My Country, Africa: Autobiography of the Black Pasionaria

by Andrée Blouin, JEAN MACKELLAR (contributor), Adom Getachew (introduction)

Andr�e Blouin-once called the most dangerous woman in Africa-played a leading role in the struggles for decolonization that shook the continent in the 1950s and '60s, advising the postcolonial leaders of Algeria, both Congos, Ivory Coast, Mali, Guinea, and Ghana.

In this autobiography, Blouin retraces her remarkable journey as an African revolutionary. Born in French Equatorial Africa and abandoned at the age of three, she endured years of neglect and abuse in a colonial orphanage, which she escaped after being forced by nuns into an arranged marriage at fifteen. She later became radicalized by the death of her two-year-old son, who was denied malaria medication by French officials because he was one-quarter African.

In Guinea, where Blouin was active in S�kou Tour�'s campaign for independence, she came into contact with leaders of the liberation movement in the Belgian Congo. Blouin witnessed the Congolese tragedy up close as an adviser to Patrice Lumumba, whose arrest and assassination she narrates in unforgettable detail.

Blouin offers a sweeping survey of pan-African nationalism, capturing the intricacies of revolutionary diplomacy, comradeship, and betrayal. Alongside intimate portraits of the movement's leaders, Blouin provides insights into the often-overlooked contribution of African women in the struggle for independence.

Genres: Africa, Nonfiction, History, Biography, Memoir, Politics, Feminism

305 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 7, 2025

Reviews

[Sarah B · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this book. But it's probably the most tragic I've ever read. This book intertwines so many uniquely colonial tragedies and gives you an outlook on why countries in Central Africa still struggle enormously to this day.

It's the biography of Andrée Blouin, a woman who helped liberate several colonized African Nations - Guinea, DR.Congo, Algeria. Andrée Blouin was a métisse born in the Central African Republic. She was taken away from her mother and placed in a Catholic Orphanage by her white father and his new Belgian wife. Her description of the abuse she suffered was heartbreaking. But after she ran away, she became an activist for the African Independence movement. She eventually counselled six African leaders, among them Sekou Touré and Kwame Nkrumah.

The first chief of protocol for the Republic of the Congo, she was the only woman in Patrice Lumumba's government. This is a remarkable achievement considering Congolese women couldn't even vote in 1960.

Her autobiography is no longer in circulation - but you can find it for free at archive.org.

My only problem with this book is that it can rely too heavily on colonial stereotypes sometimes, probably due to the fact that this book was written by Jean MacKeller, a white woman. Andrée Blouin actually sued to stop the publication of the book, claiming that it relied too heavily on her personal life, not her political activism.

If you want to see other perspectives about Andrée Blouin's life, by African and Congolese writers, read "Le Lys et le Flamboyant" or "Reimagining Liberation : How Black Women Redefined Citizenship in the French Empire."

[Sarah Schulman]

The film "Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat" is about the parallell events of the CIA take down of Patrice Lumumba in the Congo, and the CIA manipulation of Black jazz artists by setting up their African tours to sell US excelllence. The film introduced me to African revolutionary Andree Blouin and so I sought out her memoir.

Interestingly it is less about her experiences in Guinea and Congo with Toure and Lumumba than it is about her experience of being bi-racial in Africa. Her story is based in consistent experience of extreme stigma, her hot and cold white father, her 3 white male partners (2 husbands, including one with the name Andre) and her four bi-racial children, one of whom died because colonial hospitals refused him treatment for being Black.

It is both interesting and telling that her racial existence was more searing to her self-reflection than her making of history. It wasn't what I expected but I was fascinated, informed, and moved.

[Malcolm · Rating 5 out of 5]

Born in 1921, near Bangui – now in the Central African Republic – there is little about Andrée Blouin’s life that does not expose and critique the violence of colonialism and imperialism. Born to a 40 year old French trader and 14 year old daughter of a local village head, by the time she was three years old Blouin had been relocated against her mother’s will to a convent two weeks down river in Brazzaville, where she was taught by nuns that as a ‘mixed race’ child she was the sinful embodiment of her parents’ sin of miscegenation. While the first 2/3 of the book deal with her childhood and life as a young woman in this world. Then, from her mid-20s her disquiet, based a sense of unfairness, and personal resistance to the colonial order took a more structural form, as she developed a systematic awareness of her world and became active in pan-African anti-imperialist activism eventually becoming one of the key inner circle in Patrice Lumumba’s post-independence Congolese government.

