Born on January 1, 1967,is an African-American feminist scholar at Vanderbilt University, specializing in African-American history and diaspora studies. She works on the history of women of African descent. She is an activist and testified before the U.S. Congress in 2007 on stereotypes and degrading images of Black people and women. She has worked on the Hottentot Venus, young Black women, and African-American women in Paris during the interwar period.
"Negritude women"
Paulette Nardal
Thanks to a recent historiographical revival resulting from the work of feminist researchers, highlighting the action of pioneering Black women in the interwar period, the role of the Martinican Nardal sisters is now better known and valued: they played an important role through their intellectual, artistic and editorial activity and through their literary salon in Clamart, near Paris, in forging transatlantic links in the interwar period and stimulating the awakening of "Black consciousness", both in Paris and in the Antilles. Despite the sexist and racist prejudices of the time, they were remarkably successful in working towards the affirmation of Black women and culture and in building bridges between Paris and Martinique during the 20th century and particularly in the interwar period. However, they encountered difficulties and obstacles linked to the burdens and prejudices of the society of the time and, as women and black people, were prevented from taking political action. They were long overlooked, but their role as cultural transmitters and pioneers of Pan-Africanism and Negritude is now beginning to be recognized.
"Very sensitive to the condition of women, always, before and especially after my stay in Paris. If I had said what I really thought, I would have set all the men of Martinique against me. A fervent Christian, it was the shock of the Negro spirituals in Paris (1930). Having perceived, before men, the need for racial solidarity, I also wanted to raise women's awareness of social issues and black pride, before the war, in numerous publications and then in Martinique."