1943. Moreover, there would have been in all likelihood philosophical disagreements between the two women along the lines of religion,

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gender, race, and sexual propriety. Nardal’s gender politics were informed by the social conservatism of a specifically black Antillean bourgeois household and her staunch Catholicism, which would have been distinctly at odds with Beauvoir’s bohemian lifestyle and professed atheism. Nardal had more in common in terms of ideas about respectability and sexual propriety with upper-class African American women despite her Frenchness. But whatever their differences, racial, social, religious, there are certain resonances in their work that are worthy of brief exploration. Beauvoir’s famous line from The Second Sex, “One is not born a woman, but becomes one,” would at first glance appear to run counter to Nardal’s assumptions about women’s nature and character articulated in various articles in Woman in the City. Psychology and biology are wholly linked in Nardal’s expositions about women’s natural predispositions. Beauvoir was a materialist feminist and existentialist who believed that Existence preceded Essence. And yet both women recognized womanhood as a process of acculturation, adaptation, and, in Nardal’s case, assimilation. Nardal and Beauvoir concur that women indeed become women, though Nardal embraces the idea of a “feminine essence” as long as it does not impinge upon women’s rights or enact gendered hierarchies. If for Beauvoir, woman has always been cast as man’s “Other,” and The Second Sex endeavors to uncover just what that “Otherness” means for woman, Nardal takes this “Otherness” as an affirmation of feminine difference. Nardal’s is a question of ontology, of being. Woman simply is or does. Where such “otherness” does not correspond to Nardal’s ideas about women’s equality, in effect, where she deems feminine characteristics as male-manufactured, she is quick to dispense with them. For her, women’s veritable otherness cannot be defined by men for the benefit of men. Given her religious fervor, such differences, where they exist, are ordained by God. She is, as the reader will note in the progression of her arguments articulated in the

Woman in the City (January 1945)

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various articles in this volume, quite surefooted in her navigation of the line between what is natural and what is cultural. The social sphere then is women’s natural sphere of influence like men. Women, like men, are wholly tied to social duty, the obligation to foster and nurture human progress: Now, the social is the aspect of life that interests woman first and foremost. Regarding social duty, she is man’s equal. As an individual, she is also intelligent and free. But as a social being, her services are bound to humankind. Like man, she must contribute to the progress of humanity. . . . In fulfilling, this social obligation, she remains true to her feminine vocation. And women who are indifferent to this duty, who resist entering the City and taking up what should be a natural predisposition as a social being, as part of a greater humanity, are for Nardal, not “worthy of the name woman.”

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La femme dans la Cité Faut-il déplorer l’accession de la femme martiniquaise à la qualité de citoyenne? L’avenir nous le dira. Mais une chose est certaine: une révolution s’accomplit actuellement dans les esprits. Un appel a été lancé auquel un certain nombre de femmes intelligentes, dynamiques, ont répondu. Nous regrettons vivement de n’avoir pu atteindre jusqu’ici la masse de nos concitoyennes parmi lesquelles se trouvent certainement d’intéressantes personnalités, des tempéraments, des femmes ayant le goût de l’action efficace. Une moisson d’idées a été offerte au public féminin de chez nous sous la forme d’un programme qui s’est volontairement cantonné dans les limites du social. Or, le social est l’aspect de la vie qui intéresse la femme au premier chef. Devant le devoir social, elle est l’égale de l’homme. Elle est aussi en tant qu’être personnel, intelligent et libre. Mais en tant qu’être social, elle doit à la communauté humaine ses services. Comme l’homme, elle doit contribuer au progrès de l’humanité. Mais ce service, du fait des différences d’ordre physique et psychologique qui existent entre l’homme et la femme, sera un service différent, mais pas nécessairement de moindre valeur parce qu’il est différent. C’est en l’accomplissant qu’elle restera fidèle à sa vocation féminine. En quoi consiste ce devoir social? D’abord, à se débarrasser des préjugés anciens, des routines paresseuses, pour connaître des milieux sociaux autres que le leur. Les femmes martiniquaises devront donc étudier les problèmes concernant la famille, la profession, la cité . . . C’est donc à une œuvre d’éducation sociale qu’elles sont conviées. À la suite de l’homme, elles sont entrées dans la Cité. Mais pour d’y diriger, elles ont besoin de ses lumières. Et c’est pour nous l’occasion de remercier tous ceux qui ont bien voulu s’inscrire à notre Commission de l’Information pour nous faire des conférences, des causeries et même nous donner de simples conseils.

Woman in the City (January 1945)

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Woman in the City Must we deplore the Martinican woman’s ascension to the status of citizen? Only time will tell. But one thing is certain: a revolution of the mind and spirit is now in progress. A call was issued to which a certain number of intelligent, dynamic women responded. We deeply regret not having been able to reach before now the masses of our fellow women citizens, for among them are certainly to be found some interesting personalities, temperaments, and women who relish action. A host of ideas has been presented to our female population in the form of a program that voluntarily confines itself to social undertakings. Now, the social is the aspect of life that interests woman first and foremost. Regarding social duty, she is man’s equal. As an individual, she is also intelligent and free. But as a social being, her services are bound to humankind. Like man, she must contribute to the progress of humanity. But this service, owing to the physical and psychological differences that exist between man and woman, will be of a different kind, though not necessarily of lesser value because of its difference. In fulfilling this social obligation, she remains true to her feminine vocation. What does this social duty entail? First, we must free ourselves from old prejudices, from lazy routines, in order to become familiar with social environments different from our own. The women of Martinique will therefore have to study problems concerning the family, the professions, the city . . . It is thus to social education work that they are summoned. Following men, women have entered the city. But in order to navigate the city, women need their insight. And it is at this time that we thank all those who wanted to join our Information Network Committee in order to provide us with lectures, discussions, and even to give us simple advice.

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Pourtant point n’est besoin d’études compliquées pour connaître certains problèmes qui s’imposent journellement à l’attention de la femme, celui de la domesticité, par exemple? C’est pourquoi, joignant l’acte à la parole, nous avons fondé un Cours d’Enseignement ménager pour les domestiques dont l’ouverture est fixée à ce jour et une Association de Maîtresses de Maison. Pour obvier au défaut d’imprévoyance de nos concitoyennes moins évoluées, nous avons créé l’Œuvre des Layettes et comme nous désirons avant tout éduquer la masse, relever son niveau social, nous avons décidé de nous transformer en assistantes sociales. Les femmes martiniquaises se sont donc éveillées à la réalité sociale. Elles ont compris que l’accomplissement de ce devoir constitue la meilleure des préparations au rôle politique qu’elles seront appelées à jouer. C’est pourquoi elles adhèrent, chaque jour plus nombreuses, au Rassemblement féminin, groupement d’Information, et d’Action civique et sociale. Le Rassemblement féminin? Un service social animé par un grand élan de solidarité. Ses moyens d’action? Cette revue qui se propose de vulgariser la substance des cours et conférences en même temps que les résultats pratiques de nos enquêtes sociales et des travaux faits en cercle d’étude. La Femme martiniquaise est entrée dans la Cité des Hommes.

Woman in the City (January 1945)

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However, we do not need complicated studies to know the particular concerns that daily occupy woman’s attention, such as the household staff. This is why, combining action with word, we have established a course on Domestic Instruction for domestic workers, which will soon open, and an Association of Ladies of the House. In order to obviate the lack of preparation of our less privileged fellow women citizens, we have created the Layette Effort; and since we want most of all to educate the masses and raise their social status, we have decided to transform ourselves into social servants.1 The women of Martinique have thus been awakened to our social realities. They have understood that the realization of their duty requires the best preparation for the political role that they will be called to play. This is why they join, in greater numbers each day, the Women’s Assembly, a group for Information, and for civil and social Action. The Women’s Assembly? A social service enlivened by a great spirit of solidarity. Its means of action? This publication intends to integrate lectures and course materials with practical results from our social investigations and work undertaken in study circles. The Martinican woman has entered the City of Men.

Note 1. Despite Nardal’s genuine concerns about poor and working-class Martinican women evidenced in her contributions to the journal, her own class position and the organization’s primarily middle-class constituency inform an oftentimes paternalistic top down elitism.

2

Setting the Record Straight (February 1945) Despite her best efforts to quell men’s resistance to women’s acquiring the vote and the organization’s overwrought claims to doing only social work, the Women’s Assembly has been charged with having political ambitions. The accusations are not without merit, for 1945 is an election year in Martinique. In “Setting the Record Straight,” Nardal is emphatic about the neutrality of the organization and journal, politically and religiously as well as its mission to “do good” for the entire Martinican population. That the social education and uplift of women would seem to be antithetical to the social welfare of all Martinicans is explicitly challenged by Nardal. Women too have as much claim to the word humanity and its progress as men. Nardal shushes cynics and critics by asking them to move beyond their hesitations, to believe in the goodwill of the human spirit.

25

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Mise au point «Attendez un peu, disent quelques gros malins, et vous verrez que, le moment venu, on conduira toutes ces femmes à l’urne, telles des moutons de Panurge. » Ainsi vont-ils insinuant que le Rassemblement féminin n’est que le camouflage d’un parti politique. Il n’est que d’attendre, en effet, et les propagateurs de cette contre-vérité en seront alors pour leur courte honte. A la décharge de ceux-ci retenons pourtant le fait que les statuts de notre Association étant encore à l’étude, il ne nous a pas été possible de les publier dans leur ensemble. Le public serait alors informé que l’association entend exiger de ses membres une stricte neutralité politique et religieuse au cours de ses réunions. (Art. 3). Le but que nous poursuivons est l’éducation sociale des femmes appuyée sur des œuvres immédiates. Le bien que nous entendons faire s’applique à la population dans son ensemble, sans aucune préoccupation d’ordre politique ou confessionnel. Que l’on relise attentivement notre programme et l’on verra qu’il peut s’adapter, dans sa partie purement sociale et constructive, au programme de n’importe lequel des partis en présence aux Antilles. Car les œuvres qu’il préconise sont essentiellement d’utilité publique. En outre, il est basé sur des sentiments et des nécessités qui dureront aussi longtemps que l’humanité : solidarité, défense des intérêts de la mère et de l’enfant, dignité de la personne humaine, défense de la santé des populations, etc. . . . L’unanimité de l’opinion devrait se faire sur ce programme. Nous n’aurions donc aucun intérêt à nous inféoder à un parti politique quelconque. Par contre, nos membres sont libres d’adhérer individuellement, au parti de leur choix. D’ailleurs la création récente de différents partis, à la fois politiques et chrétiens, devrait suffire à éclairer le débat. Mais il est également certain que, dans son esprit nécessairement conciliateur, parce que social, notre programme semble s’opposer

Setting the Record Straight (February 1945)

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Setting the Record Straight “Wait a bit,” some know-it-alls say, “and you will see that, when the time comes, they will drive all the women to the ballot box, like Panurge’s1 sheep following each other off a cliff.” Thus, they go about insinuating that the Women’s Assembly is mere camouflage for a political party. One has only to wait, in fact, and the propagators of this falsehood will in due time be put to shame. In our defense, however, the Association’s positions were still in working form, hence it was not possible for us to publish them in their entirety. The public would have been unaware therefore that the association intends to require of its members a strict political and religious neutrality during the course of its meetings. (Art. 3). Our goal is the social education of women with a focus on pressing initiatives. The good that we aim to do applies to the whole population, without any regard to political or denominational affiliation. Those who carefully reread our objectives will see that it can be adapted, in its purely social and constructive element, to the platform of any political party present in the Antilles, for the work it advocates is essentially of public interest. Furthermore, it is based on sentiments and needs that will last as long as humanity: solidarity, support of the interests of mother and child, human dignity, healthcare, etc. . . . A consensus of opinion should be reached about such a social program. We would not, therefore, have any interest at all in indenturing ourselves to any political party. On the contrary, our members are free to affiliate themselves as individuals with any party they choose. Moreover, the recent creation of different parties, that are at once political and Christian, should be sufficient to clarify the debate. But it is equally clear that, because of its social and therefore inevitably conciliatory spirit, our agenda would seem to oppose

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à certaines idéologies. A cela nous ne pouvons rien, bien que, répétons-le, nos œuvres s’adressent à l’ensemble de la population. C’est peut-être dans cette antinomie apparente qu’il faut voir le secret de certaines réticences. Nous voulons également tenir compte de ce que les déceptions subies par bien des Martiniquais les laissent méfiants en face de toute innovation. Quant aux incrédules impénitents, nous nous refusons à croire qu’il leur soit impossible de concevoir rien de beau et de sincère. Or, nous le répétons, la haine n’est pas un sentiment constructif. Allons donc de l’avant sans nous préoccuper de savoir si l’enfant ou la femme dont nous voulons sauvegarder la santé appartient à tel ou tel milieu politique, car tout ce qui est humain est nôtre. Et travaillons dans la joie. Quelles que soient les embûches dressés sur notre route, que notre joie demeure, cette joie profonde, sous-jacente, que procure la certitude de bien qui s’accomplit et la conviction que toutes, valides ou infirmes, exilées ou non de la vie active, nous pouvons encore faire œuvre utile. Et cette joie, personne ne vous la ravira.

