Aimé Césaire

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A play about the life of Patrice Lumumba, from his efforts to free the Congolese from Belgian rule to his assassination in 1961.

"This classic work, first published in France in 1955, profoundly influenced the generation of scholars and activists at the forefront of liberation struggles in Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean. Nearly twenty years later, when published for the first time in English, Discourse on Colonialism inspired a new generation engaged in the Civil Rights, Black Power and antiwar movements."--BOOK JACKET.

"Aime Cesaire is most well known as the co-creator (with Leopold Senghor) of the concept of negritude. His long poem Notebook of a Return to the Native Land, written at the end of World War II, is a masterpiece of immense cultural significance and beauty and became an anthem of Blacks around the world. Clayton Eshleman and Annette Smith achieve a laudable adaptation of Cesaire's work to English by clarifying double meanings, stretching syntax, and finding equivalent English puns, all while remaining remarkably true to the French text. Andre Breton's introduction, "A Great Black Poet," situates the text and provides a moving tribute to Cesaire."--Cover page 4.

"A troupe of black actors perform their own Tempest. Césaire's rich and insightful adaptation draws on contemporary Caribbean society, the Afro-American experience and African mythology to raise questions about colonialism, racism, and their lasting effects." --Page of cover.

The surrealist poetry of the noted Martinican author, Aime Cesaire, portrays Africa's fight for freedom from colonialism.

Translations of 53 poems from the beginning and end of Césaire's career, including the 31 poems omitted from "Aimé Césaire: the collected poetry," published in 1983.

"Born in 1913 in Martinique, Aime Cesaire is acknowledged as one of the major poets of the twentieth century writing in French, and his celebrated long poem, Cahier d'un retour au pays natal (Notebook of a return to the native land), is his best known work. In addition to containing the most forceful statement of Negritude (a term coined by Cesaire and appearing in print for the first time in this poem), Cahier is a masterpiece of modern French poetry.". "The poem is marked by its allusive character, its highly compressed images, and its unusual use of the French language. In preparing this edition, Abiola Irele has tried to keep the needs of the English-language student foremost in mind. The edition presents the complete text of the poem in French, with an editorial apparatus in English that includes a substantial introduction setting it in its historical and ideological context and offering a detailed analysis of its literary significance; a stanza-by-stanza commentary explicating references and allusions; and a select bibliography of related works."--BOOK JACKET.

Au moment où, pour la première fois en France, s'ouvre un large débat public sur les traces contemporaines de l'esclavage et du colonialisme, la portée historique et politique des écrits d'Aimé Césaire prend un relief tout particulier. Dans ces entretiens accordés à Françoise Vergès, le "père de la négritude" relate avec une très grande liberté de ton les principaux moments de son combat pour l'égalité des peuples à l'ère post-coloniale. Témoin capital de cette période de mutations, Aimé Césaire évoque son siècle, celui de la fin des empires coloniaux, en posant les questions fondamentales de l'égalité, de l'écriture de l'histoire des anonymes et des disparus du monde non européen. C'est la voix d'un homme immense qu'il nous est donné d'entendre, dans sa force et sa modestie. -- Back cover.