Year   

Event, situation, or publication

1517

France begins enslaving black Africans

1636

Martinique colonized by Louis XIII - the first black slaves arrive

1665

Le Code noir, by Jean-Baptiste Colbert (French chief financial minister) - Rulebook for the treatment of slaves

1789

French Revolution - Major themes include the rights of man, the issue of slavery.

1804

Haiti is the first French colony to gain independence

1823

Ourika, by Mme de Duras (wife of Louis XVIII's chamberlain) - The first French-language novel to address the effects of racism on black people.

1848

Victor Schoelscher (French under-secretary) abolishes slavery in the colonies

1919

Harlem Renaissance (US) - Césaire and Damas were greatly inspired by this valuation of the culture, literature, art, and music of the black world, notably

·         W.E.B. Du Bois, The Souls of Black Folk

·         Langston Hughes, The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes

·         Alain Leroy Locke, The New Negro

·         Claude McKay, Banjo, Home to Harlem

1921

Negrismo (Cuba) - Celebration of black-Cuban music, rhythm, folklore, literature, poetry, and art

1927

Journal: La Revue Indigène, by Jacques Roumain - Attempt to rediscover a black African authenticity in the Antilles

1930

Book of poetry: Pigments, by Damas - Sometimes referred to as the manifesto of Négritude. General theme of demystification: we need to cure the ills of Western society. Some highlights:

·         Ils sont venus ce soir The night white man arrived and kidnapped Africans for slavery, many people were killed - we don't even know how many.

·         Un Clochard m'a demandé 10 sous Damas once had to beg for money, but pride helped him to grow strong enough to earn it instead.

·         Solde Whites are pretentious and ridiculous, never mind cruel, yet Blacks have to be their accomplices.

·         S.O.S. Why and how on earth did Whites decide to steal Blacks and to commit such Hitleresque acts?

·         Blanchi Whites try to bleach us, but we want only to be black.

1931

The trois pères meet in Paris and begin discussing and dreaming about Négritude.

Journal: La Revue du monde noir (The Journal of the Black World), by Paulette Nardal and Dr. Sajoux. In addition to disseminating ideas via the journal, this collaboration led to a kind of club where black writers could meet to discuss related issues.

1932

Journal: Légitime défense - A single issue of a Marxist, revolutionary, surrealist journal published by a group of Martinican students and immediately suppressed.

1934

Journal: L'Étudiant noir (The Black Student), by the three fathers - Break down nationalistic barriers among black people; recognize, approach, and unify black people in Africa, France, and the Antilles. This was the first and most important political and cultural journal of la Négritude.

1935

Birth of la Négritude - Seek out richness and originality, rehabilitate that which had been marginalized. Already independent, Haiti isn't interested in participating.

1938

Journal: Les Griots, by François Duvalier - Contributions of black African civilization

1939

Poem: Cahier d'un retour au pays natal (Notebook of a Return to My Native Land), by Césaire - The word Négritude appears for the first time in this poem about being black and living in the Antilles.

1941

Journal: Tropiques, by Aimé and Suzanne Césaire - Refusal of European culture

1944

Gouverneurs de la rosée, by Jacques Roumain - Two basic tenets:
1) Humans are responsible for their own lives - we need to act.
2) Community is more important than self

1946

Creation of four Départements d'outre-mer (DOM), in which citizens are citizens of France - thanks to Aimé Césaire, French National Assembly member.

Et Les Chiens se taisent, Césaire

1947

Journal: Présence africaine, by Alioune Diop, with assistance from Senghor, Césaire, André Gide, Jean-Paul Sartre, Albert Camus, and others. Dissemination of the ideas and words of black writers

1948

L'Anthologie d'un nouvelle poésie nègre et malgache de langue française(Anthology of a New Negro and Madagascan French-Language Poetry), by Senghor. The preface, Orphée noire (Black Orpheus), was written by Jean-Paul Sartre, who defined Negritude as the "négation de la négation de l'homme noir," and includes a discussion of Négritude issues. This work represents the official birth of black-African literature.

1950

Novel: Rue Cases Nègres, by Josephe Zobel (see details at 1983)

1952

Peau noire, masques blancs (Black Skin, White Masks), by Frantz Fanon

·         Study of the human consequences of colonialism and racism

·         Portrait of black man in the Antilles: Victim of color prejudice and an internalized inferiority complex 

·         Decolonisation of language: Black man is drowning in white man's identity. We need to speak a language that belongs to us, not them. Alienation of black man - identity crisis.

·         Liberate black man from himself.

1953

Essay: Le Discours sur le colonialisme, Césaire

·         Colonialism is a form of racism

·         Blacks live in harmony with the earth, rather than trying to dominate it; the link between everything that exists in nature

·         Christianism is considered civilization, while paganism is linked to savagery

·         Political undertones

1956

1st Colloquium of Black Arts, in Paris

La Lettre à Maurice Thorez (Letter to the Secretary General of the Communist Party), by Césaire - The author's official break with the Communist Party, in his new quest to found a sort of African socialism.

1959 

2nd Colloquium, in Rome

1960

Decolonisation of Africa begins

1960s

Criticism of la Négritude begins

Césaire shifts his efforts to theater, hoping to be in closer contact with the public. His plays show an orientation toward the future and a stronger political aspect than his earlier work.

1961

Les Damnés de la Terre (The Wretched of the Earth), by Frantz Fanon, preface by Sartre

·         Political: Study of the Algerian revolution. How to be independent after being dependent for so long? How to transform from a dominated country to an economically free country?

·         Black man should not wait for them to give him independence; he should seize it for himself.

·         Violence is therapeutic.

·         First let's find political solutions, then we'll worry about appreciation of our black culture.

·         Targeted at the Antilles bourgeoisie - Mulattos took power from Whites simply in order to have it for themselves.

1963

Play: La Tragédie du Roi Christophe, by Aimé Césaire

1966

3rd Colloquium, in Dakar, at which Senghor's ideas are criticized

Une Saison au Congo, Césaire

1968

Une Tempête (original adaptation of Shakespeare's The Tempest), by Césaire - The creative force of words: they can change and even remake the world

1983

Movie: Rue Cases Nègres (Sugar Cane Alley, Black Shack Alley) - written by Josephe Zobel, directed by E. Palcy. (Shows: Colonization and the school system are supported by religion; Importance of the plantation economy; School is a threat to family life for some, and the only escape for others; Oral tradition + school = total education; Creole language; Social classes; Pride and shame in being black;

a Colonist who does not recognize his mulatto son as black or white: doesn't allow him to play with black children, yet refuses to give him his family name; Fascination about France; Legitimization of Africa

2005

Aimé Césaire refused to receive Nicolas Sarkozy (then French Interior Minister) in protest of articles 3 and 4 of a law that claimed colonization was a good thing. Césaire did receive him a year later, in return for which Sarkozy renamed Fort-de-France's airport after him.

2008

Aimé Césaire's life and death are celebrated and mourned, respectively, around the world.