To Speak...means Above All To Assume A

I Ascribe A Basic Importance To The Phenomenon Of Language. To Speak Means To Be In A Position To Use A Certain Syntax, To Grasp The Morphology Of This Or That Language, But It Means Above All To Assume A Culture, To Support The Weight Of A Civilization.

The Church In The Colonies Is The White People's Church, The Foreigner's Church. She Does Not Call The Native To God's Ways But To The Ways Of The White Man, Of The Master, Of The Oppressor.

When I Search For Man In The Technique And The Style Of Europe, I See Only A Succession Of Negations Of Man, And An Avalanche Of Murders.

In The Colonial Context The Settler Only Ends His Work Of Breaking In The Native When The Latter Admits Loudly And Intelligibly The Supremacy Of The White Man's Values.

In The World Through Which I Travel, I Am Endlessly Creating Myself.