Aimé Césaire is arguably the greatest Caribbean literary writer in history. Best known for his incendiary epic poem Notebook of a Return to my Native Land, Césaire reinvented black culture by conceiving ‘négritude’ as a dynamic and continuous process of self-creation.
In this essential new account of his life and work, Jane Hiddleston introduces readers to Césaire’s unique poetic voice and to his role as a figurehead for intellectuals pursuing freedom and equality for black people. Césaire was deeply immersed in the political life of his native Martinique for over fifty years, calling for the liberation and emancipation of oppressed people at home and abroad, while celebrating black creativity and self-invention to resist a history of racism. As Mayor of Fort-de-France and Deputy at the French National Assembly, he established Martinique as a department of France, only to spend the rest of his life campaigning for equality and ‘autonomy’ when the French government reneged on the promises of departmentalisation.
Across all his work, Césaire’s formidable command of language allowed him to combine the poetic and the political. His extraordinary life reminds us that the much-needed revolt against oppression and subjugation can—and should—come from within the establishment, as well as without.
