Journal of Women's History

In a roundtable, the transcription of which concludes this Special Issue, Bintou Dembélé, a dancer and choreographer, discusses her relationship to the world through movement. She does not describe herself as engagée but invokes the hip-hop and banlieue (project-like housing development) slang déter (determined) and debout (standing up) to denote the conscious and stubborn dimensions of this active stance. In the same roundtable, using a Creole phrase, the Martinican singer Jocelyne Béroard adds tchin bé doubout (don’t give up), which she explains means “we are, we exist,” developing that same idea of standing up (doubout). The notion of femmes debout (women standing up, tall, on their two feet) and déter (determined women) defines this Special Issue devoted to “Debout & Déter: Black Women on the Move, Black Feminisms in French (Post) Imperial Contexts,” as do the forms of movement and engagement that lead women to take that stance. Alongside those whose voices shape this volume, Dembélé and Béroard remind us of the many ways women describe their place and actions in the world while questioning, rejecting, or reframing the language of feminism, activism, and academia.¹ These debout women position themselves in this way after finding themselves either literally sidelined (in rural communities or banlieues) or figuratively sidelined, like the signares (elite women) of Gorée Island, Senegal, after men in that region received French citizenship in 1848.

As we listened to their words, we realized that the initial question driving our project had been rendered more precise by the contributors’ sources, voices, and analyses. This Special Issue began as an examination of Black feminisms as a way to resist oppression, be it colonialism, racism, or misogyny. But in the review and writing process, the focus shifted, becoming a collection of articles seeking to understand why in the Global South, or in marginalized communities of the Global North, words like “déter” or “debout” are so prevalent when women describe their social, political, and cultural movements, or their engagement with the world. Somewhere along the way, “Debout & Déter” provided a broader exploration of how women prevail to create a better existence, or a better life, for themselves and very often for their kin.² Francophone Afrofeminist thinking remains present in these articles, including as explicit terminology. But these texts also examine collaborative strategies to create a more equitable world for people across genders and for the broader community. These [End Page 9] articles showcase women who stood and moved to create spaces in which they could better exist, at times even thrive, and from which they could keep moving forward.

This Special Issue of the Journal of Women’s History was inspired by a conference—Des féminismes noirs en contexte (post)impérial français? Histoires, expériences, et théories (Black Feminisms in (Post)Imperial French Context? Histories, Experiences, and Theories)—co-organized by the Guest Editors (Jennifer Boittin and Jacqueline Couti) along with Silyane Larcher, who first imagined the conference, and Lucia Direnberger, Myriam Paris, and Rose Ndengue (an author in this issue). The conference was held in Aubervilliers, on the EHESS campus right outside Paris, France, on March 3–5, 2020, mere days before many countries closed their borders against the COVID-19 pandemic.³ We already knew something was coming: the traditional bise (French greeting by kissing on the cheeks) had become elbow bumps; announcements in the metro warned people to wash their hands frequently (albeit not yet to mask); restaurants were disturbingly empty, and people ate outdoors when they could. Two days into the conference, many attendees were rushing to change return tickets as governments warned of imminent and indefinite border closings.

Yet the conference hall was packed and from the first to the last day of the conference, we saw evidence of a deep-seated need for this intellectual gathering of a community of scholars, artists, and activists—the first event of its kind to give evidence of how the question of Black women...