African Independence Leaders & Post-Colonial Figures Codexery

Léopold Sédar Senghor

Poet, president, and prophet of Négritude.

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He was a poet and the co-founder of the Négritude movement, which celebrated African culture and turned the racial slur nègre into a positive concept.[1] On 9 October 1906, in the city of Joal, located about 110 kilometres south of Dakar, Léopold Sédar Senghor was born, and later, on 5 September 1960, he was elected as the first President of the Republic of Senegal.[2][3] The Académie française elected Senghor as a member on 2 June 1983, making him the first African to hold a seat there.[4]

Life and work

In 1928, Senghor sailed to France, where he studied at the Lycée Louis-le-Grand and later earned his agrégation in French grammar in 1935.[5][6] Senghor served as Senegal's first president from 1960 until he resigned voluntarily in December 1980, the first African head of state to do so.[3][7][8] Senghor's father, Basile Diogoye Senghor, was a wealthy peanut merchant from the Serer people, while his mother, Gnilane Ndiémé Bakhoum (1861–1948), was a Muslim whose origins were Fula and who was born near Djilor to a Christian family.[2][9] Senghor started his education at age eight at a boarding school run by the Fathers of the Holy Spirit in Ngasobil, and later, in 1922, he began attending a seminary located in Dakar.[10]

After leaving the seminary because he was told religious life was not for him, he went to a secular school where he achieved distinctions in French, Latin, Greek and Algebra.[10] Following the war, Senghor became the député for the riding of Sénégal-Mauritanie, and in 1948, together with Mamadou Dia, he established the Bloc démocratique sénégalais.[11][12][13] Senghor died on 20 December 2001 in Verson, near Caen in Normandy, and his funeral took place on 29 December 2001 in Dakar.[14]

What the cited sources add

The Bobin article notes that under Senghor's single-party rule, authorities intimidated, arrested, imprisoned, tortured and killed dissidents.[15] The BBC News article states that Senghor was often quoted as saying he would rather be remembered as a poet than a statesman.[16] The Bobin article also states that Senghor left Senegal for the first time at age 22.[15] The Mazoue article states that Senghor married Colette Hubert on 18 October 1957, and that upon Senegal's independence in 1960, she became the country's first First Lady.[17][18]

An editorial by Orsenna, titled "J'ai honte", criticizes the absence of Jacques Chirac, the French president, and Lionel Jospin, the prime minister, from Senghor's funeral.[19][14]

