Biography of Aimé Césaire

Dear Negritude

June 26, 1913
April 17, 2008
Aimé Fernand David Césaire was born in Basse-Pointe (Martinique, island in the heart of the Caribbean) on June 26, 1913. He completed his studies in Martinique, then in Paris, at the Louis-le-Grand High; he perfected his studies again in Paris, at the École normale supérieure. There he meets the senegalese Leopold Senghor and Léon Gontran Damas guaianese. Thanks to reading works of European authors who tell of the African continent, the boys discover together the treasures and history of black Africa. Based then the magazine "Étudiant Noir", fundamental point of reference for black students in the French capital and create the "négritude" (Negritude), which includes artistic, philosophical, spiritual values of black people of Africa. This same concept was to become the ideology of black people's struggles for independence.
Césaire throughout his literary output will clarify that this concept exceeds the given biological and want to refer to one of the historical forms of the human condition. Back in Martinique in 1939 and founded the magazine "Tropiques", coming into contact with André Breton and Surrealism. Césaire had as ideal the liberation of his native island from the yoke of French colonialism: thanks to him, the Martinique will become an overseas Department of France in 1946, becoming so in effect part of Europe. Césaire will engage actively as a member of Martinique French General Assembly, be long-from 1945 to 2001-Mayor of Fort-de-France (the capital) and will be a member-until 1956-of the French Communist Party. From the literary point of view Aimé Césaire is a poet of the most famous representatives of surrealism. writer is author of dramas that recount the fate and the struggles of the slaves of the territories colonized by France (such as Haiti). The best known poem of Césaire's "Cahier d'un retour au pays natal" (diary of the return to the native country, 1939), surrealist-inspired verse tragedy, which is considered by many as an encyclopedia of the fate of black slaves as well as the expression of hope for liberation of the latter.
Through a rich production of dramatic poetry and theatrical specifically devoted its efforts in particular to the recovery of African identity antillana, no more and certainly not white. Among its various poetry collections include "Les armes he visited" (miraculous weapons, 1946), "Et les chiens se taisaient" (and the dogs were silent, 1956), "Ferraments" (chains, 1959), "Cadastre" (1961). In 1955 publishes "Discours sur le colonialisme (discourse on colonialism) that is greeted like a manifesto of rioting. Starting from the years ' 60, to prevent its activity reaches only African intellectuals and not the broad masses, leaving the poem to dedicate himself to the education of a negrofilo popular theatre. Among his plays: "La tragédie du roi Christophe" (the tragedy of King Christophe, 1963), "Une saison au Congo" (a season in the Congo, 1967) inspired by the drama of Lumumba, and "Une tempête" (a storm, 1969), a reinterpretation of a Shakespeare play. His last published work in Italy is "Negro are and negro shall stay, conversations with Françoise Vergès" (Città Aperta Edizioni, 2006). The senior writer withdraws from political life in 2001, at 88 years old, leaving the Fort-de-France guide to its dolphin Serge Letchimy, elected by popular acclaim. AIME cesaire dies on April 17, 2008 at the hospital in Fort-de-France.
Article contributed by the team of collaborators.