AIME CESAIRE

ETHNIC EXPRESSIONS FROM THE MOSAIC OF THE AMERICAS

TEACHERS STUDY GUIDE
This guide is designed to assist college and secondary school teachers in using the documentary,
Aim Csaire, Poet and Statesman. The video offers an opportunity to meet the most
influential French Caribbean poet of the Twentieth Century and the man whose visionary
statesmanship in Martinique inspired a renewal of French Caribbean culture and set in motion a
battle against assimilation of the island culture by the French homeland. The reader can compare
Csaire with other passionate writers whose works illuminate the experience of being
discounted, silenced and marginalized. Csaire speaks about his love for the Martinican
landscape, his student days in Paris, the connection between his inner journey and the process of
writing, his fight against the dual ravages of slavery and French policies in the colonies, and the
creation of SERMAC, the Municipal Service for Cultural Action in Martinique. The video
includes interviews with two Martinican artists who speak of Csaires influence on their work,
Victor Anicet and Luc Marlin, and ends with a two-minute reading by Csaire from his Notebook
of a Return to the Native Land. This guide assumes that the reader has little or no foundation in
French Caribbean literature.
PERSONAL INFORMATION ABOUT
AIME CESAIRE
Csaire was born on the French Caribbean
island of Martinique in 1913. He spent his
childhood with five siblings in the coastal
town of Basse-Pointe in the shadow of the
volcano Mount Pele. His grandfather, who
had studied in France, was a professor at the
lyce of Saint-Pierre. His grandmother, with
whom he spent time in the summer, taught
him to read and write. His father, also an
intellectual, read aloud to his children,
taught school in Basse-Pointe and was the
local tax collector. His mother, a
dressmaker and an independent woman of
high moral character, ran the household with
a firm hand. Like all children in the French
Caribbean, Csaire studied the traditional
French syllabus, which did not include
studies in Crole. Csaire learned early on
that the French government encourages its

Teachers Guide, Aim Csaire

students to adopt French culture as their

own, and he mastered the French language.
However, he has fought against this policy
of assimilation throughout his life, because
he believes that it engenders alienation and
lack of self-esteem among black French
Caribbean people.
Csaires brilliant performance in grade
school earned him entry at age 11 to the
famous lyce Schoelcher, still considered
today to be the best high school in all of
Martinique. Years later, Csaire would
become an outstanding teacher at this lyce,
and today his former classroom is
designated by a plaque. Csaire graduated
from the lyce Schoelcher in 1931 at age 18.
As there were no colleges or universities in
the French overseas colonies at the time,
Csaire moved to Paris. He studied at the
lyce Louis-le Grand and then gained
admittance to Frances most advanced

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institution of learning in the liberal arts, the

acclaimed Ecole Normale Suprieure.
Csaire remained in Paris for eight years,
attending these schools. Because he had few
financial means, he was able to visit his
family in Martinique only once. In Paris, he
spent little time with most of the other
French Caribbean students, because he
thought they were too bourgeois and found
them already quite alienated from their own
culture.
Shortly after his arrival in Paris, Csaire
made a close friend in the person of Lopold
Sdar Senghor, the man who was to become
the first President of the Republic of Senegal
and a famous poet like Csaire. Along with
two other French Caribbean students in
Paris, Lon Gontran Damas of Guiana and
Guy Tirolien of Guadeloupe, both of whom
also became important poets, Csaire and
Senghor began the literary and political
movement known today as Ngritude.
They launched a journal called LEtudiant
noir (The Black Student) in whose March
1935 issue Csaire published a passionate
tract against assimilation in which he first
coined the term Ngritude. Influenced by
the Harlem Renaissance, Ngritude can be
compared to what became known as Black
Power in the United States. Ngritude and
Black Power both validate the importance of
ethnic roots and black heritage. Csaires
passion for ethnic roots, however, extends
far beyond black culture, because his
curiosity embraces all cultures.
Csaire made another close friend in the
person of Petar Guberina, a student from
Yugoslavia. In the video he describes his
visit to Petars mothers farm in Dalmatia
during the summer vacation of 1935 and the
genesis at that time of his famous poem,
Cahier dun retour au pays natal (Notebook
of a Return to the Native Land.) He recalls
his viewing of the island named Martinska,

