17 pages • 34-minute read
Black Woman
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Symbols & Motifs
The Black Woman’s Body
The Black woman’s body symbolizes the African continent—its geography, culture, and spirit. Her skin is “robed in the color of life” (Line 2), making her body a sacred, generative force rather than just being an object of exploitation and degradation. She is a “Land of Promise” (Line 6), and Senghor represents her body as a “savannah of peerless horizons” (Line 12), turning her female form into a metaphor for Africa’s geography and its limitless, abundant potential.
In later lines, Senghor links the Black woman’s body to African historical nobility and wealth: Her skin is like the “oil of the princes of Mali” (Line 21), her eyes are pearls, and her skin is “red gold rippling” (Line 24). These images counter colonialist representations of Africa and African culture as only worthy of exploitation; instead, they suggest a rich past that deserves poetic narrative treatment. In the poem, the Black woman’s body becomes the picture of a dignified Africa in which African postcolonial peoples can take pride.
The Tom-Tom Drum
The tom-tom drum symbolizes both endurance and the exploitation of African culture and resources by French colonizers. Senghor describes the drum as “sculptured” (Line 1) and “taut” (Line 15), descriptions that reflect both the beauty and depth of African culture—its skin has some of the same cultural depth and richness that the skin of the Black woman does.
On the other hand, the drum “moans under the conqueror’s fingers” (Line 16), a graphic, somewhat sexual image that depicts French colonizers appropriating African culture and resources. The moan is a sound of pain, as this use of the drum is forced.
Despite this appropriation, the drum also symbolizes resistance to colonial exploitation. Coupled with the Black woman’s “full contralto” (Line 17), the drum’s sound becomes a sign of defiance and affirmation of the strength and beauty inherent in that resistance.
Darkness and Light
Darkness and light serve as a motif that develops the themes of Beauty and the African Aesthetic and Resistance to Colonialism. Senghor recasts darkness as beautiful and inspirational—”dark ecstasy of dark wines” (Line 10)—subverting Western European associations of darkness with ugliness and inferiority. Black skin is a source of pride, not of absence or shame. Shade, also a form of darkness, is associated with protection and nurturing, as when the speaker recalls blooming in the shade of the Black woman, well-protected against the destructive force of colonialism.
Lightness, on the other hand, is associated with revelation and regeneration. Ready to confront colonialism, the speaker stands on a “sun hill” (Line 7) and understands the true beauty of the Black woman and Africa. Light and fire are also present when the speaker is on the cusp of seeing the power of Africa to counter colonial representations, as when the speaker’s “care / lightens to the nearing suns of [her] eyes” (Lines 26-27). When the Black woman is consumed and transformed into white ash, it doesn’t mean destruction for the Black woman/African continent. That ash instead becomes the fertile substance that allows for a better Africa.
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