Léopold Senghor

President of Senegal (1960-1980)

• Born: October 9, 1906
• Birthplace: Joal, Senegal
• Died: December 20, 2001
• Place of death: Verson, France

Senghor, one of Africa’s leading poets and intellectuals, is best known for helping create the negritude movement begun in the 1930’s. A writer of rich, complex poems illuminating his love for his native Senegal as well as that for his beloved France, Senghor also was a diplomat representing colonial Senegal in the French National Assembly and the president of Senegal after its independence in 1960. He was a forceful, intelligent, influential pro-African leader respected throughout the world.

Early Life

Léopold Senghor (LAY-ah-pawld sahn-GAWR) was born in Joal, a Senegalese town south of the capital city, Dakar, and subject of one of Senghor’s most notable poems, “Joal,” to a well-to-do Christian merchant from a minority tribe, Basile Diogoye Senghor, and his third wife, Gnilane Ndieme Bakhou, a member of a different tribe. Much of his youth was spent at various schools, the first of which was that of the Roman Catholic mission, Ngazobil, where he was given the standard fare of French colonial education. In such schools, French rather than African culture was highlighted, and students learned about French geography, politics, and history. A devout Catholic, Senghor was a bright, avid pupil, though his teachers failed to comprehend how special his talents were.

Senghor spent four years at a seminary in Dakar, yet left after he found he had no calling to the priesthood. Thereafter, he was allowed to attend the Dakar lycée, a secondary school administered by French people, which he entered in 1928. There he studied the standard French course offerings. His command of the French language combined with scholarly prowess led to his being sent to Paris, first to the Lycée Louis-le-Grand and then to the famous École Normale Supérieure of the University of Paris. In 1932 at the latter, he received the sought after agrégation designation in the field of grammar which made him the first West African to be so honored. At that same year, he was made a French citizen.

His Parisian studies were the most formative of his career, but simply being in Paris, and therefore in contact with brilliant thinkers from around the world such as future French president Georges Pompidou, was just as important for Senghor. At the university were other colonial intellectuals who did much to encourage his mental restlessness and his burgeoning interest in African life and culture. To this young outsider, Paris was not only the center of the France that exploited Africans but also an alluring, often enchanting city. Senghor participated in the life of the city as teacher, writer, and seminal thinker whose ideas about African culture and black identity became part of the negritude movement that first flourished in the 1930’s.

In Paris, Senghor, together with such fellow intellectuals as Aimé Césaire from Martinique, boldly postulated that black people the world over were not merely equal to whites but in some ways their superiors. In L’Étudiant noir, the influential review they helped establish, Senghor and Césaire came to believe that, in fact, blacks would offer the world an alternative to the destructive whites who, in Europe during World War I, created a truly fallen world of hatred and despair. Unlike the death-dealing, mechanical culture of whites, black culture was, in their estimation, happy, spontaneous, alive to possibilities, and invigorating a true life force in a world ruled by death and destruction.

Life’s Work

The 1930’s was a decade of dissatisfaction for black members of the French intelligentsia such as Senghor, a time when colonialism with its assumptions of European superiority over nonwhite cultures became increasingly resented and even hated by African, Caribbean, and American black people. Senghor’s feelings about France were pained and decidedly mixed: He appreciated the cultural offerings and opportunities in his adopted country, yet felt disparaged and belittled by French condescension toward anything African. To his despair, Senghor realized that white Europeans would continue to scorn African history and culture unless someone could boldly and graphically assert the power and beauty of African literature, art, and tribal existence.

Out of Senghor’s association with writers Césaire and Léon Dumas came the concept of negritude, which became a major force behind revolutionary worldwide developments such as the independence movement in Africa and the Caribbean and the Black Pride movement in the United States. Nevertheless, Senghor, for all of his bitterness toward France for its racism and despoiling of part of the African continent, still continued to have a profound respect for French civilization and the positive things that French civilization had wrought in Senegal.

