Eugenie Eboue-Tell (23 November 1891 in

Cayenne Cayenne (; ; ) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture and capital city of French Guiana, an overseas region and Overseas department, department of France located in South America. The city stands on a former island at the mouth of the Caye ...

, French Guiana – 20 November 1972 in

Pontoise Pontoise () is a commune north of Paris, France. It is located from the centre of Paris, in the "new town" of Cergy-Pontoise. Administration Pontoise is the official (capital) of the Val-d'Oise '' département'', although in reality the ' ...

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

) was a

politician A politician is a person who participates in Public policy, policy-making processes, usually holding an elective position in government. Politicians represent the people, make decisions, and influence the formulation of public policy. The roles ...

from

French Guiana French Guiana, or Guyane in French, is an Overseas departments and regions of France, overseas department and region of France located on the northern coast of South America in the Guianas and the West Indies. Bordered by Suriname to the west ...

who was elected to the

French Senate The Senate (, ) is the upper house of the French Parliament, with the lower house being the National Assembly (France), National Assembly, the two houses constituting the legislature of France. It is made up of 348 senators (''sénateurs'' and ...

in 1946 and reelected in 1948. She was the first black woman elected to the French

National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the repr ...

. She was the widow of

Félix Éboué Adolphe Sylvestre Félix Éboué (; 26 December 1884 – 17 May 1944) was a French Guiana, French French colonial empires, colonial administrator and early adherent to the Free French Forces, Free French Movement. He was the first black Fren ...

Biography

Origins, studies, resistance

She is the daughter of Hypollite Herménégilde Tell, director of the Cayenne penal colony. She completed part of her studies at the high school for young girls in Montauban (Tarn-et-Garonne) and obtained the certificate of pedagogical aptitude1. She returned to Guyana in 1911 and became a teacher2, in

Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni (, ; ) is a commune of French Guiana, an overseas region and department of France located in South America. Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni is one of the three sub-prefectures of French Guiana and the seat of the Arrondissement ...

. She married

on June 14, 1922, and in 1923 left to live with him in Oubangui-Chari, the current

Central African Republic The Central African Republic (CAR) is a landlocked country in Central Africa. It is bordered by Chad to Central African Republic–Chad border, the north, Sudan to Central African Republic–Sudan border, the northeast, South Sudan to Central ...

, where they remained until 1931. Thanks to her musical knowledge, she helped him to decipher the drummed and whistled language of the Banda and Mandja populations. The couple have four children (Henri, Robert, Ginette and Charles). She then follows her husband throughout his career, in

Martinique Martinique ( ; or ; Kalinago language, Kalinago: or ) is an island in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the eastern Caribbean Sea. It was previously known as Iguanacaera which translates to iguana island in Carib language, Kariʼn ...

(1932-1934) in

Sudan Sudan, officially the Republic of the Sudan, is a country in Northeast Africa. It borders the Central African Republic to the southwest, Chad to the west, Libya to the northwest, Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the east, Eritrea and Ethiopi ...

(1934-1936), in

Guadeloupe Guadeloupe is an Overseas departments and regions of France, overseas department and region of France in the Caribbean. It consists of six inhabited islands—Basse-Terre Island, Basse-Terre, Grande-Terre, Guadeloupe, Grande-Terre, Marie-Galant ...

(1936-1938) then in Chad, where he was appointed governor in 1938 by the Colonial Minister

Georges Mandel Georges Mandel (born Louis George Rothschild; 5 June 1885 – 7 July 1944) was a French journalist and politician who was a member of the Chamber of Deputies representing Gironde from 1919 to 1924 and from 1928 until the dissolution of the Fren ...

. After hearing the

appeal of June 18 The Appeal of 18 June () was the first speech made by Charles de Gaulle after his arrival in London in 1940 following the Battle of France. Broadcast to France by the radio services of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), it is often cons ...

