Aimé Césaire

Aimé Césaire was a Martinican poet, playwright, essayist, and politician whose writing confronted colonialism and affirmed Black identity and culture. Educated at the École normale supérieure in Paris, he helped launch the Négritude movement with fellow students including Léopold Sédar Senghor and Léon-Gontran Damas. His major works include *Cahier d’un retour au pays natal*, *Discours sur le colonialisme*, and *La Tragédie du roi Christophe*. Césaire also served as mayor of Fort-de-France from 1945 to 2001 and represented Martinique in France’s National Assembly from 1946 to 1993.