6 iconic speeches of African independence leaders caught on video

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.

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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.