The Power Within the Marginalised – Black Feminism in Europe and in the Caribbean

1. Introduction

For decades, feminist scholars and activists have called for gender equality across the world, and at the same time, black people have protested open and hidden racism in the society. Recent local and global movements and social media campaigns prove that these issues have not expired, on the contrary, discrimination based on gender and race exists, and in some parts of the world, it has even worsened. As important as those movements are, they are often looked from a narrow perspective. Gender rights are discussed from white women's point of view, and racism is typically linked to black men. Developed by Afro-American female scholars, black feminism raises questions on the marginalised groups within marginalities. Some of the first publications on the topic were already written more than four decades ago, but black feminism has still stayed, ironically enough, in marginality.

This article presents the main findings and arguments of two books that use black feminist theories in different contexts and fields of science. The more recently published of these books is To Exist is to Resist: Black Feminism in Europe (2019). Edited by Akwugo Emejulu and Francesca Sobande, the edited collection combines essays on black women's actions and everyday struggles in different European countries. The second one is Caroline Shenaz Hossein's Politicized Microfinance: Money, Power, and Violence in the Black Americas (2016). Discussing alternative finance in the African diaspora in the Caribbean, the book has already received some well-deserved attention in academia.

Despite the differences in the form and the publication years, the books are comparable and contain some of the brilliant contributions to black feminist literature. They show examples of alternative ways to, for instance, cherish African culture, run own income-generating activities, save and loan money, raise children, and find peers, in the societies where black people have traditionally been oppressed. In this essay, I introduce To Exist is to Resist and Politicized Microfinance and discuss their excellences and drawbacks and their contribution to the field.

2. Tangible Actions and Resistance

The edited book To Exist is to Resist: Black Feminism in Europe consists of more than twenty articles written by black feminists living in European countries. The authors describe how they live, feel, and act in France, Belgium, the United Kingdom (the UK), Germany, and Denmark, for example. Black feminism is most often linked to the lived experienced of women of colour in the United States (the US), and owing to Hossein, to the Caribbean, but To Exist is to Resist shows that it is similarly needed and used in Europe.

The book editors Emejulu and Sobande state that black American women's lived experiences should not be generalised to European women: Firstly, American race politics differs from that in European countries. Thus, if racial injustices are only considered as they are in America, European racialised social order cannot be dismantled. Secondly, focusing on the American experience neglects the existing black feminists’ experiences and histories in Europe (p.5). In the similar manner, I would add that applying black feminist theories to European context helps to develop black feminist concepts generally, which can further contribute to the theoretical approach and movements worldwide.

To Exist is to Resist is divided into four parts with a certain theme. Part I constitutes the introductory chapter, after which Part II discusses different movements and activism by women of colour in European cities. With the example cases, the six chapters address how non-white women have arranged movements and events that challenge the norms, practices, and prejudices in the society. As a whole, the book shows how living in Europe as a woman of colour is continuous balancing between one's ambitions to speak out loud, resist patriarchal norms, and protest discrimination based on race, class, or gender, on one hand; and respect the local cultural practices and integrate in the society, on the other. The texts focus on concrete grassroots level movements.

In Chapter 2, Viki Zaphiriou-Zarifi talks about black women's campaigns and marches operated by the United African Women's Organization (UAWO) in Athens. Zaphiriou-Zarifi uses the concept “acts of citizenship” to indicate how black women “claim visibility” in many levels: visibility as mothers, as anti-austerity activists, as exotic Others, and as women, in an environment where the national identity is white (pp. 13, 16–24). In Chapter 3, Nadia Nadesan discusses “Black and womxn of colour feminist” and queer activism in Madrid. Both articles show that International Women's Day can be a big platform to raise voice on the gender and race equality issues. Nevertheless, all articles prove that resistance to inequality has not only happened and cannot only happen in certain international days, but every day. As the authors of the book repeat, black women's life is continuous struggle and increasing resistance.

Other texts in Part II include Chapter 4 in which Cyn Awori Othieno and Annette Davis show the Mwasi Collectif collective's projects in France; Nicole Grégoire and Modi Ntambwe's Chapter 5 on Pan-African organisations in Belgium; and Chapter 6 where Claire Heuchan talks about black feminism in London and the increasingly important platform: social media.

