Page 385 - Encyclopedia Of World History Vol IV

1686 berkshire encyclopedia of world history

Prayer to the Masks
by Léopold Senghor

Masks! Masks!
Manning, P. (1999). Francophone sub-Saharan Africa, 1880–1995. Port
Black masks, red masks, you masks black and Chester, NY: Cambridge University Press.
white- Miller, C. L. (1990). Theories of Africans: Francophone literature and
anthropology in Africa. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Masks at all four points from whence the spirit Mudimbe,V.Y. (1988). The invention of Africa: Gnosis, philosophy, and
the order of knowledge. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
breathes- Vaillant, J. G. (1990). Black, French, and African: A life of Léopold Sédar
Senghor. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
In silence I salute you!

And not least of all you, my lion-headed
ancestor,
Sex and Sexuality
You keeper of holy places forbidden...

You who have painted this picture of my face he word sexuality is quite new, coming into English
over an altar of white paper Tand most other Western languages in about 1800.
Ancient Greek, medieval Latin, and many other early lan-
In your own image... hear me!
guages did not even have words for “sex” or “sexual,” so
Here dies the Africa of Empires—it is the that they did not define or classify ideas or behaviors in
agony of a ruined this way. Every human culture, however, has developed
norms of sexual behavior, and provided positive conse-
princess
quences for following those norms, along with negative
And of Europe to whose navel we are bound. consequences for deviating from them. World history is
often told as a story of interactions between cultures,
Source: Retrieved August 11, 2004, from http://www.dgdclynx.plus.com/lynx/
lynx109.html along with the creation of traditions within cultures. Sex-
ual issues have been central in both of these processes.
All world religions, and most indigenous belief sys-
expressed denial of religion. He played an active role in tems, regulate sexual conduct and regard sexual behavior
events that led to the end of the French empire in west as part of a moral system. This began with early sacred
Africa. In 1960 he was elected as the first president of the texts, such as the Vedic hymns or the Hebrew Scriptures,
Independent Republic of Senegal; he served in this posi- and continues to today, when issues such as the ordina-
tion for twenty years before retiring in 1981. As a poet, tion of openly gay clergy or the proper form of veiling for
a co-founder of the Negritude movement, the first black women divide religious groups more than differences of
member of the French Academy, and the first president of opinion about theological matters. Many religions set up
independent Senegal, Léopold Sédar Senghor was different standards of sexual behavior for clergy and
devoted to bridging cultures. laypeople, with priests, monks, nuns, and other religious
personnel adopting permanent or temporary chastity as
Lorna Lueker Zukas
a sign of their holiness. Lay believers may also follow dis-
tinctive sexual rules while on religious pilgrimages or
other periods of intense spiritual experience.
Further Reading
The earliest written legal codes, and every legal system
Grinker, R. R., & Steiner, C. B. (1997). Perspectives on Africa: A reader
in culture, history, and representation. Cambridge, UK: Blackwell. since, include laws regarding sexual relationships and
Hymans, J. L. (1971). Léopold Sédar Senghor: An intellectual biography. actions. Hammurabi’s Code of Laws, for example, prom-
Edinburgh, UK: Edinburgh University Press.
Irele,A. (1990). The African experience in literature and ideology. Bloom- ulgated in ancient Babylon in about 1750 BCE, sets out
ington: Indiana University Press. which sexual relationships will be considered marriage