Black and White and Re(a)d All Over: <em>L'Étudiant noir</em>, Communism, and the Birth of Négritude

Abstract

The origins of Aime Cesaire’s famous neologism Negritude have long been shrouded in mystery; with many scholars speculating as to whether or not he coined the term before it appeared in his poem Cahier d’un retour au pays natal in 1939. This article examines a previously lost early example of Cesaire’s writings that predates the Cahier, a 1935 issue of his student magazine L’Etudiant noir, in which the word Negritude appears. Through an examination of Cesaire’s allusions to the works of Marx and the Marxist thinker Paul Nizan, I argue that, contrary to accepted wisdom, Marxist thought was essential to Cesaire’s original conception of Negritude. This new discovery suggests that a reevaluation of the relationship of Negritude to both Marxist politics and to newer literary movements, such as Creolite, is in order.