Teachers Guide, Aim Csaire

whose French name would be Saint-Martin,

and mentions that the Dalmatian coast
reminded him of the cliffs around Le Carbet
in Martinique. He suggests that the
combination of the islands name and its
natural features inspired his great poem
about his island home.
Csaire completed his university studies in
Paris with a focus on the literary works of
the Harlem Renaissance, writing his
Masters thesis on the theme of the South in
African-American literature. The word
South refers to the part of the United States
where slaves were held.
In 1937 Csaire married Suzanne Roussy, a
gifted writer in her own right. Like Csaire,
Roussy was also a student in Paris, where
their first son was born. She too wrote for
LEtudiant noir and belonged to the
Surrealist group. The commitment of both
Csaires to the people of Martinique and
their passion for fighting against the ravages
of slavery led them home in the early 1940s.
Back in Fort-de-France, they both taught at
the lyce Schoelcher and eventually had a
family of six children.
Along with other intellectuals, Aim and
Suzanne Csaire co-founded a literary
journal in Fort-de-France called Tropiques
(Tropics). This journal offered penetrating
commentaries on current affairs as well as
literary essays. Andr Breton, the acclaimed
Surrealist poet, brought Csaires poetry into
the limelight after coming upon a copy of
Tropiques in a local shop in Fort-de-France
in 1941. Breton saw references in Csaires
work to that of the French poets Rimbaud
and Baudelaire, and he suggested to the
young poet that he was a Surrealist like
Breton. Csaire demurred; Breton told him
they both clearly drew from the same
sources, and the two became friends. Breton
later published a collection of essays and

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poems, Martinique, charmeuse des serpents,

(Martinique, Serpent Charmer) that
included a chapter called Un Grand Pote
Noir (A Great Black Poet). This chapter
helped make Csaires writing known and
has subsequently been used as an
introduction for several editions of Cahier
dun retour au pays natal.
During World War II the racist Vichy
regime in Paris collaborated with the Nazis
and tried to silence all criticism of its
policies. The regimes repression affected
the colonies severely, and the writers of
Tropiques managed to criticize the
government by using ironic and beautiful
language to camouflage their intent. A
particularly striking piece is Suzanne
Csaires Le Grand Camouflage, (The
Great Camouflage) (l945). The blatant
racism of Vichy killed the Csaires dreams
of a universal French brotherhood of the
future. In 1945 Csaire became mayor of
Fort-de-France on the Communist ticket and
joined the French National Assembly.
In 1946 he persuaded the Assembly to
change the status of Martinique,
Guadeloupe, Guiana and Runion from
colonies to dpartements. He had
hoped that inclusion of the former colonies
into the republic would guarantee equal
rights, and he remains disappointed today by
the fact that this did not happen. Instead,
numerous French officials were sent to the
colonies and often replaced local black
Martinican bureaucrats. Autonomy from
France remains a goal of the future.
During his political career, Csaire became a
leader in the pan-African and anti-colonial
movements. His first nonfiction book,
published in 1950, Discours sur le
colonialisme (Discourse on Colonialism)
was a vital contribution to the anti-colonial
literature of the period. Csaire attended the

Teachers Guide, Aim Csaire

First International Congress of Negro

Writers and Artists in Paris in 1956, where
he delivered a paper that stressed the evils of
colonialism and racism. Shortly thereafter,
he resigned from the Communist Party and
founded the Martinican Progressive Party.
He wanted to emphasize the importance of a
universality founded on the value of
promoting the unique qualities of each
individual rather than one founded on the
class struggle.
As mayor of Fort-de-France, an office he
held from 1945 to 2001, Csaire sparked the
creation of SERMAC, the Municipal Service
for Cultural Action. Today SERMAC is a
dynamic center where more than 2,000
students a year study traditional dance, film,
drama, sculpture, design, decoupage and
painting. Csaire speaks at length about
SERMAC in the video, and it is clear that he
values his work there deeply. He has
engaged so heartily in life, written so much,
known so many important figures of the day,
that it is impossible to introduce all of these
facts in this brief introduction. Excellent
additional resources exist on the web under
his name and in this study guides
bibliography.
Csaires writings and his dual focus on
alienation and cultural renewal have inspired
writers and artists the world over. The most
famous among the artists are Pablo Picasso
of the generation preceding Csaires and
Wifredo Lam, Csaires contemporary and
close friend. Both Picasso and Lam created
art to illustrate Csaires poetry. Among the
younger generation of artists inspired by
Csaire are two fellow Martinicans who
appear in the video, Victor Anicet and Luc
Marlin. Like Csaire, Anicet and Marlin
have engaged in extensive studies of French
Caribbean history, ethnology, traditional arts
and literature. Anicet refers to Csaires
collection of poetry, Ferrements (Slave

