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

Basse-Terre Basse-Terre (, ; ; ) is a communes of the Guadeloupe department, commune in the France, French overseas departments and regions of France, overseas department of Guadeloupe, in the Lesser Antilles. It is also the ''prefectures in France, pref ...

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 ...

. 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. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

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 Mali, Nige ...

. 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, mainly developed by francophone intellectuals, writers, and politicians in the Africa ...

, 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 from Martinique. He was "one of the founders of the Négritude movement in Francophone literature" and coined the word in French. He ...

, Léon-Gontran Damas, and Léopold Senghor (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.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 20th-century French male writers {{France-poet-stub Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in Guadeloupe