The Legacy of Aimé Césaire: Reflections on his 90th Anniversary

International Colloquium • December 4-6, 2003 • New York City

“Ce que je veux c’est pour la faim universelle, la soif universelle.” Aimé Césaire

Aimé Césaire, who has been termed the father of African literature, is 90 this year. This colloquium is the last in a series of celebrations in his native Martinique as well as in France, Mali and Switzerland. After 47 years as mayor of Fort de France and representative of Martinique to the French National Assembly, Aimé Césaire has put an end to his long and fruitful political career. In his retirement, he remains a monument, an institution and a symbol. His writings, be it prose or poetry, are a call to revolt. They provide all of us with the miraculous weapons which challenge the world of prejudice and allow the emergence of a new history written by the wretched of the earth - the formerly oppressed and silenced people. As he put it in his seminal poem: "Return to My Native Land," he foresees the day when they will be:

"Standing in the hold
Standing in the cabins
Standing on the deck
Standing in the wind,
Standing under the sun,
Standing in the blood,
Standing
And
Free."
Aimé Césaire

Program Schedule

Thursday, December 4, 2003, 7:00pm

Screening: Rencontre avec un Nègre Fondamental (Interview with a Fundamental Negro)
Post-screening discussion with Patrice Louis, the video’s director.

Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Film Center New York University
36 East 8th Street (between University Place and Greene Street)
This event is free and open to the public, but seating is limited. To RSVP, please call.

Friday, December 5, 2003, 9:30am-6:00pm
Colloque Césaire: La Force de l’arbre (Aimé Césaire Colloquium:The Force of the Bark)
Organized by Maryse Condé, Columbia University Professor Emeritus, and the Institute of African-American Affairs at New York University

Hemmerdinger Hall, The Silver Center for Arts and Science New York University
100 Washington Square East (between Waverly and Washington Places)
This event is free and open to the public, but seating is limited. To RSVP, please call.
9:30am-1pm Morning Session

Edouard Glissant, Distinguished Professor of French, The Graduate Center of The City University of New York, “Aimé Césaire, The Poet.”

Kamau Brathwaite, Professor of Comparative Literature, New York University

Nobutaka Muira, Professor, Chuo University, “Aimé Césaire and the Triangular Trade of Spirit.”

Françoise Vergès, Visiting Lecturer, University of London, “The Barbarism Has Reached an Incredible Level: Policy and Memory in Aimé Césaire.”

Moderator: Robin D. G. Kelley, Professor of Anthropology and African-American Studies, Columbia University

2:30pm-6:00pm Afternoon Session

Jacques Coursil, Visiting Professor in Francophone Postcolonial Literature, Cornell University, “Negritude and the Issues at Stake.”

Maryse Condé, Professor Emeritus, Columbia University, “Aimé Césaire et L’Amérique.”

Brent Edwards, Associate Professor, Rutgers University, “Notes on the Politics of Syntax: Césaire, Glissant, Monchoachi.”

Robin D. G. Kelley, Professor of Anthropology and African-American Studies, Columbia University, “Aimé Césaire’s lessons for the New Empire.”

Moderator: Kamau Brathwaite, Professor of Comparative Literature, New York University

The film screening and colloquium are sponsored in part by the Martinique Promotion Bureau.

Saturday, December 6, 2003, 8:00pm

Cahier d’un Retour au Pays Natal (Return to the Native Land) of Aimé Césaire In French with English subtitles presented by La Compagnie de la Comédie Noire

Starring: Jacques Martial.
Born in Guadeloupe, Jacques Martial is well known in France as a television and stage actor. He founded the Compagnie de la Comédie Noire in 2000.

Florence Gould Hall (French Institute Alliance Francaise)
55 East 59th Street (between Park & Madison Avenues)
FIAF members $17 ; Non-members :$20

Please call 212-355-6100 for more information.

Presented in conjunction with the conference on Aimé Césaire organized by the Institute of African-American Affairs at New York University, and in collaboration with the Martinique Promotion Bureau.