Paul Niger (21 December 1915 – 22 June 1962) was a poet and political activist from

Basse-Terre Basse-Terre (, ; ; gcf, label=Guadeloupean Creole, Bastè, ) is a commune in the French overseas department of Guadeloupe, in the Lesser Antilles. It is also the ''prefecture'' (capital city) of Guadeloupe. The city of Basse-Terre is located o ...

, Guadeloupe. He was born Albert Béville, but Niger's passion for

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

led him to take the pen name of the great African

Niger River The Niger River ( ; ) is the main river of West Africa, extending about . Its drainage basin is in area. Its source is in the Guinea Highlands in south-eastern Guinea near the Sierra Leone border. It runs in a crescent shape through ...

. His major theme was Africa and the pride that he felt in being a descendant of Africans. According to the Encyclopedia of Caribbean Literature, Niger completed secondary studies at the Lycée Carnot in the town of Pointe-à-Pitre. Later on, during World War II, he travelled to Paris to attend the École de la France d’Outre-mer, a school established to train colonial officers. Niger was a supporter of the

Négritude ''Négritude'' (from French "Nègre" and "-itude" to denote a condition that can be translated as "Blackness") is a framework of critique and literary theory, developed mainly by francophone intellectuals, writers, and politicians of the African ...

, a black consciousness movement founded by

Aimé Césaire Aimé Fernand David Césaire (; ; 26 June 1913 – 17 April 2008) was a French poet, author, and politician. He was "one of the founders of the Négritude movement in Francophone literature" and coined the word in French. He founded the Par ...

, Léon-Gontran Damas, and

Léopold Senghor Leopold may refer to: People * Leopold (given name) * Leopold (surname) Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional characters * Leopold (''The Simpsons''), Superintendent Chalmers' assistant on ''The Simpsons'' * Leopold Bloom, the protagonist o ...

(early to mid 1900s). Edward A. Jones, publisher of Voices of Negritude (1971), described Niger’s poetry as, “at once violent and tender, like the land of his ancestors”. Niger was one of those killed in the crash of

Air France Flight 117 Air France Flight 117 was a multi-leg international scheduled flight from Paris-Orly Airport via Lisbon, the Azores, Guadeloupe and Peru to Santiago, Chile, which crashed 22 June 1962. The Boeing 707–328 aircraft involved in the accident ...

.Ronald Selbonne. ''Albert Béville alias Paul Niger : une négritude géométrique : Guadeloupe-France-Afrique''. Préf.

Christiane Taubira Christiane Marie Taubira (; born 2 February 1952) is a French politician who served as Minister of Justice of France in the governments of Prime Ministers Jean-Marc Ayrault and Manuel Valls under President François Hollande from 2012 until 20 ...

, Matoury (Guyane française) : Ibis rouge, 2013 (in French)

Bibliography

References

1915 births 1962 deaths Guadeloupean poets Guadeloupean politicians 20th-century French poets People from Basse-Terre French male poets Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in 1962 Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in North America 20th-century French male writers Accidental deaths in Guadeloupe {{France-poet-stub