My Country, Africa Autobiography of the Black Pasionaria

“We who have been colonized can never forget”

Andrée Blouin—once called the most dangerous woman in Africa—played a leading role in the struggles for decolonization that shook the continent in the 1950s and ’60s, advising the postcolonial leaders of Algeria, both Congos, Ivory Coast, Mali, Guinea, and Ghana.

In this autobiography, Blouin retraces her remarkable journey as an African revolutionary. Born in French Equatorial Africa and abandoned at the age of three, she endured years of neglect and abuse in a colonial orphanage, which she escaped after being forced by nuns into an arranged marriage at fifteen. She later became radicalized by the death of her two-year-old son, who was denied malaria medication by French officials because he was one-quarter African.

In Guinea, where Blouin was active in Sékou Touré’s campaign for independence, she came into contact with leaders of the liberation movement in the Belgian Congo. Blouin witnessed the Congolese tragedy up close as an adviser to Patrice Lumumba, whose arrest and assassination she narrates in unforgettable detail.

Blouin offers a sweeping survey of pan-African nationalism, capturing the intricacies of revolutionary diplomacy, comradeship, and betrayal. Alongside intimate portraits of the movement’s leaders, Blouin provides insights into the often-overlooked contribution of African women in the struggle for independence.

Andrée Blouin was a central figure in the struggles for decolonization that swept Africa in the 1950s and 1960s. Her activism gave her a front-row seat to the triumph and tragedy of national liberation movements across the continent.

Introduction
Editor’s Note

Part I
1 From the Village to the Orphanage
2 Years of Misery, a Week of Happiness
3 Coming of Age Brings New Terrors
4 Flight to a New Life
5 Hard Days Precede First Love
6 Africa Unfolds, My Life Takes a Turn
7 My Rita and My Father
8 Grueling Enterprises and Tragedy
9 A Funeral and a Marriage
10 Europe and My Great Love
11 Siguiri, Land of Gold and Thirst
12 Little Joséphine, My Own Maman

Part II
13 Destiny Calls, My Political Work Begins
14 Healing the Breach between African Brothers
15 An Invitation to Help the Congo’s Women
16 A Perilous Campaign in the Brush
17 Ominous Developments Surround Lumumba
18 Expulsion on the Eve of Independence
19 The Protocol and the Escape
20 The Congo Catastrophe
21 Betrayal Everywhere
22 Lumumba’s Downfall and Ruin
23 My Africa, My Joséphine

Epilogue
Postface
Index