1935–1936: (Common Ground with the Griots and the Atatürk Epigraph — the LFAS’s Support of Ethiopia Showing How Women Picked Up Issues Along Their Political …

1935–1936: (Common Ground with the Griots and the Atatürk Epigraph — the LFAS’s Support of Ethiopia Showing How Women Picked Up Issues Along Their Political Journey That Aligned Them with Various Radical Groups, La Voix des Femmes Praising Duvalier and Denis Lorimer’s “Beautiful and Strong Essay” Querying Haitian Allegiances to French Thought, Sylvain Posing a Similar Question in “Let’s Be Proud to Be Haitian” Blaming a National “Inferiority Complex” on Preoccupation with France — “Yet What People Can Boast of Having a Better Past Than Ours!”, the LFAS the Griots and Socialists Finding Common Ground in Anticolonialism and Skepticism of Vincent, Every Issue of La Voix des Femmes Beginning with Kemal Atatürk’s Quote on Gender Division Weakening a Nation — a Philosophy Also Celebrated by the Griots Though Their Respective Applications Would Diverge Significantly by the 1940s): The LFAS’s support of Ethiopia also illustrated how the women picked up issues and thinking along their political journey that aligned them with various Haitian radical groups. In the August 1936 issue where Perez invoked revolutionary ancestors, the newspaper praised François Duvalier and Denis Lorimer’s essay querying Haitian allegiances to French thought — asking why Black youth should learn the adventures of Clovis or Joan of Arc when they had Louverture, Dessalines, and King Henry Christophe. Just months before, Madeleine Sylvain had posed a similar question in her essay Let’s Be Proud to Be Haitian, blaming a national inferiority complex on preoccupation with France — yet what people can boast of having a better past than ours! In the mid-1930s, the LFAS, the Griots, and socialists found common ground in their concern for anticolonial movements and their respective skepticism about Vincent’s transition government. Every issue of La Voix des Femmes began with an epigraph quoting Turkish leader Kemal Atatürk: a people divided into two categories, men on one hand and women on the other, will always be a weak people. The Griots also celebrated Atatürk’s popularism, though by the 1940s their respective applications of these philosophies diverged significantly — the Griots absorbing Atatürk into noiriste politics while the LFAS maintained their nonpartisan feminist wayfaring. Still, at a philosophical level, both groups maintained a commitment to defending and connecting people of African descent globally.