The need to return to cultural roots The drama of the colonized

Abstract

The history of Africa is marked by two devastating events: slavery and colonization. From slavery, the continent suffered several casualties. The slave ship swallowed much of the African youth. Many parents were deprived of their progeny. Consciences have been marked indelibly. However, between those who, despite themselves, left the continent and those who stayed there is a slight difference. The second event sullied the consciousness of the Africans who remained. It is in this perspective that Césaire and Fanon from Martinique speak of cultural trampling or identity blockage because the colonized even doubts its own existence. He is, therefore, cut off from his sources and cultural roots to undergo a forced graft. But the culture imposed although dominant, still does not completely annihilate the local culture. There is a survival of autochthony in the cultural scheme in which the colonized under foreign domination sails. The most visible level is the linguistic one. There will be a Creole speaking that is a mixture of the language of the settler with some vestiges of the indigenous speech. It is in this context of cultural blur that comes up the notion of the return to the African cultural roots, celebrated by the mentors of Negritude, namely Aimé Césaire of Martinique or Francisco José Tenreiro of São Tomé and Príncipe.