Notes to "Poem for a Black girl".

This poem was inspired by another poem written by a young Black woman, Shani Carter, and read at the BTW community event, Art Diversity and Social Change: Exploring the Connections, Thursday 10 June, at 3680 Jean Mance. The Poem she presented was about self rediscover), and redefinition, a celebration of the African or Black self, She reacts to the false reflections of herself in the mirror of the blue eyes of White men/Eurocentric perceptions of the Beauty and value of the Black woman, or even the distortions of the Black woman by the Black male. The mirror on the wall has now presented her with a new vision of herself. She paints this for us in her poem and celebrates it. Her poem is more modern and Western than it is Afro-centric, but draws on African symbolism that heightens the sense of rebirth.

I was sketching notes of the poem trying to catch the meaning and another poem emerged,. I called it "Poem for a Black Girl". In my poem the "'mirror" symbol is obviously from the wicked stepmother story in "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs". But the mirror is independent about what it reveals. So concepts of "snow" and "white" in that story line carries no meaning for my poem. The "spear" in African mythology is a symbol of fertility and rebirth and is closely linked with "water" which is a fertility element in both the Dinka culture and the Yoruba cultures. The idea of water as a source of life is also a part of the belief system of the Oromo of Ethiopia. In these mythologies goddesses of rivers, lakes and the sea are often beautiful women. The poem draw on these belief systems. The use of the word "quare" refers to the shaved head of the young girl. It symbolizes the celebration of motherhood and fertility (absence of barrenness) or as used in this poem the rebirth of the true self. "Weep not for my sake" implies that the young girl is not "barren", she is revitalized in the knowledge of her true self.