Setting the Record Straight (February 1945)

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itself to certain ideologies. We can do nothing about this, since, we repeat, our work pertains to all Martinicans. It is perhaps within this apparent antinomy that one must peer behind such hesitations. We are equally mindful of how the disillusionment that much of the population of Martinique has endured leaves them distrustful of all innovation. As for those unrepentant skeptics, we refuse to believe that it is impossible for them to conceive of anything beautiful and heartfelt. Now, we repeat, hatred is not a constructive feeling. So let us move forward without preoccupying ourselves with knowing if the child or the woman whose health we are trying to protect belongs to such or such political milieu, because all that is human is ours. And let us work in joy. Whatever hurdles fall in our way, may our joy abound; this profound, inherent joy that the certainty of good that is being realized secures, and the conviction that all of us, able or infirm, exiled or not from active existence, can still be useful in our work. And no one will deprive you of this joy.

Note 1. A reference to Gargantua and Pantagruel by François Rabelais. Panurge is a character from Pantagruel. Panurge encourages a sheep to jump off a cliff only to have the rest of the herd follow.

3

From an Electoral Point of View (March 1945) “From an Electoral Point of View” delves directly into the political sphere. Nineteen forty-five is the year Negritude poet Aimé Césaire entered into political life as a candidate for the mayor of Fort-de-France, Martinique, and deputy to the French National Assembly as a French Communist Party candidate. Expectations were high with his candidacy though tensions ran high on the island along race,1 color, and class lines and the plantation economy of slavery was replaced with a laboring class made up of a primarily black and underpaid underclass. Ever mindful of the politics on the ground that have failed to deliver prosperity to the majority of the island’s electorate, Nardal describes the situation, as on the one hand, hopeful, while on the other, filled with cynicism. Women are called upon to exercise their “calming influence.” Again their participation in political life calls for women’s innate, as Nardal would have it, ability to calm men’s destructive passions and work toward social progress.

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Optique électorale Ce qui caractérise le plus nettement la période actuelle, c’est que toutes les questions en cours, tous les problèmes à résoudre, sont faussés par l’approche des élections. Il semble qu’à la Martinique la vie même s’en trouve transformée. Certains ne la voient plus qu’à travers le prisme aux mille facettes de l’espoir, mais pour la plupart c’est plutôt à la manière d’un miroir déformant qu’agit la prochaine consultation électorale. Il ne suffit pas en effet que les meilleurs amis commencent à se regarder de travers. Les actes les plus simples, les plus clairs, les plus transparents, les plus légitimes, sont suspectés, passés au crible de l’opinion politique prévalente. C’est le règne de la mauvaise foi. Tout cela crée une atmosphère de méfiance, une tension des esprits qui fait soupirer après la fin de cette période d’expectative. Si, sur le plan international, le rôle des femmes est d’œuvrer en faveur du maintien de la paix, sur le plan local, une tâche immédiate leur est dévolue. Fidèles à leur vocation féminine, elles devront s’efforcer de maintenir les contestations électorales dans les limites de la courtoisie. Au lieu d’augmenter de leur propre nervosité le degré des passions masculines, elles s’efforceront d’exercer une influence apaisante dans leurs milieux respectifs. A l’action politique elles apporteront leur force neuve, mais aussi leur bon sens et cette espèce de sagesse que donne le contact journalier avec les réalités matérielles. Car pour nous, la vie continue avec ses nécessités inéluctables. Quel que soit le parti qui triomphera, nos devoirs resteront les mêmes vis-à-vis des masses déshéritées. Le niveau de leur vie matérielle ayant été relevé, il faudra leur apprendre le difficile art de vivre pour que deviennent fécondes les réformes obtenues. «Faire œuvre civilisatrice». Nous aurons à choisir, nous aussi. Que ce soit dans le calme de notre conscience—Si nous sommes très proches des réalités matérielles, nous n’en sommes pas moins attachées aux valeurs morales

From an Electoral Point of View (March 1945)

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From an Electoral Point of View What clearly characterizes the present period is that all the questions and problems in need of resolution are distorted by the coming elections. It appears that in Martinique life itself has been transformed. Some see it only through the prism of a thousand facets of hope; but for most, the next election is seen rather through a warped mirror. It is not enough in fact that the best of friends begin to look at one another askew. The most simple acts, the most clear, the most transparent, the most legitimate, are suspect, passed through the fine-toothed comb of prevailing political opinion. It is the reign of bad faith. All of this creates an atmosphere of mistrust, a tension of the spirits, which will require exhaling at the end of this period of uncertainty. If, internationally speaking, the role of women is to strive in favor of upholding of peace, locally speaking, an immediate task is upon them. Faithful to their feminine vocation, they must be able to endeavor to maintain the electoral debates within the limits of civility. Instead of increasing men’s passions with their own agitation, they will endeavor to exercise a calming influence in their respective milieus. To political action, they will bring their fresh strength, but also their good sense and the sort of insight that daily connection with material realities offers. Because for us, life continues with its unavoidable exigencies, whichever party wins; our work will remain the same vis-à-vis the dispossessed masses. Once the level of their material lives has been raised, it will be necessary to teach them the difficult art of living so that the obtained reforms become fruitful. “To do civilizing work.” We too will have to choose. May this be done in the calm of our conscience—though we are very close to material realities, we are no less connected to moral and universal values. In order to

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et universelles. Pour mieux éclairer notre choix, nous avons donc le devoir de nous instruire des questions sociales et de nous entraîner à la réflexion profonde basée sur la connaissance de nous-mêmes et sur l’observation de la réalité. Que notre raison corrige les élans de notre sensibilité. Que notre volonté agissante nous écarte des solutions paresseuses. La loyauté, l’esprit de conciliation, la concorde sont indispensables non seulement à la reconstruction de notre grande patrie, la France, mais encore à la vie, à l’avenir de notre petit pays. Les luttes politiques aux Antilles ne constituent plus un sport, un dérivatif à l’ennui que crée l’absence de distractions, de joies plus nobles. L’enjeu en est maintenant terriblement sérieux. Et puisque nous sommes appelées à participer à la vie de la Cité, que notre première contribution au bien-commun soit d’imprimer à l’effort collectif vers la justice sociale la marque de la paix. CE QUE NOUS VOULONS : Créer un nouvel état d’esprit favorable au rapprochement des classes et des races et au progrès social. Entreprendre d’immédiates réalisations sociales. Faire œuvre civilisatrice.

From an Electoral Point of View (March 1945)

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better clarify our choice, we thus have the duty to inform ourselves about social questions and involve ourselves in deep reflection based on knowledge of ourselves and observations of reality. May our reason check the flights of our feelings. May our constructive will separate us from lazy solutions. Loyalty, the spirit of conciliation, harmony is not only indispensable to the reconstruction of our great fatherland, France, even to the life, to the future of our little country. Political struggles in the Antilles no longer constitute a sport, derived from boredom bred by the absence of distractions, of joys more noble. The stakes are at this moment terribly high. And since we have been called upon to participate in the life of the City, let our first contribution to the common good be to imprint on the collective effort toward social justice the mark of peace.

WHAT WE WANT: To create a new frame of mind favorable to the rapprochement of classes and races and to social progress. To undertake pressing social projects. To do civilizing work.

Note 1. Martinique had a higher concentration of whites (békés) than any of the other colonies in the French Antilles.

4

Poverty Does Not Wait (May 1945) “Poverty Does Not Wait,” Nardal’s fourth essay, implores her readers to take up social work—social action—to combat poverty on the island. Because of its higher concentration of békés (whites) and the reputation of Saint Pierre as the “Little Paris” in the French Antilles until the volcanic eruption of Mont Pelée in 1902, Martinique was generally the more economically favored island of the French old colonies. In 1945, having just been liberated from the racially, socially, and economically oppressive Vichy regime, Martinique continued to deal with the fallout of widespread poverty and high illiteracy rates. Nardal maintains that in the face of such debilitating poverty, charity, social justice in the form of social work, and action are categorical imperatives. Nardal’s religious-based prescriptions, namely Catholicism, are interestingly consonant with Immanuel Kant’s moral philosophy, specifically found in the philosopher’s Critique of Practical Reason and Metaphysics of Morals. The “categorical imperative” that both speak of are explicitly tied to the concept of duty. As principles, categorical imperatives are unconditional obligations that are good and must be followed if we are to be considered at once moral and rational beings. Nardal effectively argues that Martinican women must act, must perform charity as a commitment to social action and justice, as a function of fulfilling their duties as both women and citizens, as rational and moral beings. “No woman,” writes Nardal, “worthy of the name ‘woman’ should remain indifferent to it.” 37

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La misère n’attend pas «La charité?» Cette forme humiliante de solidarité devrait être bannie du monde moderne. «Les œuvres sociales?» Comme la charité, elles n’apportent que des apaisements à la misère. Et elles se font ainsi complices d’un système caractérisé par l’exploitation de l’homme par l’homme. Pas d’œuvres sociales. De la justice, voilà tout ce que nous réclamons. Ceux qui sont vraiment entrés en contact avec la misère, la hideuse misère, qui la côtoient tous les jours et dont la vie n’est qu’une lutte constante contre cette hydre aux têtes toujours renaissantes ne savent s’ils doivent rire ou s’indigner devant de pareilles déclarations. La divine charité n’a point besoin qu’on la défende. Ses œuvres millénaires parlent pour elle. Pas d’œuvres sociales. Alors quoi? Faudrait-il laisser naître l’enfant dans des conditions d’hygiène déplorables? Faudrait-il le priver de vêtements, fermer les yeux devant les maux sociaux urgents en attendant l’instauration en Martinique d’une ère de justice sociale? Les déclarations les plus enflammées ne constituent qu’une piètre nourriture pour un estomac affamé et n’ont jamais transformé les haillons sordides en vêtements décents. La charité qui est une forme de la justice sociale fut parfaitement adaptée à l’époque pré-industrielle. Les progrès du machinisme et la naissance du capitalisme ont démontré la nécessité d’une forme élargie et non plus individuelle de la solidarité et de la charité : l’assistance et l’action sociales. Tout le monde est d’accord sur ce point. Mais la divine charité ne perd point ses droits pour autant. Elle devra informer l’activité de l’assistante sociale auxiliaire de l’Etat, pour que cette action soit vraiment opérante. La justice sociale débitée avec la froideur d’un distributeur automatique serait

Poverty Does Not Wait (May 1945)

