Léopold Sédar Senghor (/sɒŋˈɡɔːr/song-GOR,French:[leɔpɔlsedaʁsɑ̃ɡɔʁ],Wolof:Léwopóol Sedaar Seŋoor; 9 October 1906 – 20 December 2001) was a Senegalese politician, cultural theorist and poet who served as the firstpresident of Senegal from 1960 to 1980.
Ideologically anAfrican socialist, Senghor was one of the major theoreticians ofNégritude. He was a proponent ofAfrican culture, black identity, and African empowerment within the framework of French-African ties. He advocated for the extension of full civil and political rights for France's African territories while arguing that French Africans would be better off within a federal French structure than as independent nation-states.
Senghor became the first president of independentSenegal. He fell out with his long-standing associateMamadou Dia, who was theprime minister of Senegal, arresting him on suspicion of fomenting a coup and imprisoning him for 12 years. Senghor established an authoritarianone-party state in Senegal, where all rival political parties were prohibited.
Senghor was the founder of theSenegalese Democratic Bloc party in 1948. He was the first African elected as a member of theAcadémie française and won the 1985International Nonino Prize in Italy. Senghor is regarded by many as one of the most important African intellectuals of the 20th century.
Léopold Sédar Senghor was born on 9 October 1906 in the city ofJoal, some 110 kilometres south ofDakar, the capital of Senegal. His father, Basile Diogoye Senghor (pronounced: Basile Jogoy Senghor), was a wealthy peanut merchant[1] belonging to thebourgeoisSerer people.[2][3][4] Basile Senghor was said to be a man of great means and owned thousands of cattle and vast lands, some of which were given to him by his cousin the king ofSine. Gnilane Ndiémé Bakhoum (1861–1948), Senghor's mother, the third wife of his father, aMuslim withFula origin who belonged to the Tabor tribe, was born near Djilor to a Christian family. She gave birth to six children, including two sons.[2] Senghor's birth certificate states that he was born on 9 October 1906; however, there is a discrepancy with his certificate of baptism, which states it occurred on 9 August 1906.[5] His Serer middle nameSédar comes from theSerer language, meaning "one that shall not be humiliated" or "the one you cannot humiliate".[6][7] His surnameSenghor is a combination of the Serer wordsSène (a Serer surname and the name of the Supreme Deity inSerer religion calledRog Sene)[8] andgor orghor, theetymology of which iskor in theSerer language, meaning male or man. Tukura Badiar Senghor, the prince ofSine and a figure from whom Léopold Sédar Senghor has been reported to trace descent, was ac. 13th-century Serer noble.[9][10]
At the age of eight, Senghor began his studies in Senegal in theNgasobil boarding school of the Fathers of the Holy Spirit. In 1922, he entered a seminary in Dakar. After being told that religious life was not for him, he attended a secular institution. By then, he was already passionate about French literature. He won distinctions in French, Latin, Greek and Algebra. With his Baccalaureate completed, he was awarded a scholarship to continue his studies in France.[11]
In 1928, Senghor sailed from Senegal for France, beginning, in his words, "sixteen years of wandering".[12] Starting his post-secondary studies at theSorbonne, he quit and went on to theLycée Louis-le-Grand to finish his preparatory course for entrance to theÉcole Normale Supérieure, agrande école.[1]Henri Queffélec,Robert Verdier andGeorges Pompidou were also studying at this elite institution. After failing the entrance exam, Senghor prepared for his grammarAgrégation. He was granted hisagrégation in 1935 at his second attempt.[13]
Senghor graduated from theUniversity of Paris, where he received the Agrégation in French Grammar. Subsequently, he was designated professor at the universities of Tours and Paris, where he taught during the period 1935–45.[14]
Senghor started his teaching years at the lycée René-Descartes inTours; he also taught at the lycée Marcelin-Berthelot inSaint-Maur-des-Fosses near Paris.[15] He also studied linguistics taught byLilias Homburger at theÉcole pratique des hautes études. He studied with prominent social scientists such asMarcel Cohen,Marcel Mauss andPaul Rivet (director of theInstitut d'ethnologie de Paris). Senghor, along with other intellectuals of the African diaspora who had come to study in the colonial capital, coined the term and conceived the notion of "négritude", which was a response to the racism still prevalent in France. It turned the racial slurnègre into a positively connoted celebration of African culture and character. The idea ofnégritude informed not only Senghor's cultural criticism and literary work, but also became a guiding principle for his political thought in his career as a statesman.[16]
