Black Writers in French: A Literary History of Negritude

445 Pages·1974·26.606 MB·English

by  Lilyan Kesteloot, Ellen Conroy Kennedy

Black Writers in French

LILYAN KESTELOOT
Black Writers
in French
A Literary History
of Negritude
Translated by Ellen Conroy Kennedy
TEMPLE UNIVERSITY PRESS
Philadelphia
Temple University Press, Philadelphia 19122
English translation. Translator’s Preface and Introduction, and Selected Bibliography
© 1974 by Temple University. All rights reserved. Published 1974
Printed in the United States of America
First published as Les ecrivains noirs de languefrangaise: Naissance d'une litterature copyright 1963
by Editions de l’lnstitut de Sociologie de l’Universite Libre de Bruxelles
International Standard Book Number: 0-87722-056-5
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 73-79479
Since this page cannot accommodate all of the copyright notices, the page that follows
constitutes an extension of the copyright page.
ATHENEUM PUBLISHERS, INC.: Quotations from “A l’appel de la race de Saba,’’ “Que
m’accompagnent koras et balafongs,” “Le retour de l’enfant prodigue, ‘Le totem, Nuit
de Sine,” “Femme noire,” “Au Gouverneur Eboue,” “Neige sur Paris,” “Desespoir d’un
volontaire libre,” “Ndesse ou Blues,” “Camp 1940,” “Aux tirailleurs senegalais morts pour
la France,” and “Priere aux masaues,” by Leopold Sedar Senghor are translated by special
permission of Atheneum Publishers, Inc. Our translations may not be reproduced. See
Selected Poems by Leopold Sedar Senghor, translated and introduced by John Reed and Clive
Wake (New York: Atheneum Publishers, 1964) for translations of these thirteen poems and
refer all reprint requests for them to Atheneum Publishers.
THE THIRD PRESS-JOSEPH OKPAKU PUBLISHING CO., INC.: Quotations from “Le
message,” “Joal,” “Vacances,” “Lettre a un prisonnier,” “Au guelowar,” “Priere de paix,”
“Tyaroye,” and “Le Kaya-Magan,” from Poemes by L. S. Senghor, copyright © 1964 by
Editions du Seuil, are translated by special permission of The Third Press-Joseph Okpaku
Publishing Co., Inc., who hold an English translation copyright © 1974.
Quotations from Les armes miraculenses by Aime Cesaire, copyright © 1970 by Editions
Gallimard, are translated by special permission of The Third Press-Joseph Okpaku Publish¬
ing Co., Inc., who hold an English translation copyright © 1974.
Quotations from “Corps perdu” in Cadastre by Aime Cesaire, copyright © 1961 by
Editions du Seuil, appear in English translation from “Disembodied,” copyright © 1973
by The Third Press-Joseph Okpaku Publishing Co., Inc., by permission.
EDITIONS GALLIMARD: Quotations in French from Les armes miraculeuses by Aime Ce¬
saire, © 1946 by Editions Gallimard, are reprinted and translated by permission of the
publisher.
GEORGES BORCHARDT, INC.: Quotations in French from Poemes by L. S. Senghor
(Paris: Editions du Seuil, 1964) are reprinted by permission of Georges Borchardt, Inc.
Quotations in French from “Corps perdu” in Cadastre (Paris: Editions du Seuil, 1961) and
from “Vampire liminaire” in Ferrements (Paris: Editions du Seuil, 1960), both by Aime
Cesaire, are also reprinted by permission of Georges Borchardt, Inc.
PRESENCE AFRICAINE: Extracts from Aime Cesaire’s Cahier d'un retour au pays natal,
published by Presence Africaine (Paris) in 1956, are reprinted and translated by permission
of the publisher.
Quotations in French from the edition definitive of L. G. Damas’s Pigments, published by
Presence Africaine (Paris) in 1962, are reprinted by permission. “Treve,” “Rappel,”
“S.O.S.,” “Pour sur,” Savoir-vivre,” Sur une carte postale,” “Des billes pour la roulette,”
“Bientot,” “En hie indienne,” “Regard,” and “Un clochard m’a demande dix sous” from
Pigments are translated by permission.
Acknowledgments / v
ELLEN CONROY KENNEDY: English translations of portions of sixteen other poems from
Leon Damas’s Pigments, “Obsession,” “There Are Nights,” “Sellout,” “Hiccups,” “Real¬
ity,” “Blues,” “The Black Man’s Lament,” “Whitewash,” “If Often,” “Shine,” “Their
Thing,” “Et Cetera,” “Position,” “Like the Legend,” “They Came That Night,” and
“Sleepless Night,” copyright © 1972 by Ellen Conroy Kennedy, appear by permission of
the translator.
LEON DAMAS: The excerpt from Black-Label (Paris: Gallimard, 1956) by Leon Damas is
reprinted and translated by permission of the author.
ALFRED A. KNOPF, INC.: “I, Too,” copyright 1926 by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., and renewed
1954 by Langston Hughes, is reprinted from Selected Poems by Langston Hughes by permis¬
sion of the publisher.
Lines from “Our Land” and from “Poem—For the Portrait of an African Boy,” copyright
1926 by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., and renewed 1954 by Langston Hughes, are reprinted from
The Weary Blues by Langston Hughes by permission of the publisher.
HARCOURT BRACE JOVANOVICH, INC.: Excerpts from Banjo by Claude McKay are
reprinted by permission of Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc., copyright 1929 by Harper and
Brothers, copyright 1967 by Hope McKay Virtue.
TWAYNE PUBLISHERS, INC.: Lines from “If We Must Die” and “The White House” in
Selected Poems of Claude McKay, copyright 1953 by Bookman Associates, are reprinted with
the permission of Twayne Publishers, Inc.
FARRAR, STRAUS Sc GIROUX, INC.: Passages from The Big Sea by Langston Hughes,
copyright 1940 by Langston Hughes, are reprinted with the permission of Farrar, Straus
Sc Giroux, Inc.
HARPER Sc ROW, PUBLISHERS, INC.: The poem “Incident” and lines from “Heritage,”
both copyright 1925 by Harper Sc Row, Publishers, Inc., renewed 1953 by Ida M. Cullen;
and lines from “From the Dark Tower,” copyright 1927 by Harper Sc Row, Publishers, Inc.,
renewed 1955 by Ida M. Cullen, are from On These I Stand by Countee Cullen and are
reprinted by permission of the publisher.

