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"; r 7 • 1 7P 5 hUrt"" mrS"'?170THE WRETCHED OF THE EARTHON NATIONAL CULTURE171* * *people'sor tollGore. Senghor,for Culture and who hasus on nllS issue of African culture, had no scrupleseither about instructing his delegation to back the French lineon Algeria. Support for "Negro-African" culture and the culturalunity of Africa is first contingent on an unconditional supportfor the people's liberation struggle. One cannot expect Africanculture to advance unless one contributes realistically to thecreation of the conditions necessary for this culture, i.e.,eration of the continent.Once no speech, no declaration on culhne will detractus from our fundamental tasks which are to liberate the nationalterritory; constantly combat the new forms of colonialism; and, asleaders, stubbornly refuse to indulge in self-satisfaction at the top.MUTUAL FOUNDATIONS FOR NATIONAL CULTUREAND LIBERATION STRUGGLESThe sweeping, leveling nature ot colomai dommatlOn wasto dislocate in spectacular fashion the cultural life of aconquered people. The denial ofa national reality, the new legalsystem imposed by the occupying power, the marginalization ofthe indigenous population and their customs by colonial society,expropriation, and the systematic enslavement of men andwomen, all contributed to this cultural obliteration.Three years ago at our first congress I demonstrated that in acolonial situation any dynamism is fairlyreification of attitudes. The cultural sphere issignposts, every single onemost elementary type, comparable in moreways than one to the simple instinct of self-preservation. Thisis interesting because the oppressor is no longer contentthe objective nonexistence of the conquered nation andculture. Every effort is made to make the colonized confess theinferiority of their culture, now reduced to a set of instinctiveresponses, to acknowledge the unreality of theirthe last extreme, to admit theof their own biologicalThe reactions ofthe colonized to this situation vary. Whereasthe masses maintain intact traditions totally incongruous withsituation, whereas the style ofartisanship ossifies intoan increasingly stereotyped formalism, the intellectual hurlshimself frantically into the frenzied acquisition of the occupier'sculture, making sure he denigrates his national culture, or elseconfines himself to making a detailed, methodical, zealous, andrapidly sterile inventory of it.What both reactions have in common isin unacceptable contradictions. Renegade orcolonized subject is ineffectual precisely because the colonialsituation has not been rigorously analyzed. The colonial situationbrings national culture virhlally to a halt. There is no suchthing as national culture, national cultural events, innovations,or reforms within the context of colonial domination, and therenever will be. There are scattered instances of a bold attempt torevive a cultural dynamism, and reshape themes, forms, andtones. The immediate, tangible, and visible ofthese minorconvulsions is nil. But if we follow the consequences tolimit there are signs that the veil is being lifted","nT&m;"n is being challenged and there is hopeculture under colonial domination is a culture underinterrogation whose destruction is sought systematically. Veryquickly it becomes a culture condemned to clandestinity. Thisnotion ofclandestinity can immediately be perceived in the reactionsof the occupier who interprets this complacent attachment