It became Senghor’s passion to fuse his Senegalese experience with his French life into a meaningful synthesis wherein French themes and motifs were interwoven with those of Africa. In Senghor’s poetry of the 1930’s, African masks and ancestor worship make their appearance, especially in his first volume of poetry, Chants d’ombre (1945), a work heavily indebted to the theories of philosopher Henri Bergson, in which he contrasts his pastoral childhood village life with the harsh, mechanized reality of Parisian life and the alienation he sometimes feels there. In trying to fuse Senegal and France into a coherent vision of life and dealing with a sense of cultural nostalgia, Senghor deviated from what his black contemporaries were doing in their verse. Césaire and Dumas, for example, found little or nothing worth writing about in European culture and were unhappy with Senghor’s “colonialist” values.

After his student days ended, Senghor served in the French army during World War II, suffering a year and a half of imprisonment in a Nazi concentration camp when he did manage to write a collection of work, Hosties noires (1948). All things considered, his incarceration was an experience that disturbed him greatly yet, as always, he found his reactions mixed. On one hand, he felt vaguely hopeful that France’s own taste of German occupation would lead to its freeing the African colonies, yet intuitively he realized that it would take more than the occupation to free the Africans from their oppression. Senghor, horrified by the widespread destruction of the war, looked even more longingly to Africa and black people the world over for answers to European soul-sickness.

As negritude gathered momentum after the war and the desire of French colonies to free themselves from colonial rule became keen, Senghor became Senegal’s delegate in the French parliament, wherein he received considerable praise for giving graceful, powerful, authoritative speeches. This marked the beginning of a political career as distinguished as Senghor’s career as a writer. He found to his joy that he could not only influence people with his considerable literary gift but also exhort them in oratory to recognize black Africa’s need for recognition and freedom. Senghor’s demands for change were among the most eloquent heard in the National Assembly. In 1945, taking full advantage of the French admission of African delegates to full parliamentary participation, he ran for office and was voted Senegal’s representative.

In the years between 1945 and 1958, Senghor’s reputation as a forceful advocate of the rights of Senegalese grew to the point where he eclipsed such rivals as Lamine Gušye. Elected in 1951 and 1956, he also was appointed to Edgar Fauré’s cabinet in 1955. Out of this period of maturation, Senghor produced some of his more noted poems, including those in the collections entitled Hosties noires, Chants pour Naëtt (1949), and Éthiopiques (1956). In Hosties noires, he contrasts his growing love for France with his fading memories of a Senegal seen only on rare occasions, a problem of allegiance created by his having to live in France to serve as a delegate. Senghor, because he could not repudiate France, remained a man caught between worlds his poetry reflects the tensions of his predicament. In terms of political philosophy, the poet/politician believed that because of Africa’s village-based culture, in which interdependence forms the norm of behavior, socialism was not only attractive but also a natural outcome of the manner in which people related to each other. This is contrasted with France, which although like the rest of Europe somewhat socialistic in outlook, was still governed by free market capitalism based on individualism.

After 1958 Senghor’s attentions turned toward Senegal after he returned home after a long absence and rediscovered his home and people. He gained political support, first becoming president of the legislative assembly in the MaliFederation, of which Senegal was a part, then president of the Senegal Republic when Senegal broke away from the federation in 1960. Always working for African unity, Senghor was popular within and without Senegal, particularly in many West African countries. He was reelected president in 1963, 1968, and 1973.

Senghor has not been universally admired, however. His rivalry with Mamadou Dia, who, as the original cabinet minister of Senegal, shared power with Senghor, created a 1962 coup d’état attempt. Considerable countergovernment activity resulted from his concentrating all power in Progressive Union Party hands, and he had to worry constantly about being ousted from office. In 1967, his fears proved justified when there was an attempt on his life. Senghor’s best poetry was behind him at this point in his life. Perhaps the fecundity of his imagination had been diminished by the strain of political life as some critics maintain. First elected president of Senegal in 1960, Senghor’s career ended in 1980. Among the honors given him were the Apollonaire Poetry Prize (1974) and membership in the prestigious Academie Francaise (1983). When he died in France in December, 2001, Senghor was internationally highly regarded by students of contemporary literature as well as by many fellow citizens in both France and Senegal for his vision of a united humanity.

