Aimé Césaire: Possession as Paradigm of Consciousness

Abstract:This essay particularizes Césaire's poetic project through the lens of spirit possession, showing how spirit possession offers a philosophical paradigm through which Césaire challenges the narrative of European humanism, anchoring Négritude in an alternative, decolonial sense of what it means to be human. Articulating a view of humanness that connects the world of ancient Greece to that of Haitian Vodou, Césaire's theorization of "poetry" (as a mode of knowledge, engagement, and production that involves energy exchanges and human participation in the living world) brings useful perspectives to current debates surrounding capitalist crises, ecological collapse, and epistemic freedom. Through the links made between "spirit," "poiesis," and "animism" here, this essay expands understandings of Césaire's work and Négritude. From a weak iteration of Pan-Africanism or strong senses of diaspora, the latter is reframed as a deep poetic sensibility with its own metaphysics and ethical commitment to earth and land and their entanglement with Being.