To pay tribute to the internationally acclaimed writer and politician Martinican Aimé Césaire who died in April 2008 in his ninety fifth year, the Department of Language Linguistics and Literature will hold a Special "Aimé Césaire Colloquium", from October 15 - 17, 2008 at Cave Hill Campus, The University of the West Indies, Barbados.
Aimé Césaire (1913-2008) is the creator of the concept of Negritude. His Cahier d'un retour au pays natal (Notebook of a Return to Native Land) published in 1939 was received as a masterwork of the Negritude movement. He wrote many poetry collections, plays and essays all centered on the identity of Blacks. Identifying himself with all Blacks and recognizing his African descent, he deeply experienced the tragedy of his self as a colonized Caribbean man; he could embrace in the same heroic movement the destinies of Toussaint Louverture, King Christophe and Patrice Lumumba. On the other hand he has marked the political and cultural history of Martinique of the six last decades and has been criticized by some of his fellow citizens for his political action.
The impact of Aimé Césaire on the Black Consciousness is worldwide far beyond the little island of Martinique. From his commitment in the Negritude movement to the end of his last term as Mayor of Fort-de-France, Césaire has remained trustful to his original thought. His fight against colonialism and his trust in the destiny of Black people have never changed his Identity: "Nègre je suis, Nègre je resterai" (I am Negro, I will remain a Negro). Césaire is also the subject of a controversy in his homeland and the Caribbean. The younger generation of the Creolity movement criticizes him openly. It is a process of killing the patriarch in order to regenerate new trends in the Caribbean intellectual and political universe.
While revisiting history and writings from the Negritude, this colloquium will also explore new directions in African and Caribbean literatures.