Reading Notes W 14: leopold sedar senghor, Part B

Léopold Sédar Senghor was a poet, a founder of the Négritude movement, and the first president of independent Senegal. His poetry takes as its central subject the encounter between Africa and Europe. The harsh circumstances of the encounter on both the personal and social levels, the conflict between two races and their conceptions of life, provide the background to his intense exploration of the historical and moral implications of the African and black experience in modern times.

Night in Sine
Senghor is describing the beauty of Africa by using the image of a woman to convey its significance. He asks the woman to mother him by placing her hand on his head and by cradling him, as they listen to the heart of his African heritage. Everything has gotten quiet, ''even the storyteller,'' whom he likens to a child asleep on his mother. The author encourages the woman to light the lamp and listen to bedtime stories, like the ones parents tell their children. Specifically, he wants to hear from the elders, those who died but ''did not want to die.'' He wants to gather all their stories and use them to speak through him before he sleeps. 

Black Woman
Directed against an entire Western tradition of literary praise for white-skinned and light-haired women that reaches from Dante to the twentieth century, this poem celebrates the feminine beauty of black skin for its own sake.

Prayer to the Masks
At the prayer point, Senghor greets the spirits in silence. The altar is a place of solitude. It's a place where masks representing each of the mighty tribes of Africa are displayed and where worshippers congregate to pay their respects. Senghor believes "masks of the four cardinal points where the Spirit blows" have a forceful presence that protects all corners of the world. These spirits come together at this sacred place to be honored and praised in silent prayer.

Letter to a Prisoner
He is basically writing a letter to prisoner who are black and is saying how sorry he is that they can't enjoy what lays outside there prison walls. He also says he is writing to him because he is bored and he would like a response back.