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ePaper created 2014-06-21, 10:32:49 | version 1.31.00
Untimely Vision 139 ship to the past not to memorialize a fixed heritage but to call forth a world that did not yet exist. Given Césaire’s skepticism about commemoration as politics, we can speculate that he would have had misgivings about the public campaign to have his own remains buried in France’s Panthéon after his death on April 17, 2008.87 If so, it is not likely that his objection would have been based on the premise that cultural icons must be buried on natal soil (as metropolitan and Mar- tinican opponents to the idea, on both the right and the left, suggested). Rather, it would probably have followed from his concern that official commemoration could blunt the political edge of revolutionary actors precisely by turning them into national icons. In fact, Césaire’s actual state funeral on April 20, 2008, in Fort-de-France avoided this reifying process. His death was the occasion for cultural ritual and collective solidarity. Supporters ceremoniously drove his coffin through the city to the stadium where his funeral would be held, making frequent symbolic stops in popular neighborhoods and before the Hôtel de Ville. The procession was greeted and followed by emotional crowds, much larger than expected, who expressed joy and grief through singing, chanting, and dancing. French, Antillean, Caribbean, and African notables attended. The proceedings were broadcast live across the international Francophone world. But organizers ensured that this would be nei- ther an occasion for political recuperation nor one instrumentalized for nationalist ends.88 The centerpiece of the funeral celebration, opened by Césaire’s longtime com- rade Pierre Aliker and presided over by his younger friend Daniel Maximin, was a dramatic “evocation of Césaire.”89 Maximin staged the event as an intimate dialogue between Césaire and his mourners. Rather than consign him to the dead, Maximin invoked the living spirit of Césaire: “Your voice is still here, present among us, a powerful presence that rises up to the stars, a profound presence that 87. This campaign, which received little support from either Martinicans or the French govern- ment, was promoted by the Antillean activist Claude Ribbe and supported by prominent French politicians like François Bayrou and Ségolène Royale. See Claude Ribbe, “Césaire, ‘normalien noir,’ au Panthéon le 10 mai 2008!” (“Césaire, ‘Black Normalien,’ in the Panthéon on May 10, 2008!”), April 25, 2008, www.afrik.com/article14141.html. See also Claude Ribbe’s blog at www.claude-ribbe .com/dotclear. 88. President Nicolas Sarkozy attended but was not invited to speak. In protest against Sarkozy’s support for the 2005 law on the positive aspects of French colonialism, Césaire had earlier refused to meet with him when he visited Martinique. The following year, after the objectionable articles of this law had been eliminated, Césaire did meet with him. 89. Aliker declared that Martinique had lost its greatest son, someone who understood that Mar- tinicans are the only specialists of Martinique.