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Poverty Does Not Wait “Charity?” This humiliating form of solidarity must be banished from the modern world. “Social work?” Like charity, it is nothing more than a helpmate to poverty. And they are thus the accomplices of a system characterized by the exploitation of man by man. No social work. Justice. This is all we demand. Those who have actually come in contact with poverty, hideous poverty, who live with it every day, and for whom life is nothing but a constant battle against this Hydra with ever-recurring heads, don’t know if they should laugh or rail against such declarations. Divine charity does not need to be defended. Its countless deeds speak for themselves. No social work. Then what? Must we allow children to be born into deplorable hygienic conditions? Must we deprive them of clothing; shut our eyes in the face of urgent social wrongs while waiting for the establishment of an era of social justice in Martinique? The most fiery declarations bring nothing more than palliatives, and have never transformed sordid rags into decent clothing. The charity that is a form of social justice was perfectly adapted to the preindustrial age. The progress of industrialization and the birth of capitalism have demonstrated the importance of a broader and no longer individual form of solidarity and of charity: social assistance and action. Everyone agrees on this point. But the prerogatives of divine charity are not therefore lost. It will have to guide the activities of the State social worker, so that this social undertaking is actually effective. Social justice delivered with the indifference of an automatic vending machine would be

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vraiment incomplète. D’ailleurs en admettant que la misère matérielle disparaisse de la face du monde, la charité aurait encore à s’exercer sur la misère morale. L’action sociale et ses œuvres admirables sont la forme moderne de la charité et l’un des aspects de la justice sociale. Elles constituent pour tous un impératif catégorique. Aucune femme digne de ce nom ne doit y rester indifférente. Notre temps n’a pas inventé la justice sociale, mais les progrès matériels et techniques lui imposent des obligations toujours nouvelles. A chacun des âges de l’humanité correspond donc une forme nouvelle de justice, qu’elle se traduise par la charité, l’action sociale ou les réformes de structure. Aussi éloignées de l’égoïsme imperméable à la pitié sociale que la démagogie—qui est d’ailleurs une forme hypocrite de l’égoïsme—nous transposons dans des œuvres immédiates l’ardent désir de justice sociale qui nous anime. Parallèlement nous poursuivons notre éducation sociale afin de nous préparer à mieux la servir, cette justice, dans l’ordre législatif. Entre les phrases sonores et vides et les réalisations immédiates de celles qui se sont humblement mises à la tâche, il est facile de choisir. Car la misère n’attend pas. CE QUE NOUS VOULONS : Créer un nouvel état d’esprit favorable au rapprochement des classes et des races et au progrès social; Entreprendre d’immédiates réalisations sociales; Faire œuvre civilisatrice.

Poverty Does Not Wait (May 1945)

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truly incomplete. Besides, even if we concede that material poverty is disappearing from the face of the earth, charity would still have work to do on moral poverty. Social action, and its admirable accomplishments, is the modern form of charity and one of the faces of social justice. They constitute a categorical imperative for all. No woman worthy of the name woman should remain indifferent to it. Our era did not invent social justice, but material and technological progress imposes constantly new obligations upon it. For each age of humanity there is therefore a corresponding new form of justice, which is translated by charity, social action, or structural reforms. As distant from a selfishness that is impervious to social pity, as from demagogy—which is, incidentally, a hypocritical form of selfishness—we transpose into immediate action the ardent desire for social justice that drives us. Similarly, we pursue our social education in order to prepare ourselves to better serve this justice in the legislative order. It is easy to choose between loud, empty statements and the critical feats of those who have humbly put themselves to the task. Because poverty does not wait. WHAT WE WANT: To create a new frame of mind Favorable to the rapprochement of classes and races And to social progress; To undertake pressing social projects; To do civilizing work.

5

Martinican Women and Social Action (October 1945) Hitherto, Nardal has consistently drawn on both religious and philosophical traditions while arguing the Women’s Assembly’s neutrality in the realm of politics and religion. In this essay, Nardal continues to hone her discussion of social action as part and parcel of women’s duty and obligations. But religion, Catholicism, in particular, and “Christian Humanism,” more specifically, are raised as part of Martinique’s sociocultural heritage tied to the French colonial project and the Women’s Assembly’s overarching social doctrine. The organization, Nardal insists, can welcome nonbelievers under its umbrella because of its blend of the secular and the religious, which Christian Humanism represents. Christian Humanism “represents the desire to translate the Spirit of the Gospels into deeds,” for those operating out of the primarily Catholic traditions of the island, while simultaneously encompassing the goodwill of those humanists “for whom the only duties, the only truths are those associated with mankind.”

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Les femmes martiniquaises et l’action sociale L’expérience acquise au cours de nos neuf mois d’existence m’a prouvé qu’en matière de propagande, nos méthodes et nos moyens d’action devaient être basés sur la connaissance de notre essentielle nonchalance. . . . Invitations personnelles, par exemple, et rappels constants à l’action . . . La majorité des Femmes martiniquaises serait-elle indifférente aux questions sociales? Je crois que non. Mais il nous faut avoir la patience d’attendre que la nécessité de consacrer un peu de leur temps à l’accomplissement au devoir social se soit imposée à l’esprit de nos sœurs au même titre que l’obligatoire séance chez le coiffeur . . . A certaines d’entre elles l’étude des questions sociales paraît trop austère, trop rébarbative. A celle-là, il reste encore l’exercice de la charité. De la charité matérielle ou du don de soi (tournée dans les taudis, visite à des malades nécessiteuses, conseils à des Femmes dans l’embarras). Ce conseil amical s’adresse également à celles qui ont besoin d’oublier cette terrible aventure qu’est la vie pour beaucoup. Après s’être oubliée au profit des plus malheureux que soi, on se sent guéri de ses préoccupations personnelles, de cette absorption en soi; de cette (sic) égocentrisme qui engendrent névrose et neurasthénie. Et il arrive même qu’avec l’habitude de se dévouer, on reprenne goût à la vie, on y retrouve «suc et saveur». Voici bien le vrai remède et la vraie morale. S’oublier pour les autres, y-a-t-il là amputation de la personnalité? Non, Mesdames. Je disais plutôt, enrichissement, élargissement de la personnalité aux dimensions de l’humain, aux dimensions du monde. Se faire un cœur innombrable, n’est-ce pas là une facile entreprise pour toute femme? Mais il s’affirme également que nombre d’entre nous veulent devenir des valeurs sociales. Comment y parvenir? Eh bien, par nos

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Martinican Women and Social Action The experience acquired in the course of our nine months of existence has proved to me that in the matter of propaganda, our methods and our means of action should have been mainly based on casual acquaintances—personal invitations, for example, as well as constant calls to action. Would the majority of Women of Martinique be indifferent to social issues? I do not think so. But we must have the patience to wait until the desire to devote some of their time to the performance of social duty ignites the spirit of our sisters with the same vigor as the obligatory session with the hairdresser. To some of them, the study of social issues seems too austere, too daunting. For her, there is still the practice of charity: material charity or the gift of oneself (canvassing the slums, a visit to the sick and needy, guidance to women in trouble). This friendly advice is also intended for those who need to forget the terrible experience that is the life of so many. After forgetting oneself for the benefit of those who are worse off, one feels relieved of her personal concerns, of this selfabsorption; of this selfishness that leads to neurosis and depression. And it so happens that with the habit of committing oneself to a cause, one regains a taste for living, the rediscovery of “vim and vigor.” Herein lies the genuine cure and veritable spirit. Does one risk a loss of oneself by giving of oneself to others? No, my dear ladies. Indeed, I would say that one gains the enrichment or the expansion of character to the dimensions of humanity, to the dimensions of the world. Isn’t the forging of a boundless heart a simple undertaking for every woman? But it is true as well that some among us want to develop social values. How to do so? Well, by reading on our own, by

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lectures personnelles, par l’assistance régulière à nos cercles d’étude et à nos conférences d’information, par la lecture de notre revue«La Femme dans la Cité». Voici que nous avons renoué des relations avec les Femmes du monde entier, groupements noirs et blancs américains (branche américaine du Comité des Femmes), Union féminine civique et sociale (Association de catholiques sociales). Etats généraux de la Jeunesse (Jeanne Canudo, nuance radicale-socialiste et librepenseuse), amies communistes et leurs groupements avec lesquelles nous avons jadis pris part à la lutte contre le fascisme . . . De telles ramifications expliquent notre éclectisme, expliquent le fait que nous nous tenions volontairement au dehors des partis pour axer notre action sur le social et sur les besoins éternels de l’humanité. De telles ramifications expliquent l’orientation que nous avons donnée au Rassemblement Féminin. Neutralité politique et confessionnelle. Pourtant c’est la volonté de traduire en actes l’Esprit de l’Evangile qui anime la plupart d’entre nous. La Martinique compte comme on le sait une majorité de Femmes catholiques. Mais c’est avec un égal plaisir que nous accueillons parmi nous les incroyantes, celles pour qui les seuls devoirs, les seules vérités sont ceux qui sont à la mesure de l’homme. Nous admettons la collaboration avec les femmes de tous les partis pourvu qu’en entrant au Rassemblement Féminin leur intention soit droite. Nous reconnaissons donc à nos adhérentes le droit de militer dans tel parti qu’il leur plaira. (Un «Humanisme chrétien» ainsi pourrait se résumer notre doctrine sociale). Venez donc à nous, Femmes qu’attire un haut idéal de vie. Venez à nous, de tous les points de l’horizon racial. Celles qui s’enferment dans une hautaine indifférence ne savent peut être pas qu’elles travaillent à la destruction de leur personnalité tout comme les classes qui opposent à l’avènement de la justice sociale une aveugle volonté de non intervention travaillent à leur propre destruction.

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regularly attending our study circles and our news conferences, by reading our publication Woman in the City. This is how we now have renewed relations with women from around the world, groups of black and white Americans (the American branch of the Committee for Women), The Women’s Civil and Social Union (Association of Social Catholics); general assemblies for Youth (Jeanne Canudo, a radical-socialist and freethinker), Communist friends and their forces with whom we once fought against fascism . . . Such diversity explains our eclecticism; explains why we voluntarily avoid political parties in order to focus on our social agenda, and on the eternal needs of humanity. Such diversification explains the direction that we have taken the Women’s Assembly: political and denominational neutrality. And yet, it is the desire to translate the Spirit of the Gospels into deeds that motivates most of us. Martinique has, as we know, a majority of Catholic women. But it is with equal pleasure that we welcome the nonbelievers among us, those for whom the only duties, the only truths are those associated with mankind. We collaborate with women of all party stripes, provided that upon joining the Women’s Assembly their intentions are honorable. Thus, we recognize the right of our members to become active in whatever party they please. (A “Christian Humanism” could thereby summarize our social doctrine.) So come to us, Women attracted by a high ideal of life. Come to us, from every point on the racial spectrum. Those who envelop themselves in a haughty indifference do not know perhaps that they work toward the ruin of their character, just as those classes who oppose the advent of social justice with a blind will to nonintervention work toward their own destruction.

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And Now, What Are Our Objectives? (November 1945) Eleven months after the organization’s charter and the journal’s founding, Nardal takes stock of the tasks that lie ahead. Her opening is a shocking one for a woman of her station. She tackles head-on social vices that breed social pathologies—alcoholism and sexually transmitted diseases. She catalogs the list of vices (prostitution) and challenges facing the island’s population (tuberculosis, leprosy, continuing poverty, education, and youth unemployment). In a “lifting as we climb” moment reminiscent of Fannie Barrier Williams’s National Association of Colored Women, Nardal broadly categorizes the Women’s Assembly’s commitment to ameliorating conditions on the island for the masses and elevating the social education of the feminine elite as “civilizing work.”