, Félix Éboué rallied to General de Gaulle on August 26, 1940, against the decision of his superior, Pierre Boisson, Governor General of

French Equatorial Africa French Equatorial Africa (, or AEF) was a federation of French colonial territories in Equatorial Africa which consisted of Gabon, French Congo, Ubangi-Shari, and Chad. It existed from 1910 to 1958 and its administration was based in Brazzav ...

Free France Free France () was a resistance government claiming to be the legitimate government of France following the dissolution of the Third French Republic, Third Republic during World War II. Led by General , Free France was established as a gover ...

then appointed him to replace the latter, as of November 12, 1942. For her part, Eugenie Tell enlisted in the Free French Forces for Women and became a nurse at the military hospital in

Brazzaville Brazzaville () is the capital (political), capital and largest city of the Republic of the Congo. Administratively, it is a Departments of the Republic of the Congo, department and a Communes of the Republic of the Congo, commune. Constituting t ...

; for this, in 1944 she obtained the

Croix de Guerre The (, ''Cross of War'') is a military decoration of France. It was first created in 1915 and consists of a square-cross medal on two crossed swords, hanging from a ribbon with various degree pins. The decoration was first awarded during World ...

and the médaille de la Résistance française. In 1940, however, his involvement in the Resistance earned him a death sentence in absentia, pronounced by the

Vichy government Vichy France (; 10 July 1940 – 9 August 1944), officially the French State ('), was a French rump state headed by Marshal Philippe Pétain during World War II, established as a result of the French capitulation after the defeat against ...

. Félix Éboué died on May 17, 1944, in

Cairo Cairo ( ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Egypt and the Cairo Governorate, being home to more than 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, L ...

(

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

Political career

Deputy

She joined the

SFIO The C programming language provides many standard library functions for file input and output. These functions make up the bulk of the C standard library header . The functionality descends from a "portable I/O package" written by Mike Lesk at ...

in 1944. She was appointed delegate to the

Provisional Consultative Assembly The Provisional Consultative Assembly (, ) was a governmental organ of Free France that operated under the aegis of the French Committee of National Liberation (CFLN) and that represented the resistance movements, political parties, and ter ...

then became a member of Guadeloupe for the two National Constituent Assemblies between 1945 and 1946. She was thus among the first women MPs in French history. During the legislative elections of 1945, she was elected in the first constituency of Guadeloupe against the communist candidate Rosan Girard, by 14,441 votes out of 25,020, then re-elected against

Gerty Archimède Gerty Archimède (26 April 1909 – 15 April 1980) was a politician from Guadeloupe who served in the French National Assembly from 1946-1951. She was the first female lawyer to pass the Guadeloupe Bar and the second black woman elected to the Fren ...

of the Communist Party in those of June 1946, by 12,490 out of 18 8151. She nevertheless failed to be re-elected within the 1st legislature of the Fourth French Republic, during the legislative elections of November 19461: she was third on a list of which only the first.

Councilor of the Republic and Senator

In May 1945 she was elected municipal councilor of

Grand-Bourg Grand-Bourg, also known as Grand-Bourg de Marie-Galante (, or ), is a commune on the island of Marie-Galante, in the French overseas region and department of Guadeloupe, in the Lesser Antilles, Caribbean. It is located in the southwest of Ma ...

(Guadeloupe). During the senatorial elections of 1946, on December 15, she was elected councilor of the Republic (which is equivalent, under the Third and Fifth Republics, and, from 1948, under the IV, to the mandate of senator), by twenty votes against thirty. Clovis Renaison, second on the

list, is also elected. She is a member of the Socialist parliamentary group; she is part of the National Education Commission and the Interior Commission. Its first action is to approve the motion "inviting the Council of the Republic not to rule on the request for the lifting of

parliamentary immunity Parliamentary immunity, also known as legislative immunity, is a system in which politicians or other political leaders are granted full immunity from legal prosecution, both civil prosecution and criminal prosecution, in the course of the exe ...

of Malagasy elected officials before having heard the parties concerned (May 1947)". She spoke publicly for the first time in July 1947, during a speech about Madagascar. It supports the transfer of the ashes of

Victor Schœlcher Victor Schœlcher (; 22 July 1804 – 25 December 1893) was a French abolitionist, writer, politician and journalist, best known for his leading role in the End of slavery in France, abolition of slavery in France in 1848, during the French Secon ...

to the

Panthéon The Panthéon (, ), is a monument in the 5th arrondissement of Paris, France. It stands in the Latin Quarter, Paris, Latin Quarter (Quartier latin), atop the , in the centre of the , which was named after it. The edifice was built between 1758 ...

