Volume 45, Number 5 · March 26, 1998
The Archaeological Me
By Simon Leys
The Factory of Facts
by Luc Sante
Pantheon, 303 pp., $24.00
The greatest African poet in the French language, Léopold Sédar Senghor, coined half a century ago the concept of négritude. This neologism (built on nègre—'nigger') deftly reversed an infamous racist label, and redeemed it by vesting it with a new meaning of ethnic and cultural pride. Following this illustrious example, a grim Belgian wit, in the spirit of self-derision which is characteristic of his compatriots, invented the sarcastic notion of 'Belgitude.'
Review, 5799 words
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