Mc Dowall 1

Molinda Mc Dowall-320083468

Dr. Nicole Plummer

FOUN1101: Caribbean Civilization

17th July 2023

Book Report on Aimé Césaire by Elizabeth-Walcott Hackshaw

“My mouth shall be the mouth of those calamities that have no mouth, my voice the freedom of

those who break down in the prison holes of despair.”

-Notebook of a Return to the Native Land, 1939

Aime Cesaire a world-renowned poet, novelist, and politician was born June 26, 1913, in

Basse-Pointe, a small town on the northeastern coast of Martinique in the French Caribbean.

Aimè was the second of six children, his father was a taxation officer and his mother was a

seamstress and housewife. He grew up at a time when slavery had only recently been abolished.

Before slavery was abolished, his great-grandparents were subjected and freed. He attended

the Lycée Schoelcher in Martinique, and the Parisian schools École Normale Supérieure and the

Lycée Louis-le-Grand. As a student Césaire and his friend, Léopold Sédar Senghor of Sénégal

created “ L’Étudiant noir”, a publication that brought together students from Africa and the West

Indies. Later, with his wife, Suzanne Roussi, Césaire co-founded Tropiques, a journal dedicated

to Black American poetry. Both journals were a stronghold for the ideas of Negritude. Césaire is

a recipient of the International Nâzim Hikmet Poetry Award, the second winner in its history. He

served as mayor of Fort-de-France as a member of the Communist Party, but later quit the party
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to establish his Martinique Independent Revolution Party. He was deeply involved in the struggle

for French West Indian rights and served as the deputy to the French National Assembly. He

retired from politics in 1993.

In the biography "Aimè Cèsaire", Elizabeth Walcott-Hackshaw Trinidadian author and

University of the West Indies Professor of French Language and Creative Writing retells the life

of one the most influential poets/playwrights/politicians of the francophone Caribbean; taking

great care to highlight his accomplishments and explore their influences. Throughout this

book, part of the Caribbean biography series, Walcott-Hackshaw intensely details the

concepts and topics for which Césaire fought. Themes including stratification with

plantation mentality, psychology about racism and identity, negritude as a popular movement

and form of literary revolt, and internal self-governance and departmentalization can be seen

throughout this text and in Césaire's poetics and political arguments.

In 1913 the country of Martinique was merely a French colony with a closed stratified

system. “Social stratification refers to the ranking of people or groups of people within a

community” (Anurin, 1995: 50–65). A closed stratified system meant that the people of

Martinique had little to no opportunity to advance from one social class to another, thus race and

color determined one's position in society. As the system moved towards an open one, there was

an emphasis on education to climb the social ladder, for people like Césaire and his family, who

were considered 'rural poor'. His father, having greatly understood the importance and influence

of the dedicated pursuit of education, invested heavily in the education of his children. After

moving his family to Fort-de-France in 1924, his father enrolled Césaire in Lycée Victor

Schoelcher. His attendance at this school, combined with his diligence, afforded him many

opportunities. Of those opportunities, is the inclusion of meeting both Léon-Gontran Damas and
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later Léopold Sédar Senghor; two individuals who would have a significant influence on

Césaire's life and the ideals for which he stood. However, during his time as a student of Lycee

Victor Schoelcher, the issues between social classes became evident to Césaire, as he was often

exposed to harsh teasing from other students, mostly those of the middle class. From this

experience, it was clear to see the mentality of the "elites" when it came to social stratification;

they believed that anyone below them in social mobility was to be treated as less than or inferior.

Today this is known as 'plantation mentality' which would be defined as a mentality according to

which a society is divided into a ruling elite and a class of workers treated as inferior, especially

along racial lines. This type of mentality aimed toward Césaire exposed him from a young age to

the problems people like him were facing daily. And as a consequence, he decided to be the

voice for those who did not have one. As advocated by Bob Marley, "Emancipate yourselves

from mental slavery, none but ourselves can free our minds." - Redemption Song, 1998.

