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Négritude Movement

Historical And Literary Periods
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

A twentieth-century Black literary and political movement asserting African cultural identity against colonial assimilation.

Detailed Definition
Négritude emerged among Francophone writers in the 1930s, especially Aimé Césaire, Léopold Sédar Senghor, and Léon-Gontran Damas. Its poetry reclaimed African and diasporic histories, rhythms, bodies, landscapes, and spiritual values while confronting racism and colonial domination. Although its essentializing language later drew debate, the movement transformed European literary discourse, energized anticolonial thought, and provided a foundation for international Black, Caribbean, and African poetic modernisms.
Example
Example in poetry:
Négritude Movement poetry affirms Black identity and African cultural values in response to colonial racism, as in Aimé Césaire’s Notebook of a Return to the Native Land; Léopold Sédar Senghor’s poems use music, sensual imagery, and praise of African landscapes and traditions; Léon-Gontran Damas’s “Pigments” uses anger and rhythmic directness to expose colonial assimilation; A Négritude-inspired poem might reclaim an ancestral language, celebrate communal memory, and oppose the cultural erasure imposed by empire.
Additional Notes
The Négritude Movement arose among Black intellectuals in the 1930s, especially in Paris, as a response to French colonial assimilation and racist cultural hierarchies. Poets such as Aimé Césaire, Léopold Sédar Senghor, and Léon-Gontran Damas affirmed African history, language, spirituality, landscape, and cultural identity. The movement uses lyric celebration as well as anti colonial protest. Students should note later debates about essentialism, since some writers questioned treating African identity as a single, timeless experience.
Also Known As
Negritude Movement Négritude Negritude
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