CLAUDE MCKAY, wandering the world

At the crossroads of black literary consciousness and political struggle, Claude McKay’s ideas have laid the foundation for major literary schools of thought, including Negritude. Proud vagabond with both a bohemian lifestyle and strong political commitments, chameleon with a magnetic personality, he roamed the four corners of the globe: New York’s literary milieu, the Parisian aristocracy, Russia’s communist intelligentsia and the black diasporas in the port of Marseille. A huge range of playing fields where he forged bonds with some of the great names of his time, from George Bernard Shaw to W.E.B Du Bois, Trotsky and more. Sustained by his many and varied encounters and experiences on several continents, he developed a radical philosophy that was ahead of his time. Recounting the life of Claude McKay means recounting the life of a politically committed poet with a singular outlook.