Negritude was a Black-led intellectual, literary, and cultural movement that emerged in Paris in the 1930s among African and Caribbean writers, artists, and thinkers living under or shaped by French colonial rule. Closely connected to the Harlem Renaissance and influenced by anti-colonial, Marxist, and modernist thought, the movement sought to reclaim Black identity from the distortions of racism, colonialism, and Eurocentrism. Negritude rejected the idea that African and diasporic cultures were inferior or "primitive," instead affirming Black history, aesthetics, spirituality, and ways of knowing as valuable and foundational to global culture. While it began as a literary movement, Negritude expanded into visual art, philosophy, and politics, playing a critical role in shaping cultural consciousness during the era of decolonization and beyond.