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An African in Paris

Andrea Buddensieg Hans Belting

Léopold Sédar Senghor and the Future of Modernity

Léopold Sédar Senghor (1906 – 2001) was not only the first president of independent Senegal, he was also a symbol of the dialogue between cultures after the end of the colonial era. His vision of a postcolonial modernity relied on understanding yet also on breaking the monopoly of the West. This volume is the first comprehensive appreciation of Senghor and his life’s work written in German.

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.

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Published by C.H.Beck , ISBN: 9783406718304

Main content page count: 300 Pages

ISBN: 9783406718304