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Irons) and the slave trade, and Marlin speaks

about the tactics of the maroons or
runaway slaves in the Caribbean.
Csaire selected the segment from Cahier
dun retour au pays natal that he reads at the
end of the video. This study guide includes
this selected portion of the French text and
an excellent English translation of it. We are
indebted to Editions Prsence Africaine for
permission to use the French text from
Cahier dun retour au pays natal, Aim
Csaire 1956 Editions Prsence Africaine,
and to the University of California Press for
permission to use the selection from Aim
Csaire, Collected Poetry, trans. Clayton
Eshleman and Annette Smith 1983 the
Regents of the University of California.
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF THE
FRENCH CARIBBEAN
Martinique and Guadeloupe are the largest
of the seven islands the French claimed in
1635. The islands original inhabitants were
the Salode Indians who actually came from
the Orinoco basin in South America. Later,
the Arawaks and then the Carib Indians, also
from South America, populated the islands.
These people are known today as
Amerindians. When the French arrived, the
Caribs fought fiercely, but they did not
prevail. The French killed as many of these
inhabitants as they could and chased out the
rest. Today some of the descendants of the
original Amerindians live on the island of
Dominica, and their heritage is celebrated in
collections of artifacts in museums in Fortde-France, Martinique and Le Moule,
Guadeloupe.
The French created sugar plantations on
Martinique and Guadeloupe and brought in
boatloads of slaves from Africa to work the
cane fields. By 1745 Martinique had 60,000
slaves and 16,000 whites. Slaves on

Teachers Guide, Aim Csaire

Guadeloupe outnumbered the whites in even

greater proportions. Africans from the same
village were systematically separated from
each other and put with Africans from
different villages so that they would not
have a common language. The slaves' living
conditions were abominable, and the whip
of the white French overseer was quick to
lash out at any insubordination. Despite the
dangers, however, numerous slaves took to
the hills and became runaways, known as
maroons. Derived from a Spanish word
meaning wild cow, the word maroon is
used in all parts of the Caribbean to describe
runaway slaves. The maroons attacked
plantations, instigated revolt and
undermined the system of slavery in every
way possible, as did their counterparts
throughout the Americas. The legend of the
maroons is a central theme in Caribbean
literature today as is the entire history of
subjugation by slavery.
Csaires perspective as the descendant of
slaves and a citizen of Martinique when it
was still a colony offers valuable insight
about how French culture has tried
unsuccessfully to form its black citizens into
little copies of white French citizens. The
French National Assembly abolished slavery
in 1848, due in large part to insurrections
instigated by maroons and to sustained
lobbying by a Deputy from Paris, Victor
Schoelcher. However, until recently, all
French Caribbean children had to memorize
the phrase Our Ancestors the Gauls,
whether their ancestors were Amerindian,
African, East Indian, European or a
combination. The experience of studying
the French syllabus and of being expected to
measure themselves against French values
continues to create self-esteem problems
among black French Caribbeans today. A
marked difference seems to exist in the
English Caribbean areas where the
government maintained a distance and

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strong class distinctions between white and

black citizens. Frantz Fanon, a Martinican
psychiatrist, defined the problem posed by
self-alienation in Peau noire, masques
blancs (Paris: Editions du Seuil, 1952)
(Black Skin, White Masks, Grove Press,
1967). Many writers from the region,
including Csaire, affirm in their work and
in interviews that Fanons analysis remains
pertinent today.
CESAIRES POETIC INFLUENCE
Csaires passion for social justice, his love
of Martinique and his global vision of
mankind are reflected in every aspect of his
life and poetry. His Cahier dun retour au
pays natal was first published in the French
magazine, Volonts, in 1939 and remains the
cornerstone of French Caribbean literature.
In this long prose poem, Csaire finds
regenerative force in the landscape of his
native Martinique. In an over-arching sense,
the poem is a quest for creative inspiration.
In a more detailed fashion, the poems
thematic development has multiple facets:
the poet draws a picture of the poverty of
daily reality; he writes a lament for
monumental losses suffered by Caribbean
people because of the slave trade; he
describes the vitality of his people who are
rooted in the soil; he explores his own
anguish; he celebrates the spiritual and
physical beauty of Caribbean space; he
experiences a catharsis; and he utters a call
to action.
Csaires mastery of the French language
allows him to turn it to his own ends. In the
interview, when he says that French must
not be used to imprison people, he is
responding to a question about his opinion
on the value of la francophonie,
Frenchness. He replies first that he is not
sure what the term means, but that it does
not appeal to him. Other writers have

