Literary Birthday – 29 August – René Depestre

Happy Birthday, René Depestre, born 29 August 1926.

Three Quotes

1. I wear my roots wherever I go.
2. In my childhood, my brothers and sisters listened to me, especially when we were confined within the walls of the house. I invented stories inspired by the rain, the sea, rivers and trees. I fantasised a lot about the nature of all that struck the imagination of young Haitians. I grew up, so to speak, in a literary mould.
3. Today it is not a question of affirming black cultures versus others. The colonial or racial question has been replaced by the issue of globalisation. If the latter remains strictly financial, we are heading for disaster.

René Depestre is a Haitian poet and is considered to be one of the most prominent figures in Haitian literature. He lived in Cuba as an exile from the Duvalier regime for many years and was a founder of the Casa de las Americas publishing house.

Source for Image

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ren%C3%A9_Depestre_(25-02-2017).jpg

Etienne Rouziès, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

by Amanda Patterson

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