Can't Forget Where You Come From

The excerpt assigned to me to read from Aime Cesaire’s Notebook of a Return to the Native Land is chiefly about his return to his Native Land, Africa, after a long absence. In line 263 Ceasaire states, “I have wandered for a long time.” The term wander entails that he has been moving from place to place, learning things where he could, taking in cultures of other places, but never staying in one place to long. Since he has been wandering he has not forgotten where he came from.
In lines 266-271 Cesaire is trying to convince the natives of his native land that he has not forgotten where he came from. Even though he has been away for a long time Cesaire states, “…if all I can do is speak, it is for you I speak.” Cesaire is expressing that his time spent away was for the good of his homeland. He has learned to speak the foreign tongue. He goes on to say that, “My mouth shall be the mouth of those calamities which have no mouth.” This statement strengthens his previous statement because without wandering, and learning how to speak the “calamities which have no mouth” would still “have no mouth.” Aime Cesaire is offering his services to his native land. Aime Cesaire learning how to speak is the best thing to happen for his homeland, because now his homeland can have a voice. Not just a voice of a subjective foreigner that only observes the hideous sores of it, but the voice of a objective native man who has not forgotten his roots.