Senegal retrieves Senghor’s library from France

The Senegalese government has bought 344 books owned by its former President Leopold Senghor, after it managed to stop them from being auctioned in France.

Senghor served as the first president of independent Senegal from 1960 to 1980. He is also better known for his central role in developing Negritude, an intellectual movement that defended Black culture and challenges western colonial narratives on Africa and African studies.

The books were going to be sold at an auction at the request of the heirs. But the new president of Senegal, Bassirou Diomaye Faye, asked for the sale to be suspended, while offering to buy the whole lot.

“Even beyond these particular assets, we believe that Senghor himself constitutes an inheritance: Senegal’s heritage, Africa’s heritage, the world’s heritage,” the Senegalese ambassador to France, El Hadji Magatte Seye, told RFI.

The ambassador said the retrieved books will be exhibited in a museum on Senghor’s life.