Teachers Guide, Aim Csaire

described la francophonie as a renewed

interest on the part of French intellectuals in
the literature and culture of minority groups
in the French-speaking world. Until recent
years, the literatures of the French
Caribbean, Quebec and French-speaking
Africa received very little attention in
France proper. Indeed, during the 1940s and
1950s, an attitude of exoticism existed in
which these literatures and cultures were
regarded as curiosities, exotic entertainment,
but they were not taken seriously. Many
writers from the French-speaking areas
mentioned above have been acclaimed in
France only after they were celebrated
through translations abroad, for example in
the United States, Great Britain and
Germany.
Indeed, as many scholars have pointed out,
it is ironic and telling that Csaire employs
the French language precisely to undermine
the negative influences of the French
political system. He has turned the language
into a weapon to use against the conquerors.
In so doing, he himself becomes the victor.
He also moves beyond the limits of the
language, creating neologisms and
expressions that suit his needs. It is a
testimony to his brilliance as a poet that
numerous international scholars continue to
study and write about his work, colloquia
are held, and collections of essays are
published regularly, even in 2002.
Scholars of French Caribbean and African
literature, as well as politicians and writers
from these regions, have noted the
development of significant differences
between Csaires Negritude and the
Negritude of Senghor. One primary
difference is that Csaire celebrates the
existential dimension of a descendant of
slaves who has found his roots in the
Caribbean land he inhabits. Csaire does
not look to Africa, while Senghor is more

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attached to both Africa and France.

However, the fact remains that the poetry of
both Csaire and Senghor empowers others
of Africa and of the African diaspora to
embrace their blackness, and it offers
inspiration to all who read it.

Breton, Un Grand Pote Noir, translation

of poem and preface by Yvan Goll and
Lionel Abel. New York: Brentanos, 1947.
Andr Bretons preface is reprinted in
Martinique, charmeuse de serpents.
Editions Jean-Jacques Pauvert, 1972.

Negritude became the first international

movement to vindicate the importance and
dignity of being black at a time when
foreign powers still held colonies around the
globe. This movement began to show the
rest of the world that it could no longer view
blacks as savage, uneducated people. The
segment of Cahier dun retour au pays natal
that Csaire reads at the end of the video
brings both the world of domination and the
strength of the Martinican people into sharp
focus.

2. French text of above, with minor

revisions, Bordas, 1947.

BIBLIOGRAPHY OF WORKS BY AIME

CESAIRE
(We are indebted to Abiola Irel for the
information in this bibliography.)
For a complete listing of Csaires writings,
published speeches, and interviews up to
1978, with commentary on each item, see
Thomas Hale, Les Ecrits dAim Csaire
(special publication of Etudes Franaises,
Vol. 14, Nos. 3-4). Montreal: Les Presses
de lUniversit de Montreal, 1978); see also
Frederick Ivor Case, Aim Csaire:
Bibliographie (Toronto: Manna, 1973),
which lists the works of Csaire as well as
the secondary literature up to the year of its
publication.
A. Cahier dun retour au pays natal
The following are the various editions that
contain French text:
1. Bilingual edition, French and English
(with poems title rendered as Memorandum
on my Martinique); Preface by Andr

Teachers Guide, Aim Csaire

3. Revised and expanded edition, French

text only, with Preface by Petar Guberina.
Prsence Africaine, 1956.
4. Zurck ins Land der Gerburt, bilingual
edition, French text of 1956 edition and
German translation by Janheinz Jahn.
Frankfurt am Main: Insel-Verlag, 1962.
5. Cuaderno de un Retorno al Pais Natal,
bilingual edition and Spanish translation,
with introduction, by Agusti Bartra. Mexico
City: Ediciones Era, 1969.
6. Return to my Native Land, bilingual
edition, French text of 1956 and English
translation by Emile Snyder. Prsence
Africaine, 1968.
7. Oeuvres Completes, Volume 1 (Posie),
pp. 41-78. French text of 1956 edition.
Fort-de-France: Editions Dsormeaux, 1976.
8. Aim Csaire: The Collected Poetry,
bilingual edition, French text of 1956 edition
and English translation, pp. 34-85 (title in
English as Notebook of a Return to the
Native Land); translation by Clayton
Eshelman and Annette Smith. Berkley and
Los Angeles University of California Press,
1983.
9. Reprint of 1956 edition with corrections
to the text and Appendices, including
Bretons 1947 preface. Prsence Africaine,
1983.

