SENGHOR, LOPOLD (SDAR)

born Oct. 9, 1906, Joal, Senegal, French West Africa [now in Senegal] Senghor, addressing the United Nations General Assembly, 1961 poet and statesman, president of Senegal from 1960 to 1980. He was a major proponent of a moderate African socialism. Senghor was the son of a prosperous trader of the Serer tribe. His first ambition was to become teacher-priest, and he attended school at a nearby Roman Catholic mission and a seminary. When he was 20, he realized that the priesthood was not his calling and transferred to the lyce (secondary school) in Dakar. In 1928 Senghor went to Paris on a partial scholarship and continued his formal studies at the Lyce Louis-le-Grand and at the Sorbonne. During these years Senghor discovered the unmistakable imprint of African art on modern painting, sculpture, and music, which confirmed his belief in Africa's potential contribution to modern culture. In 1935 Senghor became the first African agrg, the highest rank of qualified teacher in the French school system, and began teaching French to French students in Tours. Two years later he was transferred to a lyce near Paris. Drafted in 1939, at the beginning of World War II, he was captured in 1940 and spent two years in Nazi concentration camps, where he wrote some of his finest poems. On his release, he joined the French Resistance. After the war Senghor became a member of the French Constituent Assembly. In 1946 he was sent as one of Senegal's two deputies to the National Assembly in Paris. Elected on the Socialist ticket, Senghor founded the Senegalese Democratic Bloc in 1948 and as that party's candidate was reelected by a wide margin in the 1951 elections for the French National Assembly. Five years later he became mayor of This, Senegal's railroad centre, and was reelected deputy. When the French Parliament passed (1956) the loi cadre, which gave a large measure of self-government to the African territories, Senghor was one of the first to oppose the act. The loi cadre emphasized territorial rather than federal government, and Senghor realized that this would result in the proliferation of small, unviable states. To counter the effects of the loi cadre, he helped to found and supported a series of parties that were dedicated to establishing a federal African unity. But none of these was as successful as the African Democratic Rally. On the home front he helped found the Senegalese Progressive Union (called after 1976 the Socialist Party), which in the early 1990s was still the governing party of Senegal. In the late 1950s Senghor helped create an alliance between various West African political blocs that led to the creation in 1959 of the abortive Mali Federation, of which Senegal was a member (along with French Sudan , Dahomey , and Upper Volta [Burkina Faso]). In December 1959 Senghor made an eloquent, successful appeal to French president Charles de Gaulle for independence. The Mali Federation lasted only until the following August, when its last two members, Senegal and French Sudan, separated. Senegal became a republic, and Senghor was unanimously elected president. A second major crisis for Senghor occurred in late 1962, when Prime Minister Mamadou Dia, longtime protg of Senghor, attempted a coup d'tat. Again the Senegalese rallied behind Senghor, and Mamadou Dia was sentenced to life imprisonment. A new constitution was ratified, and Senghor was reelected president. He retired from office on Dec. 31, 1980, midway through his fifth term, and was succeeded by Abdou Diouf. As chief executive, Senghor tried to modernize Senegal's agriculture, instill a sense of enlightened citizenship, combat corruption and inefficiency, forge closer ties with his African neighbours, and continue cooperation with the French. He advocated an African socialism based on African realities, free of both atheism and excessive materialism. He sought an open, democratic, humanistic socialism that shunned such slogans as dictatorship of the proletariat. A vigorous spokesman for the Third World, he protested unfair terms of trade that worked to the disadvantage of the agricultural nations. Along with Aim Csaire of Martinique and Lon G. Damas of French Guiana, Senghor was one of the originators in the 1930s and '40s of the concept of Negritude, which may be defined as the literary and artistic expression of the black African experience. Senghor became Negritude's foremost spokesman, and in 1948 he edited an anthology of French-language poetry by black Africans that became a seminal text of the Negritude movement. He was also a distinguished poet whose own books include Chants d'ombre (1945; Songs of Shadow), Hosties noires (1948; Black Offerings), Ethiopiques (1956), Nocturnes (1961), and Elegies majeures (1979; Major Elegies). His poetry was collected in Oeuvre potique (1990; Poetical Work). In 1984 Senghor was inducted into the French Academy, becoming the first black member in that body's history. Senghor's career was replete with paradoxes. Although a Roman Catholic and a Serer, he headed a predominantly Muslim, Wolof nation. An outstanding intellectual, he drew his main support from the peasants. A distinguished poet, he was also a professional politician of great skill who guided his nation to independence and proved to be an able and effective leader for the following two decades.