Some women who have marked the history of Martinique
Activist life in the service of the feminist fight or the French Resistance
Jane Lero (1916-1971): Activist, Founder of the Union des femmes de la Martinique (Union of Women of Martinique)
Jane Apolinaire Léro was born on February 8, 1916, during the First World War, into a family of small traders from Lamentin, a town of Martinique. The fifth of a family of 8 children, she joined the Pensionnat Colonial (Colonial Boarding School) for young girls in Fort de France in 1926 at the age of 10, where she was gifted in science.
Twelve years later, she won the honorary prize in mathematics and science. She saw as an injustice that strikes the woman the fact that her two brothers were able to go to university and not her.
Then 26 years old, on June 11, 1944, Jane Léro was at the head of a group of women of communist sensitivity, calling for the creation of the Union des Femmes de la Martinique. The Union des femmes de la Martinique is an activist and feminist association that defends the cause of women locally. We find it in actions to support women facing the difficulties they face daily (domestic violence, difficulties encountered in the professional environment, precariousness), but also to highlight the situation of Martinican women, less well-off than men. She was the president of the Union des Femmes de la Martinique until she left for mainland France in 1949 to continue her studies as a social worker. She created the Ermitage and Terres-Sainville (neighborhood of Fort de France) committees.
She tragically died on July 17, 1961. A fighter, tireless fighter, determined and passionate, Jane Léro would follow through on her convictions.
Manon Tardon (1913-1989): figure of the French Interior Resistance and France Libre
Yvonne Renée Manon Tardon was born on August 17, 1913, in Fort-de-France, into a family of 5 children (three boys and two girls) where she was the 3rd. His parents are Asthon Tardon (1882-1944) and Berthe Marie Waddy (1887-1961), and were landowners of over 700 hectares. His father was the Mayor of Le Prêcheur (a town in Martinique) and a general councilor. His brother Raphaël Tardon was a great poet and writer. Beautiful and intelligent, Manon Tardon was adored by her father. Instead of attending public school, she has a home tutor, something that was reserved for the aristocracy at the time. Later, she returned to Fort-de-France, where she was enrolled in the colonial boarding school. Gifted, she passed her baccalaureate at the age of 15!
She left for Paris, where she enrolled at the Sorbonne (a Prestigious and first university in France) and became a friend of the future President of the Republic, Georges Pompidou. She obtained a degree in history and geography and two higher certificates (Modern and Contemporary History and another in History of the Middle Ages). During her studies, she met her future husband, Jack Sainte-Luce Banchelin, son of the censor at the old Schœlcher High School. He is a lawyer at the Paris bar and will be a parachute commander during the war. From their marriage will be born a daughter, who died in infancy, and later a son, Pierre, born in 1942. While France is at war, she enlists in the army and follows the École des cadres du Général Delattre de Tassigny.
She is a Women's Weapons Specialist in the Army, first at the rank of midshipman, then officer and lieutenant. She participated in the various resistance networks of France Libre (resistance movement against the German occupation), she took refuge in Châteaudun in Eure-et-Loir, where she was at the time of the landing of the Anglo-American armies in Normandy in 1944, on August 19, 1944 she welcomed the troops of General Bradley en route to Paris which followed those of General Leclerc of the 2nd Armored Division for the liberation of Paris.
In the army, she sympathizes with another Creole Martinican, Simone Beuzelin. This is how she lived in the great period of Resistance in her activity. She will campaign in Alsace and Vercors and will receive the Croix de Guerre with vermeil palm for her actions carried out during the war. On May 8, 1945, she was part of the delegation headed by General de Lattre de Tassigny, to receive the act of surrender from Nazi Germany. She was present there in her capacity as a 1st category specialist staff officer, she was certainly one of the only women present during this historic event.
In 1945, she returned to Martinique on leave for 6 months to settle urgent family matters. Then, she was demobilized on the spot on June 23, 1946. After being demobilized in 1946, back in Martinique, no doubt to stay in the movement, Manon learned to fly. For the next fifteen years, she waged a long and relentless battle to recover the family estate of Anse Couleuvre in Le Prêcheur, which had been occupied by a tough tenant.
She won her case and was able to definitively regain possession of all her family assets. She died suddenly on December 23, 1989, at the age of 76 in Fort de France following a fall on the stairs of her ancestral home. She will have the honor of official funerals with a military delegation and her coffin adorned with the French flag, symbolizing her commitment to the Republic. Her dearest wish will be fulfilled, to die on her native island and her reclaimed domain that she cherished more than anything.