Aimé Césaire

A revolutionary artist and lifelong political activist, Césaire's forceful opposition to imperialism, racism and the assimilation of Western culture among non-Western people has exerted a profound influence on contemporary world literature. In his play, A Season in the Congo, he recounts the betrayal and assassination of the much-loved Patrice Lumumba, the first prime minister of the Congo Republic and an African nationalist hero. The play recounts how Lumumba helped overthrow colonialist Belgian rule and brought independence to the Congo. A deeply moving and enthralling work.

A Season in the Congo

Marion

My children, the Whites have invented many things and they have brought them here for you, some good, some bad. I will not speak of the bad things today. But it's for sure that among the good things we must count beer!

Drink! Drink up! What's more, isn't it the only freedom they allow us? We can't gather without being jailed.

We are those who were dispossessed, struck, mutilated —those who were addressed as inferiors, whose faces were spat upon. Cookboys, chamberboys, laun-dryboys, we were a people of boys, a people of Yes, Bwana', and whoever doubted that man could be not man had only to look at us. Lord, all suffering that can be suffered, we have suffered it. All humiliation that can be drunk, we've drunk!

Your Majesty, there's no more time to encumber ourselves with legal scruples. The saving of European lives, of human lives, is an imperative which exceeds all others!

A Season in the Congo quotes

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