Elma Francois

This short biography of Elma Francois 1897-1944, reveals to us a remarkable woman. It is possible that the colonial history, written in the past, would have regarded Elma Francois as another passing rabble rouser. In the recovery of our people’s history however, this unheralded woman stands out as a fighter of heroic proportions, consumed by the need to do her duty simply, lovingly and without let up. Many who have had to migrate from their islands under the pressure of nature and society will be grateful for Rhoda Reddock’s portrait of a comrade and a sister who made history within the different circumstances that were given to her, as they are given to others.

The surname ‘Francois’ , and the place where her family came from – Overland, cf. ‘oversea’ – these two factors suggest that Elma Francois had ‘Carib blood’ . This section of the Vincentian community had been violated in colonial wars and put at the bottom of the social ladder. A hurricane in 1898 and a volcanic eruption in 1902 severely ravaged the area and laid waste the land, livestock, sugar factory and other means of production. Thrown then to the bottom of the economic ladder, the Francois family broke up and moved to less hostile areas of St. Vincent. Sion Hill on the brow of Kingstown, the capital, was Elma’s first promised land. It was a settlement of workers for the surrounding estates as well as for the shops, homes, port and other workplaces of Kingstown. The hard experiences of workers on the estates and in the town would be common knowledge in Sion Hill. The then settlement was also well placed to pick up and interpret any stirring of ideas in the capital. It is interesting to speculate that the visit of Marcus Garvey to St. Vincent may have made some impression on the young Elma Francois. Outside of Kingstown, a Garveyite group was formed in the village of Stubbs, where other members of the Francois family had settled.

Those of us who are part of a continuing struggle for emancipation cannot afford the fantasy of thinking that the strong sense of purpose of Elma Francois fell into her head from the sky. It was Elma’s experiences and initiatives as a social being which brought about the development of her ideas. If Elma Francois’ primary school education and her re-education by experience moulded her into such a stalwart figure, then you, I and Caribbean working people have a profound progressive reservoir to draw on which has not yet been tapped.

What impresses me most from this account of the life and struggles of Elma Francois is the powerful sense of discipline, single-mindedness and caring that is evident in all the modes and aspects of her living. Whether as parent, peer leader, or political partner, Elma is gripped by a consistent sense of responsibility, a sense of class and an acute sense of the political which is not sectarian or exclusive. Her social experience/relations as a woman must have been an important element in the final formation of her truly revolutionary discipline.

The decision of Elma Francois’ son to enlist in the British army was a fatal blow to her. The painful effect which it had on her testifies both to the strength of her political convictions and the power of the family bond for her. Evidently she saw her son’s decision as a very personal failure on her part. It struck at the very core of her sense of duty.

The glimpses into Elma’s educational and organizing tactics and work give me quite a thrill, close as some of it is to the experiences shared by many of us today. Courage, vigour and enthusiasm are implied in Elma’s animating a discussion among limers and people on the block. The same is true as she transforms information gathered from reading into intellectual resource for use by NWCSA in study or decision making. Again her inspiration of others, by example and moral force so that they also become powered by the cause, reveals a dynamic leader with an infectious warmth which set her comreades and colleagues aglow.

In her role as a political partner and ally, we can see that Elma Francois showed a personal concern for the development and the security of those in whose company she struggled. Her comrades ‘looked up’ to her for leadership. The organization required that men and women co-operate in developing their collective political consciousness – instituting a dynamic relationship between the sexes. One cannot but help suggest again that the manysided relations in the social organization of labour which are the lot of Caribbean women – strong arm defender of the rest, reproducer of labour power, comforter, culturiser, and producer – strengthened Elma Francois and the other women activists in the NWCSA . Elma did not hold back from working with others even though there were some differences between them. She could see the larger oppression on which they were agreed and did not make the smaller conflict become an obstacle in the fight for the people to advance.

This study by Rhoda Reddock of the life and struggle of sister Elma Francois and the NWCSA uncovers another page in the long book of struggle for emancipation which our working people have been waging. The focus on Elma Francois is welcome. It reassures us of the strength, intelligence and human resources of the oppressed and the doubly oppressed. We know that the future, resting in the hands of committed and conscious working people, is indeed a secure future.

The historical profile of the NWCSA permits us to view with pride our revolutionary parents fighting concrete battles in the war of race, class, gender and colony. Armed with this portrait of Elma Francois, we can compare her features with those of her contemporaries and measure our own and our contemporaries’ convictions and heroism with more humility.

‘History,’ says one writer, ‘does not declare itself, its message must be uncovered.’ I am grateful to Sister Rhoda Reddock for the messages uncovered and yet to be uncovered by the viewers of this portrait.

Earlene Horne Kingstown, St. Vincent and the Grendaines April 8, 1987