As Jean-Paul Sartre's famous quote was explaining, The concept of Negritude is based in response to a condition, a context. "The denial of the black man" is thus the expression of the conditioning that was subjecting populations of colonies, particularly in France, ie moral subjugation of indigenous peoples. Negritude is a concept of reaction to a situation, hence the necessity to explain the context of its appearance, its precursor movements, to then show its shapes and then the legacy that follows.
Negritude appeared as a cultural and then political movement between the two World Wars, based on the struggle of some intellectuals from French colonies' elites in order to assert the role of the "black man", ie the man from European settlements and have undergone European domination, in a society that refuses an equal status. Understand the origin of the concept of Negritude requires an explanation of the context of France and its colonies at the end of the First World War.
[...] " Thus, we find the premisses and inspirations of the concept of negritude in the situation of people living in the colonies from France, in a rejection of assimilation advocated then, and also in the first fight that seek to unify the black cause by color, not by geographic location or social situation. B. Foundation of Negritude We therefore have during the 1920s the foundations of a "cultural nationalism", despite the predominance of assimilation at the political level. In opposition to this assimilation and stigmatization some blacks are victims, particularly through the term "nègre", intellectuals began to use the term as a "flambeau"[3], a rallying sign whose pejorative tone becomes the symbol of their struggle. [...]
[...] Indeed, intellectuals like Senghor and Cesaire were quickly affiliated with the Communist Party, as it defended the anti-colonial struggle and anti-imperialist shared by the framers of the Negritude. In 1945 and 1946, Senghor and Cesaire are elected MPs in France and Martinique with the Communist and Socialist Parties. Senghor thus began his brilliant political career that would lead him to the presidency of Senegal for 20 years (1960-1980). Reinvesting Marxist doctrine, Cesaire and Senghor tried to show the relevance of rapprochement between the African identity struggle and Marxism. [...]
[...] They had encountered in their home countries rejection from his native culture, as judged overused primitive culture across française. Cesaire recounts the contempt he had in Martinique towards classmates obsessed with European culture and denigrating Caribbean culture[4]. Similarly, Senghor in Senegal refused to see his teachers advocate Christian and European values while considering than African's were barbaric. Their meeting and their perception as people of African descent, wherever they came, took them to exchange their sense of revolt against this state of things. [...]
[...] Senghor declared, "Negritude is a fact, a culture. It is all the economical, political, intellectual, moral, social and artistic values of the African people and black minorities in America, Asia, Europe and Oceania.” Cesaire, closer to our previous definition, regarded it as "the simple recognition of being black, and the acceptance of this fact, our black destiny, our history and our culture."[5] On the other hand, he would sometimes say “this word means, at first, rejection. Rejection of cultural assimilation. [...]
[...] The idea is thus that the alienation described by Marx can be considered in the context of colonized culture being alienated to the European colonizers'. An alliance between the two currents therefore seemed viable, in the sense that it was compatible ideologically and served the interests of both parties. However, dissensions arose quickly between intellectuals of Negritude and the PCF. In 1956, Cesaire broke with the Communist Party to stand as an independent for elections in Martinique. Cesaire explained that « it should be Marxism and communism at the service of black peoples, not black peoples at the service of the doctrine ». [...]
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