Negritude

• The Négritude movement began as a literary movement in France among

  French-speaking Africans and Caribbean intellectuals and writers who

  were living there. It was in response to their objections to French colonial

  rule and the concerted effort to integrate them into French society. The

  various Négritude movements around the world developed because of

  shared concerns and interests among blacks.
• Some Founders of Negritude

  1. Léopold Sédar Senghor(1906-2001) Senegal
  2. Leon Dames(1912-1978)-French Guiana
  3. Aime Cesaire(1913-2008)
• The Basic Ideas of Négritude

  • Emphasis on the importance and dignity of African traditions and its

  people.

  • The richness of African life should be advanced over the insensitivity

  and materialistic nature of the Western culture.

  • Africans must utilise their own cultural traditions to determine how

  they operate in the modern world.

  • There must be the restoration of black Africans’ cultural identity. • Writers must use African subject matter and, in doing so, promote a

  longing for political freedom.
• Objectives of Négritude

  • To promote the fierce pride and spirit of the African people and to use Africa as the foundation for establishing a cultural and ethnic identity for blacks
  • To neutralise the persistent notion of black inferiority and to promote black independence instead
  • To use the arts and literature to promote the concept of blackness
  • To eradicate the barriers that existed between black students of the numerous French colonies and, by extension, all people of black descent
  • To promote an acceptance of the black identity by the oppressors, and more specifically the European imperial powers
• Négritude

  A movement that protested against French colonialism and promoted black consciousness and self-worth through literature, poetry and other forms of entertainment
• Négritude movement

  • Began in French Martinique with political activist Aimé Césaire
  • Damas' poems decried the practice of slavery, colonial assimilation, the rejection of one's cultural identity and discrimination
  • Franz Fanon supported the decolonising efforts and used his writings to achieve social justice for the oppressed
• Places where Négritude was more embraced

  • Haiti
  • Cuba
  • Less in the Commonwealth Caribbean
• Négritude ideals accepted by

  • Jacques Roumain, the founder of the Haitian Communist party
• Cesaire saw Négritude as a way to challenge European ideas about race and culture. He believed that Black people needed to assert their own identities and reject the negative stereotypes that had been imposed upon them by white society.