Aimé Césaire (1913–2008) was a Martinican poet, critic, essayist, playwright, and statesman, a founder of the Négritude movement, and one of the most influential Francophone Caribbean intellectuals of the twentieth century. N. Gregson Davis is Andrew W. Mellon Distinguished Research Professor in the Humanities at Duke University. F.¿Abiola Irele (1936–2017) was Associate of the Hutchins Center at Harvard University and had previously¿taught at the University of Ibadan, Ohio State University, Harvard University, and Kwara State University.