Présence Africaine
No. 57

“NEW SUM OF POETRY FROM THE NEGRO WORLD” — Nouvelle somme de poésie du monde noir, a 574-page anthology issue and the largest single volume in this collection. AIMÉ CÉSAIRE writes the liminaire, praising the journal for gathering so many poets in one volume and calling the book the best possible introduction to the Festival des Arts Nègres at Dakar; he ends: “Signe que la Négritude continue.” The anglophone section, presented by ABIOLA IRELE, opens with NIGERIA — CHRISTOPHER OKIGBO (“The Limits”, “Lament of the Drums”, “Watermaid”), J. P. CLARK (“Abiku”, “Olumo Rock”, “Night Rain”, “Ibadan”), MICHAEL ECHERUO, Aig Higo and WọLẸ ṢÓYÍNKÁ (“Abiku”, “Death in the Dawn”, “Season”, “Night”) — then Ghana, South Africa, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Liberia, Malawi, Kenya and Gambia. LÉON-G. DAMAS presents the U.S.A. section with TED JOANS and LEROI JONES (Amiri Baraka). The Dutch-language section brings Curaçao poets rarely anthologised anywhere.