Blouin builds an image of complex and challenging relations – where despite her parents’ obvious affection for each other, her father asserted his ‘right’ to determine and control her life, based in both race and gender authority. He was also fickle, taking her into his life and home and rejecting her, while the relationship seems to be further complicated by his Belgian wife, with whom he has no children. Through this and her deeply abusive experience in the convent, she comes across as a young woman with a sure sense of fairness as the basis of how she views the world and her rights, obligations, and entitlements in it. Yet this transforms when in her mid-20s her son dies after being refused malaria treatment available only to whites; a decision that brings her into conflict with the state and an increased structural awareness of the oppression she has rebelled against on the basis of fairness.

Yet this is not a moment of political transformation; that comes a few later when she is living in Guinea and is drawn into Sékou Touré’s campaign for full independence from France, rejecting a degree of limited economic association. This opens up her sharp and insightful narrative of her years of high profile political campaigning in Guinea and Congo through the late 950s and early 1960s, culminating in Lumumba’s assassination in January 1961. She was a central figure in much of this activity, especially the campaign for Congo’s independence from Belgium (now the Democratic Republic of Congo), organising Lumumba’s work during his term as Prime Minister, and acting as a speech writer.

Even without the campaigning, just as a tale of a woman’s life in colonial central Africa this is a compelling, insightful, vital, and in places invigorating read; with the independence campaigning, the pan Africanist politics, this is a vital insight into an era, a reminder of the erasure by patriarchal power, of women’s vital role in and leadership of these struggles, and a real sense that things might have been different. Blouin is not shy to pass comment – on both strengths and weaknesses – of her allies as well as her enemies, adding to the value of text. It’s an important text, well contextualised by series editors Adom Getachew and Thomas Meaney, and only available in this new edition because Blouin’s daughter Eve was able to wrench back the copyright; Eve also provides an epilogue, tracing the years and events around Blouin’s death in 1986 – three years after this as initially published. Alongside all its importance, it is also a damn good read.

[eliza! · Rating 5 out of 5]

So striking. She’s completely unafraid of being misunderstood - you can feel the strength of her Pan Africanism through the entire account. Endlessly fascinating and tragically hopeful. And I can’t believe this edition approved by her daughter was only published a year ago?

Also where the hell is the goodreads description coming from???

[noa · Rating 5 out of 5]

beste autobiografie ooit gelezen, zwaar de moeite. prachtig laatste hoofdstuk van haar dochter

[Dana Torrente · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredible! One of the most moving autobiographies I’ve ever read. I read this after seeing soundtrack for a coup d’etat and was blown away by her story. So infrequently do we get written accounts of the women who shaped Africa and the freedom movement of the 60’s.

[Christina Mitchell · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am attempting to find the energy to again tackle my journal article. I thought I would stretch my fingers and my brain by adding a few comments about this book. My tactics are related. I read the book as part of my research for the journal article.

For the past two months I have been on a near fruitless search for documentation on women's political/activist history in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The reason for the search is rather straight forward: I traveled to the DRC to meet grassroots women's organizations doing prodigious and courageous work to end the ongoing armed conflict and rebuild their country. These women defy the disgraceful and insulting overreaching victim narrative ensconced in current writings circulating about the country. Please do not misunderstand me. The horrendous violence is very real. The inaccuracy comes in overlooking the capabilities and the work of Congolese women...capabilities defying the pathetic image that has become all too common in the media, security, and organizational reporting. The result is that these organizations are ignored, are considered irrelevant, and have no voice in any operational decision-making process (this includes decision-making in peace processes, security processes, and international humanitarian/aid processes). They are fighting for recognition and deserve to be given credence and worth. I am delving into the scraps of history available in order to give context the women's present work. After all, it is incomprehensible that suddenly one day women wake up with political awareness. The work of these women was fostered in some capacity. Most have spoken of the work of their mothers and the encouragement of their work by their fathers.

