Aime Cesaire Quotes
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. The quotes below are attributed to Aime Cesaire, organized by topic.
Aime Cesaire on Politics
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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:
“I am of the race of those who are oppressed.”
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Attributed to Aime Cesaire:
“It is a new society that we must create, with the help of all our brother slaves, a society rich with all the productive power of modern times, warm with all the fraternity of olden days.”
Aime Cesaire on Truth
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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.”