Marxism in Francophone African and Caribbean Literary Thought

The present paper is about the use and development of Marxism in Francophone African and Caribbean literature.  Since the topic is vast, I will mainly rely on some selected writers and thinkers – mainly Jacques Roumain, Léopold Sedar Senghor, Frantz Fanon, and V.Y. Mudimbe.

Jacques Roumain, in his Gouverneurs de la Rosée / Masters of the Dew, presents a hero Manuel who comes back to Haiti after spending fifteen in Cuba where he worked in American plantations. His experience is full of Marxist statements and slogans.

Senghor wrote important reflections on Marxism and Socialism, it is interesting to characterize his social thought with respect to Marxism. He coined a concept of African Socialism, which would be based on African values and specific to the African cultural and social situation.

Frantz Fanon’s Marxism is known as praxis for the liberation of mind from the complex of inferiority. The colonized corresponds to the proletarian worker in Marxism, as the Black Man is shaped according to the White Man’s image imposed upon him. As J. Crowell states: “Marx argues that this is constituted by the conflict between the "compartments" of the capitalist and the worker, whereas the tension between the colonizer and colonized native replace this class struggle within Fanon's colonial context” (J. Crowell)

Mudimbe’s Pierre Lumbi, the protagonist of Entre les eaux, is a former priest who opts for a Marxist Revolution to free his people from colonialism and all forms of injustice. His training of philosophy and theology does not empower him to address his people’s hopes; he therefore decides to join a Guerrilla group that fights against the Government.

This paper seeks to draw general reflections on the impact of Marxism in the Africa and Caribbean thoughts as shown in the novels of Roumain and Mudimbe, and the essays of Senghor and Fanon. These writers and thinkers used Marxism for the purpose of their personal activism and what can be called littérature engagée.

J. Crowell. “Marxism and Frantz Fanon’s Theory of Colonial Identity: Parallels Between Racial and Commodity-Based Fetichism”, Webs: 

http://scientificterrapin.umd.edu/Fall2011/articles/Marxism.php   Seen March 25, 2018.