Négritude facts for kids
Négritude (pronounced Neh-gree-tood) is a way of thinking and writing that started in the 1930s. It was created by Black writers and thinkers from French-speaking countries. Their main goal was to help Black people around the world feel proud of their heritage and culture.
Important figures in the Négritude movement included Martinican poet Aimé Césaire, Léopold Sédar Senghor (who became the first President of Senegal), and Léon Damas from French Guiana. The sisters Paulette Nardal and Jeanne Nardal also played a key role in developing the ideas.
These thinkers strongly spoke out against colonialism (when one country controls another), racism, and the idea that European culture was better than all others. They wanted to celebrate African culture while still having good relationships with France. They used a creative writing style called Surrealism and explored what it was like to be Black people living away from their homeland. They wrote about finding their identity and feeling a sense of belonging.
Négritude inspired many other movements around the world. These include Afro-Surrealism, Creolite in the Caribbean, and the black is beautiful movement in the United States.
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What Does Négritude Mean?
The word Négritude was created in the 1930s. It comes from the French word nègre, which was a very offensive term. The movement's leaders chose this word on purpose. They wanted to take a word that was used to insult Black people and turn it into a symbol of strength and pride.
Aimé Césaire first used the term in this new way in 1935. It appeared in a magazine called L'Étudiant noir (The Black Student), which he started in Paris. He worked on the magazine with Léopold Sédar Senghor and Léon Damas. Césaire believed that Black people should not try to fit into a culture that saw African traditions as "uncivilized." Instead, they should be proud of their own culture.
Who Influenced Négritude?
Many ideas and movements helped shape Négritude.
Haitian Pride
In 1885, a Haitian thinker named Anténor Firmin wrote a book called On the Equality of Human Races. This book argued against the idea that some races were better than others. Haiti was very important to Black intellectuals because it was the first country where enslaved people successfully fought for their freedom. This happened in the 1790s, led by Toussaint Louverture. Aimé Césaire once said that Haiti was "where négritude stood up for the first time."
The Harlem Renaissance
The Harlem Renaissance was a period of great artistic and cultural growth in the 1920s and 1930s. It happened in Harlem, a neighborhood in New York City. Black writers like Langston Hughes and Richard Wright explored themes of Black identity and what it meant to be Black in America.
Young Black students in Paris were introduced to these Harlem Renaissance writers by Paulette Nardal and her sister Jane Nardal. The Nardal sisters had a tea shop in Paris where Black intellectuals often met to discuss ideas. They also started a literary magazine called La Revue du Monde Noir (The Review of the Black World). This magazine helped share the ideas of the Harlem Renaissance with African and Caribbean thinkers in Paris. The Nardal sisters were very important in connecting the ideas from America to the Négritude movement in France.
Key Figures and Their Ideas
The main leaders of Négritude each had their own views. But they all agreed on certain things. They were against colonialism and the idea that European culture was superior. They wanted Black people to be proud of their history and culture. They also believed that Black people had a rich history and culture that was just as important as any other.
The Négritude movement grew out of the frustration that Aimé Césaire, Léopold Sédar Senghor, and Léon Damas felt about racism and colonialism in France. They were upset by how their French education tried to make them forget their African roots.
Aimé Césaire
Césaire was a poet, writer, and politician from Martinique. He studied in Paris, where he connected with the Black community and "rediscovered Africa." For Césaire, Négritude meant accepting the fact of being Black and appreciating Black history and culture. He believed this was how Black people could free their minds from the effects of colonialism. He felt that Western control had made Black people feel inferior. Césaire wanted to highlight the shared experiences of Black people under colonialism, like the slave trade.
Léopold Sédar Senghor
Senghor was a poet and later became the first president of Senegal. He believed Négritude would help Black people in French lands be seen as equals. He wanted to combine traditional African customs and ideas with modern life. Senghor's view of Négritude became very common over time.
Léon Damas
Damas was a poet and politician from French Guiana. He had a strong, fighting style when it came to defending "Black qualities." He did not want to make peace with the idea of white superiority. Damas published an important collection of poems in 1946 called Poètes d'expression française 1900–1945. This book was meant to be a statement for the movement.
Damas's book included poets from different colonized regions, like Indochina and Madagascar. He wanted his message to reach all colonized people. In his introduction, Damas said that it was time for "the colonized man [to become] aware of his rights and of his duties as a writer." He listed many themes in the poetry, such as "Poverty, illiteracy, exploitation of man by man, social and political racism suffered by the black or the yellow." Damas's introduction was a clear call for a unique cultural identity for colonized people.
Other Uses of the Term
The term Négritude has been used in other ways too.
For example, the writer Norman Mailer used the term to describe boxer George Foreman's powerful presence in his book The Fight. This book was about the famous "Rumble in the Jungle" boxing match in 1974. The rapper Youssoupha also used the word in the title of his album "Négritude."
See also
In Spanish: Negritud para niños
- Black Skin, White Masks
- Black Consciousness Movement
- Black Surrealism
- Black Arts Movement
- Black Power Movement
- Angolanidade ("Angolan-ness")
- Authenticité
- Afro-pessimism
- Afro-Surrealism
Filmography
- Négritude: Naissance et expansion du concept a documentary by Nathalie Fave and Jean-Baptiste Fave, first minutes online, with the interventions of Amadou Lamine Sall, Racine Senghor, Lylian Kesteloot, Jean-Louis Roy, Jacqueline Lemoine, Gérard Chenêt, Victor Emmanuel Cabrita, Nafissatou Dia Diouf, Amadou Ly, Youssoufa Bâ, Raphaël Ndiaye, Alioune Badara Bèye, Hamidou Dia, Georges Courrèges, Baba Diop; Maison Africaine de la Poésie Internationale. Shot in Sénégal in 2005, 56' (DVD)