3. In a Lecture Room, in a Bedroom

Part III focuses on women's emotions and intimate relations. In Chapter 7, Gabriella Beckles-Raymond discusses different meanings of home, and how the concept of home is different to the Caribbean women living in the UK than to the British women. Chapter 8 by Pamela Ohene-Nyako talks about black women's access to and knowledge of Afrofeminist literature in Switzerland. The chapter asks: Who writes black women's histories? How can black women find literature that is written by black women and not only white authors? How do black women get their herstories heard? And how can they get mutual support and empower each other? The whole book relevantly aims to give answers to these questions, yet some questions do remain.

Part III also includes Chapter 9 where Johanna Melissa Lukate discusses embodiment, identity, and belonging among women of colour in Germany, and Chapter 12 with Alecia McKenzie's reflections about her interview of an (now late) Afro-American singer Eartha Kitt. Ego Ahaiwe Sowinski and Nazmia Jamal's Chapter 10 is a collection of a letter exchange between two black women who wanted to write their own stories. Neither of the women had felt comfortable with the texts written by other authors, namely Western feminists. Sowinski and Jamal realised that the writing process was more difficult than they had expected, but it was a beginning of something valuable: sharing examples of the drawbacks of Western-based feminism and expressing their own history.

Chapter 11 by Lubumbe Van de Velde discusses how countries’ traditions and commonly known characters can be linked to the colonial history and hidden racism. Van de Velde's case is a Dutch-Flemish Christmas tradition that includes a character called Black Pete. The question is whether the black male character is racist and derived from colonialism, or whether the skin colour only refers to a dirt from a chimney or a tradition that has no deeper meaning in the modern society. Similar cases are seen in children's plays, card games, liquorice bars, or traditions elsewhere, in both former colonisers and non-colonisers, in the West and the East. Van de Velde ponders how black mothers can resist the dehumanisation of black people while not forbidding their children to take part in school events and enjoying local traditions. She argues that the only way to let adults and children to participate in the tradition is simply to remove Black Pete from it. The demand is an accurate but a challenging one. In some countries, racist characters have been modified or banned, but the change requires that more policymakers and citizens, regardless of the ethnic background, work for the change. The non-coloured people must be reminded that although they would not consider Black Pete as racist, the character represents racism to the coloured. It should be a small thing for the privileged to start using a different name or modify their traditions, but it would be a big thing for the marginalised.

Part IV discusses the position and career of women of colour in academia. The chapters describe how black women are treated, and often discriminated, either directly or indirectly in universities in the UK, Germany, the Netherlands, and Denmark. In Chapter 17, Oda-Kange Midtvåge Diallo points out various aspects about Danish society and academia that does not sound unsurprising to me, whether I have experienced them personally or merely been following them in Denmark. Midtvåge Diallo addresses that race, especially blackness, is rarely discussed in the country, but black women do face exclusion, sexism, racism, and Islamophobia in Danish academia. Drawing from Shirley Ann Tate's concept “body out of place”, Midtvåge Diallo describes that people of colour have a role as either an exception or a representative of the race in the still homogenous country (p.220).

Midtvåge Diallo argues that being a black woman among white men and women in Danish academia is resistance itself. Other ways to resist social structures, discrimination, and marginalisation cover refusal to accept prevailing stereotypes, identity-work and community-building, and “Afro coolness”. Afro coolness refers to how people of African descent embrace their “Africanness and Blackness” with African music, fashion, and material goods, for example. Midtvåge Diallo's chapter is also a good indication of discriminative policies and manners in Nordic countries that are often considered as equal societies. Denmark is the book's northmost case country. Discussion of gender and race inequalities and black feminism in other Nordic countries would be welcome, even though – or because – they have different history on colonialism and immigration from many other European countries.

