Quote by Joseph Zobel: “Education was our only true weapon against a world that sought to keep us down.”

This quote emphasizes the transformative power of education as the primary tool for liberation and advancement in an oppressive society. It highlights knowledge as a means of resistance against systemic injustice and a pathway to self-determination.

In colonial Martinique, education was often inaccessible or limited for Black children, yet it represented the strongest hope for escaping the sugar cane fields and achieving social mobility, as depicted in Zobel's autobiographical novel.

Martinican novelist best known for his 1950 novel La Rue Cases-Nègres, which depicts the life of a young Black boy in the sugarcane plantations of Martinique. The novel was adapted into the 1983 film Sugar Cane Alley, which won the Silver Lion at the Venice Film Festival.