Passion or Profession: Writer, Revolutionary

Period: 1921–

Blouin was born the daughter of a French colonialist and a local black woman. As a child, she was placed in an orphanage, where she felt like she was scorned and punished because of her mixed heritage. As an adult she married twice before becoming involved in the central African independence movement. At one point she was a close associate of the soon-to-be martyred Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba of the Congo. She later went on to become a well-known writer.