Aime Cesaire 1913 – 2008
Aime Cesaire was a Martinican poet, playwright, and philosopher and a co-founder of the Negritude movement. Studying in Paris in the 1930s alongside Leopold Senghor and Leon Damas, he articulated Negritude as the affirmation of black African and diasporic culture against the universal claims of European civilization. His Discourse on Colonialism is one of the foundational texts of anti-colonial theory, and his Notebook of a Return to the Native Land remains a touchstone of twentieth-century poetry. He served as mayor of Fort-de-France for fifty-six years and as a deputy in the French National Assembly.
Key facts
- Nationality
- Martinican
- Era
- Contemporary
- Movements
- Postcolonial Philosophy
Selected quotes
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Attributed to Aime Cesaire:
“Colonization equals thingification.”
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Attributed to Aime Cesaire:
“Europe is indefensible.”
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Attributed to Aime Cesaire:
“A civilization that proves incapable of solving the problems it creates is a decadent civilization.”
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Attributed to Aime Cesaire:
“Negritude is the simple recognition of the fact that one is black, the acceptance of this fact and of our destiny as blacks, of our history and our culture.”
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Attributed to Aime Cesaire:
“I am of the race of those who are oppressed.”