This document provides a thematic analysis of Aimé Césaire's concept of negritude, a reaction against colonialism and prejudices, in the context of his works 'Notebook of a Return to the Native Land', 'Discourse on Colonialism', and 'Discourse on Negritude'.
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[...] The rap is for Youssoupha a means of claiming and achieving equality through the same passion and the same commitment to music: 'The same love but not the same skin, we run the same tempo'37 ». The entire song 'Points communs' is dedicated to this desire for rapprochement: 'Of course we work for the common good / Let's not look for our flaws but our common points'38 ». [...]
[...] He is here talking about the prejudices and injustices lived by young people from his environment, who are refused honest success. This situation creates a form of uprooting, not knowing in which environment to position oneself and to which sphere to belong: too ghetto for show business, but I'm too rich to hang out in a hallway'25 ». Youssoupha makes the observation of finding himself in a form of in-between, which ultimately means that he does not truly belong to anything. [...]
[...] Here, Youssoupha refers to one of his previous albums, which he wanted to call Négritude but had given up under pressure from the record label, which thought it was too strong and too provocative a title. IV. Universality / Equality The concepts of universality and equality are also at the heart of the writings of Aimé Césaire and Youssoupha. Here, we move from a denunciation of the history of oppression of black populations, which we saw with the study of previous themes, to an aspiration for equality between peoples and cultures. [...]
[...] the scrounging of vermin among the listless . '5 » The idea of injustice is also very strong in the evocation of this theme. The slave is indeed a man on whom one has decided to have all the rights: 'man-torture one could seize him at any moment, beat him, kill him perfectly, kill him without having to account to anyone, without having to present excuses to anyone.'6. Killing a slave was not considered murder because one did not grant the dignity and rights of a human being to these men. [...]
[...] Finally, the movement of negritude, in the face of this colonial past, seeks to highlight everything that had been refused to colonized populations: a culture, a history, a singularity, a legitimacy. Youssoupha affirms this extensively in the song 'Negritude', whose title, which is also that of his album, is a direct tribute to Césaire: 'There will be bad tongues and big mouths / But our identity is great, we must be worthy of its greatness / I have love, little courage, but I have a big heart / My negritude puts this country face to face with its great fears / The resentment, the pressure is so great / So many questions for a culture with a dark color / And, even among us, we are limited / You can't imagine the number of brothers who advise me to give up this album title / Change the game, 'Negritude' as a signature18 ». [...]