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Et maintenant, quels sont nos objectifs? Vous l’apprendrai-je, Mesdames? Notre population est de plus en plus décimée par l’alcoolisme, alcoolisme des adultes, alcoolisme des enfants. Elle est la victime presque passive des maladies vénériennes. Quant aux autres maladies endémiques, n’est-il pas honteux de constater que nos lépreux n’ont pu jusqu’ici trouver un asile? Et leurs enfants? Et ces rameaux sains qu’il faudrait, pour les préserver, détacher de la tige malade? Nous avons mis sur pied un projet de création d’un centre d’accueil pour ces enfants. Et nous espérons que le produit des prochaines manifestations artistiques que nous proposons d’organiser, nous permettra d’entrer bientôt dans la voie des réalisations. En attendant qu’il me soit permis d’adresser ici nos remerciements les plus chaleureux à la Commission coloniale qui a bien voulu accorder une subvention annuelle de cent mille francs à notre organisation. Nous avons soumis, d’autre part, à l’approbation de M. le Gouverneur, un projet de création d’un «Foyer des Mères nécessiteuses», c’est-à-dire d’un magasin où nos adhérentes les plus pauvres pourraient acheter à des prix très bas des tissus et des articles de confection que nous espérons obtenir au prix de gros. Vous parlerai-je des ravages causés par la tuberculose, par l’existence des taudis? Vous dirai-je les progrès monstrueux réalisés par la prostitution dans notre île? Nous avons inscrit à notre programme la mention «Police féminine» qui a dû certainement vous intriguer. Nous abordons ici le chapitre de la moralité publique. Dans une prochaine conférence ou un cercle d’études nous vous renseignerons sur la portée de cette innovation. Il nous faut également veiller à ce que tous les petits martiniquais bénéficient des bienfaits de l’instruction.

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And Now, What Are Our Objectives? Shall I enlighten you, my dear women? Our population is decimated more and more by alcoholism: alcoholism in adults and alcoholism in children. Our population is practically the passive victim of venereal disease. As for other widespread illnesses, is it not shameful to note that our lepers have not yet been able to find asylum? And their children? In order to safeguard them, shouldn’t one detach those healthy branches from the ailing stem? We have envisioned a project to create a welcome center for these children. And we hope that the profits from the next artistic exhibits that we are planning to organize will soon allow us to start down the path of achievements. In the mean time, allow me to express here our most heartfelt gratitude to the Colonial Commission who authorized an annual grant of one hundred thousand francs to our organization. We have presented as well, with the approval of the Governor, a project to create a “domestic center for disadvantaged mothers,” that is, a store where our poorest members could, at very low prices, purchase cloth and other sewing articles that we hope to obtain at a bulk discount. Shall I speak to you of the devastation caused by tuberculosis as a result of the existence of the slums? Shall I tell you about the horrific growth of prostitution on our island? We mentioned a “Women’s Task Force” in our plan, which certainly must have intrigued you. We refer here to the chapter on public morality. In an upcoming lecture or study circle we will give you information about the scope of this new project. We must equally ensure all the little ones of Martinique enjoy the benefits of education.

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Et la jeunesse? A part celle des mouvements spécialisés qu’anime un haut idéal et qui possède une vie intérieure, rares sont les adolescents chez qui l’enthousiasme naturel de la jeunesse ne soit pas transmué en haine. En entendant certains de ces cris de haine, on ne peut s’empêcher d’éprouver quelques remords de n’avoir pas compris assez tôt le désespoir de la jeunesse martiniquaise devant la misère actuelle, et l’incertitude de l’avenir, et de n’avoir pas osé la prendre en mains, la guider et lui chercher des débouchés. A cette tâche nous nous attellerons en même temps que les pouvoirs publics, en essayant pour commencer de procurer dans notre faible rayon d’action du travail aux jeunes en chômage. Nous nous adressons à tous les jeunes qui cherchent encore leur voie et qui n’ont pas encore pris conscience de leurs aspirations profondes et de leur personnalité. Dans le domaine de l’enseignement ménager nous voulons créer, à côté du cours existant pour les domestiques en service, un cours pour les jeunes filles sortant des écoles primaires. Celles-ci seraient pour la maîtresse de maison de véritables collaboratrices. Il s’agit donc de leur faire comprendre la dignité du travail domestique. Notre œuvre des layettes qui a toute la faveur du public doit être complétée par une action en profondeur auprès des mères et des enfants auxquelles il importe d’inculquer de bonnes habitudes. Le seul, l’unique problème social aux Antilles est, ne l’oublions pas, un problème d’éducation. Education sociale de notre élite féminine encore si apathique. Education des masses si lamentablement ignorantes et crédules. Leur donner d’abord le goût du travail et le sens de leur dignité. Une grande place devra être faite à l’art dans l’éducation du peuple. Certains de nos projets à cet égard vont recevoir une réalisation immédiate. Que le peuple martiniquais par ailleurs si sympathique recommence à chanter et retrouve son bon sourire. Mais l’inspiration des folkloristes devra être renouvelée.

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And the youth? Disconnected from religious and social movements that inspire high ideals and brio, rare are those adolescents in whom the natural enthusiasm of youth has not mutated into hatred. Hearing some of these hateful cries, one cannot help experiencing remorse from not having early on understood the despair of Martinican youth in the face of ongoing poverty and the uncertainty of the future; and from not having dared to take them by the hand, and steered them in the direction of other prospects. To this task we yoke ourselves, together with the public authority, to try within our limited scope to secure work for unemployed youth. We are talking to all youth who are still searching for their path and who have not yet become aware of their profound aspirations and of their character. In the domain of home economics we want to create, besides the existing course for domestic workers, a course for young girls leaving primary schools. These girls could be veritable helpmates to the mistress of the house. It is thus a question of making them understand the dignity of domestic work.1 Our baby clothes project, which enjoys large public support, should be carried out with a concerted earnestness toward the mothers and the children in whom it is important to instill good habits. The one, the only, social problem in the Antilles that one must not forget is that of education: social education of our elite women who are still so apathetic; education of the masses so dismally ignorant and gullible. We must first give them the taste for work and a sense of their own dignity. A large place should be made for art in the education of the people. Some of our projects in this regard are going to be realized straight away. May the people of Martinique, once so amiable, again begin to sing and rediscover their smile. But the inspiration of folklorists too should be renewed.

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Dans un prochain article nous parlerons de nos réalisations et des résultats obtenus. Plus que jamais faire œuvre civilisatrice.

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In a future article we will talk about our projects and the results obtained, as we are more than ever committed to doing civilizing work.

Note 1. Here again we see the stark class divisions on the island. As Nardal searches about to try to channel the energies of Martinique’s poor, poor girls are necessarily tracked for low-skill labor rather than higher pursuits in education. We must be careful not to superimpose an American-centered reading on her objectives; hers are indeed a function of the trenchant European class structure, of which she is a part, existent on the island.

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To Work (February 1946) “To Work” is in many respects a one-woman, single essay Festschrift of General Charles de Gaulle amid his resignation from French political office. The political situation in France during this period was volatile. De Gaulle had been the “Head of the Free French” during the years 1940–44, assuming the head of the provisional government from 1944–46. He was a towering figure of the Liberation/French Résistance during France’s darkest days of the Nazi Occupation. For Nardal, he was not only the liberator of France but the liberator of women when he gave women the franchise in 1944 and the redeemer of Martinique when he offered the island the opportunity to become a department of France overseas. She describes the mood of the world community as stunned, especially Martinican women, who admire De Gaulles’s reformist-minded efforts. France of course is still reeling from the war’s fallout, and Martinique bears the brunt of this “material and moral unrest.” Nonetheless, Nardal sounds a note of both optimism and caution with respect to Martinique’s future. Martinicans must turn to work assiduously as part of their obligations to elevate material and moral conditions on the island. They owe it, at least as Nardal would have it, to the legacy of De Gaulle and his gift of the vote and departmentalization.

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Travailler Le monde étonné a accueilli comme une catastrophe la nouvelle de la démission du Libérateur de la Patrie, du messager de la Victoire, de l’instaurateur de la Paix, le Général de Gaulle, qui incarne à l’heure actuelle tout le prestige de la France. Les femmes de la Martinique—et tout particulièrement celles du Rassemblement féminin—en bonnes ouvrières qui voient interrompre une tâche magnifiquement commencée: la reconstruction de la France, l’élaboration de la nouvelle Constitution, en un mot, la reprise tant souhaitée des occupations du temps de paix, voient partir le Général de Gaulle avec une impatience mêlée d’un amer regret. Plus que les hommes, les femmes ont besoin, pour œuvrer utilement, d’un certain sens de la sécurité: cette sécurité, elles la trouvaient en de Gaulle. Leur conservatisme instinctif qui l’allie si bien, grâce à leur sens pratique, au goût des réformes et mêmes des changements révolutionnaires, trouvaient en de Gaulle une sympathique résonance. Passionnément attachées aux solutions françaises, elles voyaient en lui la plus noble incarnation de l’esprit français. Eprises de justice, vivant en contact étroit avec les dures réalités, mais animées d’une foi ardente, elles saluaient avec joie la naissance d’une France meilleure parce que plus juste et plus chrétienne . . . Pourtant, ouvrières sociales se tenant résolument en dehors des partis parce que voulant travailler au bien commun, elles comprennent—et non sans regret—les raisons impérieuses qui ont dicté la décision du Général de Gaulle. Ces raisons, on les connaît : le manque d’entente au sein du Gouvernement, la reprise des luttes de parti et la mise en action des forces mauvaises qui s’agitent dans l’ombre pour empêcher tout travail constructif. On comprend alors que ce noble caractère n’ait pas voulu s’abaisser jusqu’à entrer dans la lice politique. Le Général de Gaulle part en beauté. Mais la France doit continuer. Quel que soit le chef qu’elle aura demain, nous souhaitons

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To Work A shocked world has received, like a catastrophe, the news of the resignation of the Liberator of the Homeland, the messenger of Victory, the restorer of the Peace, the General de Gaulle, who at this moment embodies all the prestige of France. Women of Martinique—and particularly those of the Women’s Assembly—as good workers who see a task magnificently begun suspended (the reconstruction of France, the elaboration of the new Constitution, in a word, the so-desired revival of peacetime occupations) view the departure of General de Gaulle with a mix of impatience and bitter regret. More than men, women need a certain sense of security in order to work productively: they found this security in de Gaulle. Their instinctive conservatism allied itself so well to the taste for reform and even for revolutionary change thanks to their practical sense, found a sympathetic resonance in de Gaulle. Passionately attached to French resolutions, they saw in him the noblest incarnation of the French spirit. Infatuated with justice, living in close contact with harsh realities, but driven by an ardent faith, they joyfully greeted the birth of a better France because it would be more just and more Christian . . . However, social workers resolutely keep themselves away from political parties because, wanting to work for the common good, they understand—and not without regret—the pressing motives that dictated General de Gaulle’s decision. These reasons, we know them: the lack of accord within the government, the resurgence of party struggles, and the movement of negative forces that agitate in the shadows in order to prevent all constructive action. So we understand that this noble character would not have wanted to demean himself by entering the political fray. General de Gaulle leaves honorably. But France must go on. Whatever leader it has tomorrow, we hope that France regains not

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qu’elle retrouve, non le goût du travail—depuis la Libération ses ouvriers ont fourni un effort gigantesque—mais le sens de son vrai génie, le goût de la liberté et un équilibre moral qui lui permette de goûter les fruits de la paix retrouvée. La Martinique, qui subit si douloureusement les contre-coups de l’incertitude matérielle et morale qui règne dans la MèrePatrie, doit tirer de ces graves événements une leçon de sagesse. Les luttes intestines, l’appel à la violence et à la haine, s’ils procurent d’indéniables mais précaires succès, n’aboutissent jamais qu’à nous mettre en face de l’éternelle nécessité du travail. Si le peuple martiniquais veut s’épargner une effroyable dégradation, qu’il abandonne la conception à la fois enfantine, fantaisiste et déplorable de la vie matérielle qui a été jusqu’ici la sienne. Maintenant que des efforts méritoires sont faits pour égaler les salaires au coût de la vie, qu’il se mette résolument au travail. Car il est grand temps que l’on commence à lui parler de ses devoirs.

