Paperback: 96 pages
Publisher: Monthly Review Press; New Ed edition (31 Mar 2000)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1583670254
ISBN-13: 978-1583670255
Introduction: Robin D.G. Kelley
This classic work , first published in France in 1955, profoundly influenced the generation of scholars and activists at the forefront of liberation struggles in Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean. Nearly twenty years later Discourse on Colonialism inspired a new generation engaged in Civil Rights, Black Power and antiwar movements.
Aimé Césaire eloquently desribes the brutal impact of capitalism and colonialism on both the colonizer and colonized, exposing the contradictions and hypocrisy implicit in western notions of "progress" and "civilization" upon encountering the "savage", "uncultured" or "primitive". He reaffirms African values, identity, and culture, and their relevance, reminding us that "the relationship between consciousness and reality is extremely complex... It is equally necessary to decolonize our minds, our inner life, at the same time that we decolonize society."