“Culture and Colonization,” which has long been unavailable in English translation, was Aimé Césaire's speech at Le Premier Congrès International des Ecrivains et Artistes Noirs, hosted by the journal Présence africaine in Paris in September 1956. The congress is one of the pivotal events of the Pan-African movement, bringing together artists and intellectuals from around the African diaspora, including Alioune Diop, Jacques Rabemananjara, Léopold Sédar Senghor, Frantz Fanon, Richard Wright, George Lamming, Cheikh Anta Diop, and Jean Price-Mars. Césaire's reflections on the relations between colonization and culture were a crucial intervention that provoked much debate among the delegates. The speech is an indispensable companion piece to Césaire's Discourse on Colonialism (1955) and his open letter to Maurice Thorez in October 1956, which also appears in translation in this issue.
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