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a taste for work—since the Liberation its workers have put forth an enormous effort—but the sense of its true spirit, the taste for liberty and a moral equilibrium that will allow it to reap the benefits of restored peace. Martinique, so painfully sustaining the repercussions of the material and moral unrest that reigns in the mother country, must take from these grave events a lesson of wisdom. Internecine struggles, the calls for violence and hate, achieve noticeable but precarious success; but they will never lead to anything more than forever reminding us of the necessary work that lies before us. If the people of Martinique want to spare themselves a horrible degradation, they should abandon the childish, fanciful, and deplorable conception of the material life that was, up until this point, theirs. Now that commendable efforts have been made to match salaries with the cost of living, Martinicans should resolutely focus on work. For it is high time that someone began telling the people of their obligations.

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Martinican Women and Politics (July 1946) Nineteen forty-six is a watershed year in Martinican politics and the island nation’s ties to metropolitan France, for it is the year that newly enfranchised women would vote for departmentalization as well as for a new cabinet in hexagonal France, and elect Aimé Césaire as deputy of the French Communist Party to the French National Assembly. Departmentalization promised equality, higher wages, and access to jobs. The colonial limbo status of one of the oldest colonies of France would now give way to departmental status, whereby Martinique would be equal, in theory at least, to the other ninety-six departments in the hexagon. As a citizen of France, for Nardal, it was only a natural leap to departmentalization. She calls upon women to assume their “responsibility” as “valiant citizens” “in performing their civil duty—their sole duty.” Women foot soldiers of social justice should rally to encourage “abstainers” so that all will see, “France,” “the world” even, “the importance of female participation in decisive elections.” As he had been during the mayoral elections, Aimé Césaire was overwhemingly voted into the role of deputy to the French National Assembly—a political post he would maintain for more than thirty years. Sharing an intellectual affinity with Césaire from their days at her Clamart salon in Paris in the 1930s, in Martinique, Paulette Nardal became a political haidmaiden of sorts to Césaire in his ambition to pursue political office.

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Les femmes martiniquaises et la politique Sommes-nous faites pour la politique? Bien entendu je parle des femmes de bon sens, capables de penser par elles-mêmes, des femmes qui savent le prix des valeurs morales et spirituelles, de celles qui ne confondent pas la haine avec le désir de justice ou de celles que l’habitude de la richesse ou la tyrannie des préoccupations matérielles n’a pas rendues imperméables à toute pensée altruiste. De telles femmes peuvent se rencontrer dans toutes les classes de la société. Je n’en veux pour preuve que le nombre de femmes encore trop restreint à mon gré, qui a répondu à nos différents appels en faveur des deux récents scrutins. Il est du devoir de ces vaillantes citoyennes de faire comprendre la nécessité d’accomplir leur devoir civique—tout leur devoir—aux abstentionnistes avec lesquelles elles sont en contact. Les nouvelles consultations électorales sont proches. La Martinique devra se faire remarquer par l’importance de la participation féminine aux élections définitives. Il nous faut présenter cette fois à la France et au monde le vrai visage de la Martinique. Ce visage qui ne doit son unité qu’à la multiplicité de ses traits constitutifs. Nul parti ne peut revendiquer le monopole de la justice sociale. Ainsi que je le déclarais dans mon éditorial de Noël, cette justice sera le fait de tous ou elle ne sera pas. La constitution de cabinet Bidault est venue confirmer l’impossibilité où se trouve un parti isolé de réaliser cette justice, force qui nous dépasse. Car nous entrons dans l’ère de la justice sociale maintenant que celle de la science semble avoir reçu sont atomique couronnement. A cette régénération de tout l’humain, nous femmes Martiniquaises, nous pouvons apporter dans le domaine de la politique notre grand désir de propreté morale. Et nous y veillerons farouchement à quelque parti que nous appartenions.

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Martinical Women and Politics Are we made for politics? Of course, I mean women of good sense who are capable of thinking for themselves; women who understand the costs of moral and spiritual values; those who do not confuse hatred with the desire for justice, and those whom the habit of wealth or the tyranny of material preoccupations has not rendered incapable of all altruistic thought. Such women can be found in every class of society. The proof, though still more limited than I would like, are the numbers of women who responded to our different calls in favor of two recent votes. It is the responsibility of these valiant citizens to impress upon the abstainers with whom they are in contact the importance of performing their civil duty—their sole duty. The new electoral polls draw near. Martinique should draw attention to itself through the importance of female participation in decisive elections. We must present the true face of Martinique, this time, to France and to the world. This face owes its unity entirely to the multiplicity of its constituents’ traits. No one party can claim a monopoly on social justice. As I said in my editorial at Christmas,1 this justice must be an act of all, or it shall not be. The constitution of Bidault’s2 cabinet has confirmed the impossibility for one single party to achieve such justice, a force that overtakes us, for we are entering the era of social justice now that the era of science seems to have reached its crowning atomic achievement. At this regeneration of all humanity, we women of Martinique can bring our great desire for moral propriety into the political domain. And we will watch over it fiercely, no matter what party we belong to.

Notes 1. In Paulette Nardal, “Réalisations,” La Femme dans la Cité (December 1945), 3–4. (English translation notes continue on page 66)

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2. Georges Bidault was elected in June 1946 as the third president of the provisional government of France. His cabinet was made up of socialists, communists, and the Popular Republican Movement (the MRP—Mouvement Républicain Populaire).

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Facing History (October 1946) In this essay, Nardal again strikes a jeremiad pose, where she exhorts women again to take notice of the rapidly evolving world before them and to assert their place in it via the ballot box. Woman’s duty is to help shape that world. She poses a rhetorical question, “Are they [women] not therefore aware of their eminent dignity as humans, of the possibility that they have been given to change the face of the world?” only to conclude optimistically: “If this were true, I would give up hope for the women of my country.”

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En face de l’histoire Un monde se transforme sous nos yeux. Plus palpitant que celui d’un film à épisodes, le film des événements se déroule devant nous. A travers la douleur, les privations, dans la surprise, la déception, la joie, nous assistons à l’enfantement d’un monde nouveau. Nous avons appris qu’il ne fallait pas nous contenter de formules toutes faites car la réalité nous a infligé de dures leçons. Nous avons appris que le vrai progrès ne s’obtient que dans la souffrance, le sacrifice librement consenti, par un dépassement continuel de nous-mêmes. Nous avons appris qu’en dépit d’un certain déterminisme de l’histoire, la volonté de l’Homme pouvait dominer la matière. Et nous assistons au retour de la primauté de ces valeurs spirituelles si longtemps décriées, en dépit de ceux-là même qui voudraient ravaler l’homme au niveau de la bête. C’est pourquoi nous ne nous étonnons pas que la Paix soit si dure à gagner et à maintenir, que l’instauration de la vraie justice rencontre encore tant d’obstacles, que le monde actuel présente l’aspect d’un véritable chaos. Car nous avons pour nous guider à travers ce dédale quelques idées claires et une invincible espérance. A travers l’étonnante diversité des individus, des partis, des nations et des races s’affirme de plus en plus l’unité profonde de la nature humaine qui se traduit par un commun souci de la dignité de la personne humaine. Se peut-il que des femmes martiniquaises restent indifférentes à cette passionnante gestation? Est-il vrai que des femmes instruites n’écoutent pas les nouvelles de la radio, ne lisent pas les journaux ? Se peut-il qu’elles ne comprennent pas que leur devoir de citoyennes est de suivre la réalité politique et sociale et de l’expliquer à leurs sœurs moins éclairées mais qui ne manquent pas pour autant de bons sens? Est-il vrai que des dizaines de milliers de femmes se refusent à aller déposer un bulletin dans l’urne les jours d’élection, se refusent à «refaire le monde», à fabriquer l’Histoire? Elles n’ont donc pas

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Facing History The world is transforming before our eyes. More gripping than an episodic film, the film of current events unfolds in front of us. Through suffering and deprivation, in surprise, disappointment, and joy, we are witnessing the birth of a new world. We have learned that we must not content ourselves with ready-made formulas because reality has inflicted difficult lessons upon us. We have learned that true progress can only be obtained through suffering, freely offered sacrifice, by continually moving beyond ourselves. We have learned that despite a certain historical determinism, the will of mankind could prevail over matter. And we are witnessing a return to the primacy of these spiritual values so long disparaged in spite of those even who wished to reduce man to the level of animals. This is why we are not surprised that Peace is so difficult to win and to maintain, that the establishment of true justice still encounters so many obstacles, that the world today has the appearance of true chaos. We have to guide us through this maze a few clear ideas and an indestructible hope. The astonishing diversity of individuals, parties, nations, and races affirms more and more the profound unity of human nature which is conveyed by a common concern for the dignity of the human individual. Can it be that the women of Martinique remain indifferent to this passionate development? Is it true that educated women do not listen to the news on the radio, do not read the newspapers? Can it be that they do not understand that their duty as citizens is to follow the world’s social and political realities and to explain it to their less-enlightened but equally sensible sisters? Is it true that tens of thousands of women refuse to go drop a ballot in the ballot box on election day, refuse to “remake the world,” to create History? Are they not therefore aware of their eminent dignity as

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conscience de leur éminente dignité de personnes humaines, de la possibilité qui leur est donnée de changer la face du monde? Si telle était la vérité, je désespérais des femmes de mon pays.

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humans, of the possibility that they have been given to change the face of the world? If this were true, I would give up hope for the women of my county.

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Abstention: A Social Crime (November 1946) “Abstention: A Social Crime,” is perhaps Nardal’s most damning essay in the series of political exhortations she wrote between 1945 and 1951. Fueled undoubtedly by the pending November elections, she wastes no metaphor nor minces any words: voting, a moral and social imperative that contains within its very action social justice, is woman’s duty. It is a means to combat poverty, race, color, and class hierarchies and more importantly, patriarchy. Abstaining is a crime with social implications; it is, for Nardal, a crime against the potential of humanity to do good.

