Quote by Birago Diop: “The dead are not dead. The dead are not under the earth. They are in the soil.”

This quote challenges the Western concept of death as a final separation, instead positing a continuous presence of ancestors within the land itself. It implies a sacred, enduring connection between the living, the dead, and the physical environment, suggesting an eternal cycle of being embedded in the earth.

At a time of burgeoning African independence and a resurgence of cultural pride, Diop's poetry served to articulate and affirm traditional African worldviews. His work countered colonial narratives that often dismissed indigenous spiritual beliefs, by re-centering them as profound truths.

Senegalese poet and short story writer associated with the Négritude movement, best known for his adaptations of West African folk tales and for his poem 'Souffles,' from which this line is drawn. He worked as a veterinarian across West Africa and his literary work was deeply rooted in the oral traditions of the Wolof and other Senegalese cultures.