self in the foilage of your arms/the
herd finds it/and very solemnly/in
a manner always new/licks it/
amorously/until the first blood sav-
agely appears...
ALTHOUGH HIS POETRY includes images of violence, mutilation, and blood, Cesaire's aim was not revolution but self-renewal. Until 1956 he was an avowed Communist, like many French surrealists, but he later came to reject Marxism because of its part in the dominant culture that had colonized Martinique. Cesaire founded the Martinican Progressive Party (PPM) in 1958 and during the 1960s, wrote plays about colonialism and liberation. The personal and political loss that colonialism had caused is tragically painted in "Africa":
your solar tiara knocked down to
your neck by rifle butt;
they have turned it into an iron-col-
lar, your clairvoyance
they've put out its eyes; prostituted
your chaste face;
screaming that it was guttural, they
muzzled
your voice, which was speaking in
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