Introduction to My Reading

Léopold Sédar Senghor: selected poems (676-687) Black Woman (pg.680)

Black Woman 1945

Naked woman, black woman

Dressed in your color that is life, in your form that is beauty!

I grew up in your shadow. The softness of your hands

Shielded my eyes, and now at the height of summer and Noon,

From the crest of a charred hilltop I discover you, Promised Land

And your beauty strikes my heart like an eagle’s lightning flash.

Naked woman, dark woman

Ripe fruit with firm flesh, dark raptures of black wine,

Mouth that gives music to my mouth

Savanna of clear horizons, savanna quivering to the fervent caress

Of the East Wind, sculptured tom-tom, stretched drumskin

Moaning under the hands of the conqueror

Your deep contralto voice is the spiritual song of the Beloved.

Naked woman, dark woman

Oil no breeze can ripple, oil soothing the thighs

Of athletes and the thighs of the princes of Mali

Gazelle with celestial limbs, pearls are stars

Upon the night of your skin. Delight of the mind’s riddles,

The reflections of red gold from your shimmering skin

In the shade of your hair, my despair

Lightens in the close suns of your eyes.

Naked woman, black woman

I sing your passing beauty and fix it for all Eternity

Before jealous Fate reduce you to ashes to nourish the roots of life.

What brought about this fascination of a black woman?

The poem I’ve chosen is Black Woman by Leopold Sedar Senghor.

Black Woman shines light on the beauty of Africa.

Constantly making references to what concludes it’s greatness entirely.

Throughout the poem Senghor digs deep into the soul of the continent.

As a black girl I grew up knowing black women to be mothers, daughters, sister,aunts, and cousins.

All having one thing in common being a natural born healer to their loved ones.

I felt as if the poem described Africa better known as the “Motherland.”

I found the highlight of the poem as the following

“Naked woman, dark woman /

Oil no breeze can ripple, oil soothing the thighs /

Of athletes and the thighs of the princes of Mali” (lines 14-16).

When interpreting the words what I read is, Africa if you were a woman you’d be a brown skinned goddess.

One who was given to the people as a natural born healer.

Africa is the source of many healing oils like Moringa, Baobab, Jojoba and the list goes on.

Marula Oil for example is described as skin protectant, and solution to getting rid of dark spots,

pimples and healing the body in general.

 

Furthermore, I felt as if the conclusion of this poem was further recognition to Africa. Meaning that we salute Africa and all that it stands for knowingly the representation of black women, black heritage, black roots, black power, black beauty, all the way down to the true meaning of a mad black woman,the injustices in which sparked the black lives matter movement and so much more. The highlight I’ve chose to refer to is the following  “I sing your passing beauty and fix it for all Eternity. / Before jealous Fate reduce you to ashes to nourish the roots of life” (lines 23-24). The poem states that black people claim it as our own now so, that in the future if one tries to diminish the motherland it will be utterly relentless seeing that you can never take away the beauty of the ancestry. Africa extends far more than where it’s placed. Seeds of Africa has been planted all over the world.

Here I've attached a video of the festival for Marula.

Also, I'd like to add in another version of the poem I found from Pulse Nigeria.
This may help you as a reader develop a deeper connection.

Naked woman, black woman

Clothed with your colour which is life,

with your form which is beauty!

In your shadow I have grown up; the

gentleness of your hands was laid over my eyes.

And now, high up on the sun-baked

pass, at the heart of summer, at the heart of noon,

I come upon you, my Promised Land,

And your beauty strikes me to the heart

like the flash of an eagle.

Naked woman, dark woman

Firm-fleshed ripe fruit, sombre raptures

of black wine, mouth making lyrical my mouth

Savannah stretching to clear horizons,

savannah shuddering beneath the East Wind's

eager caresses

Carved tom-tom, taut tom-tom, muttering

under the Conqueror's fingers

Your solemn contralto voice is the

spiritual song of the Beloved.

Naked woman, dark woman

Oil that no breath ruffles, calm oil on the

athlete's flanks, on the flanks of the Princes of Mali

Gazelle limbed in Paradise, pearls are stars on the

night of your skin

Delights of the mind, the glinting of red

gold against your watered skin

Under the shadow of your hair, my care

is lightened by the neighboring suns of your eyes.

Naked woman, black woman,

I sing your beauty that passes, the form

that I fix in the Eternal,

Before jealous fate turn you to ashes to

feed the roots of life.