Key Figures
Paulette Nardal
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Paulette Nardal, a French writer and journalist from Martinique, was highly influential on the Négritude movement. Her work in the newspapers La Dépêche Africaine and La Revue du Monde Noir inspired the founders of l'Étudiant Noir, the first paper to use the term Négritude. Her literary salon, Le Salon de Clamart, was also important for the development of the movement. Her translations of Harlem Renaissance writers helped introduce their literature to French audiences. |
For further reading:
- Church, Emily Musil. In Search of Seven Sisters: A Biography of the Nardal Sisters of Martinique Callaloo 36, no. 2 (2013): 375–390.
- Annette K., Joseph Gabriel. “Paulette Nardal: Martinican Women as Political Protagonists in the Overseas Department.” In Reimagining Liberation, 57–. University of Illinois Press, 2019.
- Smith, Robert P. Black Like That: Paulette Nardal and the Négritude Salon.CLA journal 45, no. 1 (2001): 53–68.
- Boittin, Jennifer Anne. "In Black and White: Gender, Race Relations, and the Nardal Sisters in Interwar Paris."French colonial history 6, no. 1 (2005): 120–135.
Aimé Césaire
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Césaire was a French poet and politician who was one of the founding members of the Négritude movement. In addition to coining the term négritude, he had a long political career and published numerous poetic works. While initially a member of the French Communist Party, he later resigned his membership and founded the Parti Progressiste Martiniquais. |
For further reading:
- Césaire, Aimé., and Robin D. G. Kelley. Discourse on Colonialism / Aimé Césaire ; Translated by Joan Pinkham. A Poetics of Anticolonialism / by Robin D.G. Kelley.New York: Monthly Review Press, 2000.
- Césaire, Aimé., Clayton. Eshleman, and Annette. Smith. Aimé Césaire, the Collected Poetry / Translated, with an Introduction and Notes by Clayton Eshleman and Annette Smith.Berkeley: University of California Press, 1983.
- Davis, Gregson. Aimé Césaire.Cambridge, U.K. ;: Cambridge University Press, 1997.
- Videos of and Relating to Aime Cesaire from Alexander Street (access for UT patrons only).
Abdoulaye Sadji
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Sajdi was a Senegalese writer and teacher who was a founding member of Négritude. He published two novels, Maïmouna: petite fille noire (1953) and Nini, mulâtresse du Sénégal (1954), in addition to numerous short stories. |
For further reading:
- Sadji, Abdoulaye. Maïmouna, roman.2. éd. Paris: Présence africaine, 1965.
- Sadji, Abdoulaye. Nini, roman.Présence Africaine, no. 1 (1947): 89–110. http://www.jstor.org/stable/24346686.
- Sadji, Abdoulaye. Tounka, nouvelleParis: Présence africaine, 1965.
Léopold Sédar Senghor
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In addition to being the first president of Senegal, Senghor was a poet and cultural theorist who was one of the founders of Négritude. He was the first African elected as a member of the Académie française. |
For further reading:
- Senghor, Léopold Sédar, and Pierre. Brunel. Poésie complète: édition critique / Léopold Sédar Senghor; coordinateur, Pierre BrunelParis: CNRS éditions, 2007.
- Senghor, Léopold Sédar, and Armand Guibert. Léopold Sédar Senghor / présentation par Armand Guibert.Paris: P. Seghers, 1965.
- Senghor, Léopold Sédar, and Max Yves. Brandily. Hommage à Léopold Sédar Senghor / textes réunis par Max Yves Brandily.Paris: PhotoPhore, 2002.
- Thiam, Cheikh. “Négritude, Eurocentrism, and African Agency: For an Africentered Renaissance of Léopold Sédar Senghor’s Philosophy.”The French review 88, no. 1 (2014): 149–163.
- Ba, Sylvia Washington. The Concept of Négritude in the Poetry of Leopold Sedar Senghor. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2015.
Léon-Gontran Damas
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Damas was a French poet and politican who was one of the founding members of the Négritude movement. He sometimes published using the pseudonym Lionel Georges André Cabassou. In addition to his poetic work, he served as the contributing editor of Présence Africaine and was elected to the French National Assembly from 1948 to 1951 as a deputy from French Guiana. |
For further reading:
- Damas, Léon-Gontran. Black-Label: Poèmes.Paris: Gallimard, 1956.
- Miller, F. Bart. Rethinking Négritude through Léon-Gontran Damas.Amsterdam, Netherlands: Rodopi, 2014.
- Warner, Keith Q. Critical Perspectives on Léon-Gontran Damas.1st ed. Washington, D.C: Three Continents Press, 1988.
- Gyssels, Kathleen. "Anthologies, Ontologies, and Hauntologies: Resurrecting Léon-Gontran Damas."Palimpsest (Albany, N.Y.) 7, no. 1 (2018): 2–10.
Frantz Fanon
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Fanon was a psychiatrist and political philosopher from Martinique whose work often addressed Négritude. He particularly celebrated the possibilities of the Négritude movement in resisting and healing the harm done by colonial cultures and politics. |
For further reading:
- Fanon, Frantz. Black Skin, White Masks; Translated from the French by Richard Philcox.1st ed., New ed. New York: Grove Press, 2008.
- Nayar, Pramod K.Frantz Fanon.1st ed. London: Routledge, 2013.
- Nielsen, Cynthia R. "Frantz Fanon and the Négritude Movement: How Strategic Essentialism Subverts Manichean Binaries."Callaloo 36, no. 2 (2013): 342–352.
- Macey, David. "‘I Am My Own Foundation’: Frantz Fanon as a Source of Continued Political Embarrassment."Theory, culture & society 27, no. 7-8 (2010): 33–51.
Birago Diop
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Diop was a Senegalese poet, diplomat, and veterinarian whose work was central to the Négritude movement. He was also an avid collector and reworker of African folktales. |
For further reading:
- Diop, Birago. Leurres et lueurs: poèmes2. éd. Paris: Présence africaine, 1967.
- Diop, Birago. La plume raboutée: mémoiresParis: Présence africaine, 1978.
- Diop, Birago. Contes choisis, edited by Joyce A. Hutchinson.Cambridge: Cambridge U. P., 1967.
- Camara, Sana, and R. H. Mitsch. "Birago Diop’s Poetic Contribution to the Ideology of Négritude." Research in African literatures 33, no. 4 (2002): 101–123.