AU to Pay Tribute to the Late Aimé Césaire

(PANA)--The heads of state and government of the African Union (AU), gathered here for the AU summit, were expected Tuesday to pay tribute to the late Aimé Césaire, a poet and humanist from Martinique, who died on 17 April last at the age of 94, official sources told PANA.

According to the plan drawn up by the AU ministers of foreign affairs, the head s of state will "pay a special tribute to the memory of one of the greatest humanists of modern times, the man who devoted his entire life to fighting, tooth and nail, slavery and colonialism, and for the emancipation of the Black people worldwide".

AU ministers of foreign affairs highlight, in a declaration, that they recognise with "profound gratitude" the action and work of Aimé Césaire, namely his denunciation of the former slave masters.

The declaration lays the emphasis on the concept of negritude which he coined with the former Senegalese president, the late Léopold Sédar Senghor.

‘’This concept will remain forever the label of their action against prejudice and for the defence of the cultural and spiritual values of the black people everywhere in the world", the declaration said.

This concept, the declaration adds, "renders positive all the negative connotati ons that some people want to associate with the word Negro by simple prejudice".

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