Jane VIALLE, an unsung feminist

Who is Jane VIALLE

Born August 27, 1906 in Ouesso in what is now the Republic of Congo, her parents are a Congolese mother and a French father working in a rubber company, this was done a lot in these regions during the time of the French colonies. Jane left to live in France with her father in 1914 during the military conscription for the Great War¹. She studied in Paris at the Lycée Jules Ferry, she became an editor at the Opéra Mundi news agency.

From resistance to politics

In 1939, the Second World War broke out in France. In 1940 Jane left for Marseille under Vichy France and continued her work as a journalist. It was during this same period that she began to speak and make a pact with the home of African and Asian students, she is very involved in this association which certainly helps people but in any fight against the regime imposed by the German Reich. Jane becomes secretary and head of intelligence for the Combat movement for the PACA² region, which will inform all forms of resistance in the region. Unfortunately, she was captured and imprisoned, it was with the success and sympathy of the judge that she would get out at the end of 1943 and her actions for the resistance continued. In 1945 for liberation, she won the medal for resistance and founded the Association of Women of the French Union. She gets closer to the workers communist party the SFIO (French Section of the Workers International), she brings with her association a lot of help for the women living in Overseas and in French Africa. She will go so far as to be secretary general of the workers party of the Oubangui-Chari, current Central African Republic.

A Woman with a capital W

Jane Vialle was a strong woman who fought for her freedom and that of women. She will provide many answers on slavery in Africa and Madagascar thanks to a memorandum³ and in 1952 she was elected member of the International Institute of Different Civilizations. Unfortunately, Jane died on February 9, 1953 because of a tragic plane crash from Abidjan to Paris, she succumbed to her injuries in hospital. With all these adventures and help for the nation and humanity, this is a woman with a capital W.

Glossary

1 - Great War: First World War from 1914 to 1918

2 - PACA: Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur regions

3 - Memorandum: Document which helps the memory on a subject in an organization