In Praise of Black Women, Volume 1: Ancient African Queens by Simon Schwarz-Bart. Madison. 2001. University of Wisconsin Press. Translated from The French By Rose-Myriam Rejouis, Val Vinokurov, and Stephanie Daval. Foreword by Howard Dodson. 448 pages. 0299172503.
A magnificently illustrated tribute to black women in art and story.
FROM THE PUBLISHER -
IN PRAISE OF BLACK WOMEN is a magnificent tribute to women in Africa and the African diaspora from the ancient past to the present. Lavishly illustrated, with text written and selected by the celebrated Guadeloupian novelist Simone Schwarz-Bart, this four-volume series celebrates remarkable women who distinguished themselves in their time and shaped the course of culture and history. Volume 1: Ancient African Queens weaves together oral tradition, folk legends and stories, songs and poems, historical accounts, and travelers' tales from Egypt to southern Africa, from prehistory to the nineteenth century. These women rulers, warriors, and heroines include Amanirenas, the queen of Kush who battled Roman armies and defeated them at Aswan; Daurama, mother of the seven Hausa kingdoms; Amina Kulibali, founder of the Gabu dynasty in Senegal; Ana de Sousa Nzinga, who resisted the Portuguese conquest of Angola; Beatrice Kimpa Vita, a Kongo prophet burned at the stake by Christian missionaries; Nanda, mother of the famous warrior-king Shaka Zulu; and many others. These extraordinary women's stories, narrated in the style of African oral tradition, are absorbing, informative, and accessible. The abundant illustrations, many of them rare archival images, depict the diversity among Black women and make this volume a unique treasure for every art lover, every school, and every family. Copublished with Modus Vivendi Publications. Simone Schwarz-Bart is the author of six novels and a play, which have been translated and published in many languages; BETWEEN TWO WORLDS and THE BRIDGE OF BEYOND have been published in English.
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In Praise of Black Women, Volume 2: Heroines of the Slavery Era by Simon Schwarz-Bart. Madison. 2002. University Of Wisconsin Press. Translated from The French By Rose-Myriam Rejouis, Val Vinokurov, and Stephanie Daval. Foreword by Howard Dodson. 258 pages. Jacket design: Ben Neff. Jacket illustration: Portrait of Sojourner Truth. 0299172600. October 2002.
FROM THE PUBLISHER -
VOLUME 2: HEROINES OF THE SLAVERY ERA Translated by Rose-Myriam Rejouts, Val Vinokurov, and Stephanie Daval With a Foreword by Howard Dodson. IN PRAISE OF BLACK WOMEN is a magnificent tribute to women in Africa and the African diaspora from ancient times to the present. Lavishly illustrated. with text written and selected by the renowned Guadeloupean novelist Simone Schwarz-Bart, this four-volume series celebrates remarkable women who distinguished themselves in their time and shaped the course of culture and history. VOLUME 2: HEROINES OF THE SLAVERY ERA weaves together oral tradition, folk legends and stories, songs and poems, historical accounts, and personal writings from North and South America and the Caribbean from the fifteenth to the nineteenth century. These women of the slavery era include Aqualtune, a princess from Congo enslaved in Brazil, who led an army of ten thousand warriors in the Battle of Mbwila; Anastasia, an African slave in Brazil, who today is considered the patron saint of Brazil’s blacks; Solitude, a slave in the French West Indies, the leader of the survivors of La Goyave and legendary in Guadeloupe to this day; Phillis Wheatley, a slave in Boston, a child prodigy and brilliant woman whose poetry is among the finest of the early American era; Harriet Tubman, heroine of the Underground Railroad, who helped hundreds of other slaves escape to freedom in the United States and Canada; Ellen Craft, a slave who successfully escaped to Philadelphia with her husband; Sojourner Truth, famed orator on behalf of the rights of women and the abolition of slavery; and many others. A magnificent tribute to black women From the ancient past to the present. Hundreds of rare archival images. Fascinating stories of women’s legacy to world culture. A treasure For every family and school.
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In Praise of Black Women, Volume 3: Modern African Women by Simon Schwarz-Bart. Madison. 2003. University of Wisconsin Press. Translated From The French By Rose-Myriam Rejouis and Val Vinokurov. 258 pages. Cover - Ben Neff/Jacket photo: Myriam Makeba. Olympia 1971. 0299172708. April 2003.
