Beïa pour Césaire (A Tribute to Aimé Césaire)

It is with great admiration, pride and respect that I pen this belated homage to Aimé Césaire, a son of Martinique and a child of Africa.

Aimé Césaire is largely known as one of the trio - the others being Leopold Senghor and Leon Damas - who founded the Negritude movement that began in the 1930's. Negritude, which Césaire mentions in his poem Cahier d'un retours au pays natal (Notebook on a Return to My Native Land) was an assertion of black pride when colonialism was at its peak. Césaire's affirmation of his African roots, captured by his words "Nègre je suis, Nègre je resterai" (A black man I am, and a black man I will remain), was and remains a striking affirmation of a global pan-African consciousness at a time when French colonialism sought to reinforce the artificial and painful barrier between Africans in the continent and in the Diaspora.

The trauma caused by this dichotomy among Africans from both sides of the Atlantic was captured in Black Skin, White Masks by Cesaire's famous student, Frantz Fanon. Inspired by Césaire's pan-African vision, Fanon noticed the alienation of Antilleans who, when they were taught in French-oriented schools about blacks as "savages," thought of the Senegalese (at the time a synonym for Africans), while the Senegalese arriving in the Antilles tried hard to pass for Antilleans rather than Africans. Césaire's poetry, politics and life therefore articulated the pain, alienation and suffering at both individual and social levels that were caused by slavery and colonialism.

Negritude represented a milestone of pan-Africanism that emerged besides and in interaction with the Harlem Renaissance whose key figures visited Paris when Césaire, Senghor and Damas were students. However, it was Césaire who upheld the dignity of Negritude despite the onslaught of Jean-Paul Sartre, a well-intentioned French intellectual who erroneously described Negritude as an "anti-racist racism" in "Orphée noir" (Black Orpheus), his famous foreword to Senghor's anthology. Negritude also suffered some criticism from African intellectuals from British colonies who, presumably, did not understand the context of French assimilation that made the affirmation of black pride necessary. The most famous of these criticisms was Soyinka's words about a tiger not needing to proclaim its tigritude, which have been over quoted and simplified.

Soyinka's criticism was, however, justified, given that Senghor went overboard with the concept of Negritude. Unlike Césaire who saw Negritude as a call to black people to be proud of their history, Senghor interpreted it as a means to valorize the "savagery" of black peoples as a contribution to white civilization, a philosophy captured in his famous statement that "emotion is African as reason is Greek." Over the years, Senghor increasingly received a lot of criticism for his accommodation of French colonialism and his adoration of French culture, but a distinguished Césaire refused to distance himself from Senghor, a position that only served to confirm the strength of Césaire's character and dignity.

Césaire penned several plays and poems that captured the pain and tragedy of both slavery and colonialism, demonstrating his unique understanding that both the injustices afflicting black peoples were rooted in the singular vice of European racism. These works included The Tragedy of King Christophe, based on Haiti's ruler Henri Christophe, and A Season in Congo inspired by the assassination of Patrice Lumumba. Césaire also articulated his global outlook in Discourse on Colonialism, in which he reminded the self-righteous French bourgeoisie of the hypocrisy of their silence while Hitler persecuted the Jews until Hitler also invaded France, and that of criticizing Hitler of racism and oppression while France pursued brutal rule in Africa. Césaire's essay remains one of the strongest indictments of European Enlightenment whose "advances" in science, technology, philosophy and human rights were accompanied by slavery, racism and brutal colonial rule. His exasperation which the bourgeoisie's pretentious solidarity with the oppressed was captured in his statement the Europe was "morally and spiritual indefensible," because it was blinded by a collective hypocrisy in which people believed themselves to be acting in good faith, when in reality they were unable to solve the most fundamental of human problems. Césaire's concern was echoed by his disciple Fanon, whose last written words were an attack on European civilization that has lost track of what it means to be human.

Césaire was a great Martiniquan man, and a great African man, whose noble character puts most African leaders to shame. While leaders from former French colonies, such as Senegal's Abdoulaye Wade, casually minimized the now abrogated French law that praised the impact of colonialism, Césaire refused to accept a visit from Nicolas Sarkozy, who at the time sought to redeem his negative image ruined by racist immigration laws by obtaining a photo op with one of the African world's most venerated statesmen. It is significant that no African head of state took the time to attend Césaire's funeral, which confirms just how morally bankrupt Africa's current political elite are. To our African "leaders," I say shame on you. Again, shame on you.

Césaire's legacy and influence on Frantz Fanon also raise a challenge to African thinkers and intellectuals. How many of us have mentored and inspired our students with our passion for freedom for all black peoples in the world and not just for our miniscule, undisciplined countries, or worse, for political parties and tribal godfathers? How many writers have been able to nurture talent in the next generation through leadership and ideas? Or are they just pursuing a one-man show because they want to keep all the glory - usually from Western accolades - to themselves? Are we part of the sad tradition in many of our universities in which younger scholars are seen as a threat to the older ones, rather than a generation on whom to impart wisdom that would extend beyond us?

Césaire, you have made us proud. You embody the amalgamation of great art, intellectual rigor, excellent mentorship and distinguished leadership. You have given Africa a global resonance that few African contemporary leaders can boast of. May the ancestors welcome you with song, dance and ululations. May you be seated with the Sojourner Truth, Toussaint L'Ouverture, Malcolm X, Marcus Garvey, Thomas Sankara and the host of African saints who have made us able to stand tall in a world that still tries to make us bow our heads. May the ancestors give us the strength to continue on this earth the great work you accomplished.