Africans celebrate late Senegalese leader whose poetry helped define culture
DAKAR, Senegal (AP) _ Many African leaders have left legacies of corruption or brutal despotism. Then there is Senegal's Leopold Sedar Senghor, who helped redefine the continent with sensual, modernist poems.
Schoolchildren memorize the work of the late West African poet-president and modern leaders invoke his calls for continental unity even if they avoid his emphasis on race and "blackness.''
"He gave us the concepts to name our African culture,'' said Amadou Ly, a professor of African literature at Senegal's Cheikh Anta Diop University. "He permitted us to enter into the cultural conversation.''
Senghor was Senegal's first president after the country gained independence from France in 1960. He ruled with a quiet, methodical socialism that has fallen out of favour in Africa, but many say his influence endures through his idea of a unifying black identity.
"Naked woman, black woman. . . . Ripe fruit with firm flesh, dark raptures of black wine,'' Senghor wrote in a 1945 poem that epitomized the concept he called "negritude.''
Ly said Senghor helped Africans embrace respect for nature and pride in dark skin _ ideas that may seem simplistic today, but that helped French-speaking Africa divorce itself from the West and join a cultural debate starting at the same time in English-speaking Africa.
Five years after Senghor died at age 95, African politicians still invoke his legacy, though their effort is to set up cross-border economic partnerships and to strengthen the African Union.
"There's still a strong sense of African unity, but people are much less likely to use the kind of race language that Senghor was using,'' said Marcartan Humphreys, a professor at Columbia University in New York who studies political economy and rebellion in West Africa.
Senghor remains an icon for many – a key figure who helped Senegal gain independence, and the first postcolonial African leader to step down voluntarily, in 1980.
"There's big competition now between Senegal's (political) parties to claim Senghor. They all want to be identified with his image,'' said Ibrahima Thioub, head of the history department and a professor of contemporary African history at Cheikh Anta Diop.
He was "a model for presidents on the continent, showing that if you step down from power that can lead to more respect rather than less respect,'' Humphreys said.
But even in Senghor's native Senegal, some say they no longer relate to the politics of their postcolonial president.
"We've forgotten him completely! We've gone past that,'' said 27-year-old Sadieubou Mbaye, who was collecting signatures in support of independent candidates in Senegal's presidential ballot next year.
Mbaye said Senegal has outgrown Senghor's socialism and doesn't need philosophical themes.
"If Africa is led by a poet or an economist, it's the same. They just need to have the confidence of the people,'' said Mbaye, a university student studying history.
Senghor was much more connected to France than many of today's West Africans and some say this makes him harder to identify with.
Though Senghor was born in the coastal Senegalese town of Joal, he attended a French high school, married a French woman and spent much of his later years studying language in the land of Senegal's former colonial masters. He was inducted in the renowned French Academy, a group whose 40 members pledge to act as custodians for the French language.
"He sings the 'Black Woman,' but he marries a French woman,'' said Oumar Sankhare, a Senghor scholar who is president of Senegal's Friends and Disciples of Senghor.
Sankhare considers Senghor a hero, but finds his decision to make France his final home hard to understand.
The West holds Senghor up as a symbol of an African statesman who could embrace both African values and Western theories. In recent visits to Dakar, French presidential hopefuls Nicolas Sarkozy and Segolene Royal both visited Senghor's grave.
Celebrations this year for the centennial of Senghor's birth have been held not just in his home country but across the world, from Europe to the French Caribbean island of Martinique and Canada.
The Paris-based International Organization of Francophonie, which Senghor helped found, named 2006 a year of homage to Senghor. Harvard University recently held a symposium on his poetry and the philosophy of negritude.
Yet some scholars say Senghor's importance in moving the region forward peacefully may be overemphasized.
"Yes, Senegal is stable and has been stable because of Senghor,'' said George Ayittey, a Ghanaian who teaches economics at American University and the author of "Africa Betrayed.''
But, Ayittey added, trying to model leaders on Senghor is like "the world is saying, `Well, we hope we can find a Nelson Mandela somewhere to take charge.' That's not going to happen.''
Ayittey argues that countries should focus less on finding the perfect leader and more on building institutions such as a free press, an independent judiciary and an independent banking system.
The new leaders being elected by Africans are less likely to talk of black identity or theories of language, and more apt to talk about electricity grids and economic partnerships. But for many, Senghor defines West Africa's people, if not its politics.
"In poetry, he did wonderful things. In junior high and then in high school, we all studied his poems,'' said Moussa Mbegnouga, 30, a graduate student in geography.
"No doubt he marked us,'' Mbegnouga said. "It's he who established us.''
