‘Discourse on Colonialism’ by Aimé Césaire

Brent Hayes Edwards talks to Adam about Aimé Césaire's 1950 essay Discourse on Colonialism, a groundbreaking work of 20th-century anti-colonial thought and a precursor to the writings of Césaire's protégé, Frantz Fanon. Césaire was Martinique’s most influential poet and one of its most prominent politicians as a deputy in the French National Assembly, and his Discourse is addressed directly at his country’s colonisers. Adam and Brent consider Césaire’s poetry alongside his political arguments and the particular characteristics of his version of négritude, the far-reaching movement of black consciousness he founded with Léopold Sédar Senghor and Léon Damas.

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Further reading and listening:

Musab Yunis: Against Independence

https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v39/n13/musab-younis/against-independence

Brent Hayes Edwards: Inside the Barrel

https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v31/n17/brent-hayes-edwards/inside-the-barrel

John Berger & David Constantine: Aimé Césaire’s Return to My Native Land

https://lrb.me/bergercesaire

Brent Hayes Edwards is a scholar of African American and Francophone literature and of jazz studies at Columbia University.

Get in touch: [email protected]

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