References

  1. Wikipedia, "Léopold Sédar Senghor" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Michelle M. Wright. Becoming Black: Creating Identity in the African Diaspora, Duke University Press, 2004. 0822332884, 9780822332886. (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  2. Wikipedia, "Léopold Sédar Senghor" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Vaillant, "Perspectives on Leopold Senghor and the Changing Face of Negritude", ASA Review of Books, 1976, p. 154–162; Bibliographie, Dakar, Bureau de documentation de la Présidence de la République, 1982 (2nd édition), 158 pp.; Collins, "African History: Western African History", 1990, p. 130; Senegalaisement.com. (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  3. Wikipedia, "Léopold Sédar Senghor" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Christof Heyns. Human Rights Law in Africa 1998, Vol. 3 of Human Rights Law in Africa. Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 2001. , .; Cooper, "Africa in the World: Capitalism, Empire, Nation-State", Harvard University Press, 2014, p. 86; Bobin, "The Senghor myth", africasacountry.com, 6 September 2018; "Authoritarian Origins of Democratic Party Systems in Africa", Cambridge University Press, 2014, p. 57–101; "Encyclopedia of Political Communication", SAGE Publications, Inc., 2008; Galvan, "Francophone Africa in Flux: Political Turnover a en.wikipedia.org
  4. Wikipedia, "Léopold Sédar Senghor" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Stokes, Jamie, Encyclopedia of the Peoples of Africa and the Middle East, Vol. 1. Infobase Publishing, 2009. , . (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  5. Wikipedia, "Léopold Sédar Senghor" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Peters, Jonathan. A Dance of Masks: Senghor, Achebe, Soyinka, Three Continents Press, 1978. , ,.; Vaillant, "Perspectives on Leopold Senghor and the Changing Face of Negritude", ASA Review of Books, 1976, p. 154–162 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  6. Wikipedia, "Léopold Sédar Senghor" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Vaillant, Janet G., Black, French, and African: a life of Léopold Sédar Senghor, Harvard University Press, 1990. , .. (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  7. Wikipedia, "Léopold Sédar Senghor" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "President Leopold Senghor to Retire". Liberian Inaugural 3 December 1980: 8. (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  8. Wikipedia, "Léopold Sédar Senghor" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Galvan, "Francophone Africa in Flux: Political Turnover and Social Change in Senegal", Journal of Democracy, 2001, p. 51–62; Cowell, "AFRICAN DEMOCRACY HAS A LIFE OF ITS OWN", The New York Times, 22 May 1983; Cowell, "AFRICAN DEMOCRACY HAS A LIFE OF ITS OWN", The New York Times, 22 May 1983 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  9. Wikipedia, "Léopold Sédar Senghor" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Bibliographie, Dakar, Bureau de documentation de la Présidence de la République, 1982 (2nd édition), 158 pp.; Washington Ba, "The Concept of Negritude in the Poetry of Leopold Sedar Senghor", Princeton University Press, 8 March 2015, p. 5; Université De La Vallée D'Aoste. LÉOPOLD SÉDAR SENGHOR (1906–2001).; Becker, Charles, and Waly Coly Faye, "La Nomination Sereer", Ethiopiques, n° 54, revue semestrielle de culture Négro-Africaine Nouvelle série volume 7, 2e semes; Thiaw, Issa Laye, "La Religiousite des Sereer, Avant et Pendant L en.wikipedia.org
  10. Wikipedia, "Léopold Sédar Senghor" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Ryan, Bryan. Major 20th-Century Writers: a selection of sketches from contemporary authors, Volume 4, Gale Research, 1991. , . (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  11. Wikipedia, "Léopold Sédar Senghor" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Selected Poems of Leopold Sedar Senghor. CUP Archive. (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  12. Wikipedia, "Léopold Sédar Senghor" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Hymans, Jacques Louis, Léopold Sédar Senghor: an intellectual biography, Edinburgh University Press, 1971. 0852241194, 9780852241196. (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  13. Wikipedia, "Léopold Sédar Senghor" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Kras, "Senghor's Rise to Power 1948–1951. Early Roots of French Sub-Saharan Decolonisation", Itinerario, 1999, p. 91–113; Gwendolen Margaret Carter, Charles F. Gallagher. African One-Party States, Cornell University Press, 1964.; Duong, "Universal Suffrage as Decolonization", American Political Science Review, 2021, p. 412–428 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  14. Wikipedia, "Léopold Sédar Senghor" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Africa mourns Senegal's Senghor", BBC News, 22 December 2001 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  15. Bobin, "The Senghor myth", africasacountry.com, 6 September 2018. facts only, no text reused. africasacountry.com
  16. "Africa mourns Senegal's Senghor", BBC News, 22 December 2001. facts only, no text reused. news.bbc.co.uk
  17. Mazoue, "Au Sénégal, dernier hommage à Colette Senghor, épouse et muse de l'ancien président", France24, 28 November 2019. facts only, no text reused. france24.com
  18. Wikipedia, "Léopold Sédar Senghor" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Mazoue, "Au Sénégal, dernier hommage à Colette Senghor, épouse et muse de l'ancien président", France24, 28 November 2019 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  19. Orsenna, "J'ai honte", www.sangonet.com, 4 January 2002. facts only, no text reused. sangonet.com

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Léopold Sédar Senghor (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

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