Authors
Leon Damas
Also Known As Leon-Gontran Damas
Citation Formats
General Reference
APA Style
BibTeX
Leon-Gontran Damas was a poet from French Guiana, co-founder of the Negritude movement alongside Leopold Sedar Senghor and Aime Cesaire, whom he met as a student in 1930s Paris. His 1937 collection Pigments was the first published book of Negritude poetry, appearing two years before Cesaire's Cahier d'un retour au pays natal, and its direct, angry protest against colonialism and racism was banned in French colonial territories in 1939. Damas later taught in the United States and served in the French National Assembly representing French Guiana.
Facts
Learn More
The First Book
This article records tradition as it has been passed down and reported. Its sources are not yet part of the atlas's verified catalogue.
Leon Damas's Pigments, published in Paris in 1937, was the first published book of poetry associated with the Negritude movement, appearing two years before Aime Cesaire's Cahier d'un retour au pays natal. Written in short, direct, often angry lines, Pigments confronted French colonialism and racism more bluntly than the more allusive styles Senghor and Cesaire were developing at the same time, and Damas is frequently described as bringing a harder edged, more explicitly political register to the movement's shared project.
A Collection Banned
This article records tradition as it has been passed down and reported. Its sources are not yet part of the atlas's verified catalogue.
In 1939, at the outbreak of the Second World War, French censors banned Pigments from circulation in France's African colonies. The ban did not prevent the book's ideas from circulating among students and writers in Paris, where Damas continued to move in the same circles as Senghor and Cesaire, and Pigments retained its status as Negritude's first published collection even after Damas's later career moved toward teaching, radio broadcasting for the overseas service of Radio France and UNESCO, and eventually a seat in the French National Assembly representing French Guiana.
Cross-Tradition Connections
In Movement
Co-founder of Negritude with Senghor and Cesaire; his 1937 collection Pigments was the movement's first published book of poetry, banned in French colonial territories in 1939.
Sources
Reader Challenges (0 open reader challenges)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.
Sign in to dispute this or suggest a correction.
View At A Past Year
The atlas records no dated fact of its own for this entry, so there is no other year to choose.