French Assimilation & Négritude

The years between the Great War and World War Two were the high tide of European colonial rule. During these years The French colonial approach was that of Assimilation. Through the process of Assimilation the French hoped to turn their African subjects into proper Frenchmen by enveloping them within French culture. These new Frenchmen, regardless of their color, would have all the legal and political rights granted to natural French citizens. France’s African colonies were even granted the right to send representatives to the French Parliament in Paris.  Through this Assimilation the French were able to break up many of Africa’s pre-colonial states, turn tribal chiefs into French government agents and effectively destroy any form of African customary law

The French idea of Assimilation was not met without resistance. Throughout France and within her colonies French subjects were becoming aware of the loss of their native customs and cultures. Equipped with better education, gained in part to their subject privileges, many African descendants were ready to reclaim their African heritage.

Image used claiming Fair Use. http://www.patrimoines-martinique.org

The Negritude movement was an important way for colonized Africans to re discover their African roots while at the same time exploring the encounters between Europe and Africa, especially regarding the questions of colonization and decolonization. Negritude strives to be universal, encompassing all people of African descent.  It is a complex movement which rejects Western domination denounces colonialism and most importantly promotes the acceptance of the black self.

The concept of Negritude was born in Paris, France with the publication of a student newspaper titled L'Étudiant noir (The Black Student).    The 3 students responsible for the production of this newspaper became public figureheads and were known collectively to members of the movement as the three fathers. These three gentlemen had firsthand experience as citizens under the French colonial stytem. The three fathers are a Senegalese, Leopold Sedar Senghor, Martinican Aimé Césaire and Guyanese Léon-Gontran Damas

 

Léopold Senghor, image used claiming Fair Use. www.tumbler.com

Léopold Senghor was born in a small fishing village in west-central Senegal at a time while it was still a French colony. Leopold was taught French while in elementary school and eventually won a scholarship to study in France


 

Aimé Césaire,  Image used claiming Fair Use www.alalettre.com

Aimé Césaire was born in Basse-Point, Martinique part of the French Caribbean. Césaire completed his secondary studies in Pairs. It was in Paris that Aime met Léopold Senghor and the two went on to develop the theory of Negritude

 

Léon Damas, 1937

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 Léon-Gontran Damas was born March 28, 1912 in Cayenne (French Guiana). After primary school in Cayenne, he continued his studies in Fort-de-France, in high school SchœlcherIn.  Damascus continued his secondary education at Meaux in France. Damas settled in Paris in 1929 where hebegan studying Russian and Japanese. He studied law, also attended the Faculty of Arts and later the Institute of Ethnology of Paris.  Among co-founding and editing L'Étudiant noir, Damas was an author and a poet. His poetry reflected his feelings and conveyed the spirit of Negritude.

From his poetry book Pigments,

  

 FOR SURE

For sure I will be

fed up

without even waiting

for things

to take on

the air

of a ripe camembert

So

I will put my foot in it

or simply

my hand on the collar

of

everything that pisses me off in large print

colonization

civilization