Black Woman

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 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.