Aimé Fernand David Césaire (born June 20, 1913 in Basse-Pointe , Martinique) is a Martiniquen poet and politician.

In 1945, he was elected legislative Assembly member from Martinique, as a member of the Communist party. Later that year he was elected mayor of Fort-de-France. Aimé Césaire remains one of the most famous black contemporary writers. His writings reflect his passion for civic and social engagement. He is the author of a famous Discours sur le colonialisme (1950) first published in the French review Présence Africaine .

Poetry

• Cahier d'un retour au pays natal (1939), Return to my native land (bilingual edition), Paris: Présence Africaine 1968
• Armes miraculeuses (1946)
• Soleil cou coupé (1947)
• Corps perdu (1950)
• Ferrements (1960)
• Cadastre (1961)
• Moi, laminaire (1982)
• Collected Poetry, University of California Press 1983

Plays

• Et les Chiens se taisaient, tragédie: arrangement théâtral. Paris: Présence Africaine, 1958, 1997.
• La Tragédie du roi Christophe. Paris: Présence Africaine, 1963, 1993. The tragedy of King Christophe, New York: Grove 1969
• Une Tempête, d'après La tempête de Shakespeare: adaptation pour un théâtre nègre. Paris: Seuil, 1969, 1997. A Tempest, New York: Ubu repertory 1986
• Une Saison au Congo. Paris: Seuil, 1966, 2001. A season in the Congo, New York 1968, A play about Patrice Lumumba

Other writings

• Discourse on colonialism, New York, N.Y. : Monthly Review Press, 2000

Film about Césaire

Aimé Césaire - une voix pour l'histoire, french with english subtitles, Director: Euzhan Palcy

External links

• Aime Cesaire, biography, by Brooke Ritz, Postcolonial Studies website, English Department, Emory University. 1999.
• Aimé Césaire, bibliography, biography, and links (in French), "île en île", City University of New York, 1998-2004.