CONTENTS

Introduction ...................................................................................................................................................................2

The Avant-gardes of the Negritude Movement ............................................................................................................2

Aimé Césaire ..............................................................................................................................................................2

Léon-Gontran Damas .................................................................................................................................................3

Léopold Sédar Senghor ..............................................................................................................................................3

Négritude ideas and style ..............................................................................................................................................4

Criticisms against Negritude Movement .......................................................................................................................5

Prominent Negritude Artists..........................................................................................................................................5

Ronald Moody (1900-1984) .......................................................................................................................................5

Wifredo Lam (1902-1982)..........................................................................................................................................6

Ben Enwonwu (1917-1994) .......................................................................................................................................7

Conclusion .....................................................................................................................................................................8

References .....................................................................................................................................................................8

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INTRODUCTION

Négritude was an anti-colonial cultural and political movement founded by a group of African and Caribbean
students in Paris in the 1930s who sought to reclaim the value of blackness and African culture. Négritude was lead
by the Martinican poet Aimé Césaire, French Guianese poet Léon Damas and the future Senegalese President (who
was also a poet) Léopold Sédar Senghor. It was influenced by a range of styles and art movements including
surrealism and the Harlem Renaissance. With the outbreak of the Second World War and the dispersal of its artists
and intellectuals from Paris, Négritude became a global art movement. Though it was originally a literary
movement, it also had impact on the visual arts.

THE AVANT-GARDES OF THE NEGRITUDE MOVEMENT

The 1931 encounter between Césaire, Senghor, and Damas marks the beginning of a collective exploration of their
complex cultural identities as black, African, Antillean, and French. In 1934 they launched the pioneering journal
L'Étudiant noir (The Black Student), which aimed to break nationalistic barriers among black students in France.
Crystallizing diverse expressions of Négritude by these so-called fathers, L'Étudiant noir was its most important
political and cultural periodical. While the three leaders agreed on Négritude's Pan-Africanist engagement to
affirm blacks' "being-in-the-world" through literary and artistic expression, they differed in their styles and designs.

The term Négritude (blackness) was coined by Césaire from the pejorative French word nègre. Césaire boldly and
proudly incorporated this derogatory term into the name of an ideological movement, and used it for the first time
during the writing of his seminal poetic work Cahier d'un retour au pays natal (Notebook of a Return to the Native
Land, 1939). In the author's own words, Négritude is "the simple recognition of the fact that one is black, the
acceptance of this fact and of our destiny as blacks, of our history and culture." The concept of Négritude thus
provided a unifying, fighting, and liberating instrument for the black Francophone students in search of their
identity. It was an expression of a new humanism that positioned black people within a global community of
equals.

AIMÉ CÉSAIRE

For Césaire's (1913–2008), the original concept of Négritude is rooted in the specificity and unity of black people as
historically derived from the Transatlantic Slave Trade and their plight in New World plantation systems. In his own
words, "Négritude [is] not a cephalic index, or plasma, or soma, but measured by the compass of suffering." The
movement was born of a shared experience of discrimination, oppression, and subordination to be suppressed
through concerted efforts of racial affirmation.

Césaire's response to the centuries-old alienation of blacks is a call to reject assimilation and reclaim their own
racial heritage and qualities. He experiences his négritude as a fact, a revolt, and the acceptance of responsibility
for the destiny of his race. He advocates the emergence of "cultural workers" who will reveal black specificity to
the world by articulating their experiences, their fortunes and misfortunes. This consciousness of blacks' "being-in-
the-world" will write them back into history and validate their achievements. It will restore the lost humanity,
dignity, integrity, and subjectivity of black identity, necessary to confront colonialism, racism, and Western
imperialism. He rejects assimilation and articulates the concept in his Cahier d'un retour au pays natal:

My Négritude is not a stone, its deafness hurled against the clamor of the day
my Négritude is not a leukoma of dead liquid over the earth'sdead eye
my Négritude is neither tower nor cathedral

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

In other words, black personality is not the lifeless object society has reduced it to; instead, it is a vibrant creative
force that confronts racism, colonialism, and other forms of domination. Some of Césaire's numerous works are
Les Armes miraculeuses, Et Les Chiens se taisaient (1946), Soleil cou-coupé (1948), Corps perdu (1950), Discours
sur le colonialisme (1955), Lettre á Maurice Thorez (1956), La Tragédie du roi Christophe (1963), Une Saison au
Congo (1966), Une Tempête (1968), Moi, laminaire (1982).

