15 year old Eritrean Arsema Dawit was murdered in London on June 2nd 2008.

Via Africa Rise

Prophecy

There,
where adventure keeps a clean eye
there where women shimmer with language
there where death is beautiful in the hand like a milk season bird
there where on bended knee the underground gathers a wealth of sloes more violent than caterpillars
there where for nimble wonder anything goes

there where vigorous night bleeds the speed of true vegetables

there where bees of stars sting a hive’s sky brighter than night
there where my heel sound fills space and counts down the removal of the face of time
there where my word’s rainbow must bring together tomorrow and hope, infante and queen.

for having insulted my masters bitten the sultan’s soldiers
for having moaned in the wilderness
for having called out to my guards
for having appealed to jackals and hyenas shepherds of caravans

I watch
the wild horse of smoke hurry on the stage hem for an instant the lava of its fragile
peacock’s tail, then tearing off its shirt suddenly split its chest and I watch it as
the British Isles as islets as broken rocks melting bit by bit into the lucid sea of the air
where bathe ominously
my face
my revolt
my name.

by Aimé Césaire

translated by Rethabile Masilo (with apologies to Mr Césaire)

Aimé Césaire was born on 26 June 1913 in Basse-Pointe and died on 17 April 2008 in Fort-de-France. May he rest in peace. While studying in Paris he came into contact with African students, among which were Léopold Sédar Senghor. They struck a friendship and exchanged ideas and experiences, founding the Negritude movement in the process.

They first set up the magazine L’étudiant Noir (The black Student), in whose pages the term négritude first appeared. The essence of negritude was the rejection of assimilation by colonialism and other racial systems, and the expression of one’s own being. It was mostly cultural and less political. When Aimé Césaire declared that je suis de la race de ceux qu’on opprime (I am of the race of the oppressed), there was little colour in the meaning, but much harmony with oppressed people, full-stop. He fought that battle and others till today, the 17th of April, 2008. Mr. Césaire has left for us volumes of poems, plays, essays and other genres:

Poésie
* Cahier d’un retour au pays natal, Paris, Présence africaine, (1939; 1960)
* Les Armes miraculeuses (1946; Paris, Gallimard, 1970)
* Soleil cou coupé (1947; Paris, Editions K., 1948)
* Corps perdu (gravures de Picasso), Paris, Editions Fragrance, (1950)
* Ferrements, Paris, Seuil, (1960; 1991)
* Cadastre, Paris, Seuil, (1961)
* Moi, laminaire, Paris, Seuil, (1982)
* La Poésie, Paris, Seuil, (1994)

Théâtre
* Et les chiens se taisaient, Paris, Présence Africaine, 1958; 1997
* La Tragédie du roi Christophe, Paris, Présence Africaine, (1963; 1993)
* Une saison au Congo, Paris, Seuil, (1966, 2001)
* Une tempête, d’après La Tempête de William Shakespeare : adaptation pour un théâtre nègre), Paris, Seuil, (1969; 1997)

Essais
* Esclavage et colonisation, Paris, Presses Universitaires de France, 1948. Réédition : Victor Schoelcher et l’abolition de l’esclavage, Lectoure, Editions Le Capucin, 2004.
* Discours sur le colonialisme, Paris, éditions Réclames, 1950 ; éditions Présence africaine, 1955.
* Discours sur la négritude, (1987).

Histoire
* Toussaint Louverture, La révolution Française et le problème colonial, Paris, Présence Africaine, (1962.

Entretiens
* Rencontre avec un nègre fondamental, Entretiens avec Patrice Louis, Paris, Arléa, 2004.
* Nègre je suis, nègre je resterai, Entretiens avec Françoise Vergès, Paris, Albin Michel, 2005.

Enregistrement audio
* Aimé Césaire, Paris, Hatier, “Les Voix de l’écriture”, 1994.
[source…]

NOTE: Please read another of our post on Mr. Césaire

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The Martiniquan poet, novelist, playwright and activist, Aime Cesaire died today aged 94. I feel sad that the last of our literary and ideological [negritude] warriors is now gone.

Sad that we people of African descent remain at odds with each other. Where the people who stayed behind have forgotten those who were stolen from their villages and towns. We stand before each other staring at myths and lies constructed not by us, but by those who wish to divide us. But still we believe not what we see but what we are told.

My friend Marian who has also written a tribute in English and French sent me this from a friend of a Martiniquan friend of hers in DC.

Dear Colleagues:

The following is to announce the passing of Aime Cesaire. A poet, playwright, writer, Mayor of Fort-de-France, Congressman, pillar of the Negritude movement, thinker of the African independence movements, Cesaire leaves us with a long legacy of struggle for the dignity of people of African descent around the world, for human rights. As heads of state and dignitaries especially from Africa and the Caribbean are making their way to Martinique to attend his funeral on Sunday, we cannot help but think of the number of people he has influenced world wide through his writings. Cesaire is taught in the majority of the French language departments in universities across the United States and around the world. Among his works “Discourse on Colonialism”, “A Season in the Congo”, “The tragedy of King Christopher” or “Return to My Native Land” have resonated in the 1960s and beyond and have been seminal to liberation struggles around the globe.

Today I also mourn the personal friend and mentor that I visited on every trip to Martinique. I will miss his guidance, strength of character and dignity shrouded in simplicity.

Our thoughts and prayers are with his family.

Your colleague, Marilyn Sephocle

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Aime Cesaire
Martinique

Today marks the 40th anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. I hear that Hilary Clinton and John McCain will be in Memphis to mark the day. I am sure Barack Obama will seize the time add his $2 worth. I hear that Democratic and Republican leaders met yesterday on Capitol Hill to mark the day. No doubt the warmongering racist, Mr George Bush will speak to [dis]honour Mr King. Hypocrites everywhere will come out to speak false words and use the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr for their own interest.

They are all liars.

They will not say that the same forces who killed Martin Luther King Jr also killed Patrice Lumumba, Che Guevara, Salvador Allende, Thomas Sankara and thousands of others who refused to be silenced and dared to dream of another world.

They will not say that the same forces who killed civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr are also responsible for the forced removal of President Bertrand Aristide who is still prevented from returning to his home and position in Haiti.

They will not say that the same forces who sought to destroy the reputation of Martin Luther King Jr are the same forces responsible for the disappearance of Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine - a Haitian civil rights leaders who has fought consistently for the dignity and human rights of Haitian people including the end of the UN / US Occupation of Haiti

They will not say that Martin Luther King Jr was killed one year after he began to speak out again the US war in Vietnam [April 4th 1967].

The media will be silent on these facts and Martin Luther King Jr will be whitewashed 40 years after his assassination. Just as the media whitewashed Aristide and are silent today on the kidnapping and whereabouts of Haitian leader Lovinsky.

The media will be silent on the liberties that have been eroded over the past 7 years and are now reduced to the freedom to consume. As we move nearer and nearer to the possibility of a Black man becoming the next US President the media and white people and some Black people will attempt to whitewash the daily realities of race in America.

The realisaton of the dream is still a long way off. But it is only when you dream that you KNOW what is possible, what is real.

UPDATE LINK: Democracy Now

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Martin Luther King Jr

R. I. P. LUCKY DUBE - South African reggae super star was murdered in a hijacking in Joburg last night at around 8pm

An injured Dube tried to flee but drove his grey Chrysler sedan into a tree and died on the scene. No further details were available as his son, who reportedly witnessed the incident, was still in shock.

Thanks for all the happiness you gave us all with your beautiful music - you are gone but your spirit and music will live on. Bless.

Lucky Dube

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South Africa