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Abstention: crime social Le 10 novembre prochain, le peuple martiniquais sera appelé à désigner ses représentants pour une période de cinq ans. J’en appelle à toutes les femmes qui jusqu’ici sont restées indifférentes à la chose politique mais qui trouvent néanmoins que tout va mal, à toutes celles qui ne votent pas. Et je leur redis: «Vous avez la possibilité de changer tout cela en sortant pour un jour de votre léthargie, c’est-à-dire en allant déposer dans l’urne un bulletin pour le candidat de votre choix. Vous n’avez pas conscience de votre valeur. Vous vous comptez pour rien dans la nation. Vous méconnaissez le grand honneur que vous a fait le Sauveur de la France en vous élevant à la dignité de citoyennes. Pourtant c’est surtout ce jour-là, le jour de scrutin, que vous serez les égales de l’homme. C’est ce jour-là que toutes distinctions de classe abolies, vous intimerez à la nation, comme toutes les femmes votre volonté souveraine. Combien seriez-vous surprises si je vous disais que de l’ordre actuel qui ne vous satisfait pas, vous êtes partiellement responsables ! Chrétiennes pour la plupart, vous croyez à la réversibilité des fautes, vous professez que les hommes ne forment avec le Christ qu’un seul corps dont tous les membres sont solidaires. Pourquoi n’en serait-il pas de même dans l’ordre politique ? Si nous souffrons de ce que les rapports sociaux soient maintenant dominés par la haine, nous pourrions nous demander : « Qu’avons-nous fait pour améliorer le sort du peuple ? Nous sommes-nous penchées sur sa misère ? Avons-nous étudié le moyen de régler la question sociale au mieux des intérêts de tous ? N’avons-nous pas laissé ce rôle à des gens qui l’ont utilisé à des fins personnelles ? Pourtant il n’est pas trop tard, il n’est jamais trop tard pour faire ce que l’on croit être le bien, pour aider la classe ouvrière à jouer son rôle historique en l’élevant au niveau des autres classes, en lui permettant de vivre humainement, c’est-à-dire en lui rendant possi-

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Abstention: A Social Crime This 10th of November, the people of Martinique will be called upon to appoint their representatives for a period of five years. I call upon all the women who up to now have remained indifferent to politics but who nevertheless feel that things are not going well; I call upon all women who do not vote. To them I repeat: You have the opportunity to change all this by just leaving behind your lethargy for one day, namely by going to cast a vote at the ballot box for a candidate of your choice. You are not aware of your own worth. You don’t count yourself as important to the nation. You are unaware of the great honor the Savior of France bestowed upon you by raising you to the dignified level of citizens.1 However, it is above all especially on that day, the day of the election that you become the equal of man. It is on that day, with all class distinctions abolished, that you, like every woman, will apprise the nation of your autonomous will. How surprised would you be if I told you that you are partially responsible for the present-day situation that dissatisfies you? As most of you are Christian, you believe in the reversibility of mistakes; you profess that with Christ, all men form one single body in which all members are one. Why would it not be the same within the political realm? If we suffer because social relations are presently dominated by hate, we should ask ourselves: “What have we done to improve the fate of the people? Have we focused our attention on their poverty? Have we studied the means of settling social questions in the best interest of all? Have we not left this role to those who have used it to their own ends?” Yet it is not too late. It is never to late too do what one believes to be good—to help the working class play its historic role in rising to the level of the other classes, allowing them to live humanely, that is to say, making it possible for them to practice virtue, not through the violence that is so abhorrent to women, but

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ble la pratique de la vertu, non par la violence qui fait horreur aux femmes, mais par une révolution pacifique. Pour que la Martinique retrouve la paix sociale, il faut que vous vous donniez la peine d’aller voter, il faut que vous ayez le souci du bien commun. Pour que la Martinique retrouve son vrai visage, il faut qu’elle élise un député pour chacun des trois partis en présence. C’est le meilleur des vœux que nous puissions lui adresser en cette veille de scrutin.

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through a peaceful revolution. In order for Martinique to reclaim social peace, you must make the effort to go vote; you must have concern for the common good. In order for Martinique to reclaim its true face, it must elect one representative from each of the three parties present. It is our greatest wish that we can offer Martinique on this eve of the vote.

Note 1. Under Charles de Gaulle, France gave women the right to vote in 1944.

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United Nations (January 1947) As a representative from France’s overseas departments to the United Nations, the value that Nardal, given her ethical and religious proclivities, assigns to the role of this entity that has as its mission to maintain human dignity and social justice cannot be underestimated. This political body transcends mere politics in its Christian humanism. For Nardal, the United Nations, peopled with a rainbow of men and women coalescing around humanity’s interdependence and the importance of freedoms and democracy, embodies “the mystical body of Christ.” The United Nations Charter, like women’s coming to full citizenship and assuming their rights as citizens, signals “the new hope that dawns over the world.”

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Nations Unies Ce qui me frappe le plus dans cette Assemblée des Nations, c’est la réalité vivante de la solidarité humaine. Une même volonté, une même espérance animent ces nations qui ont découvert l’interdépendance de toutes les sociétés humaines et qui travaillent maintenant à la libération de tout l’Homme. Libération de la peur de l’injustice, et de la misère. Libération de la peur, et d’abord du fléau de la guerre. Libération de la peur, née de la grande peur des Hommes, et qui leur a inspiré de salutaires décisions. Libération de la peur pour toutes les collectivités humaines qui auront droit maintenant à une égale justice. Libération de la misère. Efforts des Nations associées pour permettre à chaque individu, à quelque race, à quelque religion qu’il appartienne, de vivre dans des conditions matérielles et morales conformes à sa dignité d’homme. Certes, il ne s’agit pas toujours ici de pur idéalisme. Certains intérêts s’accordent d’ailleurs parfaitement avec des visées généreuses. Mais, sous-jacente aux calculs, aux intérêts, aux contradictions humaines se révèle la force inéluctable qui mène le monde et qui réalise parfois, sous les aspects les plus imprévus, le plan divin. Nul n’a le monopole de la justice sociale. Aucune nation, aucune société, aucun individu. Chacun y participe plus ou moins inconsciemment, même ceux qui, apparemment, la combattent, car aucune volonté humaine ne peut résister à la Volonté suprême. En contemplant cette imposante Assemblée qui constitue un indiscutable progrès sur l’ancienne Société des Nations, je sens bien que c’est à travers la douleur que s’affine la conscience universelle. En contemplant ce concours de Nations qui toutes ne le reconnaissent pas encore, mais qui, dans leur Charte, exposent de grands principes qui sont des principes chrétiens, je vois réalisé le symbole du Corps mystique du Christ. C’est pourquoi, malgré les déceptions possibles, les erreurs, les fautes, et même les crimes futurs, je salue, en cette veille de Noël, la nouvelle espérance qui se lève sur le monde.

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United Nations What strikes me most about this Assembly of Nations is the living reality of human solidarity. One unique will and one unique hope drive these nations who have discovered the interdependence of human society and who now work toward the liberation of all Mankind. Liberation from the fear of injustice, and from poverty. Liberation from fear, first from the calamity of war; liberation from fear, born of the great fears1 of Men, which have led them to salutary decisions. Liberation from fear for all human collectivities who will now have the right to an equal justice. Liberation from poverty. The efforts of the allied nations allow every individual, regardless of race or religion, to live in material and ethical conditions that conform to human dignity. Clearly, it is not always a question here of pure idealism. Moreover, certain interests match noble intentions perfectly. But beneath the calculations, the interests, and human contradictions are inevitable forces that lead the world and that at times fulfill in the most unexpected ways, the divine plan. Nothing has a monopoly over social justice. No nation, no society, no individual. Everyone participates more or less unconsciously, even those who apparently fight against it, because no human will can withstand divine Will. In contemplating this impressive Assembly, which represents indisputable progress over the former League of Nations, I am convinced that it is through suffering that a universal conscience develops. In considering this coalition of Nations that do not yet all recognize it, but that, in their Charter, set out great principles that are Christian principles, I see the symbol of the mystical Body of Christ actualized. This is why, in spite of the possible disappointments, errors, faults, and even future crimes, I hail, on this Christmas Eve, the new hope that dawns over the world. (English translation note appears on page 82)

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Note 1. La grande peur may allude to a period of peasant revolt at the beginning of the French Revolution in 1789, known as the “Great Fear.”

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About a Crime (October 1948) In many respects, Nardal’s “About a Crime” encapsulates the violent nature of poverty and oppression that Martinican writer Joseph Zobel attempted to depict in his novel La Rue Case-Nègre (translated as Black Shack Alley or Sugar Cane Alley). In the novel, one of Zobel’s characters laments effectively that the “patron” (boss) has replaced the “master.” Martinique has moved from a plantocracy with slave-based labor to a colonial matrix with a laboring class that continues to be treated as slaves. The crime that Nardal writes about is one where the laboring masses rose up and murdered a white “boss,” striking him repeatedly with machetes and trampling the corpse. Instigated, she argues, by propagandistic literature that highlights the inegalitarian nature of race relations and the exploitation of the proletariat on the island. The specters of Marx are haunting Martinique.1 The crime, though, she understands is even more attributable to the living conditions of the workers; and she argues consequently that the plantocratic, if you will, system of dealing with the workers cannot work in an era where social justice is “on the move.” Women are again, given their nature, just as appalled by the violence of the workers as they are by the State to repress the workers. “Any return to the exploitation of the past is simply unthinkable,” she writes. Rather than heed her calls for goodwill, she is certain that the various political factions with myriad political interests will simply revert to politics as usual. And this she concludes is primarily why Martinican women have a “disaffection . . . for what we call politics.” 83

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Autour d’un Crime C’est un cadavre affreusement mutilé que l’on a rapporté à la femme de cet administrateur d’usine dont toute la presse martiniquaise a relaté le sauvage assassinat. Des travailleurs des champs excités par une propagande criminelle ont, au cours d’un guet-apens porté à ce travailleur blanc 24 coups de coutelas, 3 coups de bec-mer, piétinant ensuite son cadavre ensanglanté. Voilà les faits, quelle qu’en soit l’interprétation qu’on puisse en donner. Des travailleurs des champs, de rudes mais braves gens de mon pays, des Martiniquais au cœur sensible, aveuglés par la haine de race et de classe, se sont mués en brutes sanguinaires et ont immolé sur l’autel de la politique, un homme de race blanche, qui passait pour l’un de leurs meilleurs amis. Devant ce crime atroce, la conscience féminine martiniquaise s’indigne et se révolte. Atterrées par le résultat d’une politique que d’aucunes acclamèrent, atteintes dans leurs sentiments de solidarité féminine, les femmes martiniquaises, chrétiennes pour la plupart, adressent à la veuve de la victime, l’expression de leur profonde sympathie. Elles regrettent, en autre, que dans un département d’Outre-Mer où l’on se pique d’être civilisé, de telles scènes de sauvagerie aient pu se produire. Certes, les conditions de vie de nos travailleurs doivent être améliorées. Reconnaissons pourtant que des progrès sensibles ont été réalisés dans cette voie grâce aux lois sociales promulguées depuis la Libération. Les difficultés matérielles actuelles affectent la quasi totalité de la population et les travailleurs des champs ne sont pas les plus à plaindre. D’autre part, on pourrait se demander s’ils ont toujours conscience de leurs devoirs . . . Etait-il donc nécessaire de recourir au crime pour faire triompher des revendications? Nous l’avons souvent répété ici: la justice sociale est en marche. Certains retours à l’exploitation d’antan sont simplement

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About a Crime It was a horribly mutilated body that was returned to the wife of a factory manager in what all the Martinican press reported as a savage murder. In an ambush, field laborers incited by criminal propaganda delivered 24 machete and 3 cutlass blows to a white worker, and then trampled the bloody corpse. These are the facts, however one might interpret them. The field laborers, the rough but brave people of my country, Martinicans with sentient hearts, blinded by hatred of race and of class, have cast themselves into bloodthirsty brutes and sacrificed, on the altar of politics, a white man who had been one of their best friends. In the face of this horrific crime, the Martinican female conscience becomes indignant and revolts. Appalled by the result of a politics that none approves, reaching out in their feelings of feminine solidarity, the women of Martinique, for the most part Christian, express their profound sympathy to the widow of the victim. Furthermore, they regret that, in an overseas department where we pride ourselves on being civilized, such scenes of savagery could occur. Certainly, the living conditions of our laborers must be improved. Let us recognize, however, that reasonable progress has been made in this area thanks to social codes enacted since the Liberation. Current material realities affect practically all of the population and field laborers are not the only ones to complain. Moreover, one might wonder if they have always been aware of their duties . . . Was it therefore necessary to turn to crime in order to satisfy their demands? As we have often reiterated here, social justice is in on the move. Any return to the exploitation of the past is simply unthinkable. So why poison the spirit of our people with useless methods of the past? Is it not worth more, in this dangerous and difficult

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impensables. Alors pourquoi empoisonner l’esprit de nos populations par d’inutiles incursions dans le passé? Ne vaudrait-il pas mieux, en ces temps difficiles et dangereux que nous vivons, unir toutes les bonnes volontés, dans une atmosphère de liberté, pour la recherche du bien-commun? Mais non, certains partis sont prisonniers de leurs moyens. Nous le regrettons profondément. Et c’est ce qui explique l’éloignement bien féminin que nous ressentons pour ce que l’on appelle ici la politique.

