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Senegal
Withdrew from short-lived Mali Federation to establish sovereign republic under Senghor.
- Independence
- August 20, 1960
- Before
- Republic of Senegal
- Metropole
- France
- Leader
- Léopold Sédar Senghor
- Transition
- Negotiated
- Movement
- Bloc Démocratique Sénégalais / Union Progressiste Sénégalaise
“To assimilate, not to be assimilated. (Assimiler, non être assimilés.)”
— Léopold Sédar Senghor, 1945
The Four Communes
France held Saint-Louis from 1659 and conquered the Senegalese interior from the 1850s under Governor Louis Faidherbe. Inhabitants of the Four Communes (Saint-Louis, Gorée, Rufisque and Dakar) could vote in French elections. In 1914 they elected Blaise Diagne, the first Black African to sit in the French Chamber of Deputies. Diagne's laws of 1915–16 confirmed that the originaires were full French citizens. From 1902 Dakar was the capital of French West Africa.
Thiaroye and Senghor
On 1 December 1944 French troops fired on repatriated West African soldiers at Camp Thiaroye who were demanding back pay. The official toll was 35 dead, but historians now put it far higher, possibly 300–400. Léopold Sédar Senghor, a poet, co-founder of Négritude and deputy from 1945, argued that Africans should 'assimilate, not be assimilated'. On 27 October 1948 he founded the Bloc Démocratique Sénégalais with Mamadou Dia and Ibrahima Seydou Ndaw.
Federation and Secession
Senghor opposed the break-up of French West Africa. In January 1959 Senegal and French Sudan (Soudan) adopted the constitution of the Mali Federation, formally constituted that April; it became independent from France on 20 June 1960. Senghor and Dia disagreed with Modibo Keïta's Sudanese leadership over how power should be shared. Senegal withdrew on 20 August 1960 and became a separate sovereign state. Dia remained head of government, and Senghor was elected president on 5 September 1960.
Chronology
- 1914 — Blaise Diagne elected to the French Chamber of Deputies
- December 1, 1944 — Thiaroye massacre
- October 27, 1948 — Senghor founds the Bloc Démocratique Sénégalais
- January 17, 1959 — Mali Federation constitution adopted in Dakar with French Sudan
- June 20, 1960 — Mali Federation becomes independent
- August 20, 1960 — Senegal withdraws from the Federation
- September 5, 1960 — Senghor elected president
Aftermath
In December 1962 Senghor accused Prime Minister Mamadou Dia of attempting a coup. Dia was imprisoned until 1974, and Senghor concentrated power in the presidency. Senghor resigned on 31 December 1980 in favour of Abdou Diouf, one of the first African heads of state to leave office voluntarily. Senegal has never had a successful military coup.
Legacy
Senegal's long experience of electoral politics, rooted in the Four Communes, helped sustain an unusually durable civilian political order. Senghor's Négritude left a lasting mark on the culture of Africa and its diaspora.