Abstract: | A propos of Black Orpheus by Jean-Paul Sartre. Sartre was the first to give Negritude an extended critical exposition. His essay 'Black Orpheus', the preface tp Senghor's anthology of negro poets of French expression, defined and consecreted the term Negritude. The concept of negritude met with considerable success in French intellectual circles not without inspiring some controversy among certain French African elements, and with either suspicion or open hostility (and even ridicule) among English-speaking Africans. The publication of Sartre's essay in an English translation by Samuel Allen (Présence Africaine, Paris) comes in this respect as a welcome move. Analysing and discussing this essay the author of the present article comes to the defence of negritude. He draws the conclusion that the real point about negritude, as a philosophical and social concept, is that it is a vision. Negritude is a great human ideal, a reinsertion of the original vitality of a race into the great collective power of the human race. References. |