Chijioke Obasi‘s brilliant Chapter 18 introduces a powerful term adapted by black women in the UK: Sista-hood, a concept that calls for a louder talk on women's experiences, perspectives, self-definition, and freedom. Embracing intersectionality (introduced below), Sista-hood takes elements from Africanist, feminist, and black feminist theories and places them in the British context (p.240). Other essays of Part IV are Cruel Ironies Collective's presentation of the group actions in the Netherlands (Chapter 14) and Sadiah Qureshi's A Manifesto for Survival (Chapter 16). The form of the texts is not typical in academy, but the writings similarly express the struggles and resistance of women of colour. Chapter 13 by Yeṣim Deveci and Chapter 15 by Melody Howse are self-reflections on the theme in the UK and Germany. They could be equally read in an auditorium as a part of an academic course as well as in a bedroom as an inspiring biographical short story.

4. Black Women Do Exist in Europe – and Online

In the book, digital space is proved to be a used and useful, and time to time the only way for black women to express themselves and get mutual support. For example, in Part II, Claire Heuchan writes about black women's movements and “improper activism” online while Part V is dedicated to digital and art platforms used by women of colour. The final part includes writings on how black feminism can be applied to dance, as Tia-Monique Uzor illustrates (Chapter 20); films, as Dorett Jones shows (Chapter 21); and blogs and vlogs, as Kesiena Boom discusses (Chapter 19). The book ends with the Stacie CC Graham's Chapter 22 on creative practices as a way to address marginality, support intersectionality, and increase individuals’ and communities’ self-confidence, self-expression, and communality. Showing examples from Berlin and London, Boom shows that creative spaces include physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual environments. Whether they are a burlesque club, a body-mind-sprit retreat, or an art exhibition, creative spaces allow black women and other women of colour to resist, to raise awareness, and to survive.

All in all, To Exist is to Resist consists of powerful articles that fall somewhere between academic research articles and poetic essays. The black feminist authors excellently use concepts by remarkable black feminists, such as bell hooks, Kimberlé Crenshaw, and Patricia Hill Collins. They address discriminative practices, marginalisation, and intersectional identities that orthodox approaches have dismissed (Collins, 2000; Crenshaw, 1989; hooks, 2014). For example, the above-mentioned intersectionality, one of the main and most spread academic terms of black feminism, is well applied to the texts, whether they talk about academia, activism, or art. Introduced by Crenshaw, intersectionality refers to the marginalised people within marginalised groups, such as black women. In her studies on black women in the US, Crenshaw (1989) showed that black women can experience sexism similarly to white women, and racism similarly to black men. But often, they experience combined effects of discrimination: discrimination based on race and sex – and as black women. According to Crenshaw, black women are multiple-burdened, and thus, they can best challenge all discriminative practices (ibid., 145). Thereby, the term has been widely used in academia as well as in mass media. And the idea behind the concept is what these two reviewed books address.

The authors of To Exist is to Resist challenge mainstream theoretical approaches and feminism and use interestingly and importantly black feminist concepts, but most of them lack self-criticism. Actually, this is not uncommon in the approach. By acknowledging its own drawbacks, black feminism could have even a stronger position to develop the theory and impact society. In To Exist is to Resist, a successful example is presented by Grégoire and Ntambwe who question by and for whom black feminism is talked about. The authors argue that since black feminists are typically highly educated, the Afro women in a lower socio-economic position do not have easy access to black feminist literature or an opportunity to tell “herstories” (p.72). Furthermore, Obasi points out that while black feminists contest mainstream feminism in many ways, it is the feminist framework that offers the starting point to black feminism (p.240). The next chapter introduces black feminist experiences overseas, in the Caribbean.

5. African Traditions as Alternative Banking

Written by Caroline Hossein, one of the most prominent black feminists, Politicized Microfinance: Money, Power, and Violence in the Black Americas is a widely recognised book on alternative banking in the Caribbean. The book has won international prizes, such as Suraj Mal and Shyama Devi Agarwal Book Prize and W.E.B DuBois Distinguished Book Award in National Conference of Black Political Scientists. Hossein states that Politicized Microfinance is the first book to examine how the attitudes of banks and microfinance institutions’ managers and personnel impact who get a loan and with what terms. Having a background in the Caribbean region, Hossein delves into alternative ways of banking in Jamaica, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, Haiti, and Grenada.

