Guy Tirolien (; February 13, 1917 – March 8, 1988) was a

Guadeloupe Guadeloupe is an Overseas departments and regions of France, overseas department and region of France in the Caribbean. It consists of six inhabited islands—Basse-Terre Island, Basse-Terre, Grande-Terre, Guadeloupe, Grande-Terre, Marie-Galant ...

an poet. He was born in Point-à-Pitre and died at the age of 71 in

Marie-Galante Marie-Galante (, or ) is one of the dependencies of Guadeloupe, an overseas department of France. Marie-Galante has a land area of . It had 11,528 inhabitants at the start of 2013, but by the start of 2018 the total was officially estimated to ...

Biography

Guy Tirolien was born in Point-à-Pitre, Guadelope to Furcie Tirolen and Léontine Alméda Colonneau. He was a part 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, mainly developed by francophone intellectuals, writers, and politicians in the Africa ...

ideological movement. He was also a colonial administrator in

Cameroon Cameroon, officially the Republic of Cameroon, is a country in Central Africa. It shares boundaries with Nigeria to the west and north, Chad to the northeast, the Central African Republic to the east, and Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the R ...

and

Mali Mali, officially the Republic of Mali, is a landlocked country in West Africa. It is the List of African countries by area, eighth-largest country in Africa, with an area of over . The country is bordered to the north by Algeria, to the east b ...

, where he met several figures of the

Harlem Renaissance The Harlem Renaissance was an intellectual and cultural revival of African-American music, dance, art, fashion, literature, theater, politics, and scholarship centered in Harlem, Manhattan, New York City, spanning the 1920s and 1930s. At the ti ...

. However, he was taken prisoner during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. Afterwards, he worked as an international civil servant, representing the UN, notably in

and

Gabon Gabon ( ; ), officially the Gabonese Republic (), is a country on the Atlantic coast of Central Africa, on the equator, bordered by Equatorial Guinea to the northwest, Cameroon to the north, the Republic of the Congo to the east and south, and ...

. He is the grandfather of singer-songwriter Malika Tirolien.

Work

Tirolien is known as the author of "''Prière d'un petit enfant nègre''" (1943), a poem included in his book "Balles d'or" published by Présence Africaine. The poem is about a black child who does not want to go to the white school. He also wrote "Feuilles vivantes au matin" under the same publisher.

Selected works

* ''Balles d'or'', published by Présence Africaine in 1961 and 1995 * ''Feuilles vivantes au matin'', published by Présence Africaine in 1977 * ''De Marie-Galante à une poétique afro-antillaise'', published by L'Harmattan, collected by Monde Caraïbe 1917 births 1988 deaths Guadeloupean poets 20th-century French poets French male poets 20th-century French male writers {{Guadeloupe-bio-stub