Biography of Amiâe Câesaire (1913-2008), a Francophone poet, author and politician from Martinique. He was "one of the founders of the nâegritude movement in Francophone literature". His works include: poetry, Cahier d'un retour au pays natal, (1939), Les armes miraculeuses (1946), Cahier d'un retour au pays natal (1947), Soleil cou-coupâe (1948), Corps perdu (1950), Ferrements (1960), Cadastre (1961), Moi, laminaire (1982), Comme un malentendu de salut (1994); theatre, Et les Chiens se taisaient (1958), La Tragâedie du roi Christophe (1963), Une Saison au Congo (1966), Une Tempãete (1969) [adaptation pour un thâeãatre náegre]; as well as numerous essays. In 1945, with the support of the French Communist Party (PCF), Câesaire was elected mayor of Fort-de-France and deputy to the French National Assembly for Martinique. He was one of the principal drafters of the 1946 law on departmentalizing former colonies, a role for which independentist politicians have often criticized him.

Elizabeth Walcott-Hackshaw is Professor of French Literature and Creative Writing, the University of the West Indies, St Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago. Her publications include Border Crossings: A Trilingual Anthology of Caribbean Women Writers (co-edited with Nicole Roberts); Echoes of the Haitian Revolution 1804-2004 and Reinterpreting the Haitian Revolution and Its Cultural Aftershocks (both co-edited with Martin Munro); the novel Mrs B and the short story collections Four Taxis Facing North and Stick No Bills.