An extraordinary destiny
Aimé Césaire was born in Basse-Pointe, in a modest family, on June 26, 1913. Even as a child, he was fascinated by literature. A brilliant student, he obtained a scholarship to study in Paris, attending the Lycée Louis-le-Grand in 1931 and then the Ecole Normale Supérieure. It was there that he met his faithful friends, notably the Senegalese Léopold Sédar Senghor, his elder by a few years, who would later become a writer and president of his country, as well as his wife Suzanne, also a native of Martinique, a committed intellectual and activist of the Antillanité movement, whom he married in July 1937.
In Paris, Aimé Césaire discovered Africa through the prism of colonialism. In 1935, he founded the newspaper L'Etudiant Noir, strongly influenced by surrealism and African culture, and then invented the concept of “négritude”. He wrote: “If assimilation is not madness, it is certainly foolishness, because to want to be assimilated is to forget that no one can change fauna; it is to disregard "otherness" which is the law of Nature”. This fight against racism and colonialism, which he would later denounce in his famous Discourse on Colonialism, Césaire then pursued in politics. In 1945, he was elected MEP of Martinique at only 32 years old, joined the Communist Party, to “work for the construction of a system based on the right to dignity of all men without distinction of origin, religion and color” as he explains in the booklet Pourquoi je suis communiste (Why I am a Communist), and became the rapporteur of the bill on the creation of overseas departments. In addition to his mandate as MEP, one of the longest parliamentary careers (Césaire remained MEP until 1993), he became mayor of Fort-de-France in 1945, until 2001. In 1956, Césaire left the Communist Party and created the Martinique Progressive Party, an anti-colonialist movement inspired by the socialist ideal.
A home in his image
That same year, Aimé Césaire bought a house in the Redoute neighborhood with his wife Suzanne, to accommodate their six children. It is in this authentic family house that Césaire spent the last forty years of his life.
Located at 131 route de Redoute, this house, bought by the city of Fort-de-France after Césaire's death, is now classified as a historical monument and labeled “Maison des Illustres” in 2019, a distinction that “honors houses that preserve and transmit the memory of women and men who lived in them and have distinguished themselves in the political, social and cultural history of France.”
With its typical Creole architecture, with large openings and louvered windows for ventilation, this house is located on a site that dominates the city of Foyal, while nestled in the heart of generous nature, with a green garden below.
At first sight, this house strikes the visitor by its extraordinary sobriety, just like its owner: simple and without frills, lost in the middle of other houses. Even when he was an honorary mayor of Fort-de-France (i.e. no longer in office), the Martinicans continued to come every morning to bring their grievances to his house, proof of Césaire's extraordinary generosity.
Nothing seems to have changed since the death of the author of Cahier d'un retour au pays natal (“Notebook of a Return to My Native Land”). Everywhere, poet's presence is palpable, through objects and memories that belonged to him. Immediately, the visitor is caught by the strong emotion that emanates from these places, which have remained as intact as when he lived there.
As soon as we enter, we slip into the intimacy and daily life of Césaire, by entering his room which also served as an office: his wardrobe is filled with his jackets, shoes, ties. On his bedside table is his old radio, several watches, a pair of glasses, a handkerchief and his electoral card. Above his desk, along the wardrobe that separates it from the bed, where a dozen of his favorite books are scattered (Césaire slept little and read a lot at night), such as Manhood by Michel Leiris, L'Indien au sang noir (“The Black-blooded Indian”) by Christiane Sacarabani…, a wall of photos helps us dive into the ultra-private sphere of the poet. There are pinned up photos of Fort-de-France that he loved so much and that he was grateful for, his wife Suzanne's “Large Family” transport card when she lived in Paris, or the one of the cheese tree that is said to have resisted the 1902 eruption. Césaire, a nature lover, was fascinated by this mythical tree. There is also a check for 4,823.65 francs that Césaire never cashed for his contribution to the journal Tropiques. Each object brings the man a little closer. Then there is the living room, where Césaire loved to read and consult his old botanical encyclopedias, Exotica and Tropica, especially when he returned from his long walks across the island, his arms full of foliage and branches in order to identify each leaf. There are still some dried leaves between the pages.We can also read the long answer written by Maurice Thorez following his resignation from the Communist Party in 1956. Surmounted by a poster of Senghor that Césaire put up when the Senegalese president died, a corridor leads to two former rooms and a library. The latter houses some 4,000 books that belonged to Césaire, repatriated to Martinique when he left office as a member of parliament in 1993! No one knows if this gifted intellectual and polyglot (he read and spoke several languages fluently) read them all, but what is certain is that he practically “handled” and browsed through them because most of them are highlighted and scribbled. This library is a treasure trove of poetic and philosophical works. As we return to the living room, where various lithographs dedicated to fauna and flora are displayed, and then to the terrace, we can see the bench where Césaire, facing his garden, liked to read the newspapers every day, comparing the different editions, with his iced coffee. This press reading was a ritual for him, as were his afternoon walks through Martinique.
An ambitious restoration programme
Since 2021, this house has been the subject of a vast restoration project with a view to creating an art center around Césaire. The aim is to restore the house and bring it to life, while preserving its spirit, so that not only the Martiniquais can make it their own, but also artists of all kinds and the public who visit it, so that people will want to create, read and listen to Césaire's poetry. Work is scheduled for completion in 2024. A team of architects, landscape architects and researchers is currently working on several renovation and staging scenarios for the house, which is to become a place for exchanges, meetings and cultural events linked to the memory of Aimé Césaire, while also featuring a modern museography. Some of Aimé Césaire's objects and memorabilia can be used and complemented as part of a scenography based on his life and work.
Depending on their artistic or political sensibilities, visitors will be able to go further: read, watch short films, listen to stories told by people who were close to Césaire, listen to Césaire's verses in different languages. And, of course, the scenography will be adapted to suit the public: schoolchildren, artists, visitors... Loans of collections will also be considered to reconstitute this house, which was nourished by encounters with others, notably the friendships Césaire had made throughout his life and which remained strong throughout his life: Leopold Sédar Senghor, Michel Leiris, Wifredo Lam..
The spirit of the place will be preserved as faithfully as possible. The atmosphere of the office, living room and bedroom will be soberly enhanced with modern tools, including audio guides, QR codes for smartphones and tablets, and digital orientation tables accessible to young visitors. The house's other interior and exterior spaces will be transformed to remind visitors of Aimé Césaire's life, his links with Africa, surrealism, art and theater. To draw visitors into Aimé Césaire's daily life, particularly his love of reading, various books will be freely available. As for the 4,000 books in his personal library, currently being inventoried, they will be protected and displayed in showcases, indexed and classified by theme.
Some areas, however, will be used differently. The former children's bedrooms, for example, will be transformed into a place for artistic emulation, creating a link between past and contemporary creations. Creations by contemporary artists, writers and visual artists, will punctuate this evocation of the past and pay tribute to Césaire's creative genius and political commitment. Similarly, the former outdoor kitchen will be demolished and converted into a space dedicated to art, sheltered by a transparent glass roof. The latter will offer a bird's-eye view of the gardens, which will also undergo a complete overhaul: eventually, they will house a medicinal garden, a marvellous garden evoking Absallon, a dream garden, not forgetting a green theater where cultural and artistic events and demonstrations will take place.
This vast project to refurbish Aimé Césaire's house will first involve the house itself, with the creation of a museographic trail explaining the man and his work, and then the development of the exterior spaces. The aim is to make the house a cultural landmark in Martinique.
