Aimé Césaire | |
|---|---|
 Césaire in 2003 | |
| Born | Aimé Fernand David Césaire (1913-06-26)26 June 1913 |
| Died | 17 April 2008(2008-04-17) (aged 94) Fort-de-France, Martinique,France |
| Education | École Normale Supérieure[1] |
| Occupation(s) | Poet, author and politician |
| Known for | Négritude movement |
| Notable work | Cahier d'un retour au pays natal (1939) Discours sur le colonialisme |
| Political party | Martinican Progressive Party |
| Spouse | |
Aimé Fernand David Césaire (/seɪˈzɛər/;[2]French:[ɛmefɛʁnɑ̃davidsezɛʁ]; 26 June 1913 – 17 April 2008) was a French poet, author, andpolitician fromMartinique.[3] He was "one of the founders of theNégritude movement in Francophone literature"[4] and coined the wordnégritude in French.[5] He founded theParti progressiste martiniquais in 1958, and served in theFrench National Assembly from 1945 to 1993 and asPresident of the Regional Council of Martinique from 1983 to 1988. He was also the Mayor ofFort-de-France for 56 years, from 1945 to 2001.
His works include the book-length poemCahier d'un retour au pays natal (1939),Une Tempête, a response toWilliam Shakespeare's playThe Tempest, andDiscours sur le colonialisme (Discourse on Colonialism), an essay describing the strife between the colonizers and the colonized. Césaire's works have been translated into many languages.
Aimé Césaire was born inBasse-Pointe,Martinique, French Caribbean, in 1913. His father was a tax inspector, and his mother was a dressmaker. "Although in his Cahier he evoked his childhood as poverty-stricken and squalid, his family was part of the island's small, black middle class."[6] His family moved to the capital of Martinique,Fort-de-France, in order for Césaire to attend the only secondary school on the island,Lycée Victor Schœlcher.[7] He was not happy there, and found the town's racial and class bigotry to be upsetting.[8]
They lived nearMount Pelée, and Césaire often described himself as possessing similar characteristics to the volcano—impulsive, unpredictable, and explosive.[8]
He believed that he was ofIgbo descent, and thought of his first nameAimé as a retention of an Igbo name; though the name is of French origin, ultimately from theOld French wordamée, meaning beloved, its pronunciation is similar to the Igboeme, which forms the basis for many Igbo given names.[9]
Césaire traveled toParis to attend theLycée Louis-le-Grand on an educational scholarship. There, he became acquainted withLéopold Sédar Senghor. Along withLéon Damas, whom Césaire had met in secondary school, they bonded over a shared intellectual interest inFrench poetry.[8]
In Paris, he passed the entrance exam for theÉcole Normale Supérieure in 1935 and created the literary reviewL'Étudiant noir (The Black Student) with Léopold Sédar Senghor and Léon Damas.[a] Manifestos by these three students in its third number (May–June 1935)[10] initiated theNégritude movement later substantial in both pan-Africanist theory and the actual decolonization of theFrench Empire in Africa.
In 1934, Césaire was invited by his friendPetar Guberina to theKingdom of Yugoslavia, where inŠibenik he started writing his poemNotebook of a Return to the Native Land – one of the first expressions of the concept of Négritude.[11]
Upon returning home to Martinique in 1936, Césaire began work on his long poemCahier d'un retour au pays natal (Notebook of a Return to the Native Land), a poetic exploration of Caribbean life and cultural complexities in the New World. The work was part of the Négritude movement.[8]
Césaire married fellow Martinican studentSuzanne Roussi in 1937. Together they moved back to Martinique in 1939 with their young son. Césaire became a teacher at the Lycée Schoelcher in Fort-de-France, whereFrantz Fanon was a student. He became a significant influence on Fanon's intellectual development and ideas, being the first person to read Fanon's manuscripts.[12] Césaire also served as an inspiration for, but did not teach, writerÉdouard Glissant.
