Léopold Sédar Senghor

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Lore & Background

Léopold Sédar Senghor was born on 9 October 1906 in the city of Joal, some 110 kilometres south of Dakar. His father, Basile Diogoye Senghor, was a wealthy peanut merchant belonging to the bourgeois Serer people, who owned thousands of cattle and vast lands. His mother, Gnilane Ndiémé Bakhoum, was a Muslim with Fula origin who belonged to the Tabor tribe. At age eight, Senghor began his studies in Senegal at the Ngasobil boarding school of the Fathers of the Holy Spirit. In 1922, he entered a seminary in Dakar, but after being told religious life was not for him, he attended a secular institution, winning distinctions in French, Latin, Greek and Algebra. With his Baccalaureate completed, he was awarded a scholarship to continue his studies in France. In 1928, Senghor sailed for France, beginning what he called 'sixteen years of wandering.' He started at the Sorbonne, then went to the Lycée Louis-le-Grand to prepare for the École Normale Supérieure. After failing the entrance exam, he prepared for his grammar Agrégation, which he was granted in 1935 at his second attempt. He taught at the lycée René-Descartes in Tours and the lycée Marcelin-Berthelot in Saint-Maur-des-Fosses near Paris. Along with other intellectuals of the African diaspora, he coined the term and conceived the notion of 'négritude,' which turned the racial slur nègre into a positively connoted celebration of African culture and character. In 1939, Senghor was enlisted in the 3rd Colonial Infantry Regiment with the rank of private. In June 1940, the invading Germans took him prisoner. He spent two years in different prison camps, writing poems and learning enough German to read Goethe's poetry in the original. He was released in 1942 for medical reasons. After the war, he was selected as Dean of the Linguistics Department with the École nationale de la France d'Outre-Mer until Senegal's independence in 1960. He became député for the riding of Sénégal-Mauritanie, and in 1948 founded the Senegalese Democratic Bloc party with Mamadou Dia. Senghor became the first president of independent Senegal in 1960. He fell out with Dia, arresting him on suspicion of fomenting a coup in 1962 and imprisoning him for 12 years, then established an authoritarian one-party state. In 1976, he permitted opposition parties while retaining an unequal playing field favoring his party. Senghor retired in 1980, handing power to Abdou Diouf.

Reader's Guide

Senghor's significance lies in his dual role as Senegal's first president and a major theoretician of Négritude. As a politician, he advocated for African integration within a federal French structure, arguing that independence for small territories would lead to the perpetuation of oppression. He pushed for the extension of French citizenship to all French territories during the negotiations for the French Constitution of 1946. His political career included serving as state secretary to the council's president in Edgar Faure's government from 1 March 1955 to 1 February 1956, mayor of Thiès from November 1956, and advisory minister in Michel Debré's government from 23 July 1959 to 19 May 1961. He was also a member of the commission responsible for drafting the Fifth Republic's constitution. However, his presidency took an authoritarian turn after he arrested Prime Minister Mamadou Dia in 1962 and suppressed rival parties. Senghor's intellectual legacy includes being the first African elected as a member of the Académie française and winning the 1985 International Nonino Prize in Italy. His five-volume series Liberté, the first published in 1964, collects his speeches, essays and prefaces.

Did You Know?

• Senghor's Serer middle name Sédar means 'one that shall not be humiliated' or 'the one you cannot humiliate.'
• He spent two years in German prison camps during World War II, where he wrote poems and learned enough German to read Goethe's poetry in the original.
• Senghor was the first African elected as a member of the Académie française.
• He won the 1985 International Nonino Prize in Italy.
• Senghor's birth certificate states 9 October 1906, but his certificate of baptism states 9 August 1906.

Négritude and the Intellectual Fire

Senghor's most enduring intellectual contribution was coining the concept of négritude alongside other African diaspora intellectuals in Paris. This was a direct response to the racism still prevalent in France, and it turned the racial slur nègre into a positively connoted celebration of African culture and character. The idea of négritude 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. Academically, he earned his Agrégation in French Grammar in 1935 at his second attempt, after initially failing the entrance exam to the École Normale Supérieure. He went on to teach at the lycée René-Descartes in Tours and the lycée Marcelin-Berthelot in Saint-Maur-des-Fosses near Paris, while also studying linguistics under Lilias Homburger at the École pratique des hautes études and engaging with prominent social scientists including Marcel Cohen, Marcel Mauss, and Paul Rivet. His 1985 International Nonino Prize in Italy and his election as the first African member of the Académie française underscore the breadth of his recognition across the intellectual world.

The Presidency and Its Complications

Senghor became the first president of independent Senegal in 1960, having founded the Senegalese Democratic Bloc party back in 1948. His ideological framework was African socialism, and he championed African culture, black identity, and African empowerment while maintaining that French Africans would fare better within a federal French structure than as independent nation-states. However, his presidency was marred by a dramatic falling out with his long-time associate Mamadou Dia, who was the prime minister of Senegal. In 1962, Senghor arrested Dia on suspicion of fomenting a coup and imprisoned him for 12 years. In the aftermath, Senghor established an authoritarian one-party state where rival political parties were suppressed. It was not until 1976 that he permitted opposition parties, though the political landscape remained heavily tilted in favor of his own party. He ultimately retired in 1980, handing power to Abdou Diouf.

Roots in Joal and a Name That Carries Meaning

Born on 9 October 1906 in the city of Joal, some 110 kilometres south of Dakar, Senghor came from a family of considerable means. His father, Basile Diogoye Senghor, was a wealthy peanut merchant belonging to the bourgeois Serer people, who owned thousands of cattle and vast lands, some of which were given to him by his cousin the king of Sine. His mother, Gnilane Ndiémé Bakhoum, was a Muslim with Fula origin who belonged to the Tabor tribe. His Serer middle name Sédar comes from the Serer language, meaning 'one that shall not be humiliated' or 'the one you cannot humiliate.' His surname Senghor is a combination of the Serer words Sène (a Serer surname and the name of the Supreme Deity in Serer religion called Rog Sene) and gor or ghor, the etymology of which is kor in the Serer language, meaning male or man. He reportedly traced descent to Tukura Badiar Senghor, the prince of Sine and a c. 13th-century Serer noble. At age eight, he entered the Ngasobil boarding school of the Fathers of the Holy Spirit, then a seminary in Dakar before turning to secular studies, where he excelled in French, Latin, Greek and Algebra, earning a scholarship to continue his studies in France.

Prisoner, Poet, and the Long Wandering

In 1939, despite his higher education, Senghor was enlisted in the 3rd Colonial Infantry Regiment of the French army with the rank of private (2e Classe). In June 1940, the invading Germans took him prisoner in la Charité-sur-Loire or Villabon. He was interned in a succession of camps, and finally at Front Stalag 230 in Poitiers, reserved for colonial troops captured during the war. According to Senghor, German soldiers wanted to execute him and the others on the day they were captured, but they escaped this fate by yelling 'Vive 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 the Aryan race and the German 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. He was released in 1942 for medical reasons. He resumed his teaching career while remaining involved in the resistance during the Nazi occupation. His earlier 'sixteen years of wandering' in France—beginning with the Sorbonne, then the Lycée Louis-le-Grand, and ultimately earning his agrégation—had already shaped him as a man who moved fluidly between worlds.