In 1939, Senghor was enlisted in the3rd Colonial Infantry Regiment of the French army with the rank of private (2e Classe) despite his higher education. A year later in June 1940, theinvading Germans took him prisoner inla Charité-sur-Loire orVillabon. He was interned in a succession of camps, and finally at Front Stalag 230, inPoitiers. Front Stalag 230 was reserved for colonial troops captured during the war.[17] According to Senghor, German soldiers wanted to execute him and the others on the day they were captured, but they escaped this fate by yellingVive la France, vive l'Afrique noire! ("Long live France, long live Black Africa!"). A French officer told the soldiers that executing the African prisoners would dishonour theAryan race and theGerman Army. In total, Senghor spent two years in different prison camps, where he spent most of his time writing poems and learning enough German to read Goethe's poetry in the original.[18] In 1942, he was released for medical reasons.[19]
He resumed his teaching career while remaining involved in theresistance during the Nazi occupation.[citation needed]
Senghor advocated for African integration within the French Empire, arguing that independence for small, weak territories would lead to the perpetuation of oppression, whereas African empowerment within a federal French Empire could transform it for the better.[20]
Once the war was over, Senghor was selected as Dean of the Linguistics Department with theÉcole nationale de la France d'Outre-Mer, a position he would hold until Senegal's independence in 1960.[21] While travelling on a research trip for his poetry, he met the local socialist leader,Lamine Guèye, who suggested that Senghor run for election as a member of theAssemblée nationale française. Senghor accepted and becamedéputé for the riding of Sénégal-Mauritanie, when colonies were granted the right to be represented by elected individuals. They took different positions when the train conductors on theDakar-Niger line went on strike. Guèye voted against the strike, arguing the movement would paralyse the colony, while Senghor supported the workers, which gained him great support among Senegalese.[22]
During the negotiations to write theFrench Constitution of 1946, Senghor pushed for the extension of French citizenship to all French territories. Four Senegalese communes had citizenship since 1916 – Senghor argued that this should be extended to the rest of France's territory.[23] Senghor argued for a federal model whereby each African territory would govern its own internal affairs, and this federation would be part of a larger French confederation that run foreign affairs, defence and development policies.[24][25] Senghor opposed indigenous nationalism, arguing that African territories would develop more successfully within a federal model where each territory had its "negro-African personality" along with French experience and resources.[26]
In 1947, Senghor left the African Division of theFrench Section of the Workers' International (SFIO), which had given enormous financial support to the social movement. WithMamadou Dia, he founded theBloc démocratique sénégalais (1948).[27] They won the legislative elections of 1951, and Guèye lost his seat.[28] Senghor was involved in the negotiations and drafting of the Fourth Republic's constitution.[29]
Re-elected deputy in 1951 as an independent overseas member, Senghor was appointedstate secretary to the council's president inEdgar Faure's government from 1 March 1955 to 1 February 1956. He became mayor of the city ofThiès, Senegal in November 1956 and then advisory minister in theMichel Debré's government from 23 July 1959 to 19 May 1961. He was also a member of the commission responsible for drafting theFifth Republic's constitution, general councillor for Senegal, member of theGrand Conseil de l'Afrique Occidentale Francaise and member of the parliamentary assembly of theCouncil of Europe.
In 1964, Senghor published the first volume of a series of five, titledLiberté. The book contains a variety of speeches, essays and prefaces.[30]
Senghor supported federalism for newly independent African states, a type of "French Commonwealth",[31] while retaining a degree of French involvement:
In Africa, when children have grown up, they leave their parents' hut, and build a hut of their own by its side. Believe me, we don't want to leave the French compound. We have grown up in it, and it is good to be alive in it. We simply want to build our own huts.
Since federalism was not favoured by the African countries, he decided to form, along withModibo Keita, theMali Federation with formerFrench Sudan (present-dayMali).[31] Senghor was president of the Federal Assembly until it failed in 1960.[33]
Independence Day, 4 April 1962, President Senghor (in glasses to the left) is watching the marchpast.