Contents
Illustrations ix
Translator’s Preface xi
Translator’s Introduction xiii
Preface 3
Introduction 7
I THE BEGINNINGS
1 Legitime Defense: A Manifesto 15
2 West Indian Literature in French: “A Tracing Paper
Poetry” 19
3 Surrealism and Criticism of the West 37
4 Communism and the Black Man 46
5 Black Students in Paris and the Harlem Renaissance 56
6 Rene Maran and Batouala 75
II NEGRITUDE IS BORN
7 L'Etudiant Non: A Forum for the New Ideas 83
8 How the Ethnologists Helped 93
9 Negritude: Some Definitions, Sartre’s Negativity 102
III THE NEGRITUDE POETS
10 The Poetry of Negritude 119
11 Leon Damas: Pigments 123
12 Aime Cesaire: Cahier d’un retour au pays natal 159
13 Leopold Senghor: Chants d'ombre and Hosties nones 194
IV THE WAR YEARS
14 Extraliterary Activity and Two Important Essays 229
15 Vichy Martinique and Tropiques 236
16 Cultural Sterility: Denial of the Self 240
17 Weapons: Africa and the Race 245
18 Surrealist Poetry: Cesaire’s “Miraculous Weapon” 253
vii
viii/CONTENTS
V AN END TO COLONIZATION_
19 In Paris: Founding Presence Afncaine 279
20 The Nature and Influence of Presence Afncaine 288
21 Black French-Language Writers in 1960: A Survey 298
22 A New Generation and the Negritude Label 317
VI CONCLUSIONS_
23 A Contribution to the Larger Humanism 335
Appendix: Problems of the Literary Critic in Africa 349
Selected Bibliography by Janet MacGaffey 367
Index 393
Illustrations
Following page 226
1. Rene Maran
2. Cover of the first edition of Batouala
3. Countee Cullen
4. Langston Hughes
5. Claude McKay
6. Leon Damas
7. Title page of the first edition of Pigments
8. Aime Cesaire and Leon Damas
9. Aime Cesaire
10. Title page of the 1947 bilingual edition of Cahier d'un retour au pays
natal
11. Aime Cesaire and his wife Suzanne
12. Leopold Sedar Senghor
13. Cover of Hosties noires
14. Two future presidents, L. S. Senghor and Georges Pompidou
15. Alioune Diop
16. Cover and Contents page from the first issue of Presence Afncaine
17. Frantz Fanon
18. Jacques Rabemananjara
19. Richard Wright, L. S. Senghor, and three black American scholars
at the First Congress of Black Writers and Artists
IX