Abstract
In this article, Jean-Paul Sartre’s relationship to the négritude movement and black intellectuals in Paris between the 1940s and the 1960s is examined in sociological and historical context. Sartre’s version of négritude, developed in his 1948 treatise “Orphée noir” prefacing Léopold Senghor’s collection of African and Malagasy poetry, is analyzed in terms of its role in shaping the discourses and debates surrounding négritude and the relationship of black intellectuals to the rest of French society. Sartre’s phenomenological theories of race, juxtaposing dominant and subaltern ideologies, are contrasted with his dialectic of négritude. The antinégritude movement of the late 1960s is also considered with reference to Sartre’s theories and inspiration. During this period, the relationship that Sartre established with Martinican intellectual and revolutionary Frantz Fanon helped to place Sartre into prominence as an activist and a theorist of decolonization and Third World politics. Sartre’s theories of race, self, and society were integral to both his early and later works and warrant review as approaches to the sociology of culture and sources of reflection for contemporary postcolonial studies.
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Notes
The concept of strategic collaboration is developed by Klein (2005) in her work on the development of Nigerian artistic movements during the colonial era. She points out that strategic collaborations between European art promoters and African artists are hierarchical, and that the sanctions for violating these hierarchies may result in rupture and exclusion of the subordinate partner in the collaboration.
Mudimbe (1988: 83) contends that Sartre’s “Orphée noir” essay was crucial because it “transformed négritude into a political event and a philosophical criticism of colonialism.” Thus, Mudimbe establishes a direct link between Sartre’s (1948b) “Orphée noir” and his preface to Fanon’s (1961) Les Damnés de la terre. It might also be argued that the second essay became a centerpiece for the antinégritude movement. Mudimbe (1988: 85) refers to Senghor’s reaction to “Orphée noir” as négritude’s “shroud.”
The 1962 French census was the first to contain a partial breakdown of Africans from former French colonies living in France. It recorded only 18,000 sub-Saharan Africans living in France (Dewitte 1987: 18). In spite of the small numbers, these groups already had a history of political mobilization extending back to the 1920s.
This speech was tape-recorded at the Maison Helvétique in Paris in 1967 by Serge A. Tornay, a participant in the discussions. I am grateful to him for sharing this interview tape with me. (See also Jules-Rosette 1998: 34). Note that the word nègre has been left in the original French. Elsewhere, I have also elected to translate it as “black.” The derogatory connotations of the term nègre are evident in Césaire’s (1967) discourse.
The translations of “Orphée noir” differ from those of S.W. Allen (1976) in Black Orpheus (Sartre, 1976a).
Alioune Diop expanded his Présence Africaine journal into a publishing house, and in 1956 he organized the Société Africaine de Culture (SAC), a group of writers and artists who worked together to promote workshops, symposia, and conferences over a 30-year period.
Sartre’s model for analyzing anti-Semitism predated and was used as an example for his approach to négritude. The dialectic begins with the negative and blocking forces, moves to psychological reaffirmation, and then to a positive resolution in the form of a just society (Sartre 1948a: 31–35).
I have used the 1976 translation of Critique de la raison dialectique by Alan Sheridan-Smith, edited by Jonathan Rée. This translation contains excerpts from Tome I and Tome II of Critique.
In her biography of Léopold Senghor, Janet Vaillant provides only brief glimpses of Senghor’s direct contacts with Sartre, which appear to have been limited (Vaillant 1990: 179 and 213). Similarly, in her biography of Sartre, Annie Cohen-Solal offers brief but suggestive references to Sartre’s interactions with Alioune Diop and the Présence Africaine group (Cohen-Solal 1985: 478–479).
Adotevi (1972: 192–195) combined his critique of négritude with an analysis of the colonial roots of French anthropology. His cultural interventions fulfilled Sartre’s prediction of the self-destruction of négritude.
Depestre (1969: 11–12) analyzed the depersonalizing aspects of colonialism and outlined the conditions for revolutionary writing based on his experiences in Cuba and Haiti.
In her doctoral thesis in medicine, Razanajao (1974: 4–6) describes Fanon’s early background in Martinique and his years as a medical student at the Université de Lyon. She emphasizes that, as an author, Fanon was constantly torn between his medical research in psychiatry and his philosophical writings.
Cohen-Solal (1985: 554–555) describes Sartre’s encounter with Fanon in Rome in 1961. Fanon was terminally ill with leukemia, and he urgently requested that his book, Les Damnés de la terre be published (Fanon 1961). He asked Maspero to request a preface from Sartre and to let Sartre know that he thought of him constantly. Fanon considered his book to be an important contribution to the decolonization struggle in Algeria and sub-Saharan Africa.
In his short book Discours sur le colonialisme, Aimé Césaire (1955: 7–10) begins with a similar critique of the European role in the colonial enterprise and draws parallels between colonization in Africa and fascism in Europe.
Gates (1991: 457–470) offers a model for rereading Fanon in the context of decolonization and political alienation. He reviews poststructuralist and postmodern interpretations of Fanon and urges that Fanon be reconsidered with reference to his era and the problems of colonialism that he struggled to resolve in his writings.
Much more may be said about the importance of Sartre’s writings, in particular Critique de la raison dialectique, for the development of theories of contemporary society and popular culture. The concepts of serialization and totalization are particularly relevant in this regard (Sartre 1976b: 363–370).
Sartre’s collaborations with Senghor, Fanon, and other members of the Présence Africaine group were strategic and often positioned him as a translator and spokesperson for the cause of decolonization (Jules-Rosette 1998: 36–38).
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Acknowledgement
I wish to thank members of the seminar on Art, Culture, and Knowledge (ACK) Group of the University California, San Diego for their helpful comments on this article and to acknowledge the critical input of Gerald M. Platt of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and San Diego colleagues J. R. Osborn and Lea Ruiz-Ade. Their critical comments have been invaluable to me in rethinking Sartre’s theories of race, self, and society.
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Jules-Rosette, B. Jean-Paul Sartre and the philosophy of négritude: Race, self, and society. Theor Soc 36, 265–285 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11186-007-9029-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11186-007-9029-x