Return to My Native Land

''We shall speak. We shall sing. We shall shout.'' This blazing autobiographical poem by the founder of the n-itude movement became a rallying cry for decolonisation when it appeared in 1939. Following one man''s return from Europe to his homeland of Martinique, it is a reckoning with the trauma of slavery and exploitation, and a triumphant anthem for Black identity, one which reclaims and remakes language itself.

''Nothing less than the greatest lyrical monument of this time'' Andr-reton
''A C-ire poem explodes and whirls about itself like a rocket, suns burst forth whirling and exploding'' Jean-Paul Sartre
''The most influential Francophone Caribbean writer of his generation'' Independent