At the beginning, Hossein presents the core message of the book. Microfinance is not a neutral phenomenon, but very much politized. She uses politized microfinance concept in ways that have a particular importance in African diaspora. Firstly, the term can refer to the “Big Men“, namely local elites or other privileged people who oppress the entrepreneurial poor and marginalised population by using clientelist politics and partisanship. Secondly, politized microfinance can mean an alternative money system and actions for equality and justice. The book seeks to address how identities and socio-economic position are related to microfinance, but also, how people can contribute to social change and act towards liberation.

In Chapter 1, Hossein introduces the history and markets of the commonly known microfinance and discussion about the system, and her research context. Unlike many critiques of the microfinance (e.g., Bateman, 2010), Hossein does not directly attack the system but finds things to both contest and utilise. For example, Hossein describes how economist and the Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus got his idea to establish a microloan bank – that became the widely known Grameen Bank. Typically, organisations and scholars have either appraised or condemned Grameen Bank´s solidarity group model that has had disputed outcomes. However, Hossein reminds the reader of Yunus's source of inspiration: He had background and experience in South Asian societies, and he had followed local people's lives (p.4). This is an aspect that Hossein carries along: The importance of understanding the culture, ways of thinking, challenges, and potential of the people in question – or belonging to the same group with them. According to Hossein, this is fundamental for operating or studying banking services that target indigenous or otherwise marginalised people.

Also, through the book, Hossein does not only focus on challenging how microfinance has commercialised, but also how researchers and microfinance providers have neglected different indigenous banking systems. Drawing from (yet scant) literature and her own research, she shows how these alternative banking practices have long traditions and are active still today. Alternative banking systems are popular, especially among women and the low-income people in African diaspora around the world due to lack of other options and/or simply people's own choice. In fact, Hossein argues that early microfinance was based on the collective group banking and money pools, such as Rotating Savings and Credit Associations (ROSCAs). These systems were used by people outside the West long before microfinance gained a wider popularity in the international community and banks.

Hossein states that microfinance is typically seen either as social finance or a commercial project. Microfinance has been supported by those who pay attention to community groups and empowerment of women and the poor, on one hand, and those who see that microfinance promotes entrepreneurship and benefits both loan providers and lenders, on the other. Microfinance critics problematise the commercialised, the so-called new wave, microfinance and point malign effects on the lenders. But Hossein argues that international microfinance studies, summits, and reports typically lack black people's perspective. Thus, she uses black feminist theories to study the ways and reasons people are included in or excluded from finance, and the ways and reasons to operate alternative finance.

6. The Similar yet Different Caribbean Islands

Hossein chose Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago as her case countries because they all have a sizable black population and a distinct group of people who provide financial services to the marginalised African diaspora. In addition, some data were collected in Barbados, Panama, Canada, and the US. Hossein emphasises that in the Caribbean, microfinance is an important financial source for the poor who are often people with African descent (pp. 22–23). According to Hossein, colonial past strongly affects people's socio-economic position and perceptions of African-Caribbean people. Indeed, poverty rate among black people in the West is generally higher than among white people. In addition, still today, Africans are often considered as lazy people without a passion to run a business (e.g., Darity, 2009; Obeng-Odoom, 2020). However, the assumption can be disproved by simply showing statistics about the entrepreneurship rate in Africa or studies on black communities’ cooperatives (e.g., Gordon Nembhard, 2014; ILO, 2018).

During her five-year project (2007–2013), Hossein interviewed in total 583 people and observed 14 low-income communities. Of the interviewed people, majority were black people, and 58 per cent were women. The interview questions cover four themes: Individual enterprise; politics and microfinance; identities in microfinance; and community development. The length of the research project, the variety of the methods and themes, and the size of the sample are impressive, reach data saturation, and prove Hossein's dedication to the subject.

Chapter 2 introduces the case countries. Hossein presents the history of the main sites Jamaica, Guyana, and Haiti, and briefly the so-called shadow cases Trinidad and Tobago, and Grenada. In addition to the background information, the chapter offers insights into the countries that readers may know little about. Hossein shows links between the case countries’ history and people's financial position and community-driven cooperatives. She explains that the Caribbean countries have experienced slavery, colonisation, and dependency on the US. Consequently, the people living in the islands share the history and current challenges: racial and social segmentation, which affects people's identities and financial inclusion and exclusion. The countries have also some notable differences. The former British colonies Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Grenada, and Guyana got their independence later than the French-speaking Haiti that yet remains to be one of the poorest countries in the world. Identified as a Caribbean Island, the anglophone Guyana is in fact located in South America. Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, and Guyana can be classified as relatively stable democracies while Grenada and Haiti cannot. According to Hossein, different development and political stability of the countries also explain why people in Haiti and Grenada have engaged in credit unions and independent cooperatives (p.61).

