Is titled ‘Black and Beautiful’, or ‘Adúmáadán’, as it is originally written in the Yoruba language. It is by a poet called Taiwo Olunlade, and I read the translation by Tola Osunnuga. It is my favourite poem at the moment because before reading it, I never realised that I could be the subject of description in the context of beauty.
I love it because black feminine beauty is not described as wildly political and dramatic. It is not essentially about sexuality and dominance. It is not platonicised or masculinised to celebrate ‘strong’ women. In the poem, his ‘black and beautiful lover’ is not beautiful in spite of anything, especially her blackness. She is simply beautiful.
It is written by someone who naturally, casually, and deeply appreciates black women, speaking in his own language to express his adoration. It is written in Yoruba, my mother’s tongue, and so my father could have written this to my mother, and my grandfather could well have had similar expressions about my grandmother. ‘Adúmáadán’ refers to a person with skin so dark that it shines. I am not that dark but remembering darkness as a positive descriptor moves me.
Before this, I had never seen myself in a poem before. Not in descriptions of silky, flowing hair or milk-white skin. Nor in the loaded counter language of afro crowns and Nubian queens.
I am just regular old black girl, and somehow in this poem, in lines about ‘shining teeth covered with modest lips’, I see myself, and I am happy with where I fit. I have always had a hard time understanding myself as the subject of desire, or receiving praise for my beauty alone, but I can begin to contemplate and try to understand what it means to be admired in this way.
I have never been compared to a flower. When I read ‘when my eyes meet yours/ I praise your Creator in heaven’, it is a brilliant thought that someone might look at me and be reminded of God’s Divinity. To think of how un-beautiful I had grown to believe I am, and recognise the reality of how that idea could not be further from the truth.
