Leopold Sedar Senghor
1906 – 2001 Senegalese Poet, independence leader, first President of Senegal
Poet-president of Senegal and theorist of Negritude.
- Religion
- Roman Catholic
- Affiliations
- Senegalese Progressive Union
Leopold Sedar Senghor was a renowned poet and a leading thinker of Negritude, a movement affirming Black cultural identity. He became the first president of independent Senegal in 1960 and governed for two decades. He voluntarily stepped down in 1980, a rare peaceful handover in the region, and became the first African elected to the Academie francaise.
In the timeline
- 1935 The negritude movement takes shape in Paris mentioned