LÉON-GONTRAN DAMAS

Damas (1912–1978) was the first of the Trois Péres to publish his own book of poems, Pigments (1937), which
underscores the need to cure the ills of Western society and is sometimes referred to as the "manifesto of the
movement." Its style and overtones passionately condemn racial division, slavery, and colonialist assimilation. For
Damas, Négritude is a categorical rejection of an assimilation that negated black spontaneity as well as a defense
for his condition as black and Guyanese. Becoming French requires loss, repression, and rejection of self as well as
adoption of a civilization that robs indigenous cultures, values, and beliefs, as articulated in his poem "Limbé" in
which the poet laments his losses:

Give me back my black dolls

so that I may play with them
the naïve games of my instinct
in the darkness of its laws
once I have recovered
my courage
and my audacity
and become myself once more

Damas's poetry is influenced by elements of African oral traditions and Caribbean calypso, rhythms and tunes of
African-American blues and jazz, Harlem Renaissance poetry, as well as French Surrealist ideas.Damas's
subsequent works are Retour de Guyane (1938), Poèmes nègres sur des airs africains (1948), Graffiti (1952), Black-
Label (1956), Névralgies (1965), and Veillées noires (1943).

LÉOPOLD SÉDAR SENGHOR

Like Césaire and Damas, Senghor (1906–2001) promotes a quest for the authentic self, knowledge of self, and a
rediscovery of African beliefs, values, institutions, and civilizations. Unlike his two peers, who strongly oppose
assimilation, Senghor advocates assimilation that allows association, "a cultural métissage" of blackness and
whiteness. He posits notions of a distinct Negro soul, intuition, irrationalism, and crossbreeding to rehabilitate
Africa and establish his theory of black humanism. He envisions Western reason and Negro soul as instruments of
research to create "une Civilisation de l'Universel, une Civilisation de l'Unité par symbiose" (a Civilization of the
Universal, a Civilization of Unity by Symbiosis).

For Senghor, the dual black and white cultural background gives insights that neither can give separately, and
African input can help solve some problems that have challenged Westerners. He points to a new race

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consciousness that lays the foundation for challenging enslavement and colonization of blacks, as well as
establishing a "rendez du donner et recevoir" (give-and-take).

To the charge that Négritude is racist, Senghor responds with his definition, "Négritude... is neither racialism nor
self-negation. Yet it is not just affirmation; it is rooting oneself in oneself, and self-confirmation: confirmation of
one's being. It is nothing more or less than what some English-speaking Africans have called the African
personality." Négritude must take its place in contemporary humanism in order to enable black Africa to make its
contribution to the "Civilization of the Universal," which is so necessary in our divided but interdependent world.

Senghor's poems such as "Joal," which captures cultural memories of his childhood and ancestral lands, are
interspersed with anti-colonialist rage. Others make an appeal for reconciliation and God's forgiveness for France's
dehumanization of blacks through enslavement and colonization. Senghor's influence and example were very
important in encouraging African intellectuals to devote themselves to literature, poetry, and the arts.

Some major works by Senghor are Chants d'ombre (1945), Hosties noires, Anthologie de la nouvelle poésie négre
et malgache (1948),ç Liberté I: Négritude et humanisme

(1964), Liberté II: Nation et voies africaines du socialisme (1971), Liberté III: Négritude et civilisation de l'universel
(1977), Ce que je crois (1988).

In 1947, a fellow Senegalese, Alioune Diop, founded the seminal literary magazine, Présence Africaine, to
disseminate ideas of Négritude and to promote other black writers. The review --and later the publishing house--
earned the support of progressive French intellectuals such as Pablo Picasso, André Breton, Albert Camus, and
Jean-Paul Sartre. It helped to position black writers in mainstream French literary circles.

NÉGRITUDE IDEAS AND STYLE

Négritude artists incorporated concepts and characteristics derived from a diverse range of sources and studies in
order to critique imperialism and imperial art and to assert a new world avant-garde.

In 1956 one of the movement’s leading voices, Léopold Sédar Senghor, argued that for black culture to transcend
its past and reflect modernity it must acknowledge its own traditions but combine this with an open approach to
new ideas and developments in art. Artist Ben Enwonwu put it clearly in an important article Problems of the
African Artist Today which was published in the journal Présence Africaine the same year. He argued that while
West African culture was seen in terms of ethnography and anthropology and African art characterised as
primitive, an ‘intellectual barrier’ existed ‘which makes it extremely difficult for most Africans to be considered
qualified to play an important part in the development and preservation of their art’. He called for an international
African art, that responded to contemporary life and times but was also aware of traditional, local and global
influences:

I will not accept an inferior position in the art world…European artists like Picasso, Braque and Vlaminck
were influenced by African art. Everybody sees that and is not opposed to it. But when they see African
artists who are influenced by their European training and technique, they expect that African to stick to
their traditional forms … I do not copy traditional art. I like what I see in the works of people like
Giacometti but I do not copy them… I knew he was influenced by African sculptures. But I would not be
influenced by Giacometti, because he was influenced by my ancestors.

