SOURCE: "Négritude in Selected Works of Aimé Césaire," in Renascence, Vol. 26, 1974, pp. 105-11.

In the following essay, Cismaru offers an overview of Césaire's political concerns and literary accomplishments.

White man, white because he was man, white as the day, white as truth, white as virtue, lit creation like a torch and unveiled the secret and white essence of things and beings. Today, the Black look at us, and we don't dare look back; now Black Torches light the world and our white heads are nothing but fragile street lights shaking in the wind … our whiteness is becoming a strange and pale varnish which prevents our skin from breathing, a white bathing trunk which no longer fits, and under which, if we could take it off, we would find the true human flesh, a flesh which has the color of black wine.

Sartre's lyricism notwithstanding, it...