Essential Senghor

Léopold Sédar Senghor (1906–2001) was a poet, philosopher, and the first president of Senegal.Doyle D. Calhoun is University Assistant Professor of Francophone Postcolonial Studies at the University of Cambridge.Alioune Fall is Assistant Professor of Black Studies and French at Providence College.Cheikh Thiam is Department Chair of English and Professor of Black Studies at Amherst College.

“Among canonical Black thinkers, there may be no figure who is as influential as Senghor, yet so little or carefully read. This long-overdue volume, including a careful translation, outstanding introduction, and rich annotations, will help correct this scandal. The translators rightly underscore that Senghor should be read as a thinker of Black liberation who refuses Manichean binaries. This work offers an invaluable approach for decolonizing thought and politics today.”--Gary Wilder, author of Freedom Time: Negritude, Decolonization, and the Future of the World“This invaluable reader makes Senghor’s thought directly available to an English-language audience, offering a very good overview of his philosophy, perfectly capturing his original text, and assembling selections with precision and care. It will become a touchstone for those in African studies, philosophy, art, and beyond.”—Souleymane Bachir Diagne, author of African Art as Philosophy: Senghor, Bergson and the Idea of Negritude

• Translators’ Note viiAcknowledgments xiiiIntroduction. “LÉopold SÉdar Senghor (1906–2001): A Reintroduction” / Doyle D. Calhoun, Alioune B. Fall, and Cheikh Thiam 1Part 1. Negritude: A Humanism for the Twentieth (and Twenty-First) Century1. Constitutive Elements of a Civilization of Negro-American Inspiration 272. Negritude Is a Humanism of the Twentieth Century 633. Negritude and Modernity:, or, Negritude Is a Humanism of the Twentieth Century 754. Concerning Negritude 1055. Negritude, as the Culture of Black Peoples, Shall Not Be Eclipsed 1296. For a Modern and Negro-African Philosophy 1457. As Manatees Go to Drink from the Source 175Part 2. Negritude, Aesthetics, and Philosophy8. What the Black Man Offers 1899. The Contributions of Negro Poetry to the First Half of the Century 20910. Negro-African Aesthetics 22511. The Function and Meaning of the First World of Negro Arts 24112. For a Negro Criticism 24713. From French Poetry to Francophone Poetry; or, The Contributions of Negroes to Francophone Poetry 25114. Oral Tradition and Modernity 271Part 3. Negritude, MÉtissage, and the Dialogue of Cultures15. The Problem of Culture in French West Africa 28116. Perspectives on Black Africa; or, To Assimilate, Not Be Assimilated 29517. Why an Indo-African Department of the University of Dakar? 32918. Negritude and Mediterranean Civilization 34319. French and African Languages 35520. The Dialogue of Cultures 373Index 387