Mayor and Poet

This article records tradition as it has been passed down and reported. Its sources are not yet part of the atlas's verified catalogue.

Alongside his literary career, Aime Cesaire served as mayor of Fort-de-France, the capital of Martinique, for fifty six years, from 1945 to 2001, and simultaneously represented Martinique for decades in the French National Assembly. In that political role he was the principal author of the 1946 law that transformed Martinique, Guadeloupe, French Guiana and Reunion from French colonies into full overseas departments of France, a change intended to secure equal citizenship rights for their populations, and one he later came to view with more ambivalence as it also deepened those territories' administrative dependence on Paris.