Another essential theme of this text is psychology about racism and identity. Césaire

was horrified to discover that French society looked down on him when he went there to further

his studies. This shared experience among Césaire, Senghor, and Damas encouraged the restraint

of various poetical works and plays on the severe effects of racism on Black men. This shared

experience of Césaire, Senghor, and Damas helped them calmly compose several poems and

plays that present and discuss the awful reality of racism against Black people. Constructivism

was mostly used to achieve this because many of their works, particularly Césaire's, retell and

reproduce their own experiences to make a point. Tropiques, a journal started by Césaire, his

wife Suzanne, René Méntil, Aristide Maugée, and other Martinician intellectuals, published a

number of the accounts of these incidents. This magazine, which documented the horrors of

slavery, was crucial in educating the public about the long-lasting effects slavery had on minority
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groups, especially in light of the extent of bigotry that was directed at them. According to Eric

Williams' assertion in his book Capital and Slavery, "Racism was not the cause of slavery;

slavery was the result of racism”.

Cahier d'un retour au pays natal is another one of Césaire's well-known works that

explores the basic conflict that an individual who is enslaved faces with his identity and sense of

self as a result of slavery and colonialism. This idea is clarified by Franz Fanon in his book

"Black Skin, White Masks." He describes how prevalent it was throughout the era of slavery and

presents the idea of the epidermalization of inferiority. As they were taught that having black

skin made them inferior to those with white skin, this shows that the Black enslaved were

growing an internalized hatred of themselves. In addition, Fanon proposes the concept of

"denitrification," in which enslavement sought to deprive a Black man of his blackness. Because

of this ongoing exposure to racial stereotyping, marginalized groups experienced feelings of

inferiority, inadequacy, and self-hatred. According to Césaire's speech, Culture, and

Colonization, "Black voices needed to be heard and reclaim their place in the theater of history

for there to be order in this cultural chaos." The "reclamation of a place in the theater of history,"

as Césaire puts it, also refers to the reclaiming of a Black identity, which both he and Fanon have

seen as a crucial component of the self-decolonization, liberation, and progress of their peoples.

Césaire emphasizes this once more during the period of Martinican history when individuals

were moving from Martinique to France and vice versa to improve their standard of living by

taking advantage of opportunities that were not available to them in their home countries. He

achieves this by referring to the situation as an identity and cultural crisis, which he called

"genocide by substitution," and by detailing the incident, which, as a result, led to the erasure of

culture within Martinique and the loss of identity for those still on the island. Marcus Garvey
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stated, "Every man has a right to his own opinion, therefore, do not allow anyone to convince

you against your will or allow anyone from another race to influence you against your own."

More influences of Cesaire's ideas are identified by Walcott-Hackshaw in Paris, which

include the manuscripts and works of many French and African writers. He waded into a world

that followed the Harlem Renaissance, a recent literary movement that created a creative

environment for all types of writers and artists alike. Many creatives were fleeing bigotry and

injustice in the United States at the time, and the ideology they were experiencing impacted

everyone's work. Cesaire recognized Martinique's African immigrant community and grew

increasingly attached to his lineage as a result of these effects.

Early in his career, Césaire began to denounce oppressive regimes and seek to help his

people regain a sense of identity and overcome the self-hatred implanted in them. He

encountered Damas and Senghor, which sparked the Negritude movement and the start of a

significant literary uprising. This movement used surrealism as a foundation to promote an anti-

colonialist understanding of Black culture. Aimé Césaire was the first to coin the word in his

epic poem, Cahier d’un retour au pays natal, declaring “my negritude is not a stone, its

deafness hurled against the clamor of the day” but instead, his negritude “takes root in the

ardent flesh of the soil.” Elizabeth Walcott-Hackshaw sums it up well when she says that

surrealism "represented freedom from a past defined by hierarchical notions of race, class, and

culture." Surrealism, in Césaire's opinion, coincided with his goal to dismantle conventionally

expressed assimilationist beliefs, and as he once said of his writing, "Surrealism provided me

with what I had been confusedly searching for." Based on the common experiences of

individuals who had been oppressed and discriminated against, Césaire, Senghor, and Damas

created the Negritude movement. Negritude makes an effort to transform Black consciousness
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and dispel the stereotype of what a black man should be. They all address black people's

particular position about their identity and the self-hatred that was created and spread during

colonialism. This idea is specifically explored by Césaire in his Discours sur le colonialisme

(Discourse on Colonialism) about the fact that, unlike other oppressed groups, black people are

unable to renounce their cultural identity to survive and advance in society. "A Jew, white

among whites, can deny that he is a Jew, can declare himself a man among men”. As

skin color is not something that can be renounced or altered for the masses, Césaire

brings to the point that people of African descent have no choice but to claim that part of their

identity; whether by choice or by force of the structure of society. Through the use of

literature, music, theater, and other arts, these three men changed what was once Africanism and

Pan-Africanism from a more political stance to a more literary one. They exploited this to

advance a potent new “Black Identity Movement” while engaging in political action and reform.

