Aimé Césaire

Aimé Césaire, born in 1913, Martinican poet, playwright, and political leader, known as a founder of négritude, a movement among black French-language writers that glorified traditional African culture and identity. His writing was also influenced by surrealism, a French artistic movement that emphasized the role of the subconscious mind in the creative process.

Born in Basse-Pointe, Césaire was educated at the École Normale Supérieure and the Sorbonne in Paris, France. While in Paris he met several other black writers, including Léopold Sédar Senghor of Senegal and Léon-Gontran Damas of French Guiana. Along with them Césaire celebrated African customs and traditions in poems and essays in various periodicals, attempting to correct stereotypes about people of African ancestry. He was also active in the movement to restore independence to areas in Africa that had been colonized by France. Césaire returned to Martinique in the 1940s, where he continued his political and literary activity. For many years he served as mayor of Fort-de-France, Martinique’s capital, and as a deputy in the French National Assembly.

In his long poem Cahier d’un retour au pays natal (1939; translated as Return to My Native Land, 1968), Césaire coined the term négritude. The poem quickly became a classic of négritude literature for its exploration of black culture as a valid and independent entity. In this poem and in the poetry collection Soleil cou-coupé (Sun’s Slashed Throat, 1948) he also harshly denounces France’s oppression of its colonies’ indigenous cultures. Césaire’s other books of poetry include Les armes miraculeuses (Miraculous Weapons, 1946) and Ferrements (Ironwork, 1960).

Césaire also wrote several plays that dealt with themes of power, decolonization, and black identity. These include La tragédie du Roi Christophe (1963; The Tragedy of King Christophe, 1969), Une saison au Congo (1966; A Season in the Congo, 1968), and Une tempête (1969; A Tempest, 1986). His nonfiction works include Discours sur le colonialisme (1950; Discourse on Colonialism, 1972) and Toussaint L’Ouverture (1960; translated 1962), a study of the general who fought for Haitian independence.