Fifty years since the magazine Amina echoes the successes and struggles of women on the African continent and its diaspora. The Francophone Feminine was conceived in 1972 by Frenchman Michel de Breteuil in Dakar, Senegal, where he was then living.
“My father spent more time on the African continent than in France. When the magazine was born, he was in Senegal. The woman he was thinking of was African”replies Nathalie de Breteuil, her daughter, who today is the editor-in-chief of the feminine, when asked about this brilliant singularity ofAmina, who for a long time proclaimed himself “The Woman’s Magazine”. Namely, to ignore the origins of this woman to whom the magazine was addressed. As evidence confirmed by readers who have always recognized themselves in the publication. “Our printer even forgot once to put the magazine’s logo. This only happened once. What’s quite amazing is that with or without a logo, our readers bought it exactly from the same way. It was at the time of my father who had had some scares then. However, even without the name, we recognized the DNA of the magazine”, remembers Nathalie de Breteuil.
Accompany “a movement that existed”
By becoming a publisher, Michel de Breteuil is part of a family tradition. However, he is more interested in the magazine press and Amina will be one of “his favorites”. With this review, he captures the spirit of the times. “In the 70snotes Nathalie de Breteuil, there had been many great international conferences on women”. In particular that of Mexico City in 1975. “He realized that women couldn’t express themselves and he supported a movement that existed.” Now, with Amina, the Africans will have a platform. To ensure this spokesperson, Michel de Breteuil very quickly turns to the Guinean Assiatou Bah Diallo, wife of the Guinean journalist and opponent Siradou Diallo, who will be the editor-in-chief of the feminine for several decades. The young woman, who studied linguistics in the United States, has just resigned from a post at the Nigerian embassy following “a letter of protest of her country, she tells the online news site The Journal of Cameroon. She thus landed on November 3, 1973 at 11, rue de Téhéran, in the 8th arrondissement of Paris, the headquarters of the magazine. For Nathalie de Breteuil, Assiatou Bah Diallo, whose editorials made the magazine a success, is “the mama of the magazine”.
Printed today in approximately 50,000 copies, Amina was a monthly, a bi-monthly, before becoming a bi-monthly which is also distributed digitally. Gabon, Cameroon and Côte d’Ivoire are the most important markets for the magazine, which had, in its early days, local versions called Awoura in Ivory Coast, Akouavi in Benin, Wife in Cameroon and Amina in Senegal. In the 1970s, confided Assiatou Bah Diallo to the Cameroon newspaper, the magazine had nine versions, the first eight pages of which returned to the national female landscape. The magazine, which never had an English version, benefited from a Portuguese translation for some time.
All women are stars!
Since its first issue, a photo novel produced in Kenya, Amina has “gradually” evolved, but its editorial line “has not moved for fifty years”, emphasizes Nathalie de Breteuil: “Celebrating inspiring women.” “At the beginning, she continues, those that were put forward had value as an example in the meaning whereon the cover, we had a lot of first women (who were pioneers in their field of activity). Today, women have invested in all sectors of activity and we can only congratulate ourselves on this.” However, “thee pioneers, we still have them today. Our role is to make them visible. The big difficulty for women is to be brought to light, especially since they often ask themselves the question of their legitimacy while men do not do it at all. Amina also responds, in its own way, to this quest with its paper support, which is acclaimed by those in whom the journal is interested because it “gives a certain legitimacy and that it keep.”
Trained in law, information and communication, Nathalie de Breteuil joined the adventure “extraordinary” from her father in 1992. She accompanied him in the management of the magazine until his death in 2018, at the age of 91. This “baby he didn’t necessarily want to share”, the one who will become the director of publication will put “a point of honor” to develop its layout, presentation and content. It was not always easy to convince Michel de Breteuil: fortunately, “we could also oppose”, she confides. “When I arrived, I told him that he had to reorganize, ventilate.“
Feminine social network before its time
Amina has often been criticized for being a bit of a catch-all. “Originallyargues Nathalie de Breteuil, the purpose was to provide information. For my father, the interest was to put women in contact with each other. The form didn’t matter, it was the substance (…) Now it has become complicated, but at the time my father was keen on it. He wanted us to put the contact details of the people we found in the newspaper so that others could get in touch with them, create a network and that his wives could in some way help each other. We did not hesitate then to put the phone numbers. This hope of connection motivated the purchase. Otherwise, “Ihis magazine, Assiatou Bah Diallo told me, was comparable to a friend, a confidant to whom women turned”, says Nathalie de Breteuil. No pan-African woman can indeed claim to have the proximity by Amina with women. Maybe also because the magazine allows everyone to be on the cover one day of a magazine that wants to be “always listening to women” and, adds Nathalie de Breteuil, “we try to go in their direction”. This is the philosophy that underlies the future developments of the magazine. In particular the redesign of its site where the dynamics of the social network thatAmina has always been.
The magazine told of generations of African women and their sisters in the diaspora. “We have a storynotes Nathalie de Breteuil, but beyond us is the story of the women of the continent.” “For me, it’s not a legacy because this magazine belongs to everyone, above all to a team, a bit like a cooperative” to which many feathers have contributed, seasoned or not. “It has become more professional than before”, notes today Nathalie de Breteuil about the network of journalists who participate in the production of the magazine.
What to wish for “Amina Mag, the magazine for African and Caribbean women” so that it remains still and always on the page? To be able to “reinventing ourselves to continue to reach our readers and continue to highlight women with great kindness”, replies Nathalie de Breteuil who also has a message for her readership: “Keep buying from us!”
