Sekoto and Négritude: The Ante‐room of French Culture

Abstract

Gerard Sekoto (1913–1993), one of the pioneers of African Modernism, left South Africa in 1947 to further his art training in France and engage with the School of Paris that had been so influential in the development of South African Modern art. Having managed to overcome the colour bar in a society that was racially divided well before the advent of Apartheid, Sekoto found himself alienated in post‐war Paris. A Black African with no command of the French language, stumbling against the Euro‐centrism of the Parisian art scene, he found a sense of community with the French‐speaking African and Caribbean Diaspora rallied behind the concept of Negritude. Drawing on written resources and testimonies from Sekoto’s friends, this essay investigates the painter’s relation to Négritude from a French/Diaspora perspective and proposes to examine the contrasting responses of Sekoto and his mentor Ernest Mancoba to this movement.

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