These are Africa’s seven independence leaders who were intellectuals in their own rights

Leopold Senghor

Senghor as Senegal’s first president was very friendly towards colonial masters, France. But he did not confuse cordiality with his identity as a black man in a world structured by whiteness.

Together with his friend Aime Cesaire, Senghor drew up the philosophy of Negritude. It was a cultural, art and political movement conceived around the experiences of black people globally.

RELATED STORIES

Howard Gayle; the black ex-soccer star who rejected an MBE from the British Crown in solidarity with slaves

These African leaders were forced out of office in the most heinous way

These are the African countries with the highest traffic-related deaths

25 years after apartheid, black South Africans are today earning three times less than their white counterparts