Damas, Léon-Gontran (1912–1978)

The Guyanese author, politician, and public intellectual Léon-Gontran Damas (March 28, 1912–January 22, 1978) was one of the leading figures of the twentieth-century French Négritude movement. He was born at Cayenne in the French colony of Guyana to a middle-class family of mixed African, European, and indigenous ancestry. He excelled in school, which took him to the French colony of Martinique and later to France, where he took classes and later collaborated with Aimé Césaire. His writings focused on his own mixed racial heritage as emblematic of the Caribbean experience, the importance of African origins, folklore as a key to Guyanese history, and the problems of colonial relations with France. He served in the French Chambre des Députés from 1948 to 1951, representing the overseas department of French Guyana, where his campaign stressed developmental and educational issues. After failing to win reelection, he returned to intellectual life by writing, teaching, publishing, and working for the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization. In 1970 Damas moved to Washington, D.C, where he taught at Georgetown University and served as Distinguished Professor of African Literature at Howard University until his death in 1978.

See alsoCésaire, Aimé; Guyana; Négritude.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Racine, Daniel L. Léon-Gontran Damas: L'homme et l'œuvre. Paris: Préscence africaine, 1983.

Warner, Keith Q., ed. Critical Perspectives on Léon-Gontran Damas. Washington, DC: Three Continents Press, 1988.

                                          Matthew Childs