Afterwards, Senghor became the first President of the Republic of Senegal, elected on 5 September 1960. He is the author of the Senegalesenational anthem. The first prime minister,Mamadou Dia, was in charge of executing Senegal's long-term development plan, while Senghor was in charge of foreign relations. The two men quickly disagreed. In December 1962, Mamadou Dia was arrested under suspicion of fomenting acoup d'état. He was held in prison for 12 years. Following this, Senghor established an authoritarian presidential regime where all rival political parties were suppressed.[34][35][36] Senghor tightly circumscribed press freedom in Senegal and founded the state-run newspaperLe Soleil in 1970.[37]
On 22 March 1967, Senghor survived an assassination attempt.[38] The suspect,Moustapha Lô, pointed his pistol towards the President after he had participated in the sermon ofTabaski, but the gundid not fire. Lô was sentenced to death fortreason and executed on 15 June 1967, even though it remained unclear if he had actually wanted to kill Senghor.[39]
Following an announcement at the beginning of December 1980,[40] Senghor resigned his position at the end of the year, before the end of his fifth term.Abdou Diouf replaced him as the head of the country. Under Senghor's presidency, Senegal adopted a multi-party system (limited to three:socialist,communist andliberal).[41] He created a performing education system. Despite the end of official colonialism, the value of Senegalese currency continued to be fixed by France, the language of learning remained French, and Senghor ruled the country with French political advisors.
He supported the creation of theOrganisation internationale de la Francophonie and was elected vice-president of the High Council of the Francophonie. In 1982, he was one of the founders of the Association France and developing countries whose objectives were to bring attention to the problems of developing countries, in the wake of the changes affecting the latter.[42]
Senghor was elected a member of theAcadémie française on 2 June 1983, at the16th seat where he succeededAntoine de Lévis Mirepoix. He was the first African to sit at the Académie.[19] The entrance ceremony in his honour took place on 29 March 1984, in presence of French PresidentFrançois Mitterrand. This was considered a further step towards greater openness in the Académie, after the previous election of a woman,Marguerite Yourcenar. In 1993, the last and fifth book of theLiberté series was published:Liberté 5: le dialogue des cultures.
Senghor's first marriage was toGinette Éboué (1 March 1923 – 1992),[47] daughter ofFélix Éboué.[48] They married on 9 September 1946 and divorced in 1955. They had two sons, Francis in 1947 and Guy in 1948. Senghor's second wife,Colette Hubert [fr] (20 November 1925 – 18 November 2019),[49] who was from France, became Senegal's firstFirst Lady upon independence in 1960. Senghor had three sons between his two marriages.[48]
Senghor spent the last years of his life with his wife inVerson, near the city ofCaen in Normandy, where he died on 20 December 2001. His funeral was held on 29 December 2001 inDakar. Officials attending the ceremony includedRaymond Forni, president of theAssemblée nationale andCharles Josselin, state secretary for the minister of foreign affairs, in charge of the Francophonie.Jacques Chirac (who said, upon hearing of Senghor's death: "Poetry has lost one of its masters, Senegal a statesman, Africa a visionary and France a friend")[50] andLionel Jospin, respectivelypresident of the French Republic and theprime minister, did not attend. Their failure to attend Senghor's funeral made waves as it was deemed a lack of acknowledgement for what the politician had been in his life. The analogy was made with theSenegalese Tirailleurs who, after having contributed to the liberation of France, had to wait more than forty years to receive an equal pension (in terms of buying power) to their French counterparts. The scholarÉrik Orsenna wrote in the newspaperLe Monde an editorial entitled "J'ai honte" (I am ashamed).[51]
Although a socialist, Senghor avoided theMarxist and anti-Western ideology that had become popular in post-colonial Africa, favouring the maintenance of close ties with France and the Western world. Senghor's tenure as president was characterised by the development ofAfrican socialism, which was created as an indigenous alternative toMarxism, drawing heavily from thenégritude philosophy. In developing this, he was assisted byOusmane Tanor Dieng. On 31 December 1980, he retired in favour of his prime minister,Abdou Diouf. Politically, Senghor's stamp can also be identified today. With regards to Senegal in particular, his willful abdication of power to his successor, Abdou Diouf, led to Diouf's peaceful leave from office as well. Senegal's special relationship with France and economic legacy are more highly contested, but Senghor's impact on democracy remains nonetheless. Senghor managed to retain his identity as both a poet and a politician even throughout his busy careers as both, living by his philosophy of achieving equilibrium between competing forces. Whether it was France and Africa, poetics and politics, or other disparate parts of his identity, Senghor balanced the two.
