MOVEMENT OF NEGRITUDE : POLITICAL ETHOS IN FRANCE AND BRAZIL

Abstract

This paper aims to present the origin of the Negritude concept from the encounter of the poets Aimé Césaire, Léopold Sédar Senghor and Léon Gontran-Damas, in the middle of the 20th century, in France. In order to do so the reflection will take three paths, as such the black body in the western world, the combat against racism; and a retake of the ontological universal subject, a way of respectability of oneself, for oneself and for society.  The article also intends to dialogue with contemporary Brazil, considering the struggles to combat racism, for recognition and considering the right to education. It questions whether affirmative action and racial quotas would be the new heirs of Negritude - a movement born in the 1935s - to Brazil of 21st century. It also interrogates about the political silencing of civil society on the fight against the historical exclusion of black people and on the failing to define the State's responsibility in combating racism and recognizing of black population with equal rights, concretely speaking.