He was a man of great erudition, able to converse in Latin with professors of theology and discuss works of particular German philosophers, not available in translation, with distinguished academic philosophers.Michael Besser. L?old S?r Senghor, politician, poet and writer: born Joal, Senegal 9 October 1906; Deputy, French National Assembly 1945-58; minister in the French government 1955-56, 1958; President of Senegal 1960-81; twice married (one son, and two sons deceased); died Verson, France 20 December 2001. The man of many parts was also the man of two worlds and the triumph of Senghor was that he attained greatness in all that he did.He embodied the African process of decolonisation. This he defined as “the abolition of all prejudice, of all superiority complex in the mind of the coloniser and the abolition of all inferiority complex in the mind of the colonised”. He was the first president of an independent Senegal and he ruled for 21 years before taking the unusual step in a political leader of voluntarily resigning, in 1981. He had been re-elected four times.He was born in Joal, a fishing village on the Senegalese coast in 1906 (or possibly earlier) and spent his childhood in Djilor, some 20km inland. His father, a prosperous trader in a poor area, belonged to the Serer ethnic group; his mother was Fulani.

The father, Basile Senghor, had, like other Serer, converted to Christianity, but he had been polygamous and L?old was said to have some two dozen brothers and sisters, and probably more. L?old was his Christian name, S?r his Serer name.The area was changing. The ground-nut trade had developed, particularly with the construction of railways. Among the inhabitants there was the interplay of paganism, Islam and Catholicism, as there was the coming together of Fulani, Mandingo, Serer and other groupings.

Senghor was sent to the missionary school but his Fulani uncle had a great influence on him, and he never forgot the folklore that he learnt from him, with its beliefs in the enchanted domain, the soul of the village, the moment of the spirits and what he later called, in one of his poems, “the hour of primary fears”.He always remained profoundly African, and, when as a highly educated and experienced man of 40 he achieved fame, it was as one of the apostles of “negritude”. He was often presented as the founder of this movement, although Senghor said that this was the Martiniquais poet Aim??ire (as he put it, “we must render unto C?ire the things that are C?ire’s”). At all events, he was one of the most effective spokesmen in presenting the message of “negritude” which was that black civilisation, especially African, had its values, its achievements and its aspirations. Here, above all, Senghor was conscious of what he called “mon ethnie, ma nation”.But he was also a Frenchman. Educated at the Lyc?Louis le Grand and at the Sorbonne, he taught in French lyc?. When he entered the classroom at Tours for the first time he said to his pupils, “I am black. Let’s spend the next few minutes in silence so that you can look at me and see how black I am.