7. Politics and Identity Politics

Chapter 3 shows in more detail how microfinance markets are characterised with identity politics, that is, how cultural biases affect to whom microfinance institution (MFI) managers and workers serve financial services. The chapter includes graphs illustrating the locations of microlenders and the shares of female borrowers, and finally, some experiences and quotes of the interviewed people. The focus is on Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, and Guyana. Introduced as a distinctive case and one of the main sites, Haiti is not yet discussed.

According to Hossein, scholars have different theories on why microfinance has not had desired outcomes in the Caribbean. Some authors acknowledge that microfinance providers are a distinct group from the borrowers, but rare (if any) authors address the impact of cultural factors and the intersection of identities, such as race, class, and gender, on microfinance allocations. Hossein argues that microfinance can be used as a tool to marginalise people.

For example, Hossein shows how some female borrowers’ have experienced an increased risk to abuse in the household after getting a loan. In fact, similar results have been indicated in other parts of the Global South (e.g., Kabeer, 1998; Salia et al., 2018). In Hossein's study, it is eye-opening to learn that in Jamaica, for example, some lenders do not dare enter certain areas (slums), although they are designing loan programmes for the poor living in those areas. It can be assumed that this is not the case in Jamaica only. And although Jamaica has seen a positive development of the increasing number of female loan officers and clients, discrimination based on a skin colour, or a living area still exists. Inequality seems to be even bigger in Guyana where the lenders are often well-educated Indo-Guyanese males who do not have a proper understanding of the life of the people living in ghettos. In Guyana, too, black men are typically considered as bad businessmen who cannot pay their loan back.

in Trinidad and Tobago, microfinance is bound in party-politics. Hossein argues that microfinance is one of the country's elite's ways to marginalise certain groups of people and maintain power. In practice, only the people with political connections can get loans. This depressing finding may not be unsurprising or uncommon, nevertheless, it is very rarely discussed in microfinance literature. To what extent and in which ways politics and corruption lives in microfinance markets should be indeed studied more.

Chapter 4 lets the reader get to know more about the indigenous people and black cooperatives in Jamaica and Haiti. Hossein is one of the few scholars to examine the nexus between violence and microfinance. While the critics of microfinance emphasise the system's negative impacts on financial stability or family relations, hardly anyone talks about how violent and informal actors (gangsters) can danger both borrowers’ and lenders’ lives. Hossein shows that microfinance can be exclusive, firstly, because of corruption as politicians provide funding for lenders who serve their interests, and secondly, because of discrimination that is based on race or social background. Drawing from her interviews and observation, Hossein gives examples of how scarce financial resources and business opportunities can lead to an increasing presence of criminal gangs, but also to an increasing importance of social actors who want to contribute to a change.

Violence and insecurity can concern both loan providers and borrowers. In Jamaica, lenders and entrepreneurs are afraid of Big Men, gangsters, and Dons, namely community leaders who are involved in drug and weapon business and microfinance services. Big Men provide microloans to the urban poor who are then expected political loyalty to the local elite. In Haiti, people have created an alternative to the exclusive and discriminative microfinance programmes. These social programmes are typically run by black Haitians who share the lived experiences by their clients. Interestingly, also Haitian mulatres (freed slaves) work in the same business, which is according to Hossein, not a norm in the country. Tragically, these people have experienced violence and threat by elite or other actors who want to eliminate them from the markets. But despite the threat, social microbanking actors and cooperative members keep operating because they believe that their services are more sustainable than the commercialised ones.

Taken the size, uniqueness, and relevance of the data collected, it would have been interesting learn more of these stories, both dismal and empowering examples of microfinance in Jamaica and Haiti.

