Léopold Sédar Senghor

Léopold Sédar Senghor ( , , ; 9 October 1906 – 20 December 2001) was a Senegalese politician, cultural theorist and poet who served as the first president of Senegal from 1960 to 1980. Ideologically an African socialist, Senghor was one of the major theoreticians of Négritude. He was a proponent of African culture, black identity, and African empowerment within the framework of French-African ties.

He advocated for the extension of full civil and political rights for France's African territories while arguing that French Africans would be better off within a federal French structure than as independent nation-states. Senghor became the first president of independent Senegal. He fell out with his long-standing associate Mamadou Dia, who was the prime minister of Senegal, arresting him on suspicion of fomenting a coup in 1962 and imprisoning him for 12 years.

Following this, Senghor established an authoritarian one-party state where rival political parties were suppressed. In 1976, Senghor permitted opposition parties while retaining an unequal playing field favoring his party. Senghor retired in 1980, handing power to Abdou Diouf. Senghor was the founder of the Senegalese Democratic Bloc party in 1948. He was the first African elected as a member of the Académie française and won the 1985 International Nonino Prize in Italy.

Senghor is regarded by many as one of the most important African intellectuals of the 20th century.