. In 1947, she joined the RPF, a party recently founded by General de Gaulle. She was re-elected under this label in the municipal elections of October 1947. At the Council of the Republic, she then joined the parliamentary group "Democratic and Republican Action". She was re-elected Councilor of the Republic in the 1948 senatorial elections, which then took the name "Senate", making Eugénie Éboué-Tell and her sisters of the Luxembourg Palace "senators". She led the RPF list, which fills the two senator's seats; She won it by 231 votes out of 5,831. She became a member of the Customs Commission but mainly intervenes in public sessions on issues related to overseas territories. She was Vice-President of the Commission de la France d'Outre-Mer from January 19511. Her term ended in 1952 (she had not yet represented).

Other commitments

From February 21 to March 13, 1946, she represented France at the Conference of the West Indies which was held in Saint-Thomas (

Virgin Islands The Virgin Islands () are an archipelago between the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean and northeastern Caribbean Sea, geographically forming part of the Leeward Islands of the Lesser Antilles in the Caribbean, Caribbean islands or West Indie ...

of the United States). Nearly ten countries and thirty international and regional organizations and institutions are participating in the presence of Charles W. Taussig, special advisor to the US Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. A member of the MRP's management board, General de Gaulle entrusted him with the presidency of the UPANG (Private Union for aid to General de Gaulle's action), in charge of collecting funds for the RPF. From 23 to 25 November 1951 she participated in Nancy in the National Assizes on the French Union and presented the report of the commission on the future of this organization, then becoming the vice-president of its assembly and the vice-president of the parliamentary group of "Social Republicans". She is also a member of the Steering Committee of the International Alliance of Women. She failed to be elected during the French legislative elections of 1956, then a candidate in the 5th district of the Seine; she was third on the list of Social Republicans, only one seat being filled by this list. From 1959 to 1962, she was a member of the social activities section of the Economic and Social Council. In 1958, she was elected municipal councilor of Asnières, under the mandate of Maurice Bokanowsky; she remains so until her death. Sick, she died on November 20, 1972, in Pontoise and was buried in the cemetery of Pantin (the 21st division). Many attempts have so far remained unsuccessful for her to rest with her husband in the Pantheon.

Decorations

* Medal of the Resistance * Commander of the Legion of Honor * Academic Palms Officer * Order of Chad * Order of the Ivory Coast

Tributes

* Collège Eugénie-Tell-Eboué in

(French Guiana) * Eugénie-Éboué Street (12th arrondissement of Paris)

References

http://www.senat.fr/senateur-4eme-republique/eboue_tell_eugenie0410r4.html http://www.senat.fr/evenement/archives/D35/eboue.html https://theconversation.com/la-lutte-des-femmes-noires-en-politique-a-commence-des-la-resistance-francaise-117551 https://theconversation.com/la-longue-lutte-des-femmes-noires-en-politique-117551 https://www.huffingtonpost.fr/entry/les-femmes-noires-puissantes-qui-ont-change-la-politique-francaise-depuis-la-resistance_fr_5d4a98e9e4b09e72973edbe1 http://www.senat.fr/senateur-4eme-republique/eboue_tell_eugenie0410r4.html#1940-1958 http://www.senat.fr/comptes-rendus-seances/4eme/pdf/1947/05/S19470522_0613_0648.pdf {{DEFAULTSORT:Eboue-Tell, Eugenie French people of French Guianan descent French senators of the Fourth Republic French Guianan politicians 1891 births 1972 deaths French Guianan women in politics Women members of the Senate (France) Senators of Guadeloupe 20th-century French women politicians