The years ofWorld War II were a period of increased literary and intellectual engagement for the Césaires. In 1941, Césaire and Suzanne Roussi founded the literary reviewTropiques, with the help of other Martinican intellectuals such asRené Ménil and Aristide Maugée, in order to challenge the cultural status quo and alienation that characterized Martinican identity at the time. In this sense, according to Ursula Heise, the publications of the French botanistHenri Stehlé inTropiques in the early 1940s, concerning the Martinican flora,[13] and "the invocations of Césaire to the Antillean ecology operate as indices of a racial and cultural authenticity which is distinguished from European identity...".[14] During an interview granted in 1978, Césaire explains that his aim for including these articles inTropiques was "to allow Martinique to refocus" and "to lead Martinicans to reflect" on their close environment.[15] Despite instances of censorship, Césaire continued to advocate for Martinican cultural identity.[16] He also became close to Frenchsurrealist poetAndré Breton, who spent time in Martinique during the war. The two had met in 1940, and Breton later championed Césaire's work.[17]
In 1947, his book-length poemCahier d'un retour au pays natal, which had first appeared in the Parisian periodicalVolontés in 1939 after rejection by a French book publisher,[18] was published.[19] The book mixes poetry and prose to express Césaire's thoughts on the cultural identity of black Africans in a colonial setting. Breton contributed a laudatory introduction to this 1947 edition, saying that the "poem is nothing less than the greatest lyrical monument of our times."[20] When asked byRené Depestre about his writing style, Césaire replied by saying that "Surrealism provided me with what I had been confusedly searching for."[21]
Aimé Césaire | |
|---|---|
| Mayor ofFort-de-France | |
| In office 25 May 1945 – 18 March 2001 | |
| Preceded by | Victor Sévère |
| Succeeded by | Serge Letchimy |
| Deputy forMartinique (proportional representation) in theNational Assembly of France, 4th Republic | |
| In office 21 October 1945 – 8 December 1958 | |
| Preceded by | New Republic |
| Succeeded by | Self and others (5th Republic) |
| Parliamentary group | Communist (1945–1956) Independent(Non-Inscrit) (1956–1958) |
| Deputy forMartinique's 3rd constituency in theNational Assembly of France | |
| In office 9 December 1958 – 1 April 1986 | |
| Preceded by | Self and others(proportional representation in 4th republic) |
| Succeeded by | Self and others(proportional representation) |
| Parliamentary group | Independent (1958–1978) Socialist (Associated)(1978–1986) |
| Deputy forMartinique (proportional representation) in theNational Assembly of France | |
| In office 2 April 1986 – 14 May 1988 | |
| Parliamentary group | Socialist Group |
| Deputy forMartinique's 3rd constituency in theNational Assembly of France | |
| In office 23 June 1988 – 1 April 1993 | |
| Preceded by | Self and others(proportional representation) |
| Succeeded by | Camille Darsières |
| Parliamentary group | Socialist Group |
| Personal details | |
| Political party | PCF PPM |
In 1945, with the support of theFrench Communist Party (PCF), Césaire was elected mayor ofFort-de-France and deputy to theFrench National Assembly for Martinique. He managed to get alaw addressing departmentalization approved unanimously on 19 March 1946.[22] While departmentalization was implemented in 1946, the status did not bring many meaningful changes to the people of Martinique.
Like manyleft-wing intellectuals in 1930s and 1940s France, Césaire looked toward theSoviet Union as a source of progress, virtue, and human rights. He later grew disillusioned with the Soviet Union after the 1956 suppression of theHungarian Revolution. He announced his resignation from the PCF in a text entitledLettre àMaurice Thorez (Letter to Maurice Thorez).[23] In 1958, Césaire founded theParti Progressiste Martiniquais. Césaire and the Parti Progressiste Martiniquais remained influential in Martinique's politics during the latter half of the 20th century. Césaire declined to renew his mandate as deputy in the National Assembly in 1993, after a 47-year continuous term.[22]
His writings during this period reflect his passion for civic and social engagement. In 1950, he wroteDiscours sur le colonialisme (Discourse on Colonialism), a critique of European colonial practices and attitudes that was republished in the French reviewPrésence Africaine in 1955 (English translation 1957). In 1960, he publishedToussaint Louverture, based on the life of theHaitian revolutionary. In 1969, he published the first version ofUne Tempête, an adaptation of Shakespeare'sThe Tempest with themes resonating with a black audience.
