#tropiques

[thesobsister]

Inspiring words from Aimé Césaire from the April 1941 debut issue of Tropiques.

“Wherever we look, the shadows are gaining ground. One after another, the fires are being extinguished. The circle of shadows is tightening amidst the cries of men and the howls of beasts. And yet we are among those who say no to the shadows. We know that the health of the world depends on us too. That the world needs any and all of its children. Even the humblest.”

[guayaba-podrida]

Meanwhile, the Caribbean serf lives miserably and abjectly on the “factory” lands, and the mediocrity of our market towns is a sickening sight. Meanwhile, the Caribbean is still a paradise with the gentle sound of palm trees…

Suzanne Césaire, “The Great Camouflage,” Tropiques (1945)

(Trans. by Krzysztof Fijalkowski and Michael Richardson.)

[caribbeanart]

Uncensoring The Subconscious - Lux Magazine

Suzanne Césaire found freedom in surrealist methods, adapting them for Afro-Caribbean resistance.

"In the logical mind, it might seem rational to disguise behaviors that we’re ashamed of. Human beings often avoid ideas that challenge assumptions that they accept as true but are prejudiced in reality. Surrealists could see how this reasoning can have devastating consequences over time. Suzanne Césaire, the Martinican theorist and activist, wrote that willful ignorance is an urgent cultural problem. When it comes to social ills, it makes people 'determined to put their hands over their eyes so as not to be disturbed from an artificial peace.'"

[cinnamoncee]

[yzatys]

📍Sainte-Luce, Martinique

[lugivince]

[equatorjournal]

[indiaporama]

Havelock Island - Andaman