8. Success Stories in the Middle of Poverty

Chapter 5 goes deeper into alternative banking in the African diasporas in the Caribbean and the encouraging examples of Haiti and Grenada. It presents old traditions of pooling money, taking loans, and running a business which have been typically got little attention in microfinance literature and reports. Hossein reminds that commercialised microfinance has become the prominent model since the 1990s, but the initial idea of the Grameen Bank was to serve money to the poor through solidarity groups. In fact, people's financial collectives have been operating for hundreds of years (p. 126).

Today in Haiti, despite – and because of – poverty, corruption, and the marginalisation of black population, people have created “caisses populaires”. They are accessible cooperatives run by Haitians and governed by separate laws. Other microfinance providers, such as NGOs, commercial banks, and informal banks, have similarly been more inclusive in Haiti than in other Caribbean countries. In Grenada, the first cooperatives were already created under colonialization, and even today, people find them the most reliable and accessible funding sources. Hossein shows that a big reason for the positive example is that microfinance providers are either cooperative members themselves or share the background with the clients. These cooperatives and rotating savings and loan groups are more accessible and financially more sustainable ways of pooling money than banks are. Similar experiences are seen in South Asian and African countries (e.g., Anderson & Baland, 2002; Sherratt, 2016).

In her book, Hossein refers to Jessica Gordon Nembhard, a political economist who has explored Afro-American cooperatives. Gordon Nembhard interestingly emphasises the power of cooperatives for the members’ well-being and financial sustainability, but her research raises questions of the possible challenges these cooperatives may have. Hossein's explanation of Haitian and Grenadian cooperative microlending is more comprehensive. She indicates the positive and encouraging side of grassroots banking, but also notes its drawbacks and threats coming from outside. Although democratically owned savings groups seem to work better than top-down policies and commercial banks’ programmes, they may include some other downsides, such as difficulties in repaying and tensions between members. Or do they? Hossein could have pondered the issue even further.

The message of the book is continuously repeated and strengthened. While commercial banks, clientelism, racism, and corruption exclude certain people, such as those of African descent, from finance, social banking is a good alternative. Even the critical microfinance literature has not sufficiently discussed the politicization of microfinance, and how identity bias of the loan-providers affects their decisions to give loans. Black feminism offers a tool to examine these phenomena and alternative finance in the Caribbean. As important it is to highlight this, it occasionally seems repetition. Instead, or in addition, it would have been more fruitful to read more about individuals’ experiences and opinions and even see more photos of indigenous ways of banking.

It is encouraging to see how persistently and successively African-Caribbean people have run collective banking systems based on African traditions. At the same time, pessimistic and angry feelings arise when learning more about how unequally wealth and financial opportunities are distributed and how identity politics, corruption, and race impact on the possibility to get finance to a business or basic needs. For example, in Haiti, after another devastating earthquake, community building, financial opportunities, and equality are more than needed.

9. Intersectional Identities in Banking

In the last chapter, Hossein concludes her findings and reinforces her views on black social economy. She also introduces intersectionality and argues that it is an apt concept also when studying alternative banking. In Hossein's work, the concept is a tool to understand the history and lived experiences of the African-Caribbean population. The history and experiences are tightly connected. She states that through the history, black people's experiences in microfinance have varied because of different forms of politicising. Hossein argues that due to class, racial, and gendered politics in the Caribbean, black people (particularly women) have had limited or no access to economic opportunities.

Hossein points out that social economy has been discussed mainly from the Anglo-American perspective. She suggests that the French term économie sociale would better describe the civil society actions and mutual help of the marginalised. Following the black feminist critique towards feminists, Hossein claims that social economists are typically privileged white people who do not know and/or consider black people's experiences. Black social economy combines community building, lived experienced of black people, and discussion on politicised finance. Hossein describes that the traditional gwoupmans and kombit banking in Haiti, susu and box-hand banks in Trinidad and Tobago and Guyana, local banking systems in Jamaica, and the banker ladies across the Caribbean are “daring political action in the social economy” (p.159). Black social economy challenges commercial microfinance, partisan politics, and unequal practices in the society. It represents ethically, socially, and financially sustainable microfinance.

