Aime Cesaire: A Brief Biography

Born in Basse-Pointe, Martinique in 1913, and educated in Paris (first at the Lycée Louis-le-Grand, and then at the École normale supérieure), Aimé Césaire (1913-2008) returned to his birthplace in 1939 with his wife Suzanne Roussy. The literary journal that he co-founded, (along with fellow poets Léopold Sédas Senghor and Léon Damas), while he was a student, gave way to the literary and political movement known as Négritude (a term Césaire coined). Négritude espoused that those of African descent reject notions of colonial identity in favor of recognizing and honoring one's black heritage as a method of fighting institutionalized racism. This movement would define and influence not only his writings, but his later political career as well.

Upon his return to Martinique, he began a career teaching at a local high school-among his students would be the famed author and philosopher Franz Fanon. He also began writing and publishing poetry and essays on black heritage and European colonialism, such as Discourse on Colonialism, which would influence Fanon's watershed work Black Skin, White Masks. His most well known poem is Notebook of a Return to My Native Land(published in 1939), which the renowned French poet André Breton called "the greatest lyrical monument of our time". Other poems have been published in various collections, such as Beheaded Sun, and Lost Body. Many of these were originally published in a literary journal he co-founded (along with his wife and others) called Tropiques, which also was a bastion of essays and literature that would further shape and refine the Négritude movement.

In 1945, Césaire began a career in politics, having been elected as mayor of Fort-de-France, a position he held until 2001 (with a small hiatus from 1983 to 1984). He was a member of the Communist Party from until 1956, announcing his departure in the published essay Letter to Maurice Theorez, and founded the Martinique Progressive Party two years later. The Party sought to free Third World countries from Western colonialism and imperialistic policies. During this time, beginning in the Sixties, Césaire began writing plays, most notably the trilogy comprised of The Tragedy of King Christophe, ASeason in the Congo, and The Tempest (a reimagining of Shakespeare's famed play of the same name).

When Césaire passed away last April, French President Nicholas Sarkozy, who was instrumental in having Martinique's airport renamed Martinique Aimé Césaire National Airport, ensured Césaire received a state funeral.

Sources:

Brooke Ritz, Aimé Césaire, Emory University

The Times, Aimé Césaire, Times Online UK Edition

Carol Brennan, Aimé Césaire Biography - Selected writings, African-American Biographies Vol. 2

The Associated Press, Aimé Césaire, Martinique Poet and Politician, Dies at 94, The New York Times

Petri Liukkonen, Franz Fanon, Books and Writers

Petri Liukkonen, Aimé Césaire , Books and Writers