The Négritude Movement

Abstract

This chapter is the first of three chapters engaging with movements within African political thought and assessing on what foundations their arguments are premised. The Negritude movement originated amongst the diaspora communities from Africa and the Caribbean living in Paris in the 1940s. It was a reactionary movement responding to feelings of isolation and colonial oppression and encompassed both political and cultural responses. The chapter engages with the political and poetic works of Leopold Sedar Senghor, Aime Cesaire, Alioune Diop and Leon Damas, as well as with key critics of the movement, including Frantz Fanon. By engaging with both sides of this debate the chapter is able to assess whether the foundations of contradictory positions value the same, potentially a priori, right of individuals to be self-law giving, both individually and whilst living in common.