Although Hossein's points of view and contribution to political economy and gender literature are clear from the beginning, she does not dedicate pages to concrete policy recommendations. As her final words, Hossein states that social economy would “possibly” be a means of social transformation for black people (p.160). An encouraging but somewhat questionable sentence proves that more investigation and actions are needed. Hossein encourages people to act bravely and demand loan providers to consider the oppressed, but some questions arise. What should policymakers or international organisations do to improve discriminated people's financial opportunities? Are there differences between different Caribbean countries in what would work in each society? How should commercial MFIs and private banks change their practises, or would societies simply work better without them? Would social economy be a better option to everyone, or mainly to the marginalised and their small businesses? Could social economy and commercial banking complement each other? Should the so-called privileged people create community banking systems which would be more inclusive to the marginalised?

All in all, Politicized Microfinance is an excellent and awaited book that brings political connections to people's daily social and financial struggles. It applies black feminist concepts to the Caribbean instead of the US context and focuses on political economy more than black feminism has typically done. Hossein also refers to other studies and names some academic and media articles for further reading.

10. An Inclusive Approach – But Inclusive Enough?

To Exist is to Resist and Politicized Microfinance have been thanked for addressing the strugglers and resistance of black women in African diasporas outside Africa and the US. Reviewers see that the texts in To Exist is to Resist address well how black women in Europe think and act, produce art and organise events, protest misogyny and racism, and contribute to science. However, the writers are mostly well-educated academics and artists, leaving black women of other social class or other identities aside (Joshi, 2020; Murray & Ruwanpura, 2021).

Award-winner Hossein has been applauded for criticising commercial microfinance and its connections with political system and showing positive examples of informal type of microfinance. Reviews have criticised Hossein for not discussing enough how informal and inclusive microfinance impact on poverty alleviation, and how other marginalised people, such as people with disabilities or variant gender identities, experience the system (Bateman, 2018; Quarter, 2017). Some critics state that Hossein disregards the political framework where microfinance operates and is regulated as well as the impacts of microfinance in other regions. For example, in Sub-Saharan Africa, MFIs do provide loans to poor and black people to the extent that has led to over-indebtedness and other problems in such communities (Bateman, 2018).

I similarly praise the importance and captivating storytelling of the books. Showing examples in Europe and the Caribbean, the authors challenge existing cultural, social, and financial practices in the regions. But as mentioned above, To Exist is to Resist could include more stories of black blue-collar female workers, sexual minorities, and black women living in other Mediterranean and Nordic countries. As for Hossein, she uses well black feminist literature, but she does not really discuss other microfinance studies, let alone compare her findings with them.

The edited book To Exist is to Resist includes a versatile range of articles while Politicized Microfinance is a comprehensive book by one author. The former discusses the topics shortly but uses concrete examples and shows pictures more than the latter. In both books, the authors tend to forget self-criticism. While condemning feminism for narrow perspectives, black feminists themselves rarely discuss what their approach could learn from other approaches and how it could be improved.

11. Conclusion

To Exist is to Resist and Politicized Microfinance broaden the literature on marginalised groups and intersectional identities. Diving into the lives of African diaspora, especially black women, the books state that alternative microfinance and citizen activism among women of colour often work better and contribute to a just change.

To Exist is to Resist consists of texts written by totalling more than 20 activists, artists, and scholars who indicate black women's experiences and resistance to racism, patriarchal norms, and institutionalised nationalism. In the book, black feminism is successfully applied to European context. In Politicized Microfinance, Hossein discusses differences and similarities between black women's saving and loaning money in different Caribbean countries. She states that microfinance has a link to political elite, gangsters, and people's identities, but alternative finance that includes social actions and community building is possible.

As a conclusion, the books demonstrate that black feminist literature and actions have a place in academia and societies as whole. Some literature and actions do exist, but they could and should be developed, embraced, and discussed more than they are now. Black feminism happens all around the world; it does not only belong to literature on judicial cases (Crenshaw, 1989) and recent history (hooks, 2014), but also political economy, art, fashion, and social media, among others.

The authors of the books openly challenge (white) feminist approaches and traditions, norms, and perceptions that derive from colonial history and remain in the societies. In addition to that, the authors could also challenge their own approach. Keeping the brave attitude and developing new ideas while reflecting one's own drawbacks can broaden and strengthen black feminist literature and further increase its publicity in academia, media, and society. When black women resist and show that they exist, they have power to improve their social and financial wellbeing, regardless the continent.