Aimé Césaire’s Yugoslav Detour

In 1935, while visiting his friend Petar Guberina in Dalmatia, Aimé Césaire saw an island by the name of Martinska (the equivalent of Martinique). Shocked by this discovery, he began writing his Notebook of a Return to the Native Land. While acknowledged, this Yugoslav connection tends to be mentioned as merely anecdotal. This essay argues that Yugoslavia represented an important detour for Césaire. Césaire’s friendship with Guberina and his discovery of Martinska allowed him to see how the particularity of his historical experience as a member of the African diaspora could also serve as the basis for solidarity with other oppressed people. Whereas the accusation of racial essentialism has long followed the founders of the Negritude movement, the Yugoslav connection invites a more layered and nuanced reading of the Notebook, whose unusual origins resonate throughout its verses, positioning it as a text always already in Relation.