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B. Other Poetic and Dramatic Works

Les Armes miraculeuses, poems. Gallimard,
1946; reissued in revised edition with
Postface, 1970 (Collection Posie).

English translations (in addition to Aim

Csaire, The Collected Poetry above):
State of the Union. Trans. Clayton Eshelman
and Denis Kelly. Bloomington: Caterpillar
Press, 1966.

Soleil cou coupe, poems. Editions K, 1948.

Corps perdu, poems, with illustrations by
Picasso. Editions Fragrance, 1949.
Et Les Chiens se taisaient, stage version of
dramatic poem previously published as part
of Les Armes miraculeuses. Prsence
Africaine, 1956.
Ferrements, poems. Editions du Seuil, 1961.
Cadastre, containing Soleil cou coupe and
Corps perdu in revised versions of both
volumes. Editions du Seuil, 1961.
La Tragdie du Roi Christophe, play.
Prsence Africaine, 1963
Une Saison au Congo, play. Editions du
Seuil, 1966.
Une Tempte, play. Editions du Seuil, 1969.
Moi, laminaire, poems. Editions du Seuil,
1982.
Extracts in historic anthologies:
Lon Damas: Potes dexpression franaise.
Editions du Seuil, 1947.
Lopold Sdar Senghor: Anthologie de la
nouvelle posie ngre et malgache, Presses
Universitaires de France, 1948; second
edition, 1970. Contains Jean-Paul Sartres
preface, Orphe noir; this is reprinted in
Situations II, Gallimard, 1949; English
translation by Samuel Allen under the title
Black Orpheus, Prsence Africaine, 1963.

Teachers Guide, Aim Csaire

Return to my Native Land. Trans. John

Berger and Anna Bostock, with Introduction
by Mazisi Kunene. Harmondsworth:
Penguin Books, 1968.
Cadastre, bilingual edition. Trans. By Emile
Snyder and Sanford Upson. Introduction by
Emile Snyder. New York: Third Press,
1973.
Non-Vicious Circle: Twenty Poems of Aim
Csaire, Selection, French texts and English
translations, with introduction and notes, by
Gregson Davis, Stanford: Stanford
University Press, 1984.
Lyric and Dramatic Poetry: 1946-82,
containing French texts with English
translations of stage version of Et Les
Chiens se taisaient and complete text of the
volume Moi, laminaire. Trans. Clayton
Eshelman and Annette Smith.
Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press,
1990 (CARAF Books). The volume also
contains an Introduction by A. James Arnold
and his English translation of Posie et
Connaissance under the title Poetry and
Knowledge.
See also Ellen Conroy Kennedy (ed,), The
Negritude Poets, New York: Thunders
Mouth Press, 2nd ed. 1989, for selections in
English translations.

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C. Selected Cultural, Historical and

Political Writings
Early articles in Tropiques, Tome I, 194142, Tome II, 1943-45, Editions Jean-Michel
Place, 1978. (The first volume contains an
interview with Jacqueline Leiner, Entretien
avec Aim Csaire, pp. v-xxiv, and an
introduction, Pour une lecture critique de
Tropiques by Ren Mnil, pp. xxv-xxxv.)
Introduction, Esclavage et colonisation
(Selected writings of Victor Schoelcher).
Presses Universitaires de France, 1948.

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY OF
WORKS ABOUT AIME CESAIRE
Arnold, A. James. Negritude and
Modernism: The Poetry and Poetics of
Aim Csaire. Cambridge: Harvard UP,
1981.
Dash, J. Michael. The World and the
Word: French Caribbean Writing in the
Twentieth Century, Callaloo. 11:2 (1988)
112-130.
Irele, Abiola. Literature and Ideology in
Martinique. London: Heinemnan, 1981.

Discours sur le colonialisme. Editions

Rclame, 1950; Prsence Africaine, 1955.
Trans. Joan Pinkham, Discourse on
Colonialism. New York: Monthly Review
Press, 1972.

