We are fully aware that this is one of man’s attitudes faced with Being. The problem we shall tackle in this chapter is as follows: the more the black Antillean assimilates the French language, the whiter he gets-i.e., the closer he comes to becoming a true human being. We would very much like to be given credit for certain points that, however unacceptable they may appear early on, will prove to be factually accurate. Since the situation is not one-sided, the study should reflect this. To speak means being able to use a certain syntax and possessing the morphology of such and such a language, but it means above all assuming a culture and bearing the weight of a civilization. This question is terribly present in our lives. How can we possibly not hear that voice again tumbling down the steps of History: “It’s no longer a question of knowing the world, but of transforming it.” These are objective facts that state reality.īut once we have taken note of the situation, once we have understood it, we consider the job done. Nobody dreams of challenging the fact that its principal inspiration is nurtured by the core of theories which represent the black man as the missing link in the slow evolution from ape to man. There is no doubt whatsoever that this fissiparousness is a direct consequence of the colonial undertaking. A black man behaves differently with a white man than he does with another black man. The black man possesses two dimensions: one with his fellow Blacks, the other with the Whites. We attach a fundamental importance to the phenomenon of language and consequently consider the study of language essential for providing us with one element in understanding the black man’s dimension of being-for-others, it being understood that to speak is to exist absolutely for the other.
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