Cesaire

1913 - 2008


I was introduced to Aime Cesaire's work circa 1994, in particular Cahiers..., I came via the surrealist movement, into negritude and the depth of Caribbean feeling. In my most recent book, The African Origins of UFOs one of the 3 sections that comprise the text - that deals with a return home from exile is called 'Journal of a return to a floating Island', again inspired by Cesaire's seminal work of diasporic identity. A floating island, this is how I still see home; as an island afloat in the sea of memory. Aime inspired that title. He inspired us all, diasporic poets, not simply poetically but politically.
Came home tonight after guesting with the Heliocentrics at Cargo, and then Mulatu Astatke came on with his rolling soul and I knew that that was the closest we would get to see someone like Fela. Came home to read Aime Cesaire passed. May spirits build nests in his beard.