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CRITICISMS AGAINST NEGRITUDE MOVEMENT

Criticisms against Negritude Movement Many African authors and critics seem not to have been in favour with
negritude movement and its ideological perspectives. Non-African and African critics attack negritude on the
ground of its ‘irrelevance’ and extremities. John-Paul Sartre in the preface to Senghor’s Anthologie de la nouvelle
poesie negre et malgache calls negritude an ‘anti-racist racism’ . Rene Menil, a Marxist philosopher and co-founder
of Martinique Review, Tropiques, considered Negritude as ‘a form of exoticism and self-consciousness sustaining
French imperialism’. Kesteloot credited negritude with the ‘birth of French Caribbean literature’ as well as
critiqued its fetishization of blackness and identity politics. Edward writes that ‘Senghor’s existentialist definition of
negritude was challenged by African scholars and philosophers such as Marcien Towa, Stanilas Adotevi and Paulin
Hountondji’. Other African literary critics like Soyinka, Lewis Nkosi, Ezekiel Mphahlele and Dathorne have
challenged not only the approach but also the content and excesses of negritude. Wole Soyinka views negritude as
reinforcing colonial ideology, a stance that automatically places black intellectuals on the defensive. For Soyinka ‘a
tiger does not proclaim its tigerritude, it jumps on its prey’. Lewis Nkosi writes that ‘one sees in these [negritude
poems] literary ideology which may be as crippling to young writers as the high-handed dictates of a cultural
commissar in communist countries’. Ezekiel Mphahlele considers it as ‘sheer romanticism, often it is mawkish and
strikes a pose’. Importantly, Negritudism is not all about negativism as projected above. Other African literary
critics have seen it in a positive light. Egudu has cautioned that, In discussing negritude in Africa poetry, one should
be guided by what the founders have pointed out as its elements: the value of the civilization of the African world.
And these ‘values’ are to be found in the African culture, the African human person, the African world view, and
the African spirit of humanity. This caution is imperative because ideologies like negritude and Pan-African
movements seem to be ‘unifying bond of Africanity’, which was broken as a result of Atlantic slave trade and the
African colonial experience. It is in this light that Irele asserts that, Negritude and black intellectuals represent an
extensive exploration of black condition in both historical setting and in its direction towards an ultimate
significance. Dathorne does not see any reason why Negritudism should be dismissed as irrelevant because
negritude poems ‘expressed common concern for the predicament of their [poets’] race and the legacy of a
colonial bondage’. More importantly, Finn tells us ‘they expressed deeper sentiment of exile and suffering which
Europe caused them’. For instance, Finn describes Damas’ Pigment as ‘synthesis of revolt, anguish, the affirmation
of black values and dignity and the negation of cerebral whitewashing’.

PROMINENT NEGRITUDE ARTISTS

RONALD MOODY (1900-1984)

Jamaican-born British artist Ronald Moody moved to Paris in 1938 where he met artists and intellectuals
associated with Négritude. He enjoyed two years of increasing recognition before being forced to leave the city
and abandon his sculptures two days before it fell to the Germans. Using direct carving he created sculptures that
showed the influence of Asian and Egyptian art which he had seen in the British Museum in London; while also
looking to the present and future by representing ‘the exploration of the inner life of man and the possibility of
evolution through self-awareness’. He later stated: ‘My present is the result of the friction of Europe with my past,’
which itself is ‘a mixture of African, Asian and European influences’.

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 Johanaan, Ronald Moody, 1936 Midonz, Ronald Moody, 1937

WIFREDO LAM (1902-1982)

Wifredo Lam was perhaps the most prominent and successful of the Négritude artists. Born in Cuba he moved to
Spain in 1924, and then to Paris in 1938 where he met Pablo Picasso, André Breton and other surrealist artists. His
paintings combine African art motifs and references to Afro-Caribbean culture with cubist and surrealist
‘primitivism’.

[No title], Wifredo Lam, 1975-6 Ibaye, Wifredo Lam, 1950

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Aubrey Williams (1926-1990)

Aubrey Williams (8 May 1926 – 17 April 1990) was a Guyanese artist. He was best known for his large, oil-on-
canvas paintings, which combine elements of abstract expressionism with forms, images and symbols inspired by
the pre-Columbian art of indigenous peoples of the Americas.

Tribal Mark II, Aubrey Williams, 1961 Death and the Conquistador, Aubrey Williams, 1959

BEN ENWONWU (1917-1994)

Ben Enwonwu, was a Nigerian painter and sculptor. Arguably the most influential African artist of the 20th century,
his pioneering career opened the way for the postcolonial proliferation and increased visibility of modern African
art. He was one of the first African artists to win critical acclaim, having exhibited in august exhibition spaces in
Europe and the United States and listed in international directories of contemporary art. Since 1950, Enwonwu
was celebrated as "Africa's Greatest Artist" by the international media and his fame was used to enlist support for
Black Nationalists movement all over the world. The Enwonwu crater on the planet Mercury is named in his
honour.

Princes of Mali, Ben Enwonwu, 1967

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Negritude, Ben Enwonwu, 1985

CONCLUSION

The Negritude was a political, literary and artistic movement initiated by black diasoras. It was aimed at promoting
black values. It intended to return black pride by countering colonizers’ strategy of assimilation. In order to
advocate their cause, the avant-gardes of the movement used several media among which one is the visual arts.
They commissioned artists to promote their ideals. Many artists were influenced by the movement. By adapting
western techniques and incorporating them to the traditional arts, they conveyed the message of black pride.

REFERENCES

www.wikipedia.org

www.tate.org.uk

www.brittanica.com

www.exhibitions.nypl.org

www.blackpast.org

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