Alright I am off my soapbox. I have been researching and have been corresponding with Congolese women in order to uncover a activist and political history of women that very much exists despite common inference. At present, there is no comprehensive work that records this history. As the women who fought for independence following WWII and subsequently fought against Mobutu's overthrow, and who now fight to end the hostilities and change their country, progressively grow older, this history is being relegated to rumor and considered inconsequential. Once again, the women are insulted.

Andree Blouin is not Belgian Congolese, but French Congolese from Congo-Brazzaville. She did, however, meet the resistance and democratic reform leadership of Patrice Lumumba. Lumumba recruited Andree to campaign with him and his staff subsequently appointing her as Chief of Protocol in his cabinet. Her story is powerful and gives tremendous insight to the political awakening and work of Congolese women during independence. Strong Congolese women exist and have existed. Reading this gives me hope that eventually their contributions will one day be fully recognized.

In the meantime, my advice to the reader interested in the Congolese conflict is to continually ask her/himself, 'Where are the women?" If the answer is not apparent beyond helplessness, begin to dig further. This book is a good place to start the informational archeology.

[Amber · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wat een verhaal en wat een leven - en zo mooi verteld. Bood naast een heel belangrijk perspectief op zowel het leven als "métisse", moeder/dochter en vrouw in die tijd, ook een goede introductie tot panafrikanisme, intersectionaliteit en de geschiedenis van Congo. Blouin verdient de aandacht om haar "second death" van het vergeten worden, zoals haar jongste dochter het in de epiloog verwoordt, ongedaan te laten maken.

"I have often pondered the additional intertwining of the fates [of my daughter and I], in sharing this day, and the same stars, to enter the world."

[Chloe Louise · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is almost unbelievable that Andree Blouin’s autobiography was nearly lost to us. Her deeply personal account of her early life and her indispensable role in the independence movements of Guinea and the now Democratic Republic of the Congo, among others, reads more like a work of fiction than of reality.

Those who want an in-depth breakdown of the wave of independence movements that spread across Africa in the 50s and 60s may be disappointed, as this book focuses as much on Blouin’s traumatic childhood as it does on revolutionaries and warfare. Blouin, in excruciating detail, breaks down the harrowing experiences that built her opposition to colonial rule. From seeing Congolese men being chained and whipped in the street for demanding the same rights as their occupiers to feeling the cut of the chicotte herself, at the hands of inconceivably cruel nuns at an orphanage for mixed race children.

As an adult, her paradoxical existence in colonial life, through her parentage and her relationships with European men, will eventually design her desire to advance the decolonisation process.

But Blouin’s guiding belief, responsible for her propulsion into several anticolonial movements, is one of enduring love and sacrifice for her continent. Her love for Africa, its culture and its people, is ubiquitous throughout her writing as well as her love for her complicated mother Josephine, whose entire life was shaped by colonialism. Most of all, it is her love for her ‘bronzed prince’, her son Rene, who was murdered by Belgian colonial rule after being denied life-saving malaria treatment because he was the child of a mixed-race woman. His death, a pebble on the beach of horrors committed against African children during this time, ultimately serves as the catalyst for Blouin’s commitment to charting a new course in her life that will entwine her inextricably with movements and leaders famed across the globe.

Blouin whizzes through the violent and interminably complex landscape of the independence movements of several countries, beginning with her role in the struggle in Guinea, the frontrunner of West African independence movement from France. She references her speeches to thousands of men and women with ease, while mere paragraphs describe assassination attempts and nation-wide campaigns. Humility is a quality generously afforded to Blouin, who great leaders like Lumumba not only admired but relied upon for counsel, speech writing and oration.

Throughout, she revisits the events of her life while scarcely acknowledging how extraordinary her achievements were as a senior female figure in multiple independence movements. Nor does she stop to lament how she has been erased from many accounts of these movements, like so many African women have been.

“I only regret that I was not given the right, in my sex, to go as far as I could.”

After the heyday of the decolonisation movements passes, her love for the continent endured but she nakedly condemns the enclaves of power that emerge and quickly consume these fledgling democracies. Her daughter Eve plainly acknowledges her mother’s depression at the cyclical betrayal of Africa by its own people. Her questions for a post-colonial Africa remain as salient today, as they were back in 1983. Ultimately, Blouin concludes that to love is to know and that her truth is one that must be told to truly know Africa. ‘Black Pasionaria’ indeed.