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time in which we live, to rally all good will in an atmosphere of freedom, to seek the common good? But no; certain parties are prisoners of their ways. We deeply regret this. And that is what explains the particular disaffection that we women feel for what we call here politics.

Note 1. See Jacques Derrida’s Specters of Marx:The State of the Debt, the Work of Mourning, and the New International (Routledge, 1994).

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On Intellectual Laziness (November 1948) In this essay, Paulette Nardal takes aim at the educational system on the island as well as the lack of intellectual curiosity among students fostered by the current system. Martinique has adopted certain curricula from the metropole. While Nardal finds the curricula superior to those offered on the island, the students have not been encouraged to develop critical thinking skills. Indeed, she argues that the students’ ideas are ill-formed and ill-informed, offering as an example their understanding of the U.N. Charter as an arm of U.S. imperialism. Nardal is especially fretful over the development of young girls’ minds so that they may come to imagine themselves as citizens of the world and not just of their island nation and France. They are indeed part of a greater humanity. Working and nonworking women have an obligation to be informed so that they may assist this younger generation. But Nardal too sees these women, potential role models, as criminally neglectful of this generation by not fulfilling primarily their duty as voters. For Nardal, politics, education, and religion are seamlessly connected in women’s lives; and the path to improving the lives of women and girls, maximizing their potential to succeed, is the vote.

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De la paresse intellectuelle On ne saurait trop se féliciter de la récente application, dans les écoles de l’Ile, des nouveaux programmes métropolitains pour l’indispensable information qu’ils apporteront à nos enfants en matière d’actualité. En dehors des matières de l’ancien programme, nos enfants s’intéressaient peu aux questions d’intérêt général, aux grands problèmes dont le monde entier cherche actuellement la solution. Cette lacune va être comblée puisque les programmes en question comportent des conférences sur la Banque de France, l’énergie atomique, les institutions internationales récentes, etc. . . . sans compter les cours d’Instruction civique et de formation morale. On peut espérer qu’un enseignement ainsi conçu donnera à nos écoliers non seulement la curiosité intellectuelle et le sens critique qui caractérisent l’écolier métropolitain mais encore la base morale d’une culture véritable, l’esprit de discernement et qui sait? l’habitude de l’intention droite, l’honnêteté intellectuelle . . . Une telle entreprise de perversion s’exerce en ce moment sur l’esprit de nos jeunes qu’il s’avère absolument nécessaire de mettre ceux-ci en présence des simples évidences qui leur permettront de se former un jugement impartial. On évitera ainsi à nos jeunes filles de commettre ces erreurs lamentables, d’entretenir ces idées préconçues, qui inclinent certaines d’entre elles à dénaturer (par exemple) le sens d’une conférence sur les Nations Unies (qu’elles confondront avec les Etats-Unis) et à voir dans l’exposition de documents photographiques illustrant la Charte des Nations Unies «une entreprise de propagande au profit de l’impérialisme américain.» Passe encore pour une oratrice démagogue ignare d’utiliser de tels ragots, mais avouons qu’en cette effarante histoire, le rôle tenu par certaines élèves, ses informatrices, n’a rien de très encourageant pour l’avenir de l’intelligence martiniquaise. La nécessité de s’informer ne s’impose pas seulement à nos jeunes filles. Combien de femmes demeurent encore indifférentes aux questions sociales! Elles ont certes de nombreuses excuses:

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On Intellectual Laziness One should know better than to congratulate ourselves too much for the recent implementation of new metropolitan programs in island schools and the indispensable information that they will bring our students concerning current events. Notwithstanding the old curriculum, our children took little or no interest in questions of general interest, in the great problems the entire world today seeks to solve. This gap will be filled since the new programs in question incorporate lectures on the Bank of France, atomic energy, new international institutions, etc., in addition to courses on civic education and moral development. One can hope that a well-planned curriculum will endow our students with not only the intellectual curiosity and critical thinking that characterize the metropolitan student, but also the moral foundation of a true culture, a discerning mind, and who knows?—the habits of upright objectives and intellectual integrity . . . Such an undertaking of perversion works at this moment on the minds of our youth that it happens to be absolutely necessary to place in front of them the simple facts that will allow them to form an impartial opinion. In so doing, we will keep our girls from committing lamentable errors, of fostering preconceived ideas, which lead some girls to misinterpret, for example, the significance of a lecture on the United Nations (which they confuse with the United States) and to see in the exposition of photographic documents about the United Nations Charter “an enterprise of propaganda to benefit American imperialism.” If I again seem a naive and demagogical orator by using such stories, one must concede that in this disquieting scenario, the part played by some girls and their female instructors offers nothing encouraging for the future of the Martinican intelligentsia. The responsibility of keeping oneself informed does not impose itself uniquely on our girls. How many women remain indifferent to social issues! Certainly, they have many excuses:

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soucis matériels, occupations professionnelles, et puis le climat antillais, humide et chaud, si propre à amollir les énergies. Mais que dire des non professionnelles, de celles qui occupent leurs nombreux loisirs à des futilités et aussi de celles qui, par indifférence ou nonchalance, négligent d’exercer les jours d’élection, leurs droits de citoyennes. Indifférence criminelle à l’égard de leurs enfants qu’elles ne sauront pas guider dans la voie du bien, de leur pays et du monde qui a tant besoin de Paix et dont elles sont aussi les citoyennes, hélas non informées. Souhaitons que le nouveau type d’enseignement nous donne des générations de femmes éclairées et conscientes.

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financial concerns, jobs, and then the hot and humid West Indian climate that so easily drains one’s energy. But what say nonworking women, those who fill their numerous leisure hours with trivialities, and also those who, whether from indifference or nonchalance, neglect to exercise their rights as citizens on election days? A criminal indifference with regard to their children, whom they will not know how to guide toward the path of good; toward their country, and the world that so requires peace and of which they are also citizens, alas uninformed. Let us hope that the new method of instruction will give us generations of enlightened and thoughtful women.

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Editorial (July 1951) In this editorial, Nardal chronicles for her readers the Women’s Assembly’s efforts to move women to the ballot box. Women continue their halfhearted approach to the political process, exhibiting what amounts to an unforgivable inertia, as far as Nardal is concerned. Indeed, women’s participation has declined by fifteen thousand since the organization and its journal were launched in 1945. While class divisions present their own obstacles to women’s coalescing, Nardal argues that “blaring ignorance” and “perfidious sectarianism” are also at work. Christianity and Democracy are not incompatible though the “uneducated masses of women” as well as the bad faith of their “hairdresser”-bound elite compatriots resist the educative efforts of the Women’s Assembly. For Nardal, the successes of the Women’s Civil and Social Union in the metropole represent the differences between ten centuries of Christian civilization and the ignorance endemic to poverty on the island, hence the continuing important role of French assimilation. In light of this essay, the Women’s Assembly’s last ambitious goal spelled out in the mission statement—to do civilizing work—becomes evident. Nardal concludes again by sounding the call for “concerned women of Martinique of good will” to do that work.

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Editorial En 1945, Le Rassemblement féminin a fait campagne en vue d’amener le plus grand nombre possible de femmes à accomplir leur devoir électoral. Pour diverses raisons, cet effort n’a pu être poursuivi de façon régulière. En 48 et en 51, les femmes n’ont été alertées qu’au dernier moment alors qu’une campagne méthodique s’imposait ainsi qu’un effort persévérant en vue de les informer de leurs devoirs civiques et sociaux. Le nombre des abstentions qui, en 1945, avait été de 30.000 est passé cette année à 45.000. Etant donné que la Martinique compte cinq femmes pour un homme on peut déclarer, sans risque d’exagération, que c’est à l’indifférence féminine qu’il faut attribuer ce nombre massif d’abstentions et toutes les conséquences qu’il entraîne. Bien plus, celles d’entre nous qui, en 1948, se sont courageusement lancées dans la bagarre sollicitant et obtenant des sièges de conseillères municipales, se déclarent en majorité, écœurées de l’expérience. Les femmes évoluées et conscientes ont, en effet, perdu le contact avec les masses en proie à la misère et à la haine. Affronter l’ignorance hurlante, l’effarante crédulité ou le sectarisme perfide de certains milieux demande en effet un courage peu commun, un tempérament de « dur », une santé à toute épreuve, ou encore une foi ardente, celle qui donne à l’être le courage de vaincre ses timidités en se dépassant. Deux au moins d’entre nous l’ont eu, ce courage. Nous souhaiterions vivement voir les autres se départir de leur coupable inertie, et, en dépit de la diversité des étiquettes politiques, s’unir pour faire triompher les légitimes revendications féminines. Nous croyons très sincèrement qu’il y a là une œuvre de longue haleine à accomplir en Martinique. Œuvre qui sera parallèle au développement de l’instruction, de l’éducation, de la civilisation, en un mot. N’a-t-on pas fait croire à la masse inculte que les mots christianisme et démocratie sont incompatibles? Ce seul exemple suffit à démontrer combien encore nous sommes éloignées

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Editorial In 1945, the Women’s Assembly campaigned to recruit the largest possible number of women to fulfill their electoral duty. For a variety of reasons, this effort was not able to be followed regularly. In ’48 and in ’51, women were not notified until the last minute even as a methodical campaign was in effect, such as our persistent efforts aimed at informing them of their civil and social duties. The number of abstentions, which had been 30,000 in 1945, was surpassed this year at 45,000. Given that Martinique has five women for every man, one may assert without risk of exaggeration that it is to female indifference that we must attribute this huge number of abstentions and the consequences it entails. Furthermore, those among us who, in 1948, courageously entered the fight soliciting and obtaining the seats of municipal advisors, declare themselves for the most part disgusted by the experience. Sophisticated women of conscience have, in effect, lost contact with the masses preyed upon by poverty and hatred. Facing blaring ignorance, astounding credulity, or perfidious sectarianism of certain milieus demands a rare courage, a hardened temperament, relentless health, as well as an ardent faith—the sort that gives one the courage to vanquish trepidations in order to move beyond them. Too few among us have it—this kind of this courage. We hope wholeheartedly to see others abandon their guilty inertia, and in spite of the range of political labels, unite so that the just demands of women may triumph. We believe very sincerely that there is long-term work to be done in Martinique; work that will parallel the development of instruction, of education, and, in a word, of civilization. Haven’t the uneducated masses been made to believe that the words Christianity and Democracy are incompatible? This single example sufficiently proves how far we are from the degree of development attained by our metropolitan sisters in France who have been

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du degré d’évolution atteint par nos sœurs métropolitaines formées par dix siècles de civilisation chrétienne. Mais la tâche primordiale demeure la lutte contre la misère. A cette tâche ce sont attelées les femmes de l’Union féminine civique et sociale qui œuvrent pour nous dans la Métropole. Conscientes des nécessités de l’heure, nous faisons appel à toutes les Martiniquaises de bonne volonté afin que, par l’intermédiaire du Rassemblement féminin, elles s’organisent autour de notre mouvement central, l’Union féminine civique et sociale. Nous reproduisons ci-après l’essentiel de leur programme qui, en France, a atteint des millions de femmes.

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shaped by ten centuries of Christian civilization. But the fundamental task continues to be the fight against poverty. The women of the Women’s Civil and Social Union who work on our behalf in the metropole are also bound to this mission. Aware of the exigencies of the time, we call on all women of Martinique of good will so that, through association with the Women’s Assembly, they may organize themselves around our central movement, the Women’s Civil and Social Union. We shall reproduce hereafter the essentials of their program, which, in France, affected millions of women.

