The 1St International Conference of Negro Writers and Artists
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
"::>Ol.• "'4~ • 1v ~ • '1 · \no~. 8, Q, lo } \;-\oS v o-.r·J.. ";)11· ~ o .,: t \ o 1 'j .new bi-monthly series special issue MAY1 7 'i97'1 The 1st International Conference .... - of Negro Writers and Artists (PARIS - SORBONNE - 19TH-22NDSEPTEMBER 1956) FULL ACCOUNT PRESENCE AFRICAINE CULTURAL JOURNAL· OF THE NEGRO WORLD COMMITTEE « PresenceAfricaine » THE NEW BIMONTHLY SERIES N°' 8-9-10 JUNE-NOVEMBER1956 MM. A. Adande, S. O. Biobaku, A. Biyidi, A.-K. Busia, Aime Cesaire, R. Codjo, B. Dadie, Rene Depestre, A. Diop, B. Fele, A. Franklin, K. Paulin Joachim, J.-Ki Zerbo, CONTENTS Scngat-Kuo, D. Mandessi, Nicol Davidson, Nyunai, J. Rabe mananjara, Ray Autra, A. Sadji, A. \Vade. P. A. - Modern culture and our destiny .•.•....•.•.....• , , . 3 OPENING SESSION - 19 SEPTEMBER 1956 at 10. a. m. ·....................................... 7 * Alioune DIOP •.- Opening address . , .......••........•.•.•.. 9 MANAGEMENT AND EDITING STAFF 19th SEPTEMBER at 3. p.m. Jacques RABEMANANJARA. -- Europe and ourselves •.. , • 20 42, rue Descartes, PARIS (5•) Paul HAZOUME. - The Pr,iets• Revolt .................•..•• 29 Tel. : ODEon 57-69 E. L. LASEBIKAN. -:--· The tonal strudure of Yoruba poetry. 43 C.C.P. PARIS 59.36.25 L. S. SENGHOR. The spirit of civilisation or the laws of African negro. culture ....... , , , ....... , ... , , , , . , ,·,,,,. 51 DISCUSSION. - 19th SEPTEMBER at 9. p.m. 65 New subscription rates : SESSION OF 20th SEPTEMBER at 10. a.m •..••.. 84 England .................... · £2 A. HAMPATE BA. - Fulah Culture ...•••........•......... 84 E. ANDRIANTSILANIARIVO. - The Madagascan in the XXth Overseas . £2 5s. Centi;iry ................••. ,. , .......•.•.•.....• , ...••. , •. 97 U.S.A. (surface mail) . $6 Davidson NICOL • ....:..The soft pink palms .•. .,,,•..•......... 107 U.S.A. (air mail) . $10 Frantz FANON. Racisme and culture· . ; , .....•......••... 122 20th SEPTEMBER at 3 p. m. Horace Mann BOND. - Reflections comparative on West * African Nationalist movements ............• , ...... , , •. 132 Manuscripts are not returned. Emmanuel C. Paul. - Ethnology and Negro Cultures ~ ....• ,143 ' William FONTAINE. - Segregation and desegregation in the The responsibility for the views expressed in the United States : a philosophical analysis • , ..•....•.. 154 articles published here is solely borne by their 177 authors. Ben ENWONWU. - Problems of the African artist do-day. Thomas EKOLLO. ~ The importanc~ of culture for the assimi• lation of the Christian message in negro African . , . , , , , , 18~ I * Aime CESAIRE. - Culture and colonisation . • . • • . • • . • . 193 All rights reserved. DISCUSSION. - 20th SEPTEMBER at 9 p.m. .,...... - 192 PRESENCE AFRICAINE Aime Cesaire. the African Christianity of to-morrow, since it remains dependent on culture. But neither will anyone be able to guess what the Afri can culture of to-morrow will be : we cannot do better than cultivate ourselves, as far as we can, so that the universal cultural patrimony ceases to be for us "alms given to the poor''. · CONCLUSION Our conclusion will be brief. Everyone can, in any event, draw his own, if we have et least succeeded in furnishing a few ele- Culture and colonisation ments of appreciation. · In his book ,,History and Truth", Professor Ricreur writes : " ... as an auditor of Christian preaching, I believe that the word can For the past few days we have been greatly exercised as regards change the "heart" that is the source and centre of our preferences the significance of this Congress. and of the positions we take up"; Taking- note of Professor Ri More particularly, we have wondered what is the common creur's declaration, we think that, so far as 1t is a spirit, a properly denominator of an assembly that can unite men as different as understood and assimilated Christianity can do nothing but help Africans of native Africa, and North Americans, as men from the the blossoming of a culture. In fact, the task which faces us, the West Indies and from Madagascar. · intellectual and Christian elite of Africa, consists in discovering the To my way of drinking the answer is obvious and may be brie true spirit of the Gospel through the cultures by which it has been fly stated in the words : colonial situation. conveyed, before reaching us. In our view, this is the primordial It is a fact that most native countries live under the colonial condition for" building up" a Christianity which, far from hampering system. Even an independent country like Haiti is, in fact, in many us, will rather find its place in the very heart of our revolution, all respects a semi-colonial country. And our American brothers the more so, since the Gospel itself, in its origins, presented itself themselves, thanks to racial discrimination, occupy within a great as a Revolution .. modern nation an artificial position that can only be understood Faithful to the biblical tradition as we would wish to be, it within