President Léopold Sédar Senghor, Senegal
Before he was the president of independent Senegal in 1961, Léopold Sédar Senghor was an academic. A poet who captured the daily and rare occurrence of life, he is credited as one of the biggest African intellectuals.
Born in 1906 in Jaol, Senegal, Senghor had a dream to become a teacher-priest. He, however, abandoned priesthood when he turned 20, leaving the seminary for the Lycee secondary school in Dakar.
He was a Minister in France before his country’s independence was proclaimed. Elected on September 5, 1960, Mr. Senghor presided over the just-born Republic of Senegal. He is the author of the Senegalese anthem, the Red Lion. He resigned from office before the end of his fifth presidential term, in December 1980.
