Republishing: Umoja Zwarte Vrouwenkrant

eds. Tamara Hartman, Ans Sarianamual, Mirelle van Tulder, Tabea Nixdorff

The book Republishing: Umoja Zwarte Vrouwenkrant makes a groundbreaking yet vastly unacknowledged grassroots magazine from Arnhem accessible as a source to enrich the still underexposed legacies of Black feminists in the Netherlands.

It all started in December 1984, when Ans Sarianamual made a promise to Audre Lorde to start a magazine for Black women in the Netherlands. Together with a group of Black women organized as the foundation ‘Zwarte Vrouwen & Racisme’ Arnhem, the first issue of Umoja Zwarte Vrouwenkrant was published only one month later. As aptly put in the editorial: “So much has already been written about us, which means our time was mostly spent on reacting to pieces written about us by white women. [...] Let’s start speaking ourselves now!” The magazine (1985–1986) was unique for its time because of its radically intersectional approach, and the establishment of “black” as a political term in order to unite and strengthen all women who were labeled as “the Other” in the Netherlands and beyond. The magazine built on transnational friendships, featuring writings by and about Black women's groups in the U.S., England and South Africa. Besides writing on subjects such as racism, (employment) discrimination and decolonization, Umoja Zwarte Vrouwenkrant published poems, interviews with Dutch Black writers, event announcements and letter submissions in which Black women shared their experiences of racism and discrimination in the Netherlands.

Umoja Zwarte Vrouwenkrant is a revolutionary magazine whose legacy has gotten no recognition. This book aims to bring about change here, and thereby historicize the complete set of magazines, contextualized through an introductory essay by Tamara Hartman and archival findings from Ans Sarianamual’s personal archive, edited by Mirelle van Tulder. Republishing these magazines also means to think of publications as low-threshold archives which help make Black feminist knowledges of the Netherlands accessible outside of archival institutions.