Discourse on colonialism by aime cesaire

Discourse on colonialism by aime cesaire (original 50, this is 3^rd ed from 55) trans joan pinham

Intro by robin d. e. Kelly

7-in 1950, the old empires were collapsing b/c the war “left Europe in material, spiritual and philosophical shambles”

-1945 black ppl from around the globe athered in Manchester for the 5^th pan-african conf to discuss freedom and future in afr

-1955 reps from Non Alighned Nations gathered in Indonesia to discuss freedom for 3^rd world, mau mau in kneya were gearing up for rev

8-1954 mao’s rev

-1955 insurrections in Algeria, tunisisa, morocco, Cameroon, Madagascar, Vietnam

-discourse was 1 of the “key” texts of anti colonial lit in this era, others: du bois color and democracy 45 and the world and afr 47, fanon black skin 52, padmore’s pan-afrincaism or 56, memmi colonizer and the 57, r. wright white man57, Sartre “black Orpheus” 48, and j. presence africaine and African rev, claude mckay

-it shows how colonialism “decivilizes” the colonized thru torture, violence, race hatred and immortality—eventual barbarism

9-before fanon, he said eurp became so thru colonization, and justified its superiority—and the colonized cant be equal or that would defeat the idea and it’s done thru “deliberate destruction of the past”

10-says discoursemade critical contributions to that on colonialism, fascism and rev—sees fascism in colonialism, said anticolonial struggle supercedes proletariat rev

-should b seen as surrealist

13-1939 fascist vichy regime took over france—their coming to Martinique showed him that france was not color blind

14-surrealism was “the strategy of rev of the mind”

16-some criticize his surrealism as eurpn (from Breton)—and freign to noneurpn trads—the “diffusionist” argument

18-cessaire sadi that poetry really revealed ones unconscious

19-c said imperialism supported fascism until it turned on themselves—previousl noted by others (20) like du bois

21-said best socialism is from pre-colonial civilized African life (romantic) –but not a return (23), a future, looks at ussr as example

-45 c became leader of communist party of Martinique—resigned in 56 (25) saying racism shouldn’t be subordinated to class struggle, tho he’s still a Marxist

24-says euro working class has been complicit in euros bourgeoisie’s racism and imperialism

26-believed in universal, tho embracing particularities—and not “racial essentialism”

27-there now seems to be a new colonial state, tho w/ a ruling class w/ black faces

31-“a civiliztn that proves incapable of solving the probs it creates is a decadent civlztn. A civliztn that chooses to close its eyes to its most crucial probs is a stricken cvlztn. A cvlzatn that uses its principle for trickery and deceit is a dying cvlztn”—w. cvlztn is hypocrite b/c it can’t justify proletariat exploitation or colonialism w/ its “reason” or “conscience” –and its becoming increasingly difficult to deceive

33-conquest’s “chief culprit “ is “xn pedantry which laid down the dishonest equations xy = cvlztn, paganism = savagery”

35-participating in all this (including racial pride) has led to savagery –decivlzng men

36-the humanistic xn bourgeois of the 20^th ce has hitler inside him

37-“psudo-humanism”—its biased and racist. “capitalist society, at its present stage, is incapable of establishing a concept of the rts of all men, just as it has proved incapable of establishing a system of indv ethics”

43-says w. is talk about all the advances, he sees all the crimes

44-romanticizes old communities a s communal, ante-capitalist, anit-capitalism, democratic “always”, cooperative, fraternal

45-say eurp is responsible for mostkilings in history, and has gotten help from tribal leaders (feudal lords) –no one knows what other countries might have achieved

47-eurps barbarism has been passed by us—“cannibalism” (48)

52-but not repeat past—go beyond—“a new society rich w/ all the productive power of mod times, warm w/ all the fraternity of olden days”

54-says “hold as enemies” wrs in power and writers, intellectuals, etc

55-and don’t look at their intentions, b/c it’s “entirely irrelevant to the objective social implications of the evil work they perform as watchdogs of colonialism”

56-cites Descartes as acknowledging racist ideas in w. intellectual thot

58- says whites took bantu (and others) philosophy, related it to their own, to justify imperialism

59-says mannoni justifies coloztn w/ psychology=some ppl r just dependent—psychoanalysis

71-caillois said “the only ethnography is white”. The w. studies the ethnography of others—and caillois said all knowledge and science and morals r white

78-wants a rev—turn into a “classless society” of a proletariat