Notes to a Black Woman

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.

“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