Army of Ravens

Abstract

Negritude is one of the most controversial and misunderstood movements, starting with Jean-Paul Sartre's misguided discussion of the significance of Negritude in Black Orpheus. In this article, I will argue that Negritude is not opposed in any way to a non-racialized socialism. Indeed, as the contemporary philosopher Lewis Gordon has powerfully argued, Negritude and other forms of Black consciousness are absolutely crucial to the overcoming of racism and colonization and to attempt to have ideals of economic transformation that do not fall back into the worst forms of racism. At the heart of this debate about the significance of Negritude—all the poets were socialists—is the question of whether or not there is African philosophy and whether African philosophy has made a significant contribution to rethinking socialism as ethical as well as economic. This article strongly argues that African philosophy demands that we shift our understanding of how and why socialism is an ethical aspiration and is rooted in an ontology of rhythmic bodies.