An African in Paris

As a young man, Senghor went to Paris, where he found early recognition as a poet and won the admiration of Jean-Paul Sartre. In 1945, he became a member of the French National Assembly and later a member of the Council of Europe, in which he campaigned passionately as well as in vain for a united Europe, with the inclusion of Africa. His dream of a truly universal civilization, a humane world order in which Africa no longer had to assimilate to the West, placed the arts at the center. From 1960 when he became as president of the young Senegal, Senghor promoted the arts to an extent that was unique in Africa. In 1968, he was awarded the German Book Trade’s Peace Prize.

Hans Belting and Andrea Buddensieg, in their impressive, insightful book, dive into a forgotten chapter of the postcolonial upheaval in Africa. As it turns out, world history took a different path than Senghor’s—although perhaps not a better one.