new bi-monthly series special issue The ist International Conference of Negro Writers and Artists (PARIS - SORBONNE - 19TH-22ND SEPTEMBER 1956) FULL ACCOUNT PRESENCE CULTURAL JOURNAL OF AFRICAINETHE NEGRO WORLD THE NEW BIMONTHLY SERIES N°' 8-9-10 JUNE-NOVEMBER 1956 CONTENTS P. A. - Modern culture and our destiny . 3 OPENING SESSION - 19 SEPTEMBER 1956 at 10. a. m. 7 Alioune DIOP. - Opening address . 9 19th SEPTEMBER at 3. p.m. Jacques RABEMANANJARA. - Europe and ourselves . 20 Paul HAZOUME. - The Priets' Revolt . 29 E. L. LASEBIKAN. - The tonal structure of Yoruba poetry. 43 L. S. SENGHOR. - The spirit of civilisation or the laws of African negro culture . 51 DISCUSSION. - 19th SEPTEMBER at 9. p.m. 65 SESSION OF 20th SEPTEMBER at 10. a.m. 84 A. HAMPATE BA. - Fulah Culture . 84 E. ANDRIANTSILANIARIVO . - The Madagascan in the XXth Century . 97 Davidson NICOL. - The soft pink palms . 107 Frantz FANON. - Racisme and culture . 122 20th SEPTEMBER at 3 p. m. Horace Mann BOND. - Reflections comparative on West African Nationalist movements . 132 Emmanuel C. Paul. - Ethnology and Negro Cultures . 143 William FONTAINE. - Segregation and desegregation in the United States : a philosophical analysis . 154 Ben ENWONWU. - Problems of the African artist do-day. 177 Thomas EKOLLO. - The importance of culture for the assimi- lation of the Christian message in negro African . 182 Aime CESAIRE. - Culture and colonisation . 193 DISCUSSION. - 20th SEPTEMBER at 9 p.m. L.T. ACHILLE. - Negro Spirituals and the spread of Negro Culture . 230 M. JAMES. - Christianity in the emergent Africa . 241 J. ALEXIS. - Of the Marvellous Realism of the Haitians . 249 21st SEPTEMBER at 3 p.m. J. PRICE-MARS. - Transatlantic African survivals and the dynamism of Negro Culture . 276 C. DOVER. - Culture and Creativity . 285 A. WADE. - Should Africa develop its own Positive Law ? 307 G. LAMMING. - The Negro Writer and his World . 324 R.P. BISSAINTHE. - Christianity in face of the cultural aspirations of the Negro peoples . 333 James IVY. - The N.A.A.C.P. as an instrument of social change . 337 21st SEPTEMBER at 9 p.m. A. MANGONES. - Plastic Art in Haiti . 344 " Cheikh Anta DIOP. - The Cultural Contributions and Prospects of Africa . 347 R. WRIGHT. - Tradition and industrialization ; The plight of the tragic elite in Africa . 355 CLOSING SESSION 22nd SEPTEMBER at 4 p. m. 370 DISCUSSION . 373 MESSAGES . 386 BIBLIOGRAPHIC NOTES . 409 Modern culture and our destiny. In the modern world, where violence is gaining ground, and the quiet ones are cruelly trampled upon, we had long felt the need to male known the presence of Negro men of culture. The number, quality and variety of talents should be the first assertion to the world of our presence. The preparatory work for this Congress, which was planned eighteen months in advance, was difficult, and sometimes even des- perate. It was our faith that saved us. Obviously, we were bound to suffer from the modesty of our resources. There were not many of us to make the Congress arran- gements. The limited possibilities of an overworked Secretariat compelled us to throw the programme into some degree of confusion. Thus, some Papers which should have been presented on the First Day (Taking Stock) had to be adjourned until later, and the third and last Part (Future Prospects) was, for lack of time, not followed by discussion. Finally, and this is most important, about thirty Papers were not presented ; it was impossible to find time for everyone . They are being published in a second Volume . We are very happy to realize that our expectations were exceeded, and that our appeal found an echo from various sources, which were more numerous than we expected . But we have been more than consoled for our regrettable short- comings (in the face of heavy and unpredictable tasks) by the fervent attention with which the public (and especially African Youth) has followed our proceedings. During those days at the Sorbonne we went through some exhilarating hours of fervour and enthusiasm - and, in spite of the diversity of our origins, backgrounds and convictions, the unanimity which emerged had nothing artificial about it. This Congress was a great event in the conscience of the world. The Congress was welcomed with very lively interest by the Press in France, from the progressive and atheistic organs, to the Christian papers of every shade. Outside France, in the U.S.A., in the French-speaking Antilles and the English-speaking West Indies, in Brazil, in Nigeria and the Gold Coast, in the Arab coun- 4 PRESENCE AFRICAINE tries, and as far as South Africa (as well as the countries of Central Europe and Asia), the Press, the Radio and the Cinema News reels commented at length, and are still commenting on the event. In Number i i of this Review, we shall return in