Black Woman

Léopold Sédar Senghor’s poem “Black Woman” is a significant work in the canon of African and Francophone literature. Senghor, a central literary and political figure in Senegal, first published the poem in 1945 in Chants d’Ombre (Songs of Shadow), his influential poetry collection. The poem is a seminal work of Négritude, a literary, political, and cultural movement that situated Black identity and culture as counters to French colonialism.

Written in free verse, the poem is a praise poem, an African oral form in which the speaker captures the essence of a respected or beloved figure through a series of descriptions and vivid images. “Black Woman” is a tribute to the African woman, pride in African culture, and the resilience and dignity of African peoples in the face of European colonialism. Senghor uses rich imagery and metaphor not only to celebrate African womanhood but also to celebrate what she represents—African nationhood.

Senghor’s work is of a piece with the time during which he wrote, when African intellectuals sought to wrest the representation of Africa from the hands of colonialists who cast Africa as primitive and devoid of true culture. “Black Woman” signaled the arrival of a new, postcolonialist voice on the African continent.

This guide uses Lucille Clifton’s English translation of “Femme Noire” (“Black Woman”), available free upon registration with JSTOR.

POET BIOGRAPHY

Léopold Sédar Senghor was born on October 9, 1906, in Joal, Senegal. Raised in a Roman Catholic household, Senghor attended Catholic mission schools and eventually went to study in Paris after winning a scholarship. In France, he attended the Lycée Louis-le-Grand and the Sorbonne, where he became friends with Martinican writer Aimé Césaire and future French president Georges Pompidou. Senghor’s academic success culminated in 1935, when he qualified to teach at the lycée and the university. Senghor gained French citizenship during this period. He served in the French national army during World War II and spent 18 months in a German prison camp during the war.

The 1930s were an important moment in Senghor’s literary career. Senghor, along with Césaire and French Guyanese poet Léon-Gontran Dumas, worked on establishing a philosophical and cultural framework for rejecting colonial domination of African cultures and for celebration of the strength and beauty of African cultures—Négritude.

The 1940s were also a productive period for Senghor. After Chants d’Ombre (1945), he published Hosties Noires (1948), which explores themes of African heritage and spirituality as counters to French colonialism. With Senegalese writer and editor Alioune Diop, Senghor co-founded Présence Africaine, a pan-African quarterly cultural, political, and literary magazine that was a significant publication venue for writers associated with Négritude. In 1948, Senghor edited Anthologie de la Nouvelle Poésie Négre et Malagache, a central text of Négritude, with an introduction by well-known French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre.

Even as he made important contributions to French and Senegalese literary culture, Senghor was also politically active. In 1945, he was elected to the French National Assembly. In 1948, he founded the Senegalese Democratic Bloc, which advocated for African independence from European powers. In 1955, he served in the cabinet of French Prime Minister Edgar Faure. 

Senegal gained its independence from France on August 20, 1960. Senghor became its first president later that year, serving for two decades. In 1983, Senghor became the first African author invited to join the prestigious Académie Française. After a life of important contributions to the literary and political culture of Senegal and France, Senghor died in France in 2001. He was 95 years old.

POEM TEXT

Senghor, Léopold Sédar. “Black Woman.” Trans. Lucille Clifton. 1945. JSTOR.

SUMMARY

In the first stanza, the speaker addresses a Black woman whose skin color represents life and whose shape represents beauty. The speaker grew up protected by the Black woman, who shielded his innocence. Now the speaker is able to see the Black woman clearly, understanding that she represents the hope of the African continent. The Black woman’s beauty is piercing and startling.

In the second stanza, the speaker focuses on the woman’s nakedness. Her body is intoxicating and sparks desire, leading the speaker to compose poems in her praise. The winds and the savannas of Africa move to the sounds of the speaker’s voice. As colonizers beat the African drums, the speaker hears the Black woman’s voice ring out even as she struggles under the hands of this colonizing oppressor.

In the third stanza, the speaker addresses the woman’s complexity and the symbolic meanings of her body. Her skin is smooth and beautiful, recalling the oiled bodies of the princes of the rich, long-ago kingdom of Mali. The Black woman’s limbs are like those of a heavenly gazelle. Her eyes are like precious jewels shining against the darkness of her skin, which glows in its own right like gold. The speaker takes shelter in the shadow cast by the Black woman’s full hair.

The speaker ends by praising once more the woman’s beauty and burning her image into his mind before death takes her. From her death and memory will rise the future of Africa.