FROM THE PUBLISHER -
MODERN AFRICAN WOMEN offers powerful and unforgettable tales from Senegal to South Africa, from the nineteenth century to the present. These modern African rulers, leaders, and visionaries include Madam Yoko, Queen of the Kpaa Mende and national heroine of Sierra Leone; Princess Kesso, a Fulani Muslim princess from Guinea who became one of the world’s first black models; Alice Lenshina, who fought British colonial rule in Zambia and was considered a prophet in the Lumpa Church; Ellen Kuzwayo, member of the African National Congress whose struggle for civil and women’s rights landed her in prison; Dulcie September, the ANC representative in France, killed for her ardent support for the cause of freedom; Miriam Makeba, internationally loved singer South African singer; Winnie Mandela, who carried on the struggle during Nelson Mandela’s long imprisonment; and many others.
Simone Schwarz-Bart (born Simone Brumant on 8 January 1938) is a French novelist and playwright of Guadeloupean origin. She is a recipient of the Grand prix des lectrices de Elle. Simone Brumant was born on 8 January 1938 at Saintes in the Charente-Maritime department of France. Her place of birth is not clear, however, as she has also stated that she was born in Pointe-à-Pitre, Guadeloupe. Her parents were originally from Guadeloupe. Her father was a soldier while her mother was a teacher. When the Second World War broke out, her father stayed in France to fight, while she and her mother returned to Guadeloupe. She lived in a rather dilapidated school group with her mother. She studied at Pointe-à-Pitre, followed by Paris and Dakar. At the age of 18, while studying in Paris, she met her future husband, André Schwarz-Bart, who encouraged her to take up writing as a career. They married in 1960, and lived at various times in Senegal, Switzerland, Paris, and Guadeloupe. Schwarz-Bart at one time ran a Creole furniture business as well as a restaurant. Her husband died in 2006. They have two sons, Jacques Schwarz-Bart, a noted jazz saxophonist, and Bernard Schwarz-Bart. She currently lives in Goyave, a small village in Guadeloupe. In 1967, together with her husband, André Schwarz-Bart, she wrote Un plat de porc aux bananas vertes, a historical novel exploring the parallels in the exiles of Caribbeans and Jews. In 1972, they published La Mulâtresse Solitude. In 1989, they wrote a six-volume encyclopaedia Hommage à la femme noire (In Praise of Black Women), to honour the black heroines who were missing in the official historiography. Despite being mentioned as her husband's collaborator in their works, critics have often attributed full authorship to André Schwarz-Bart, and only his name appears in the French edition of La Mulâtresse Solitude. Her authorship is acknowledged, however, in the English translation of the book. In 1972, Schwarz-Bart wrote Pluie et vent sur Télumée Miracle, which is considered one of the masterpieces of Caribbean literature. She wrote the book after the loss of a dear friend named Stéphanie whom she considered to be "her grandmother, her sister ..." For her "it was the country that went away with this person" In 1979, she published Ti jean l'horizon. Schwarz-Bart has also written for the theatre: Ton beau capitaine was a well-received play in one act. Schwarz-Bart, along with her husband, is deeply committed to political issues, and the issues faced by people, especially women, of colour. She has explored the languages and locations of her ancestry in her works, and examines male domination over women in the Caribbean, as well as themes of alienation in exile. In his novel Pluie et vent sur Télumée Miracle, the aim is indeed to identify the process by which women become women. The famous sentence of Simone de Beauvoir, "we are not born a woman, we become it" will not have escaped you, but much more than a conceptual formula. Schwartz-Bart highlights this statement in his production by mentioning the genealogy of its literary staff. This evocation will constitute a database, understood like historical, in which is given to have elements characteristic of the West Indies woman. Schwarz-Bart attempts to rehabilitate female figures in this West Indies discourse by giving them a decisive place. She links to the heritage of feminism which is part of the West Indies reflection discourse which it projects as a social and historical reality which would legitimize the latter. The reintegration of women into the general historicity of the West Indies will have enabled the reader of Simone Schwarz-Bart to reposition women in the social relations of power, both subject to the colonial system and to that of compulsory "herocentrism". In this positioning, the woman shows herself to be humble, modest and courageous. Rose-Myriam Rejouis and Val Vinokurov have previously translated two works by French novelist Patrick Chamoiseau into English: SOLIBO MAGNIFICENT and TEXACO. They translated IN PRAISE OF BLACK WOMEN with Stephanie Daval. Howard Dodson is director of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in New York City.