Literarily, Senghor's influence on political thought and poetic form are wide-reaching even in the modern day. Senghor's poetry endures as the "record of an individual sensibility at a particular moment in history," capturing the spirit of the Négritude movement at its peak, but also marks a definitive place in literary history.[52] Senghor's thoughts were exceedingly radical for this time, arguing that Africans could only progress if they developed a culture distinct and separate from the colonial powers that oppressed them, pushing against popular thought at the time. Senghor was deeply influenced by poets from the US such as Langston Hughes.[53] Seat number 16 of the Académie was vacant after the Senegalese poet's death. He was ultimately replaced by another former president,Valéry Giscard d'Estaing.
Senghor received several honours in the course of his life. He was made Grand-Croix of theLégion d'honneur, Grand-Croix of the l'Ordre national du Mérite, commander of arts and letters. He also received academic palms and the Grand Cross of theNational Order of the Lion. His war exploits earned him the Reconnaissance Franco-alliée Medal of 1939–1945 and the Combattant Cross of 1939–1945. He received honorary doctorates from thirty-seven universities.
On 13 November 1978, he was created a Knight of the Collar of theOrder of Isabella the Catholic of Spain. Members of the order at the rank of Knight and above enjoy personalnobility and have the privilege of adding a golden heraldic mantle to their coats of arms. Those at the rank of the Collar also receive the official style "His or Her Most Excellent Lord".[55][56]
In 1994, he was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award by theAfrican Studies Association; however, there was controversy about whether he met the standard of contributing "a lifetime record of outstanding scholarship in African studies and service to the Africanist community."[58]Michael Mbabuike, president of the New York African Studies Association (NYASA), said that the award also honours those who have worked "to make the world a better place for mankind."[59]
His poetry was widely acclaimed, and in 1978 he was awarded thePrix mondial Cino Del Duca.His poem "A l'appel de la race de Saba", published in 1936, was inspired by the entry of Italian troops in Addis Ababa.In 1948, Senghor compiled and edited a volume of Francophone poetry calledAnthologie de la nouvelle poésie nègre et malgache for whichJean-Paul Sartre wrote an introduction, entitled "Orphée Noir" (Black Orpheus).
For his epitaph was a poem he had written, namely:
Quand je serai mort, mes amis, couchez-moi sous Joal-l'Ombreuse.
Sur la colline au bord du Mamanguedy, près l'oreille du sanctuaire des Serpents.
Mais entre le Lion couchez-moi et l'aïeule Tening-Ndyae.
Quand je serai mort mes amis, couchez-moi sous Joal-la-Portugaise.
Des pierres du Fort vous ferez ma tombe, et les canons garderont le silence.
Deux lauriers roses-blanc et rose-embaumeront la Signare.
When I'm dead, my friends, place me below Shadowy Joal,
On the hill, by the bank of the Mamanguedy, near the ear of Serpents' Sanctuary.
But place me between the Lion and ancestral Tening-Ndyae.
When I'm dead, my friends, place me beneath Portuguese Joal.
Of stones from the Fort build my tomb, and cannons will keep quiet.
Two oleanders – white and pink – will perfume the Signare.
WithAimé Césaire andLéon Damas, Senghor created the concept ofNégritude, an important intellectual movement that sought to assert and valorise what they believed to be distinctive African characteristics, values, and aesthetics. One of these African characteristics that Senghor theorised was asserted when he wrote "the Negro has reactions that are morelived, in the sense that they are more direct and concrete expressions of the sensation and of the stimulus, and so of the object itself with all its original qualities and power." This was a reaction against the too-strong dominance of French culture in the colonies, and against the perception that Africa did not have a culture developed enough to stand alongside that of Europe. In that respectnégritude owes significantly to the pioneering work ofLeo Frobenius.
Building upon historical research identifying ancient Egypt with black Africa, Senghor argued that sub-Saharan Africa and Europe are in fact part of the same cultural continuum, reaching from Egypt to classical Greece, through Rome to the European colonial powers of the modern age.Négritude was by no means—as it has in many quarters been perceived—an anti-white racism, but rather emphasised the importance of dialogue and exchange among different cultures (e.g., European, African, Arab, etc.).
