Overview

The extraordinary testimony of a daring Caribbean writer-activist, determined to expose injustice and defend the dignity of migrant workers In the 1960s, hundreds of women traveled from French colonies in the West Indies to become domestic workers for white families in France. Recruited by the French government with the promise of economic opportunity, these women instead found themselves subjected to racial discrimination, deplorable living conditions, overwork, and no pay until they ""earned back"" the cost of the trip to France. After hearing the shocking stories of Caribbean domestic workers, Françoise Ega took a position as a cleaning woman in a wealthy French home in order to chronicle these abuses. Structured as a collection of unsent letters to the Brazilian writer Carolina Maria de Jesus, Notes to a Black Woman weaves Ega's experiences with memories of her childhood in Martinique, the joys and tribulations of family life, and her reflections on the power of the written word to reveal the discomfiting truths behind the facade of bourgeois French society. Composed on her bus commutes and by candlelight at her kitchen table while her five children slept, these pages comprise one of the most moving literary witnesses to female exploitation and racism in the twentieth century. From a singular and unforgettable voice, Notes to a Black Woman is a piercing denunciation of the legacies of colonialism and slavery, a wholesale rejection of alienation, and an intimate archive of friendship, joy, solidarity, motherhood, and hope.

Full Product Details

9780300270297

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Reviews

“Françoise Ega’s riveting firsthand account of her experiences as a Black woman migrant worker in the homes of wealthy French families offers a rare window into the world of social inequality and service work. Yet despite her struggles, Ega uses her experiences to show how Black women workers like herself work to retain their humanity and dignity in the face of societal disregard. Simultaneously inspiring and sobering, this unique and timely book promises to join Child of the Dark on the bookshelf of classic Black feminist literature.”—Patricia Hill Collins, author of Black Feminist Thought “Notes to a Black Woman bears urgent, unflinching witness to the struggles of Caribbean women in France striving to live with dignity amid gendered and racial constraint. Emma Ramadan’s elegant translation captures the tender, revolutionary spirit of this luminous work, a necessary read for our time.”—Kaiama L. Glover, author of A Regarded Self: Caribbean Womanhood and the Ethics of Disorderly Being “In chronicling the toils and dreams of domestic workers in Marseille, Françoise Ega weaves a complex tale about migration, labor, and the communities of care that sustain Black women determined to make their way. Emma Ramadan’s skillful translation renders the wit and nuance of a narrative voice that combines the intimacy of the personal journal with the epistolary novel’s address to another. Notes to a Black Woman is beautiful, heartbreaking, and ever urgent.”—Annette K. Joseph-Gabriel, author of Reimagining Liberation: How Black Women Transformed Citizenship in the French Empire “An archive of resilience and solidarity, Notes to a Black Woman illuminates the dignity of Black women’s labor. In conversation with Carolina Maria de Jesus, Françoise Ega exposes injustice while affirming hope and collective struggle.”—Djamila Ribeiro, author of Where We Stand

""Notes to a Black Woman bears urgent, unflinching witness to the struggles of Caribbean women in France striving to live with dignity amid gendered and racial constraint. Emma Ramadan’s elegant translation captures the tender, revolutionary spirit of this luminous work, a necessary read for our time.”—Kaiama L. Glover, author of A Regarded Self: Caribbean Womanhood and the Ethics of Disorderly Being  “An archive of resilience and solidarity, Notes to a Black Woman illuminates the dignity of Black women’s labor. In conversation with Carolina Maria de Jesus, Françoise Ega exposes injustice while affirming hope and collective struggle.”—Djamila Ribeiro, author of Where We Stand

Author Information

Françoise Ega (1920–1976) was an Afro-Martinican writer and labor activist who lived and worked in France and several African countries. She is the author of two novels, Le temps des Madras (1966) and the posthumously published L’alizé ne soufflait plus (2000). Emma Ramadan is an educator and a prizewinning literary translator from French. Her translations include works by Maud Ventura, Meryem Alaoui, and Abdellah Taïa.

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