To spread the Negritude movement, Césaire frequently employed non-insurrectionary forms of

revolt, including poetry and short tales, to write about racism. His articles were published in

additional languages as multilingual reviews were easily accessible, which increased his

audience as well as his influence and notoriety.

The last theme to be focused on is Césaire's devotion to fighting for internal self-

governance and greater autonomy in the form of departmentalization for Martinique. The future

Césaire imagined for Martinique was inspired by the Haitian Revolution and his visit to the

island in 1944. What prevented Martinique from becoming a self-governing autonomous nation,

in his opinion, if Haiti, a French colony, could achieve independence? He desired a social shift

away from centralized control and authoritarian rule toward greater autonomy, where

Martinicans would have a voice in shaping their future and be able to choose their leaders rather
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than being forced to follow those appointed by France. Decolonization and departmentalization

worked hand in hand, and according to Césaire, Black culture, and decolonization were

inextricably linked. For Césaire, decolonization imposed a "human duty" to hold black artists and

writers accountable to the question: “What kind of world are you preparing for us?” He argued

that black self-determination must be related to human self-actualization:

By articulating our effort with the effort of the liberation of colonized peoples, by struggling for

the dignity of our peoples, for their truth, and their recognition, it is by definition for the whole

world that we fight, to liberate it from tyranny, from hatred, and fanaticism. Beyond the

struggles of the present, circumstantial as they are … we want a rejuvenated and re-balanced

world, without which nothing will have any meaning … not even our struggle today … not even

our victory tomorrow. Then and only then will we have been victorious and our final victory will

mark the advent of a new era. We will have contributed to giving a meaning … to the most

overused yet most glorious word: we will have helped to found a universal humanism.

— Aimé Césaire, “L’Homme de culture et ses responsabilités” (Irele, A., 2008).

Black culture had a part to play in promoting the Black legacy among the francophone Caribbean

nations and pushing for an international movement. However, there was a civil conflict between

those who want independence and those who desired greater autonomy. Throughout the majority

of his life and political career, Césaire consistently defended the position that Martinique's total

independence from France would be economically hazardous. He fought for increased autonomy

through departmentalization as a result of this. As an alternative, it is possible to argue that while

departmentalization increased living standards, it also led to a dependency syndrome, which can

be considered to have contributed to the underdevelopment of the region's independent cultural

identity and economic standing.

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In general, this book is a great way to learn about Caribbean culture. It gives a broad

overview of the post-colonial situation in the Caribbean and places emphasis on the potential

effects of many factors on society, including culture and education. It also depicted the

importance of adopting a Cesar-like mentality to shape Caribbean peoples' identities and minds

and to love them for who they are. It is crammed full of doctrine. For Caribbean nationals who

visit other parts of the world, this is a common problem.

The biography of the famed poet, politician, and activist Aimé Césaire, written by

Elizabeth Walcott-Hackshaw, was successful in revealing his life and career. It focused on

important facets of Caribbean civilization, including slavery, identity, education, and historical

advancement. I was inspired by his work and the ideas he has dedicated his life to teaching

because his viewpoints on race and equality are so brilliantly mirrored in this book.
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 Aimé Césaire, et al. The Original 1939 Notebook of a Return to the Native Land:
Bilingual Edition. Wesleyan University, 2013.

‌Abiola Irele. Négritude et Condition Africaine. Karthala, 2008.

‌“How Césaire and Senghor Saw the Decolonised World | Aeon Essays.” Aeon,
eon.co/essays/how-cesaire-and-senghor-saw-the-decolonised-world.
Accessed 16 Mar. 2022.

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. (2023, June 22). Aimé Césaire | surrealist poet,

negritude movement & French Caribbean. Encyclopedia Britannica.

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Aime-Cesaire

Academy of American Poets. (n.d.-b). Aimé Césaire. Poets.org. https://poets.org/poet/aime-

cesaire#:~:text=Aim%C3%A9%20C%C3%A9saire%20was%20born%20June,Lyc

%C3%A9e%20Louis%2Dle%2DGrand.
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Micklin, Anna. “Negritude Movement • BlackPast.” BlackPast, 2 May 2019,

www.blackpast.org/global-african-history/negritude-movement/.