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Notes

This essay was originally read as a paper on 8 February 2003 at the African Studies Conference at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. I wish to dedicate this essay to the memory of my friend Rev. William C. Marceau, C.S.B.

André‐Patient Bokiba, ed., Le Siècle Senghor (Paris: L'Harmattan, 2001).

For a discussion of Claudel's influence on Senghor, consult Antoine Vila's comments in his essay “Poétique de la co‐naissance dans l'oeuvre de Senghor,” in Le Siècle Senghor, ed. Bokiba, 77–8.

Janet G. Vaillant, Black, African, and French: A Life of Léopold Sédar Senghor (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1990), 278.

Not all critics believe that Senghor was sincere when he offered to forgive French people for the injustices done to black Africans. In her book Léopold Sédar Senghor (Boston: Twayne, 1985), 86–8, Janice Spleth argues that the long and repeated lists of the wrongs done by the French to black Africans may lead us to question whether Senghor is sincere in offering forgiveness to the French, but such a reading of this poem overlooks the fact that Senghor had to enumerate the wrongs and mortal sins of the French so that it would be clear to his readers why he is asking God to forgive the French for their mortal sins so that reconciliation may be possible between black Africans and the French. Senghor can offer forgiveness, but only God can grant absolution to sinners. Others scholars, however, do not question Senghor's sincerity in this poem. Both Vaillant in Black, African, and French, 174–5 and S. Okechukwo Mezu, The Poetry of Léopold Sédar Senghor (London: Heinemann, 1973), 43–5 believe that Senghor was sincerely offering forgiveness to the French. In our opinion, this is a reasonable reading of this poem. Senghor presents this poem as a prayer to God and he quotes directly from the Lord's Prayer, a prayer that is so revered by Catholics that it is recited at every mass. Senghor is now deceased and we cannot ask him what his intentions were when he wrote his “Prière de paix.” For these reasons it is rather hazardous for critics to affirm that he is actually saying the very opposite of what he says so clearly in this poem.

Gospel According to St. Matthew 6, 12.

Black Africans and black francophones despise Napoleon I because he re‐established slavery, which had been abolished during the French Revolution. It is generally estimated that King Leopold of the Belgians caused the deaths of approximately ten million Congolese who were worked to death in the mines of the former Belgian Congo, which is now called the Democratic Republic of the Congo.