Significance

Senghor will continue to be remembered as the spokesperson of the negritude movement who did some of his best, most moving work in the form of verse. His strong, sensual, vibrant early poetry is his best, and in it resonates the life of Senegal and, by extension, that of Africa itself. Without Senghor’s unique ability to deal with French people on their own soil, it is questionable whether Césaire and other intellectuals caught up in the notion of negritude would have been as successful in drawing attention to their beliefs. With Senghor as spokesperson, the movement had a strong voice to proclaim the importance of the African experience and African culture and the need for Africans to pursue their own destinies.

Senghor’s verse, appreciated around the world, teems with African masks, the scents and sounds of African rivers and savannahs, and bold African tribal women of powerful sexual presence. It presents a paean to Africa, the mysterious mother and necessary restorer of the human race and the force for peace, justice, and harmony in the world. Yet his France, if not equally compelling as his Africa, is certainly a kind of homeland of the heart, a mother of culture and a teacher of the Christian religion to those lacking spiritual guidance. Thus Senghor will always be seen as one of the intermediaries between Europe and Africa, explaining each to each. In this role, Senghor records the creative tensions existing between these two worlds in a way no other French-speaking colonial poet has done. By not limiting his cultural horizon to Senegal, Senghor has served as a bridge connecting European writing with that of Africans and, as such, has interested the world outside Africa in its poetry.

Senghor did more for negritude than did most other writers, for he refused to address himself to an exclusively black audience but rather chose to write for all people interested in serious poetry. As a Senegalese politician of considerable presence and ability, he was able to lead his country into nationhood and out of colonialism, a complex and difficult process. His life story is one of remarkable achievement.

Bibliography

Ahbdallah, Ahmedou Ould. “A Poet Passes: Leopold Sedar Senghor Remembered.” National Interest 67 (Spring, 2002): 103-107. This remembrance by the foreign minister of Mauritania looks at Senghor as man and as politician.

Bâ, Sylvia Washington. The Concept of Négritude in the Poetry of Léopold Sédar Senghor. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1973. Bâ’s account is an enriching, engaging study of the tensions within Senghor because of his divided allegiance. She delves into the origins of negritude and proves it to be a powerful influence on Senghor’s poetry.

Bennetta, Jules-Rosette. “Leopold Senghor: The Strength of Contradiction.” African Arts 35, no. 2 (Summer, 2002): 1-2. An examination of Senghor’s contributions to African art.

Harney, Elizabeth. In Senghor’s Shadow: Art, Politics, and the Avant-garde in Senegal, 1960-1995. Durham: Duke University Press, 2004. This study looks at the influence of the poet and politician on his native country and at negritude.

Kluback, William. Leopold Sedar Senghor: From Politics to Poetry. New York: Peter Lang, 1997. Here readers are offered eight “conversations” in which Senghor is engaged in discussions about his spirituality by critic Kluback, who also reveals much about his own spiritual beliefs.

Peters, Jonathan A. A Dance of Masks: Senghor, Achebe, Soyinka. Washington, D.C.: Three Continents Press, 1978. A West African himself, Peters offers a lively study (complete with useful bibliography) of Senghor’s development as an artist. His discussion of the negritude movement is enlightening and includes a discussion of Senghor’s cultural context.

Research in African Literature 33 (Winter, 2002). This issue is devoted to Senghor. It devotes considerable attention to Senghor as poet and discusses negritude in Africa today. Contains an essay by Wole Soyinka on the poet and a select bibliography of Senghor’s works.

Soyinka, Wole. The Burden of Misery, the Muse of Forgiveness. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999. The Nigerian writer discusses African literature, negritude, and Senghor.

Spleth, Janice. Critical Perspectives on Leopold Sedar Senghor. Colorado Springs, Colo.: Three Continents Press, 1993. This volume contains some classic commentaries by noted critics of the negritude movement as well as highly contemporary ones dealing with such matters as Senghor’s poetic method, Catholic sensibility, and Afro-American borrowings.

‗‗‗‗‗‗‗. Léopold Sédar Senghor. Boston: Twayne, 1985. Part of the Twayne World Authors series, this book is a good introduction to Senghor’s life and works. Contains a fairly in-depth biographical essay, basic discussion of his major writings and influences, a selected bibliography, notes, and an index.