Week 14 Analysis: Close Reading of Letter to A Prisoner

In this poem, Senghor writes to one of his comrades named Ngom in a German prisoner of war camp. He tells him about what he's seen in wartime Paris after being released from the camp himself.

"I write you from the solitude of my precious - and closely guarded -/ Residence of my black skin." (Senghor, 682) This line expresses how he feels as an African man away from his culture. He admits that he is isolated, but rather than use that word he uses a similar one: solitude. Though they both mean being alone, they have very different connotations. Solitude implies that it was a conscious decision, giving him agency in his distance from the people around him. He feels that as a black man he cannot relate to those around him, so he closely guards himself and his identity.

"Fortunate are my friends/ Who know nothing of the icy walls and the brightly lit/ Apartments that sterilize every seed on the ancestors' masks/ And even the memories of love." (Senghor, 682) Here, Senghor says his friends are at least lucky to not be in the environment he is in, which feels cold and devoid of culture, of the spirituality he values. The words he chooses to describe his surroundings such as "icy", "bright", "sterilized", creates visuals of a place that is unnatural and unfriendly, that not even the memories of love can survive in.

"You know nothing of the good white bread, milk, and salt./ Or those substantial dishes that do not nourish,/ That separate the refined from the boulevard crowds,/" (682, Senghor)

Here Senghor points out the differences in the food, that reflect the differences in the culture. His friends back in the prison have never had white bread, milk or salt, which are all common staple foods where he is. This emphasizes how little he relates to the surrounding culture, something that is completely mundane to them is something he and his friends would normally never see. Also he points out that even within the culture itself, people are separated. The refined rich people get the privilege of eating more "substantial" dishes, even if they are not nourishing, which sets them apart from the average person.

"Sleepwalkers who have renounced their human identity/ Chameleons deaf to change and their shame locks you/ In your cage of solitude./ You know nothing of restaurants and swimming pools/ Forbidden to noble black blood/ And Science and Humanity erecting their police lines/ At the borders of negritude." (Senghor, 683)

Here, Senghor asserts that these people are "sleepwalkers", meaning they have their eyes closed to what's happening in the world. This relates to calling them "chameleons" in the next line, because he is saying they want to blend in and hide, referring to French people who collaborated with the German occupation to avoid conflict, they'd rather close their eyes to injustice than take a stand. Then he mentions racism, how black people aren't allowed in certain establishments. The references to Science and Humanity is likely referring to how some people attempted to use science to justify their racism, while others used a more humanistic moral approach, but either way they were just putting up "police lines", meaning rules and regulations to keep out black people.

Senghor, Leopold Sedar "Letter to a Prisoner", p. 682 - 683