[Isaiah · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s been quite a journey. I first discovered this book while watching Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat, which mentioned Andrée Blouin and referenced her biography. After leaving the theater, I looked it up, and to my delight, I found that Verso Books had scheduled a re-release, complete with an epilogue written by Eve Blouin.

Initially, I picked up the book because I wanted to learn more about this enigmatic revolutionary—someone who, though not Congolese herself, found herself at the heart of history alongside figures like Patrice Lumumba, Sekou Touré, and Kwame Nkrumah. If you’re looking to delve deeper into the history of Congo or Lumumba specifically, this book doesn’t focus much on that. Instead, it offers an intimate portrait of Mrs. Blouin in her rawest form.

The narrative holds nothing back, inviting you into her world with unflinching honesty as it recounts her struggles, misfortunes, and triumphs. By the end, you feel as though you’ve truly come to know her. A significant portion of the book is devoted to her childhood, and it’s through these early years that the reader gains the deepest sense of connection and familiarity.

Her involvement with Sekou Touré, for instance, unfolds in a surprisingly unassuming way. It’s neither glamorous nor driven by grand ideological ambitions; rather, it begins with something as simple as her being captivated by a photograph.

Overall, this is an intimate, genuine, and tender autobiography.

[Fleeno · Rating 5 out of 5]

Andrée Blouin was an absolutely amazing woman. A Pan-African nationalist and astute political strategist, best known for her role in campaigning to build support in the Belgian Congo for its independence vote in 1959 and mobilizing thousands of Congolese women to the cause. Born in 1921 in the French colony of Oubangui-Chari (now Central African Republic) to a black mother and French father, Blouin lived with her mother until the age of three, when her father moved her to an orphanage for mixed-race girls in Congo-Brazzaville. The nuns were cruel, racist, and hunger was constant . After running away from the orphanage Blouin began to sew and during WW2 sent packages to France for money. Although critical of France, Blouin did try very hard to forgive her father and have a good relationship with him. She makes comment the only thing they couldn't discuss was colonialism, her father commenting "where would Africa be without the whites" and her replying "where would Europe be without the African," it would end the conversation because her fsther knew she was right. Her view is clear, whatever Europe gave to Africa, Africa gave Europe more. When her young son died of malaria because the medicine was only for white children, Blouin became politicised, hell bent on righting the racist structures which forced her people into poverty. Blouin worked with Sékou Touré (who became Guinea’s first President) in the movement for Guinea to become independent from France, and in 1958 it became the first French colony to vote for independence. After being invited into the Congo to speak to the women about independence, she became a trusted advisor for Congolese Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba. Blouin advised Lumumba to seek support from the US, not because they would help, but to force their hand and show the world they had sided and were aiding the Belgians. Blouin had a keen political mind, predicting many of the moves made by Europeans and tribal leaders. Her parents had both commented the Gods had made her a woman because she would have been too powerful as a man. Certainly Blouin felt hamstrung by her gender, and although she admits she could have achieved a lot more as a man she also acknowledges she would have been assassinated early on in her life.

The first half of this book is a heart felt and emotional story, a reflextion on what is was like growing up biracial in colonialist Africa, while the last part reads like a political thriller. You really get a sense of the excitement and passion people like Blouin, Touré's and Lumumba had for African independence and the African people. At one point Lumumba ponders that peace in the congo is his deepest wish, and its sad that 60years later things have only gotten worse. The political events described however give a good overview and understanding of why things are the way they are in Central African Countries. Blouin viewed all of Africa as her country and she loved her country and people. Blouin ends her biography stating she wrote it as a way of speaking to Africa and sharing her Africa with people. She writes, "I want Africa to be loved. We cannot love what we do not know. Knowing comes first, then love follows. Where there is knowledge, surely there will be love." I certainly learned a lot about the indomitable African spirit and the amazing revolutionaries who tried to shape their countries for the better in post colonialist Africa. This was an inspiring read.

[Wilson · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best autobiographies I’ve ever read

[juliana sasaki-george · Rating 5 out of 5]

such an inspiring woman whose persistence and commitment to liberation and decolonization is a model for what we should all work to emulate

[Marie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Central African Republic

"That girls such as I were given opportunity to atone for our existence was considered one more proof of the white man's charity as he scourged the black man's land."

