Negritude critical essays

Celebration of a black African identity was the major focus of Negritude as defined by Senghor and his contemporaries. In their view, colonization had stripped their cultures of not only their uniqueness, but also the means of expressing it, via a transposition of a foreign language.

For writers such as Senghor, Damas, and Césaire, their lives in France threw into sharp relief an alienation from their colonial rulers.

In one of his many essays on the subject he stated, “emotion is black as reason is Greek.” Ironically, Sartré, whose preface provided such impetus to the movement, viewed Negritude as a phenomenon that would eventually disappear once the black/white racial conflict was resolved.

In fact, according to Senghor, Negritude defined the best means of expressing the essence of black identity, and he often stressed the existence of a unique black psychology. In one of his many essays on the subject he stated, “emotion is black as reason is Greek.”