detail to the reactions of the World Press. We may say, on the whole, that we are not greatly embarrassed by the few criticisms which have been levelled . The texts which are published here are sufficient answer to them. We may, however, perhaps be permitted to revert to the justi- fication for our preoccupation with culture. Every people in every age has known some form of culture. The men who, tens of millions of years ago, decorated the walls of their caves with frescoes, which are still astonishing in their freshness, already had their culture, because it is the very nature of man to be cultured (i) . To man (who thinks) the call to culture is rather what instinct is to the bee (who perhaps does not think) . But culture has not always had such a wide and precise meaning as it has to-day; it has not been imposed with so much rigour in the life of society. Culture is no longer a distinctive decoration reserved for them- selves by a handful of elect, nor an activity for the luxurious alone . This is because modern culture has acquired a number of dimensions and has accentuated its old ones. It is more widely diffused than ever, thanks to rapid printing, automatic reproduction, radio and television, the cinema, and increas- ingly speedy means of communication. All social strata now share not only in acquiring the products of culture, but also, directly or indirectly, in cultural creation itself. It may be said that the under-developed countries are manifestly beginning to take part. Individualistic culture, particularly that form whose object was to glorify the individual singularity of an exceptional case, is yielding place, little by little, to culture inspired by society. Under the pressure of events creative artists are coming down from their ivory tower and giving thems°lees up to social problems. To-day, whether they are believers or unbelievers, they are all more or less " committed " The result is that they are not indifferent either to alien cultures or to the achievements ofscience or to political options. That means that we are tending towards the totalisation of cultural consciousness. However paradoxical it may seem, the (i) A study should one day be made, from the point of view of the ethnogra- pher, the sociologist and the historian, of those abnormal beings, peculiar to the {'civilised" world, who are called uncultured . They are beings who have been wrongfully deprived of the means of communicating with those who surround them in their own community. MODERN CULTURE AND OUR DESTINY 5 acquisition of traditional knowledge is sometimes less important than the creation (or the action, or the work) which answers to some of the current problems of mankind. It appears in effect that the extent of these problems (upon which the consciousness of the people is nou- rished) is beyond the range of traditional Western ideas and values . These ideas and values, far from being renounced, will be widened, strengthened and supplemented by the aspirations, anguish and passions of the new social strata and the new peoples . But what si common to the conscience of all mankind is the feeling that certain problems are gravely urgent and dangerously interdependent . Thus, atomic power lays an unimagined new emphasis upon questions of social justice, national sovereignty and international concord . In this way, whatever may be the level of our modern equip- ment, we are still concerned with world culture . In effect, culture becomes a formidable instrument of political action at the very moment when it has the ambition and the vocation to inspire policy. Culture in the service of ordinary politics is not a new pheno- menon. Politicians have always made use of culture as well as spirituality to find a foundation and a buttress for their authority . Princes and emperors have everywhere made certain of the fidelity, if not the docility, of the masters of their times. In our own times we know the importance of doctrine and system to the political parties. Every government, moreover, has a cultural policy which determines the trend of education as well as of the arts . According to the values selected, the destiny of under-developed peoples is . oriented in one direction or the other without any need to consult them. We are therefore under the duty to pay attention to all cultural production, to assess its trends and its possible effects, and to react accordingly . But creative culture rejects any subordination and is determined to discharge to the full its own responsibilities, of which the main one is to maintain freedom ofexpression . We know from experience that there is no authority which can permanently confine the cultural vitality of a people within the limits of a specific law. It is enough for men of culture to be vigilant for their own liberty.