the context of a colonialism that has certainly been abolished seems to us erroneous to make "Negroness "the foundation of Chris but whose after-effects still persist down to the present day. tianity, since authentic Christianity cannot suffer any foundation, What does this mean? It means that in spite of our desire to excep! its own spirit, In consequence 01;1rultimate ta~k cannot ~e maintain a note of calm in the discussions of the Congress we cannot, anythmg else except an effort at an Afncan formulat10n of Chris if we are to come to grips with the situation, avoid raising the pro tianity, which, without falsifying it, would be able to present .TESUS blem that has the greatest influence upon the development of native CHRIST at the defender of the disinherited of this world, the cultures, namely, the colonial situation. In other words, whether SAVIOUR. we like it or not, we cannot pose the problem of native culture without Thomas EKOLLO at the same time posing the problem of colonialism, for all native cultures are to-day developing under the peculiar influence of the colonial, semi-colonial or para-colonial situation. * ** But what, you may ask, is culture? It is desirable that this should be defined in order to· dissipate certain misunderstandings and reply very precisely to certain anxieties that have been expressed by some of our enemies, and even by some of our friends. The legitimacy of this Congress has, for example, been questioned. To be published by Presence Africaine : It has been said that if culture must be national, surely, to speak of negro-African culture is to speak of an abstraction. · THE ROLE OF CHRISTIANITY IN THE CULTURAL Is it not obvious that the best way to avoid such difficulties is REVOLUTION OF NEGRO A.FRlCA. to choose our terms carefully? 13 PRESENCE AFRICAINE 194 CULTURE AND COLONISATION 195 I think it is very true that culture must be nati<:mal. ~t ~' extent the work of the collective will, and when we speak of human however self-evident that national cultures, however differentiated will, we infer a choice between different possibilities... It follows they m~y be, are grouped by affinities. M?~eover, these grea: from this characteristic of representational collective practices that cultural relationships, these great cultural. f~m!lies, have a name , the area over which they spread, as long as humanity does not the are called civilisations. In other words, 1f 1t .1s an un1oubted ~act constitute a single society, is necessarily finite and relatively fixed". that there is a French national culture, an .It11;lian,English_, Spamsh, Thus, all culture is specific. Specific in that it is the work a German, Russian, etc., national culture, 1t 1s no less evident th:1t single particular will, choosing between different possibilities. all these cultures, alongside genuine differences, show a certam We see where this idea leads. number of striking similarities so that, though we c.an speak of To take a concrete example; it is indeed true to say that there national cultures peculiar to each of the countnes ment10ned above, is a feudal civilisation, a capitalist civilisation, a Socialist civilisation. we can equally well speak of a European civilis~tion. But it is obvious that on the compost of the same economic pattern, In the same way we can speak of a large farmly of f\,fr1can cul life, the life passion, the elan vital of any people gives rise to very tures which collectively deserve the name of negro-Afncan culture different cultures. This does not mean that there is no determinism and which individually reveal the different cultures prof!er to each running from base to superstructure. It means that the relation country of.Africa. And we know that the hazards of.h1s!o~r h~ve between base and superstructure is never simple and should never caused the domain of this civilisation, the locus of this c1v1lisation be simplified. In this respect se have the dictum of Marx himself to exceed widely the boundaries of Africa. It is in this sense, there who writes (Das Kapital, Vol. III, p. 841 et seq.) . fore that we may say that there are, if not ce?tres, at least fn~ges ?f "It is always in the immediate relations between the masters this' negro-African civilisat!on in Brazil 3:nd m the. West Indies, m of the means of production and the direct producers that we discover Haiti and the French Antilles and even m the Umted States. the intimate secret, the hidden foundation of the whole social struc This is not just a theory i?vented for t~e p~rpo~es of th~ pres.ent ture. This does not mean that the same economic basis-the argument; it is one that is, m my view, implied m a soc10log1cal same, that is, as regards the main conditions--c--may not by reason of and scientific approach to the problem. ;, innumerable distinct empirical conditions, e.g. natural and racial The French sociologist Mauss defined c1v1hsat10n as a group of factors, historical influences acting from without, etc., manifest sufficiently numerous and sufficiently i~p<;>rt~nt phenomena.