Mamo‪!‬

Dame Mary Eugenia Charles was the first female head of government in the history of the Americas when she became Prime Minister of Dominica on July 21, 1980. She was also the first female leader of African descent to lead a Government in the modern era. Eugenia Charles was a no nonsense administrator of conservative stripe who stood alongside US President Ronald Reagan in support of the Grenada invasion of October 1983. Her defeat of the 1981 attempted coup by local disaffected soldiers (unwittingly in league with the Ku Klux Klan) gained her respect at home and abroad. In the early parts of the work we learn of Charles’ tough mother Josephine Charles who ran a grocery store and bakery, and her father the enterprising and visionary John Baptiste “JB” Charles. JB, a tough-talking banker corresponded with Booker T. Washington and Dr. George Washington Carver – sending both his sons to Tuskegee University in the early 20th century. Eugenia Charles adopted the stoicism of her father who was an early Pan Africanist and legislator who promoted self government and the federation of the British West Indian colonies. Gabriel Christian’s “Mamo!” is a riveting biography of the “Iron Lady of the Caribbean” which allows us insight into someone who credibly met the challenges common to developing countries and left office with her integrity intact.