Kelley, Robin D. G. Poetry and the

Political Imagination: Aim Csaire,
Negritude & the Applications of
Surrealism, www.lipmagazine.org/articles

:Sur la posie nationale, Prsence

Africaine, Oct-Nov., 1955, pp.39-41.

Kesteloot, Lilyan. Csaire et Senghor, in

Soleil Eclat. Ed. Jacqueline Leiner.
Tbingen: Gunter Narr Verlag, 1984.

Culture et colonisation in Prsence

Africaine, juin-novembre, 1956, pp.190-205.
Lettre Maurice Thorez. Prsence
Africaine, 1956.
LHomme de culture noir et ses
responsabilits, in Deuxime Congrs des
crivains et artistes noirs, Prsence
Africaine, Feb-March, 1959, pp.116-122.
La Martinique telle quelle est, French
Review, Vol. 53, No. 2, December, 1979,.
pp.183-89.
Toussaint Louverture: La Rvolution
franaise et le problme colonial, Prsence
Africaine, 1962.
Socit et littrature dans les Antilles,
Etudes Littraires, Qubec Vol. 6, No.1,
April 1973, pp.9-20.

Teachers Guide, Aim Csaire

Leiner, Jacqueline. Africa and the West

Indies: Two Negritudes, in EuropeanLanguage Writing in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Ed. Albert S. Grard. Budapest: Akadmiai
Kiado, 1986.
CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES
SMALL GROUP WORK: This interview
raises questions that could be explored
before and/or after the video is presented.
Some issues relate to those of specific ethnic
groups in the United States and may
resonate with the students personal lives
and/or those of their friends as well. Ask
students to write a short essay or a poem
about any of the following questions. Then
have them present their essays/poems in
small discussion groups.

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We see alienation within French

Caribbean society as well as pressure
to become like the conquerors,
dispossession of peoples heritage,
the fragmentation of families and the
challenge of trying to return to roots
one has lost. How does this relate to
your current society? What ethnic
groups are you aware of in your
culture? Do you know when and why
they came to your country? Can you
describe the hardships any of them
faced being assimilated into todays
culture? Is a sense of family roots
becoming lost in modern society? Is
a sense of family roots important or
old fashioned?
The video suggests that it is very
difficult to create a definition of
Caribbean identity because the
society is composed of people from
many backgrounds and languages.
How is this also true in your
country? Does your country have a
national identity? If so, what is it
and do you consider yourself part of
it? What evidence do you see today
of ethnic groups trying to reach back
to their ancestors? Does this create a
conflict so that people are unable to
agree on a modern and unified
society? Can different ethnic and
language groups live together under
one political system?
Csaires experience reflects the
fragmentation of families and the
challenge of choosing a language
and a country for ones own identity.
Can you identify with this situation
in your own life? Do you see
families divided in their values,
dreams and goals? Are you aware of
problems in families created by
different languages such as Spanish

Teachers Guide, Aim Csaire

and English or polite language and

street talk? Do you think people
should relate more to the country
where they live or the one where
either they or their parents came
from?
Csaire was born into a country that
grew out of a crossroads of different
cultures, Amerindian, African, Hindu
and European. Two languages are
spoken in Martinique, French and
Creole. Until late in the year 2002,
the schools only taught French and
French culture. If you lived in
Martinique, what do you think your
attitudes towards these cultures
would be? Would you have friends
with different heritage? Would you
want to speak both languages? Do
you think that the differences
between people would be a daily
problem? How would you handle
problems between people who have
different backgrounds?
Imagine an island that has two ethnic
groups and through a quirk of fate,
you visit and are immediately
crowned the Almighty Ruler (King
or Queen)! What kinds of laws
would you create to keep peace and
prosperity in the island? What kind
of government? Who would be in
charge? What kind of educational
system? How would you see that
everyone had adequate food and
housing? Would everyone have to
work and have a job? Would
everyone have access to doctors,
nurses and hospitals even if they
didnt work? Could a citizen
criticize your decisions? What
would happen then?