Césaire served asPresident of the Regional Council of Martinique from 1983 to 1988. He retired as mayor of Fort-de-France in 2001, thus ending his political career.[24]
In 2006, Césaire refused to meet the leader of theUnion for a Popular Movement (UMP),Nicolas Sarkozy, a potential contender at the time for the2007 presidential election, because the UMP had voted for the 2005French law on colonialism. This law required teachers and textbooks to "acknowledge and recognize in particular the positive role of the French presence abroad, especially in North Africa", a law criticized by opponents for its positive portrayal of French colonialism, especially during theAlgerian War. PresidentJacques Chirac finally had the controversial law repealed.[25]
On 9 April 2008, Césaire had serious heart troubles and was admitted to Pierre Zobda Quitman hospital in Fort-de-France. He died on 17 April 2008, aged 94.[26]
Césaire was accorded the honor of astate funeral, held at theStade de Dillon in Fort-de-France on 20 April.French President Nicolas Sarkozy was present but did not make a speech. The honor of making the funeral oration was left to his longtime friendPierre Aliker, who had served for many years as deputy mayor under Césaire.[27]
Martinique's airport atLe Lamentin was renamedMartinique Aimé Césaire International Airport on 15 January 2007.A national commemoration ceremony was held on 6 April 2011, as a plaque in Césaire's name was inaugurated in thePanthéon inParis.[28] He was also proclaimed as a national hero in Martinique.[29]
Césaire's influence has been recognized in poetry from his era and in later works. Most notably, his relation to Frantz Fanon, famed author ofBlack Skin, White Masks, as mentor and inspiration is tangible. Fanon's personal testimony inBlack Skin, White Masks explains the "liberating effect of Césaire's word and action" that he felt in traversing the changing colonial landscape.[30] At one point, Fanon writes: "Once again I come back to Césaire; I wish that many black intellectuals would turn to him for their inspiration."[31]
More generally, Césaire's works conceptualized African unity and black culture in ways that allowed for the creation of black spaces where there previously were none, from the establishment of several literary journals to his reworking of Caliban's speech from Shakespeare'sThe Tempest. Césaire's works have been described as significant contributions to postcolonial literature in France, its former colonies, and the Caribbean.[29] In 2021, theMusée de l'Homme for itsPortraits de France exhibition paid tribute to Aimé Césaire through a work by the artistHom Nguyen.[32]
Césaire'sDiscourse on Colonialism challenges the narrative of the colonizer and the colonized. This text criticizes the hypocrisy of justifyingcolonization with the equation "Christianity=civilized, paganism=savagery" comparing white colonizers to "savages". Césaire writes that "no one colonizes innocently, that no one colonizes with impunity either" concluding that "a nation which colonizes, that a civilization which justifies colonization – and therefore force – is already a sick civilization". He condemns the colonizers, saying that though the men may not be inherently bad, the practice of colonization ruins them.[citation needed]
Césaire's text intertwines slavery, imperialism, capitalism, republicanism, and modernism, stating that they were linked together and influenced one another in undeniable ways. Importantly, all of those oppressive forces came together to hurt the colonized and empower the colonizer. This position was considered radical at the time.[citation needed]
Césaire continues to deconstruct the colonizer, and ultimately concludes that by colonizing those white men often lose touch with who they were, and become brutalized into hidden instincts that result in the rape, torture, and race hatred that they put onto the people they colonize. He also examines the effects colonialism has on the colonized, stating that "colonization = 'thing-ification'", where because the colonizers are able to "other" the colonized, they can justify the means by which they colonize.[citation needed]
The text also continuously referencesNazism, blaming the barbarism of colonialism and how whitewashed and accepted the tradition, forAdolf Hitler's rise to power. He says that Hitler lives within and is the demon of "the very distinguished, very humanistic, very Christian bourgeois of the twentieth century." Particularly, Césaire argues that Nazism was not an exception or singular event in European history; rather, the natural progression of a civilization that justified colonization without "perceiving the dangers involved in proceeding towards savagery."[33] Césaire compared colonial violence to Nazism, arguing: "they tolerated that Nazism before it was inflicted on them, they absolved it, shut their eyes to it, legitimized it, because, until then, it had been applied only to non-European peoples."[34]
Césaire's wishes for post-war Europe centered on decolonization, arguing that decolonization was the way forward for Europe out of "the binarism of capitalism/communism".[35] Césaire believed that the only possible redemption for Europe’s dark path which had led to Nazism was through interactions with the "Third World". Decolonization offered an alternative to the dual negatives of capitalism and communism, employing pluralism as a way to usher in a new, more tolerant Europe. He was critical of neo-imperialism and US capitalism. Critiques of French universalism were also apparent in the text, particularly citing the issues that universalism caused for the departmentalization of Martinique of which Césaire was the main propagator. Departmentalization was an important goal for Césaire both in his texts and in his political career.[citation needed]
Césaire originally wrote his text in French in 1950, but later worked with Joan Pinkham to translate it to English. The translated version was published in 1972.[citation needed]
Césaire was born at Basse-Pointe, a small town on Martinique's north coast [. . .] His family was part of the island's small, black middle class, with his father employed as a tax inspector.
10 novembre 1903 Décret relatif à la réorganisation de l'École normale supérieure, rattachée à l'Université.[10 November 1903 Decree relating to the reorganization of the École Normale Supérieure, attached to the University.]
Recipients of theAmerica Award in Literature | |
|---|---|
|
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Academics | |
| Artists | |
| People | |
| Other | |
