Leopold Senghor
President of Senegal
Died when: 95 years 72 days (1142 months)Star Sign: Libra
Léopold Sédar Senghor (/s??'g??r/; French: [s?~g??]; 9 October 1906 – 20 December 2001) was a Senegalese poet, politician and cultural theorist who was the first president of Senegal (1960–80).
Ideologically an African socialist, he was the major theoretician of Négritude. Senghor was a proponent of African 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 independent Senegal. He fell out with his long-standing associate Mamadou Dia who was Prime Minister of Senegal, arresting him on suspicion of fomenting a coup and imprisoning him for 12 years.
Senghor established an authoritarian single-party state in Senegal where all rival political parties were prohibited. Senghor was also the founder of the Senegalese Democratic Bloc party.
Senghor was the first African elected as a member of the Académie française. He won the 1985 International Nonino Prize in Italy.
He is regarded by many as one of the most important African intellectuals of the 20th century.