"Aime Cesaire demolishes the old maxim that poets make terrible politicians. Known in the world of letters as the progenitor of Negritude (the first diasporic 'black pride' movement), a major voice of Surrealism, and one of the great French poets, Cesaire is equally revered for his role in modern anti-colonial and Pan-African movements. While it might appear that the poet and politician operated in separate spheres, Cesaire's life and work demonstrate that poetry can be the motor of political imagination, a potent weapon in any movement that claims freedom as its primary goal." Robin D.G. Kelley, Introduction, page vii.

"In fine Hegelian fashion, Cesaire argues that colonialism works to 'decivilize' the colonizer: torture, violence, race hatred and immorality constitute a dead weight on the so-called civilized, pulling the master class deeper and deeper into the abyss of barbarism. The instruments of colonial power rely on barbaric, brutal...