Two books on African women and by African women published this month in France.

* Reines d’Afrique et héroïnes de la diaspora noire.
By Sylvia Serbin - Publishers: Editions Sépia, Paris, 2005

A journalist and historian, Sylvia Serbin lived for 30 years between Côte d’Ivoire and Senegal, where she was born.
In her book, 'Reines d'Afrique et héroïnes de la diaspora noire' she writes about the life, glory and predicament of 22 women, all Africans, whether they are from the African continent, from the West Indies or from America. Some of these women are authentic and legitimate queens, such as Zingha, Queen of Angola, Pokou, Queen of Cote d’Ivoire, Queen Ranavalona III of Madagascar while others have made history because of their heroic struggle against racism and discrimination such as the American Harriett Tubman or less known heroines like the Mulatto Solitude who fought the reinstatement of slavery by Napoleon, after it was abolished, and was killed while fighting.

Retracing the life of these African women and their contribution to Africa and to the Black Diaspora, Serbin succeeds in proving how extensive and sophisticated the African civilisations were much before the arrival of the Europeans and much before Africa was depicted as the “Dark Continent”.

Serbin admits that she has put “women” forward, because “women are never mentioned in history or text books” and also because universal history has yet to acknowledge a black female heroine. She reckons that because “in the history of black people, all great figures are men” time has come to know about the women who have contributed to Africa’s legacy.

* Safia
By Safia Otokoré - Autobiography – Publishers: Editions Robert Laffont, 2005

Safia Ibrahim Otokoré is a Somali woman, born in Djibouti in 1969 and married to the African football star Didier Otokoré (today they are divorced).

In 2004 Safia Otokoré, representing the Parti Socialiste (Socialist Party), is elected deputy mayor of the city of Auxerre in the Bourgogne region of France. She is also vice-president of the Regional Council in that region with a portfolio including youth, sports and discrimination. She is president of the European and International Commission for the decentralised cooperation of the Région Bourgogne

'Safia' is her life story as a poor child of a Somali refugee family in Djibouti. She retraces her long struggle to get out of the “misery” she would have been condemned to, if she had not pursued her studies and especially if she had not devoted all her energy to become a competitive sportsperson. In a poignant but lucid manner, she talks about Djibouti, about her family, about her sister Koltoum who was forced into marriage and about female genital mutilation, practised so widely in Djibouti and which she had to go through when only aged seven.

* With thanks to Eva Dadrian for submitting this information.