Notes to a Black Woman - Paperback

by Francoise Ega (Author), Emma Ramadan (Translator)

The extraordinary testimony of a daring Caribbean writer-activist, determined to expose injustice and defend the dignity of migrant workers

A Words Without Borders Most Anticipated Book of 2026

In the 1960s, hundreds of women traveled from French colonies in the West Indies to become domestic workers for white families in France. Lured by the French government with the false promise of economic opportunity, these women instead found themselves subjected to racial discrimination, deplorable living conditions, overwork, and no pay until they "earned back" the cost of the trip to France.

After hearing the shocking stories of Caribbean domestic workers, Françoise Ega took a position as a cleaning woman in wealthy French homes in order to chronicle these abuses. Structured as a collection of unsent letters to the Brazilian writer Carolina Maria de Jesus, Notes to a Black Woman weaves the story of Ega's experiences in France with her memories of Martinique, her observations on the joys and tribulations of family life, and her reflections on the power of the written word to reveal the discomfiting truths behind the facade of bourgeois French society.

Composed on her bus commutes and by candlelight at her kitchen table while her five children slept, Notes to a Black Woman is a piercing denunciation of the legacies of colonialism and slavery, a wholesale rejection of alienation, and an intimate archive of friendship, joy, solidarity, motherhood, and hope.

Author Biography

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.