"The existence of the orphanage was proof that the racism on which colonialism was built had failed."

"Hunger was a constant companion."

"I don't see why we should have to be subjected to penances all our lives for what our parents did."

"Because the woman was black, the embrace was shameful and the love impure."

"According to the whites' law, a black could not be permitted to "disturb the life of a European."

"The children of mixed blood were a shameful stigma to this society in which the lines for blacks an whites were so clear cut."

"I was determined to forge my own future, however good or bad that might turn out to be."

"My mother and father said it would have been catastrophic if i had been born a male. Certainly I would not be alive today."

"African hospitality has no limits."

"I want Africa to be loved. I want her to be known."

[Violet · Rating 5 out of 5]

I only recently learned of Andrée Blouin through the documentary, "Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat," and it was a shock. I had read a few books and seen other films about Congo and Lumumba, and none mentioned her. This is a travesty. Blouin was vital not only to Lumumba (as a colleague, speechwriter, and friend) and to Congo's independence but to pan-Africanism and anti-colonial revolution in Africa in general. Hence the title, where she describes Africa as her country. That description would feel offensive coming from elsewhere, but for Blouin it's sincere and true, as borders literally moved past her and as she lived in and traveled to several African countries, advising so many of their leaders.

My Country, Africa begins with harsh foundations: abandonment by the white father who denied her much-younger African mother the chance to raise her, and travails in an orphanage for mixed-race girls, where they were underfed, barely educated, and treated with cruelty. And yet, a revolutionary spirit manifested during Blouin's childhood, leading her to resist abuse, racism, sexism, and colonialism--a theme which continued throughout her life. My Country, Africa focuses mostly on Blouin's experiences before her political involvements, which felt unfortunately like a brush-over. I truly wanted to know how she managed to accomplish all that she did and influence so many, especially considering her earliest foundations. But overall, the memoir offers beautiful and gripping storytelling about a most fascinating and inspiring life, and My Country, Africa should be mandatory reading for any student of contemporary African history.

[Grace · Rating 5 out of 5]

So glad this book exists. I'm still shocked (shocked of course is the wrong word given that female revolutionaries rarely seem to get talked about apart from the ones who you simply can't ignore (Tubman, Parks, Davis, etc)) that I had never heard this woman's name until this year when I watched the beautiful documentary "Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat" Given my studies, I was definitely unpleasantly surprised that even someone like me who sought out the revolutionary histories of Africa and the New World had completely missed her. Thankfully her daughter has persevered to get this autobiography re-printed as we definitely need more stories like this one to be common knowledge. What an inspiring life she lived during such an inspiring (although ultimately also tragic) time to be alive.
5 massive stars!

[Dar]

Born to a very young teen mom in a village, Andree was raised by severe nuns in a convent, and was only able to escape through personal earnings, then a young marriage. She accompanied wealthy business owners into the heartland and developed both a business sense and comfort with luxury. These stood her in good stead as she eased her way into circles of political power, where she individually achieved a high level of influence. A remarkable story of post-colonial African nations and one woman's astute rise to power.

"Embodying pan-Africanism, Blouin befriended, counseled or lobbied the first presidents or prime ministers of Algeria, both Congos, Ivory Coast, Mali, Guinea and Ghana." - Stuart A. Reid, New York Times

[Chad Sinckler · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’d been holding off giving a 5 star review to a book but, I think this one deserves it. Perhaps my review is influenced by my timing of reading this. Although Blouin is famous for her political work, much of the book centers on her life before her political career. Her depiction of colonial African life serves as a reminder of the ugliness of that time period. But more than that, the fact that in spite of that ugliness, Blouin could do meaningful work in the liberation of Africans across the continent. It serves as a reminder that there is always hope to be had and meaning to be made.

[C K · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love it but Michelle Obama autobiography vibes- 80% memoir and then glossing over the periods that made them autobiographical material.

Moving beautiful memoir.

But wish she had gone more in depth and expanded beyond her expulsions from Congo.

Still blown away that she went from a mommy poet to political mover and shaker.

And her and Andre got divorced??????? Noooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!! Whhhhyyyyyyyy??????

