Born in 1921 in Central African Republic, Andrée Blouin grew up convinced that her life was “punishment for being born of a white father and a black mother”. As a métisse (woman of mixed heritage), her existence was a sin, symbolising her French father’s weakness and her African mother’s licentiousness.
At the age of three she was given to a children’s prison. Officially a mission-run orphanage, Blouin was taken there despite her mother’s devotion. Under colonial rule, “disturb[ing] the life of a European” was outlawed; the Frenchman had the final say. My Country, Africa is Blouin’s autobiography, tracking her “own maligned fate” and the “system of evil” that produced it.
Blouin received no formal education. The orphanage taught children to sew and speak French, though only to prepare them for a life of servitude. Their food was full of parasites. In a harrowing scene, Blouin finds more nourishment in digesting wet clay from a brick wall, becoming seriously ill.
While restricted by a system designed for subservience, she saw through colonial narratives, rejecting the “civilising process[es]” which forced métisses into arranged marriages and further segregation. At 17, she escaped the orphanage.
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Blouin’s real political awakening followed the death of her son René; dying of malaria, he was not legally entitled to quinine, nor was anyone with African blood. He died in hospital, while nearby the son of a European neighbour received treatment for the same disease. Blouin successfully campaigned against the quinine card law, organised the Feminine Movement for African Solidarity and became an eminent political figure in various national liberation movements, notably as an adviser to Patrice Lumumba, who was fighting for Congolese independence.
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A staunch advocate for pan-Africanism (reflected in the book’s title), Blouin bemoaned how easily the “mutilated wills” of fellow Africans could be turned against each other. Even when true freedom is within their grasp, “the real enemies of Africa are the Africans themselves”, she declared.
Blouin’s assessments are measured and nuanced, avoiding binaries. Even the heroic Lumumba is painted as something of a people-pleaser, “[an] apostle who opens the path”, rather than one who “go[es] the whole way in his work”.
My Country, Africa is an intense history of colonialism. Blouin’s story serves as a microcosm for the near misses, cycles and reason-defying hope that characterise Africa’s past.
Colm McKenna is a writer based in Paris
