Tending to Our Wounds

Edna Bonhomme is a critic, historian of science, and journalist. She earned a PhD in history from Princeton University and holds a Bachelor's degree in Biology and a Master's degree in Public Health from Columbia University. Her writing has appeared in The Atlantic, Esquire, The Guardian, London Review of Books, and The Nation. She is co-editor of After Sex, a literary anthology on abortion and reproductive justice, and the author of A History of the World in Six Plagues. Bonhomme has earned awards from the Andy Warhol Foundation and the Robert Silvers Foundation, and is a finalist for the Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing from the National Book Critics Circle. She has lived in Berlin since 2017.

• PROLOGUEAfter a diagnosis of endometriosis and fibroids, Bonhomme contemplates the geographical and activist directions her life has taken and outlines what the book will be: a personal and political history of racism across borders, and an exploration into the possibilities of racial repair. PART I: BERLINChapter 1: AusländerTo be a Black person living in Germany, Bonhomme discovers, is to be both visible and invisible.Chapter 2: KulturvölkerBy examining German history, Bonhomme unravels the financial ties between the Prussian Empire and the transatlantic slave trade, German colonialism in Africa, and the new Black movement in Germany.PART II: NEW YORK CITYChapter 3: StudentAfter moving to New York City shortly before the 2008 financial crash, Bonhomme struggled to survive even as she began to discover the cultural power of Harlem as a place of refuge and a site for vice.Chapter 4: New YorkerDiving deeper into the history of Harlem, Bonhomme details the Great Migration, the Harlem Renaissance, and Pan-African debates during the civil rights movement, showing how this New York City neighborhood was and continues to be a haven for Black radicals.Part III: DIASPORAChapter 5: HaitiBonhomme navigates through the complex inner workings of her parents’ migration and Haitian history.Chapter 6: Living Under OccupationHaiti and Haitians have been punished for their freedom, and the only way forward is if France (and the United States) provide reparations to Haitians. PART IV: THE WOUNDChapter 7: SiblingBonhomme’s brother’s mental health illness, incarceration, and life have been shaped by growing up as a Black boy in Florida—and by the US government’s inclination to invest in prisons rather than mental health institutions.Chapter 8: IndebtedDebt perforates through our lives, affecting how we live, where we live, and how we relate to each other, and it disproportionately cripples Black women.PART V: REPAIRChapter 9: Reckoning with HistoryBonhomme parses the many layers of history that she has uncovered and thinks about what the future could look like.Chapter 10: The Case for ReparationsThe call for reparations is not an abstract appeal: European and North American nations must begin by paying Black people what they are owed, and an internationalist approach is part of the reparative practice.

"Tending to Our Wounds is no ordinary memoir. Edna Bonhomme plies her impressive skills as historian and writer to not only tell her stories but to revisit and reconstruct the traumas, revolts, and creativity of those who had once inhabited the places she called home. And in telling their stories she offers a brilliant accounting of what it cost Africans throughout the diaspora to enrich a European ruling class. The bill is past due."—Robin D. G. Kelley, author of Thelonius Monk: The Life and Times of An American Original "In Tending to Our Wounds, Edna Bonhomme takes us on a journey that beautifully weaves the personal memories of a Haitian-American, working-class Black woman with the history of colonialism, imperialism, and racial capitalism. As she settles in different cities—Berlin, New York, Cairo, Harlem, Port-au-Prince, Miami—she describes the mechanisms of white innocence, analyzes how racial systems deeply affect the psychic and physical life of Black people, and how people resist. It is a memoir of a political education anchored in her family’s diasporic history, in Black joy and Black struggle."—Françoise Vergès, author of A Programme of Absolute Disorder: Decolonizing the Museum"In this expansive, lyrical, and personal book, Edna Bonhomme crisscrosses the earth, tracking the injuries that racial capitalism inflicts, as well as the more-than-reparative logics of resistance that emanate from the 'alien' abolitionist undercommons of various Black diasporas. It is rare to experience memoir, history, and politics braided together so fluidly. A must-read, especially for anyone whose kin have been wounded by captivity and colonialism, or who needs reminding that their solidarity efforts are building, every day, a collective home whose name is freedom."—Sophie Lewis, author of Enemy Feminisms and Femmephilia“Tending to Our Wounds traces Bonhomme’s journey across Haiti, Florida, Portland, New York City, Cairo, and Berlin to examine how histories of racism and disenfranchisement shape the present. Melding rigorous research with her own diasporic experience, Bonhomme’s sharp, unflinching language forges links between personal memory and broader structures of power.”—Tessa Hulls, author of Feeding Ghosts: A Graphic MemoirPraise for A History of the World in Six Plagues“A searing attack on historical injustices.”—Kirkus Review“Bonhomme’s frank, timely critique of the Western medical field and our faltering health care system reveals how it is deeply entangled with colonialism and capitalism."—BookPage“Pandemics thrive on inequities and widen them, providing more kindling for future plagues … if everyone read Edna Bonhomme’s incredible, humane, insightful book—and I hope they do—we might stand a chance of actually breaking the cycle of neglect and panic.”—Ed Yong“A breathtaking journey through the intertwined histories of contagions and systemic inequities that have shaped our history. Poignantly insightful and compelling, Bonhomme not only sheds light on past injustices but challenges us to confront our history and envision a more compassionate future.”—Uché Blackstock“This meticulously researched book shows us the ways that contagious illness frustrates humankind's instinct for control, and how people have found ways to care for one another in the worst of circumstances. A powerful book that shines a light on the parts of life we'd rather ignore, and the beauty that can arise from horror.”—Sarah Jaffe“Edna Bonhomme narrates centuries of the human-microbial dance, laying out how our destinies, liberties, and values are determined by how humans negotiate life on earth with our smallest living neighbors. Brilliant, tender and illuminating.” —Steven W. Thrasher“An expansive portraiture of how colonialism and confinement have influenced our understanding of illness and humanity. Thankfully, due to the author's talent and sheer strength in combining personal narrative with history, this book is also tender as it tackles some of the most stigmatized subjects of our time."—Morgan Jerkins