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FREE FORM POETRY: Give students a

copy of one or two segments of the poem
ahead of the showing, French or English,
depending on your subject area. Ask them
to write a poetic response, discuss the
segments in groups, and give a resume of
what they think it means.
PREVIEW ANALYSIS OF POEM IN
VIDEO: Choose one or two of the
segments and give the students the English
or French text. Have them define the tone,
poetic qualities (alliteration, assonance,
simile, metaphor, meter) of the segment(s)
before they see the video. Ask them to
guess about the poets identity (age,
heritage, gender, etc.).
FRENCH CLASSES: Offer students the
translation(s) after they have analyzed the
French segment(s) and tell them to make a
similar analysis of the translation(s). Do
they find one version more successful as
poetry than the other?
TERMS TO DEFINE BEFORE
WATCHING THE VIDEO:
( Definitions are taken from Websters New
World College Dictionary. Neufeldt,
Victoria, ed. New York: Macmillan, 1996.)
Assimilation: policy of absorbing minority
groups of different races into the dominant
culture with the intention of blurring the
differences
Colony: a territory distant from the state
having jurisdiction or nominal control over
it
Dpartement: a government administrative
district in France
Exoticism: the practice of being interested
in an object or a person primarily because

Teachers Guide, Aim Csaire

the thing or person is strange, unfamiliar and

foreign
French Caribbean: the ensemble of the
seven islands claimed by France in 1635, of
which the largest are Martinique and
Guadeloupe
Gaul: 1) any of the Celtic-speaking people
of ancient Gaul; 2) a Frenchman
Gibbosity: protuberance, swelling
Maroon: term used to describe a runaway
slave throughout the Caribbean region
Negritude: political movement that
promoted the validation of black peoples
ethnic identity and asserted the right to selfexpression
Surrealism: a modern movement in art and
literature in which an attempt is made to
portray the workings of the unconscious
mind as manifested in dreams: it is
characterized by an irrational,
noncontextual, arrangement of materials
TOPICS FOR BRIEF REPORTS BY
STUDENTS:
History: (topics in chronological order)
Arawak and Carib Indians
(Amerindians)
Pre Labat (Dominican priest,
explorer, chronicler, botanist)
French colonialism
African slave trade
French sugarcane plantation
Nanny of the maroons (heroine)
Maroons in the West Indies
Victor Schoelcher (French
abolitionist)
Vichy regime in France
Marshal Philippe Ptain

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Contemporary relationship between

France and Martinique and
Guadeloupe
Fort-de-France, Martinique (political
capitol)
Mount Ple, Martinique (volcano)
Basse-Terre, Guadeloupe (political
capitol)
Writers, Artists and Philosophers:
Victor Anicet
Andr Breton
Lon Gontran Damas
Frantz Fanon
Edouard Glissant
Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
Immanuel Kant
Wifredo Lam
Luc Marlin
Pablo Picasso
Lopold Sdar Senghor
Guy Tirolien
Writers of the Harlem Renaissance
DISCUSSION OF SEGMENT FROM LE
CAHIER
A. Difficult terms:
Kalcdrat/Cailedra: a tree
typical of the West African
savannah, with royal
significance. Cf. Senghor's
"Lettre un pote" in CHANTS
D'OMBRE, a poem addressed to
Csaire. (Abiola Irele, Cahier
dun retour au pays natal,
annotated ed, New Horn 1994,
p.118).

Teachers Guide, Aim Csaire

"larmes rincarnes" /udders of

reincarnated tears: is a
metonymic representation of the
black race, weaned on a long
history of sorrows, like a child
who has suckled its mother's
breasts ("pis"); the phrase thus
announces a second coming that
will see the race fortified by its
experience and transfigured by it,
emerge into universal history
(Irele, p. 120)
B. Suggested questions for specific
parts of the segment: (numbers
refer to the numbers written in beside
the lines of poetry)
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

What is the source of this light?

Why these specific images?
Explain the silo image.
Why these specific images?
What are the qualities of the poets
negritude?
6. What contrasts appear here?
7. Note each image and define the
nature of its strength.
8. How do images here encompass the
Life force?
9. Contrast the weakness described here
with the strength of the images in 8.
What does each image add to the
total picture?
10. How does the speaker view the white
world?
11. Who has never explored or
conquered anything?
12. Discuss the image of reincarnated
tears.

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Excerpt from Notebook of a Return to the Native Land (English)

oh friendly light
oh fresh source of light

-------------------------------------------------those who have invented neither powder nor compass

those who could harness neither steam nor electricity
those who explored neither the seas nor the sky but those
2
without whom the earth would not be the earth
gibbosity all the more beneficent as the bare earth even more earth
----------------------------------------------------silo where that which is earthiest about earth ferments and ripens

----------------------------------------------------my negritude is not a stone, its deafness hurled against the clamor of the day
my negritude is not a leukoma of dead liquid over the earths dead eye
my negritude is neither tower nor cathedral

---------------------------------------------it takes root in the red flesh of the soil

it takes root in the ardent flesh of the sky
it breaks through the opaque prostration with its upright patience

---------------------------------------------Eia for the royal Cailcedra!

