Léopold Sédar Senghor Quotes

12 Sourced Quotes

Woman, light the clear-oil lamp. Let the Ancestors
Speak around us as parents do when the children are in bed.

Léopold Sédar Senghor
In Africa, art for art's sake does not exist. All art is social.

Léopold Sédar Senghor
The African is as it were shut up inside his black skin. He lives in primordial night. He does not begin by distinguishing himself from the object, the tree or stone, the man or animal or social event. He does not keep it at a distance. He does not analyze it.

Léopold Sédar Senghor
All victory lasts but the blinking of an eye, Doubly proclaiming the irreparable. In my ancient memory You were African like me, like the Atlas Mountain snows.

Léopold Sédar Senghor
Your face has the beauty of ancient times! Bring out The pages perfumed with the music of the past. Memory of times Without history! The time before our birth.

Léopold Sédar Senghor
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.

Léopold Sédar Senghor
Masks ! O Masks!
Black mask, red mask, you white-and-black masks
Masks of the four cardinal points where the Spirit blows
I greet you in silence!

Léopold Sédar Senghor
I must hide him down in my deepest veins
The Ancestor whose stormy skin
Streaks with lightning and thunder
He is the guardian animal I must hide
Lest I burst the dam of scandal.
He is my loyal blood demanding loyalty,
Protecting my naked pride against myself
And the arrogance of fortunate races...

Léopold Sédar Senghor
Waters of mercy, I invoke you in a rhythmic cry.

Léopold Sédar Senghor
Man is saved since his hope has been maintained. We are now, all of us, of different features, color, languages, customs, stirred and carried by the same movement of life. We are on our way toward the world of tomorrow, the world of the civilization of the universal.

Léopold Sédar Senghor
Today is Sunday.
I fear the crowd of my fellows with such faces of stone.
From my glass tower filled with headaches and impatient Ancestors,
I contemplate the roofs and hilltops in the mist.

Léopold Sédar Senghor
Long, so long, have you held the warrior's black face Between your hands as if it glowed already with some deadly Twilight. From the hillside I have seen the sun set In the bays of your eyes. When will I see my country again, The pure horizon of your face? When will I sit again At the table of your dark breasts?

Léopold Sédar Senghor