Leupold sedar senghor biography definition

(–)

President of the Republic of Senegal (–80). An outstanding personality in French-speaking black Africa, Senghor established himself as a world political figure and a poet of great power.

Born in Joal, the son of a Sere peasant family, Senghor was educated in Catholic mission schools before being awarded a scholarship in to study in France.

Receiving his Licence des Lettres in , Senghor taught at schools in Tours and Paris between and He was a prisoner of war in Germany for two years in World War II. During his period in Paris he met Aimé Césaire (–), the West Indian poet, with whom he founded the concept of French-speaking black literature known as négritude.

Senghor entered politics in when he participated in the French constituent assemblies that shaped the Fourth Republic.

He was elected as a deputy from Senegal to the French national assembly in and joined the parliamentary group of French socialists (SFIO) under Lamire Gueye, the mayor of Dakar, in