Is Black Beautiful - Essay Example

of the of the World Literature Submitted Is Black Beautiful? Introduction The quest for black identity has undergone many phases and transformations in the last century. Try as we might, we cannot wipe the stigma that the white man has attached to blackness from the beginning of time- that white is superior to black, or what is more visible in reverse- that black is inferior to white. The efforts of Fanon, Senghor and Cesaire in the Negritude Movement are to be commended as a positive and long lasting step in this direction. They have made us feel that black can be beautiful too. Discussion Let us look at the search for black identity in Fritz Fanon’s ‘Black Skin, White Mask’, Leopold Senghor’s ‘Letter to a Poet’ and ‘Prayer to the Mask’ and Aime Cesaire’s ‘Notebook of a Return to the Native Land’. These three writers have been instrumental in starting the Negritude Movement of the early 1920s and 1930s in France. Actually these three had opposed not only the classification of blacks in this manner, with all its racial and discriminatory undertones, but were also against French colonization, the inhumanity of Europeans and Western domination of world ideals. Senghor, Cesaire and Fanon met in France and founded the Negritude Movement, which praised blackness and black history, art and culture, sought a separate destiny for the blacks and favored the ideals of Marxism which were used to oppose the slavery and servitude that blacks faced in tree plantation and other industries under the colonial influence. Fritz Fanon’s ‘Black Skin White Mask’ may be thought of a combination of his manifesto for the movement as well as a record of personal experiences as he studied medicine and psychiatry in Lyons. As he experienced alienation and discrimination as a black man in a whitened society, he grew increasingly critical of all aspects of French culture and colonialism. He states that language is the first means by which you are indoctrinated into their culture- it is a burden that should be resisted. "To speak . . . means above all to assume a culture, to support the weight of a civilization" (Fanon 17-18). The collective consciousness of the French regards black as sinful and evil. The Africans who can learn the language of the colonizer elevate their status. At the same time those who cannot feel demonized because the French look and talk down to them. Black women seek to lose their identity by seeking to marry a white man or he who is least black. At the same time, young black men go to bed dreaming of marrying a white woman to elevate their status. But if he does, he will not be accepted back into his own tribe nor be accepted by the whites. He is stuck in between two cultures. For Cesaire, Senghor notes, the white man is as much a symbol of capital as the black man is a symbol of labor. Fanon is proud of the fact that his Negro consciousness does not hold itself out as a lack. It is. It is its own follower" (Fanon 135). Fanon believes that a true Negro culture cannot come to life under present conditions. There will be time enough to talk of the black genius when the black man has regained his rightful place" (Fanon 186-87). Fanon concludes with the assertion that the Negro is not any more or less than the white man. Senghor’s ‘Letter to a Poet’ is written in praise of Aime Cesaire, the father of the Negritude Movement. The special breed of black seagulls referred to in the first stanza are neither fully black nor white but are known to travel a wide expanse of the oceans on migratory flights- referring in metaphor to Cesaire’s ideas of negritude being accepted by the world at large. Cesaire keeps their ‘zeal from fading through his wake of light’ or constant ideas of enlightenment (Stanza 1, Line 8). In the second stanza, Senghor talks of ancestors of nobility because of their heroic struggle against the white man to get their due rights (Stanza 2, Line 15) and compares them to Cesaire who now reclines on a ‘cushion of clear hillside’- a term borrowed from his ‘Notebook of a Return to the Native Land’ (Stanza 2, Line 11). In the last stanza, Senghor prays for Cesaire’s return, predicts that it will come soon and even desires that a mahagony tree be used to cut a mask for Cesaire upon his return. In short, this poem is a praise of Cesaire, his work for the Negritude Movement and the acceptance this struggle enjoyed in the world at that time (Senghor, 1991). In ‘Prayer to the Masks’, Senghor laments that Africa is dying as it is being abandoned by its colonists. He writes ‘The Africa of empires is dying - it is the agony of a sorrowful princess and Europe, too, tied to us at the navel’. Although Senghor was always against the colonization of Africa, he notes that the fate of this continent is now tied with the moves of its colonizers; their fates are intertwined in the same manner as that of a child attached to its mother through the umbilical cord. Both Europe and Africa have to depend on each other to survive and prosper. The sorrowful princess is Africa crying as the effects of colonization have left their mark on culture and language, leaving the colonized strangers to both their own culture and that of their colonizers. Aime Cesaire’s masterpiece epic, ‘Notebook of a Return to the Native Land’ has as its central theme the idea of negritude and the need for blacks to wake up to their unique culture and existence. He laments that upon his return to the native land, his countrymen are lethargic and complacent. They are not only unaware of their own rights but also do not know how to claim them. Poverty has led to inertia and self loathing. The poet recommends that only by waking up to the new realities and fighting for their rights will they be able to shake off the doom and gloom that is evident everywhere. The best thing is to accept the concept of negritude which praises their spirit and gives them self worth and strength. He knows that many of them have never been princes or rulers- but making a small start with a conviction to do the best in whatever they are good at will be good enough to give them the confidence to do well in future. The poem relays the essence of negritude and how to develop a love for their own cultures, traditions and people. Conclusion This we see that the works of Senghor, Cesaire and Fanon do reiterate and refresh in our minds that black is indeed beautiful. Prose, poetry and philosophy are intertwined in all these works that will have the effect of rousing the readers to action and self belief in black identity. Works Cited Cesaire, Aime. The Collected Poetry. (Eshleman & Smith trans.) 1985. Fanon, Fritz. Black Skin, White Masks, 1952. Senghor, Leopold. Letter to a Poet and Prayer to the Masks. From the Collected Poetry (Melvin Dixon trans.) Virginia Press 1991. Read More