Césaire provocatively asserts that the Holocaust was not an aberration but rather the logical conclusion of European history. He claims that most European governments grew by killing people, just as the Nazis did, and even European humanists supported white supremacist ideas similar to those driving Hitler's policies. He highlights how colonial violence dehumanized both the colonized and the colonizers.

European's Logical Conclusion

Instead, the idea of European civilization served as a pretext for exploiting the labor and resources of the colonized in brutal ways. Césaire argues that Europe’s so-called civilizing mission not only devastated the lives and well-being of non-European peoples but also corrupted Europe’s own moral culture. The ruling class, or bourgeoisie, became morally bankrupt, inventing the notion of civilization to justify its cruel policies, thereby losing the ability to recognize the humanity of nonwhite people.

For instance, French conquerors reveled in atrocities like rape and murder, which exemplified how colonialism reduced nonwhite people to objects while stripping colonizers of their humanity. Césaire famously states, "colonization equals thingification," emphasizing that colonialism objectified and dehumanized its victims while eroding the colonizers' ethical integrity. He further points out that the world was already home to complex, advanced, and democratic civilizations that Europe destroyed in the name of bringing civilization.

Césaire critiques specific figures, such as:Geographer Pierre Gourou, who claimed that tropical climates made non-Europeans incapable of civilization, and Reverend Tempels, who fabricated a theory suggesting that Congolese people desired enslavement by Belgians.

Psychoanalyst Octave Mannoni attributed Madagascar's colonization to psychological differences, portraying Africans as dependent and collectively mad when they sought independence.Anthropologist Roger Caillois outright denied nonwhite people’s capacity for science, ignoring the Egyptians’ mathematical innovations and Arab philosophers’ contributions to rationalism. Césaire dismisses these arguments as baseless, rooted in racism rather than evidence.

Césaire exposes the glaring contradiction between Europe's stated moral values and its historical actions. Europeans claim that colonization brought freedom, justice, and civilization to the world, but Césaire calls this a convenient lie that legitimized hateful and destructive policies. He asserts that there is nothing noble about forcibly converting people to Christianity or stealing their art for Western museums.

Moral Corruptions

He directly condemns journalists and academics who justify the brutality of colonialism. He argues that colonial-era scholars, particularly anthropologists, were complicit in colonial violence because they created the myths Europeans used to rationalize their actions. These myths, grounded in racism, falsely asserted that only white people were capable of science and knowledge.

Critic to colonial-era scholar

Césaire continues to critique colonial violence, pointing out that it persisted even after World War II. For example, the French brutally suppressed the Malagasy uprising in Madagascar, killing tens of thousands. Despite this, prominent French intellectuals continued to defend white supremacy. Césaire calls for a new society that uses modern productive powers democratically to ensure freedom and human rights for all rights that European and American elites hoard for themselves.

Césaire reiterates his call for global change. He compares Western Europe’s overreach to the collapse of ancient Rome, suggesting that Europe's excesses threaten its downfall. As of 1950, the colonized peoples of the world aspire to freedom and a more equitable future. Although the United States appears poised to continue the legacy of colonialism through economic dominance and capitalism, Césaire believes that Latin American, African, and Asian nations can forge a classless society that guarantees sovereignty, independence, and prosperity values that the West falsely claimed to uphold.

Call for Global Action

I say that between colonization and civilization there is an infinite distance; that out of all the colonial expeditions that have been undertaken, out of all the colonial statutes that have been drawn up, out of all the memoranda that have been dispatched by all the ministries, there could not come a single human value.

Full Summary of the Discourse on Colonialism by Aime Cesaire

"Césaire's essay stands as an important document in the development of third world consciousness--a process in which [he] played a prominent role." --Library Journal This classic work, first published in France in 1955, profoundly influenced the generation of scholars and activists at the forefront of liberation struggles in Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean. Nearly twenty years later, when published for the first time in English, Discourse on Colonialism inspired a new generation engaged in the Civil Rights, Black Power, and anti-war movements and has sold more than 75,000 copies to date. Aimé Césaire eloquently describes the brutal impact of capitalism and colonialism on both the colonizer and colonized, exposing the contradictions and hypocrisy implicit in western notions of "progress" and "civilization" upon encountering the "savage," "uncultured," or "primitive." Here, Césaire reaffirms African values, identity, and culture, and their relevance, reminding us that "the relationship between consciousness and reality are extremely complex. . . . It is equally necessary to decolonize our minds, our inner life, at the same time that we decolonize society." An interview with Césaire by the poet René Depestre is also included.