MARXISME ET CHRISTIANISME SELON DAMAS, CÉSAIRE ET SENGHOR / MARKSIZAM I KRŠĆANSTVO PREMA DAMASU, CÉSAIREU I SENGHORU

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to analyze the relationships of Marxism and Christianity in the literary work of the three Baobabs of Negritude – the Guyanase Léon-Gontran Damas (1912-1978), the Martiniquais Aimé Césaire (1913-2008) and the Senegalese Léopold Sédar Senghor (1906-2001). Starting from the first cries of black revolt against “the civilizing mission” and the disproportionate exploitation of the human and natural wealth of the formerly colonized countries, we will try to describe how the Marxist vision of the colonial world of young angry writers influences the virulence of their attitudes against the assimilationist policies of the French Third Republic and the colonial clergy. Finally, we will explain how Senghoraian Negritude differs from that expressed in Césaireʼs and Damasʼ work and how his catholicism and the experience of peaceful cohabitation between Senegalese Christians and Muslims inspire him to preach the civilization of the Universal, that is to say to the mixing of men and women of different races and cultures.