In colloquial French, the term décalage is used to describe jetlag, lag or a general discrepancy between two things. However, Senghor uses the term to describe the unevenness in the African Diaspora. The complete phrase he uses is "Il s'agit, en réalité, d'un simple décalage—dans le temps et dans l'espace", meaning that between Black Africans and African Americans there exists an inconsistency, both temporally and spatially. The time element points to the advancing or delaying of a schedule or agenda, while the space aspect designates the displacing and shifting of an object. The term points to "a bias that refuses to pass over when one crosses the water". He asks, how can we expect any sort of solidarity or intimacy from two populations that diverged more than 500 years ago?
^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 semestre 1991.
^Thiaw, Issa Laye, "La Religiousite des Sereer, Avant et Pendant Leur Islamisation",Ethiopiques, No. 54, Revue Semestrielle de Culture Négro-Africaine. Nouvelle Série, Vol. 7, 2e Semestre 1991.
^R. P. Gravrand,Le Gabou Dans Les Traditions Orales Du Ngabou, Ethiopiques numéro 28 – numéro special,Revue Socialiste de culture Négro-Africaine. Octobre 1981.
^Sarr, Alioune,Histoire du Sine-Saloum, Introduction, bibliographie et Notes par Charles Becker, BIFAN, Tome 46, Serie B, n° 3–4, 1986–1987.
^Ryan, Bryan.Major 20th-Century Writers: a selection of sketches from contemporary authors, Volume 4, Gale Research, 1991.ISBN0-8103-7915-5,ISBN978-0-8103-7915-2.
^Meredith, Martin (2005).The fate of Africa : from the hopes of freedom to the heart of despair : a history of fifty years of independence (1st ed.). New York: Public Affairs. p. 56.ISBN1-58648-246-7.OCLC58791298.
^Azèrad, Hugues, and Peter Collier,Twentieth-century French poetry: a critical anthology, Cambridge University Press, 2010.ISBN0-521-71398-6,ISBN978-0-521-71398-6.
^Nugent, Paul (2004).Africa since Independence: A Comparative History. New York: Palgrave-MacMillan. p. 7.ISBN978-0-333-68273-9.
^Africa Bureau (London, England).Africa Digest, Volume 8. Africa Publications Trust, 1960.
^Christof Heyns.Human Rights Law in Africa 1998, Vol. 3 of Human Rights Law in Africa. Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 2001.ISBN90-411-1578-1,ISBN978-90-411-1578-2.
^"President Leopold Senghor to Retire".Liberian Inaugural 3 December 1980: 8.
^Haggard, Stephan, Steven Benjamin Webb, World Bank.Voting for reform: democracy, political liberalization, and economic adjustment. World Bank Publications, 1994.ISBN0-19-520987-7,ISBN978-0-19-520987-7.
^Bensaid, Alexandra, and Andrew Whitehead (1995), "Literature: Award to Senghor Triggers Debate" IPS-Inter Press Service, 18 April 1995, accessed via the commercial service Lexis/Nexis, 30 December 2008.
^George, Rosemary Marangoly (2013),Indian English and the Fiction of National Literature, Cambridge University Press, p. 144,ISBN978-1-107-04000-7 Quote: Poet, President of Senegal,and theorist of “Négritude” Leopold Sangor was elected the first Honorary Fellow of the Sahitya Akademi in 1974. This group was to complement the category of “Fellows of the Akademi” whose number was at no time to exceed twenty-one in total and who were to be living Indian writers of undisputed excellence — “the immortals of literature.”
Armand Guibert & Seghers Nimrod (2006),Léopold Sédar Senghor, Paris (1961 edition by Armand Guibert).
Sources from this article were taken from the equivalent French articlefr:Léopold Sédar Senghor.
Scheck, Raffael (2014). "Léopold Sédar Senghor, prisonnier de guerre allemand: Une nouvelle approche fondée sur un texte inédit".French Politics, Culture & Society.32 (2):76–98.doi:10.3167/fpcs.2014.320209 (inactive 12 July 2025).JSTOR24517987.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of July 2025 (link)
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