Eia for those who have never invented anything
for those who never explored anything
for those who never conquered anything

------------------------------------------

Teachers Guide, Aim Csaire

Page 12 of 12

but yield, captivated, to the essence of all things

ignorant of surfaces but captivated by the motion of all things
indifferent to conquering, but playing the game of the world
truly the eldest sons of the world
porous to all the breathing of the world
7
fraternal locus for all the breathing of the world
drainless channel for all the water of the world
spark of the sacred fire of the world
flesh of the worlds flesh pulsating with the very motion of the world!
Tepid dawn of ancestral virtues
----------------------------------------------Blood! Blood! All our blood aroused by the male heart of the sun
those who know about the femininity of the moons oily body
the reconciled exultation of antelope and star
8
those whose survival travels in the germination of grass!
Eia perfect circle of the world, enclosed concordance!
----------------------------------------------Hear the white world
horribly weary from its immense efforts
its stiff joints crack under the hard stars
hear its blue steel rigidity pierce the mystic flesh
its deceptive victories tout its defeats
hear the grandiose alibis of its pitiful stumblings

----------------------------------------------Pity for our omniscient and nave conquerors!

-------------------------------------------------Eia for grief and its udders of reincarnated tears
for those who have never explored anything
for those who have never conquered anything

10

11

-------------------------------------------------Eia for joy

Eia for love
Eia for grief and its udders of reincarnated tears

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12

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Excerpt from Cahier dun retour au pays natal (French)

lumire amicable
frache source de la lumire

----------------------------------------------------------------ceux qui nont invent ni la poudre ni la boussole

ceux qui nont jamais su dompter ni la vapeur ni llectricit
ceux qui nont explor ni les mers ni le ciel mais ceux
2
sans qui la terre ne serait pas la terre
gibbosit dautant plus bienfaisante que la terre dserte davantage la terre
---------------------------------------------------------------silo o se prserve et mrit ce que la terre a de plus terre

---------------------------------------------------------------ma ngritude nest pas une pierre, sa surdit rue contre la clameur du jour
ma ngritude nest pas une taie deau morte sur lil mort de la terre
ma ngritude nest ni une tour ni une cathdrale

----------------------------------------------------------------elle plonge dans la chair rouge du sol

elle plonge dans la chair ardente du ciel
elle troue laccablement opaque de sa droite patience

----------------------------------------------------------------Eia pour le Kalcdrat royal!

Eia pour ceux qui nont jamais rien invent
pour ceux qui nont jamais rien explor
pour ceux qui nont jamais rien dompt

--------------------------------------------------------

Teachers Guide, Aim Csaire

Page 14 of 14

mais ils sabandonnent, saisis, l essence de toute chose

ignorants des surfaces mais saisis par le mouvement de toute chose
insoucieux de dompter, mais jouant le jeu du monde
vritablement les fils ans du monde
poreux tous les souffles du monde
7
aire fraternelle de tous les souffles du monde
lit sans drain de toutes les eaux du monde
tincelle du feu sacr du monde
chair de la chair du monde palpitant du mouvement mme du monde!
Tide petit matin de vertus ancestrales
-----------------------------------------------------------Sang! Sang! tout notre sang mu par le cur mle du soleil
ceux qui savent la fminit de la lune au corps dhuile
lexaltation rconcilie de lantilope et de ltoile
ceux dont la survie chemine en la germination de lherbe!
Eia parfait cercle du monde et close concordance!

-------------------------------------------------Ecoutez le monde blanc

horriblement las de son effort immense
ses articulations rebelles craquer sous les toiles dures
ses raideurs dacier bleu transperant la chair mystique
coute aux alibis grandioses son pitre trbuchement

-----------------------------------------------Piti pour nos vainqueurs omniscients et nafs!

10

------------------------------------------------Eia pour la douleur aux pis de larmes rincarnes

pour ceux qui nont jamais rien explor
pour ceux qui nont jamis rien dompt

11

-----------------------------------------------Eia pour la joie

Eia pour lamour
Eia pour la douleur aux pis de larmes rincarnes

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12

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