Photographed by Chester Higgins Jr. Aimé Césaire in 1993.
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May 8th 08 - The Life and Times of Aime Cesaire - Where do you begin? How do you begin exploring the life of one of the Caribbean's greatest literary giant? This was the question we tried to answer on Let's Talk as Sister Ijahnya Christian (right) and Mrs Rita Celestine Carty joined the conversation to explore the life and the writings of Aime Cesaire.
Aimé Fernand David Césaire was born on June 26th 1913, in Basse-Pointe, Martinique. He was an anticolonialist poet and politician who was honored throughout the French-speaking world and who was an early proponent of black pride.
Mr. Césaire was one of the Caribbean’s most celebrated cultural figures. He was especially celebrated in his native Martinique, which sent him to the French parliament for nearly half a century and where he was repeatedly elected mayor of Fort-de-France, the capital city.
In Paris in the 1930s Cesaire helped found the journal Black Student, which gave birth to the idea of “negritude,” a call to blacks to cultivate pride in their heritage. His 1950 book “Discourse on Colonialism” was considered a classic of French political literature.
Cesaire's poetry has been described as a style between "artistic 'modernism' and black consciousness" His writing can also be characterized as surreal.
Cesaire is closely related to the word "negritude," which signifies the black youth's attempt to maintain a positive racial identity. Many of his works combine the two ideas of negritude and surrealism.
It was fascinating to listen to Rita and Ijahnya explain the writings of this great Caribbean poet, author, and politician. Rita spoke from the heart having studied all the works of Cesaire. She first became enthralled with his writings as a student in college and her knowledge and passion about Cesaire is refreshing.
Some of Cesaire's best works includes:
- Cahier d'un retour au pays natal (1939), Return to my native land (bilingual edition), Paris: Présence Africaine 1968
- Armes miraculeuses (1946)
- Soleil cou coupé (1948)
- Corps perdu (1950)
- Une Tempête, adapted from The Tempest by William Shakespeare: adaptation pour un théâtre nègre. Paris: Seuil, 1969, 1997. A Tempest, New York: Ubu repertory 1986
- Une Saison au Congo. Paris: Seuil, 1966, 2001. A season in the Congo, New York 1968, A play about Patrice Lumumba.
- Discours sur le colonialisme, Paris: Présence Africaine, 1953.
- Toussaint Louverture; La Révolution française et le problème colonial. Paris: Présence Africaine, 1960.
Mr. Césaire’s ideas were honored and when the news of his death was announced on April 17th 2008 his passing was mourned in Africa and France as well as the Caribbean.
Césaire was given the honour of a State Funeral, in Fort-de-France and the French President Nicolas Sarkozy was present. Martinique's airport at Le Lamentin was renamed Martinique Aime Cesaire International Airport on January 15th 2007.
my negritude is not a stone
nor a deafness flung against the clamor of the day
my negritude is not a white speck of dead water
on the dead eye of the earth
my negritude is neither tower nor cathedral
it plunges into the red flesh of the soil
it plunges into the blaxing flesh of the sky
my negritude riddles with holes
the dense affliction of its worthy patience.