Co-founder of Négritude, pioneering critic of colonialism
"My turn to state an equation: colonization = 'thingification.'" — Discourse on Colonialism (1950), distilling European colonialism into a single devastating formula.
Martinican poet, playwright, and politician. In 1935 Paris, with Senghor and Damas, he coined 'Négritude' and led the movement for Black cultural identity. His surrealist poem Cahier d'un retour au pays natal (1939) and essay Discourse on Colonialism (1950), which analyzed colonialism as the prototype of European fascism and formulated 'colonization = thingification', are foundational texts of postcolonial thought. Frantz Fanon's teacher and mentor, he served 47 years in the French National Assembly and 56 as mayor of Fort-de-France. He broke with the French Communist Party over the 1956 Soviet suppression of Hungary and founded the Martinican Progressive Party in 1958.
Career Timeline
- 1935Co-founded L'Étudiant noir in Paris; coined the term 'négritude'
- 1939Published Cahier d'un retour au pays natal
- 1941Co-founded Tropiques review with Suzanne Roussi
- 1945Elected PCF deputy to National Assembly and mayor of Fort-de-France
- 1946Secured law departmentalizing Martinique as part of France
- 1950Published Discours sur le colonialisme
- 1956Resigned from PCF via Lettre à Maurice Thorez over Soviet suppression of Hungary
- 1958Founded Parti Progressiste Martiniquais (PPM)
- 1983–1988President of the Regional Council of Martinique
- 1993Retired from National Assembly after 47 years
- 2001Retired as mayor of Fort-de-France after 56 years