And on that note- she denies being Lumumba’s mistress- change that book description

[Kamron · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an incredibly moving and tragic memoir. I’m glad to know more about this unsung champion for Pan-Africanism and her work along side Patrice Lumumba and other figures. She offers a unique perspective, and at times, very valid critiques of the movements actions and leaders. She writes about Africa with so much love and curiosity. Also, the cover eatsssss!

[Taina Benjamin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Eye-opening read

I wish I learned about Andree Blouin when I was in college, such a fascinating woman! Definitely a must read for anyone who has an interest in the history of colonialism in Africa.

[Reader · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really interesting read, recommended by my sister as I wouldn’t normally pick up an autobiography

[Naivasha · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best autobiographies I’ve ever read in my life. I laughed, I gasped and I cried. What a life.

[Neelam · Rating 5 out of 5]

“It is true that copper has the color of blood and mud”

Remarkable women. We should be teaching her story in schools

[Diana Eberhardt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliantly written/translated, a deeply moving report of the horrors of colonialism.

[nin. · Rating 5 out of 5]

i recommend watching Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat and listening to 60’s jazz (Louis Armstrong, Lee Morgan, or John Coltrane) to get even more vivid picture of Congo in her eyes.

[Antonio Emiliano Garcia Hernandez · Rating 5 out of 5]

All the colonial governments should have been tried at nuremberg with the Nazis, I fear.

[Saron Regassa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Phenomenal and heartbreaking.

[Babs · Rating 5 out of 5]

An inspiring but heartbreaking autobiography, which depicts the Pan-African Activist Andrée Blouin's remarkable life. Following her journey (which takes her across the continent) provides an insight into not just the economic; but social & mental deprivation inflicted by primarily the French & Belgian colonial regimes, and how this deprivation both strangled the physical & mental agency of the African, and made Andrée address the various contradictions in her own life such as her Catholic upbringing and her existence as a métisse.

[Harry Rutherford · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this for the Read The World challenge as my book from the Central African Republic, which is where Andrée Blouin was born — although she didn’t actually live there for very long.

Her father, Pierre Gerbillat, was a French businessman with a transport company in what was then French Equatorial Africa. He saw Andrée’s mother, Josephine Wouassimba, dancing in a local village and decided he wanted to marry her. Although she was already promised to somebody else, he offered such a large dowry that her parents were persuaded.

He was forty; she was thirteen. And although they were married according to local custom, they were not actually married under French law — not only that, he was already engaged to a Belgian woman, who he married very soon. And after briefly juggling two wives, he left Josephine and sent Andrée to an orphanage for mixed-race children run by nuns in Brazzaville. She was at the orphanage from the age of three until she was seventeen, when she managed to escape, literally by climbing over the wall.

Then she worked as a dressmaker, and had a sequence of relationships with white men, before getting involved in the campaign for independence, first in Guinea and then the Belgian Congo, where she was Chief of Protocol for the newly independent Republic of the Congo for the very brief period before Mobutu overthrew the government and she had to flee the country, and move to France.

So she’s an interesting subject. Although the stuff which is most obviously notable about her — the politics — was not actually the most engaging part of the book, for me. The most powerful section is about severity of the orphanage, and the sheer cruelty of the nuns; and throughout the book the racial dynamics are particularly thought-provoking.

She was a mixed-race child at a time when they were so rare that they were shipped of to special orphanages and coerced to marry each other, to reduce their disruptive impact on society. And it made her even more of an outsider that she was cut off from normal African society for her entire childhood.

Then as an adult, she was a beautiful mixed-race woman who, despite having suffered at the hands of white institutions and individuals, was apparently only drawn to relationships with white men; one of whom she lived with, and had a child with, even though he was so racist that he would not allow her mother into their house.

And I don’t think she makes any comment herself about whether her partial whiteness made it easier or harder for her to be a woman taking a prominent role in the politics of independence, but it must have been relevant one way or another.

So there’s plenty of interesting material here. And it’s well written, for which the credit may go to Jean McKellar, who is credited as a ‘collaborator’; I don’t know exactly what that means in this case. It’s also out of print, though, and unless it sounds like it’s particularly relevant to your interests, I don’t think it’s so amazing that you need to seek it out.