Selected Bibliography of Paulette Nardal’s Writing

La Dépêche africaine “Le Nègre et l’art dramatique.” May 15, 1928, 4. “Le Concert du 6 octobre de la Salle Hoche.” November 15, 1928, 6. “Actions de grâces.” May 30, 1929, 3. In Negritude Women, “Acts of Grace,” trans. Sharpley-Whiting and Georges Van Den Abbeele (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota, 2002), 114–15. “Le Nouveau bal nègre de la glacière.” May 30, 1929, 3. “En exil.” December 1929, 6. In Negritude Women, 116–18. “Musique nègre: Antilles et AfraAmérique.” June 30, 1930, 5. “Une femme sculpteur noir.” August-September 30, 1930, 5.

Guide to the Overseas Colonies Guide des colonies: Martinique, Guadeloupe, Guyane française. Paris: Société d’éditions géographiques, maritimes, et colonials, 1931.

La Revue du monde noir/The Review of the Black World (trans. Paulette Nardal and Clara Shepard) “Une noire parle à Cambridge et à Genève/Black Woman Speaks at Cambridge and Geneva.” 1 (October 1931): 36–37. “L’Eveil de la conscience de race chez les étudiants noirs/The Awakening of Race Consciousness Among Black Students.” 6 (April 1932): 25–31. In Negritude Women, 119–24.

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L’Etudiant noir “Guignol ouolof.” 1 (March 1935): 4–5.

Woman in the City “Woman in the City/La femme dans la Cité.” 1 (January 1945): 3. “Setting the Record Straight/Mise au point.” 3 (February 15, 1945): 3–4. “From an Electoral Point of View/Optique électorale.” 5 (March 1, 1945): 3. “Poverty Does Not Wait/La misère n’attend pas.” 8 (May 1945): 3. “Martinican Women and Social Action/Les femmes Martiniquaises et l’action sociale.” 13 (October 1, 1945): 3. “And Now, What Are Our Objectives?/ Et maintenant, quels sont nos objectifs?” 14 (November 1, 1945): 3. “Projects/Réalisations.” 15 (December 1, 1945): 3–4. “To Work/Travailler.” 17 (February 1, 1946): 3. “Martinican Women and Politics/Les femmes martiniquaises et la politique.” 21 (July 1, 1946): 4. “Facing History/En face de l’histoire.” 23 (October 1946): 4. “Abstention: A Social Crime/Abstention: crime social.” 24 (November 1946): 4. “Our Director’s Departure/Le Depart de notre Directrice.” 25 (December 1946): 3–4. “United Nations/Nations unies.” 26 (January 1947): 4. “Letter from America/Lettre d’Amérique.” 30 (July–August, 1947): 4. “Editorial.”46 (June 1948): 1. “Transition.” 47 (July 1948): 1. “About a Crime /Autour d’un crime.” 48 (October 1948): 1. “Florence Hart.” 49 (October 1948): 2. “On Intellectual Laziness/De la paresse intellectuelle.” 50 (November 1948): 1, 3. “Christmas Songs, or Our Folklore/Cantiques de Noël.” 52 (January 1949): 2–3. “Mother’s Day/La Fête des Mères.” Special Issue Dedicated to the Martinican Mothers. (1949): 2.

Selected Bibliography of Paulette Nardal’s Writing

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“The Governor-General Eboué inducted in the Pantheon/ Le Gouverneur-Général au Panthéon.” Special Issue Dedicate to the Martinican Mothers. (1949): 7. “Radio-Martinique.” In a Special Issue on “The Mother/La Mère.” (1950): 8. “Editorial.” 75 (July 1951): 3.

Index

Abolition, 10 Achilles, Louise, 1 Admiral Robert, 10 Africa, 2, 7 African(s), 4 Age of Women, 11 Alcoholism, 49, 51 America, 7 American(s), 4, 47 Anthropology, 2 Antilles, 10, 35, 53 Antillean(s), 4, 17 Assimilation, 4, 95 Association des étudiants martiniquais en France/Association of Martinican Students in France, 3 Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, 2 “Autobiography of a Re-Colored Woman,” 2 “Awakening of Race Consciousness Among Black Students, The,” 3 Bad Faith, 33, 95 Ballot Box, 67, 69, 95 Beauvoir, Simone de, 17, 18 Beecher Stowe, Harriet, 1 Békés, 37

Bidault, Georges, 65 Biology, 17, 18 Black Diaspora, 2 Black Humanism, 3 Black Internationalism, 12 Internationalist(s), 2, 7 Internationalist Movements, 2 “Black is Beautiful,” 13 Black Writers and Artists Conference 1950, 2006, 13 British West Indies, 1 Cahier d’un retour au pays natal / Notebook of a Return to My Native Land, 3 Canudo, Jeanne, 47 Capitalism, 39 Categorical Imperatives, 37 Catholic Church, 6 Association of Social Catholics, 47 Catholicism, 18, 43 Césaire, Aimé, 3, 4, 9, 13, 31, 63 Césaire, Suzanne, 9 Charity, 6, 11, 37, 39, 41, 45 Child, 5, 6 Christian Humanism, 6, 12, 43, 47, 79 Christianity, 6, 8, 11, 27, 77, 85, 95, 97, 99

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Index

Christ, 75, 81 Citizenship, 6, 10, 12 City of Men, 12, 23 Civilization, 95, 97 Clamart salon, 2, 4, 63 Class, 4, 9, 11, 31, 65, 73, 75, 85, 95 Colonial College for Girls, 1 Colonial Commission, 51 Colonial Ministry, 9 Colonialism, 4, 10 Colony, 5, 9 Color, 4, 31, 73 Committee for Women (American Branch), 47 Common good, 59, 77, 87 Condé, Maryse, 4 Cooper, Anna Julia, 2 Cosmopolitanism, 13 Critique of Practical Reason, 37 Cunard, Nancy, 1 Damas, Léon, 3, 4 Déclaration des Droits de l’Homme et du citoyen, La, 9 Democracy, 95, 97 Denegrification, 13 Departmentalization, 57, 63 Dépêche Africaine, La, 1, 2 Dominican, 6 Du Bois, W. E. B., 2 Duty, 37, 43, 67 Elections, 33, 63, 73, 75, 93 Electoral Politics, 31, 33, 65 England, 4 Essence, 18 Étudiant Martiniquais, L’ / The Martinican Student, 3

Étudiant noir, L’ / The Black Student, 3, 4 Europe, 7 Existence, 18 Existentialism, 18 Fanon, Frantz, 13 Fascism, 47 Fauset, Jessie, 2 Feminism/Feminist, 17, 18 Feminist Inclinations, 6 Materialist Feminist, 18 Femme dans la Cité, La / Woman in the City, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 13, 47 Folklore, 53 Fort Saint-Louis, 6 Fortune, Timothy Thomas, 7 France, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 12, 13, 35, 57, 59, 63 Hexagonal, 8 Metropolitan, 97 Francophone Caribbean Literature, 3, 4 Writers, 3 World, 3 Free French, 57 French, 4, 10 Antilles, 7, 37 Caribbean, 7 Communist Party, 31, 63 Frenchness, 13 National Assembly, 31, 63 National Identity, 5 Republic, 5 Résistance, 57 Frobenius, Léo, 2 Garvey, Marcus, 2

Index Gaulle, Charles De, 8, 57, 59 Savior of France, 8, 75 Gender, 8, 9 Good, 37, 93 Goodwill, 6, 11, 87, 95, 99 Graham, Gladys P., 7 Great Fear/grande peur, 81 Great War, 5 “Guignol Wolof ”/“Wolof Puppetshow,” 4 Harlem Renaissance, 2 Harvard University, 13 History, 11, 69 Holy Mother Mary, 6 Hughes, Langston, 2 Imperialism, 89, 91 Industrialization, 39 Interwar Period, 8

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Martinique, 1, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 25, 31, 39, 43, 45, 47, 51, 53, 61, 63, 65, 69, 75, 83, 89, 97, 99 François, 1 Fort-de-France, 5, 6, 31 Saint Pierre, 37 Marx, 83 McKay, Claude, 2 Ménil, René, 9 Metaphysics of Morals, 37 Métisse, 5 Metropole, 89, 99 Mont Pelée, 37 Moral Values, 33, 65 Mother, 5, 6 Motherhood, 9 Mother Country, 61

Lactification, 13 Latin America, 7 League of Nations, 81 Left Bank, 3 Leprosy, 49 “Letter from America,” 7 Liberation, 61, 81, 85 “Lifting As We Climb,” 49 Little Paris, 37 Locke, Alain, 2

Nardal, Andrée, 1 Nardal, Jane, 1, 2 Nardal, Paul, 1 Nardal, Paulette, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 17, 18, 25, 31, 79 National Association of Colored Women, 49 Nationalism, 9 Nationhood, 10 Nazi Occupation, 57 Negritude, 1, 3, 4, 13, 31 Negro, 1 New Negro, 2 New Negro Movement, 2 New Negro, The, 2 New York, 7 New York Age, 7

Maran, René, 2

Oppression, 10, 83

Jesus, 6 Johnson, Weldon James, 2 Kant, Immanuel, 37

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Index

Overseas Department, 5, 7, 10, 79, 85 Pan-African, 3 Pan-Africanist philosophy, 3 Panurge’s Sheep, 27 Paris, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 10, 13, 63 Paternalism, 8 Patriarchy, 73 Paulette Nardal, la fiérté d’être négresse / Paulette Nardal, Pride in Being a Black Woman, 13 Payot, 2 Peace, 6, 11, 33, 35, 59, 61, 69, 77, 93 Philosophies of Gender, 9 Philosophies of Race, 3 Plantocracy, 5, 83 Politics, 43, 63, 65, 73, 83, 85, 89 Poor, 8, 12 Poverty, 8, 39, 41, 49, 53, 73, 75, 81, 83, 95 Prostitution, 49, 51 Psychology, 17, 18 Race, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 11, 13, 31, 73, 81, 85 Consciousness, 4, 8, 10 Racism, 8 Rassemblement Féminin Martiniquais/Martinican Women’s Assembly, 6, 7, 8, 9, 23, 25, 43, 47, 49, 59, 95, 99 Religion, 8, 9, 43, 53, 81, 89 Republican Motherhood, 5 Republicanism, 5 Revolution, 77

Revue du monde noir, La / Review of the Black World, 1, 3, 4, 8, 9, 10, 11 Rue Case-Nègre / Black Shack Alley / Sugar Cane Alley, 83 Sacrifice, 6, 69 Savage, Augusta, 2 Schoelcher, Victor, 10 Second Sex, The, 17, 18 Senghor, Léopold Sedar, 3, 4 Servant, Jil, 13 Slavery, 10 Social Action, 37, 41 Social Duty, 21, 45, 73 Social Justice, 6, 35, 37, 39, 47, 63, 65, 83 Social Progress, 11, 31 Social Welfare, 25 Social Work, 37, 39 Sorbonne, 1, 2, 5, 13, 17 Spirit of the Gospels, 43, 47 Surrealist, 9 Third Republic, 5 Tropiques, 9 Tuberculosis, 49, 51 Uncle Tom’s Cabin, 1 UNESCO, 13 Union Féminine Civique et Sociale, 9, 47, 95, 99 United Nations, 7, 79, 89, 91 United States, 7, 13, 91 Venereal Diseases, 51 Vichy, 5, 10, 37 Violence, 75, 83

Index Vote, 12, 57, 65, 73, 77 W. E. B. Du Bois Institute, 13 Will, 75, 81 Williams, Fannie Barrier, 49 Women, 5, 17, 18, 22, 23, 25, 43, 47, 49, 53, 99 Condition of, 7 Duty, 43, 99 Issues, 8 Political Education of, 7, 89, 99

109

Social Education of, 27, 49, 53, 69, 97 Voting, 11, 63, 73, 75, 89, 97 Womanhood, 9, 18 Workers, 6 Working Class, 12, 75 World War II, 5, 11 Youth, 12, 53 Unemployment, 49 Zobel, Joseph, 83