‭ en great authors of French-language literature‬

T
‭You have now reached the boarding gate for neighbouring countries, where the French‬
‭language is bathed in sunshine and exotic colours. Whether it's fiction or poetry, the music of‬
‭the words is the same, dense and rich, from Senegal to Lebanon, via Martinique, Algeria,‬
‭Côte d'Ivoire, Cameroon, Quebec, Switzerland, Morocco, Belgium... We hope you enjoy your‬
‭journey through the French-speaking world.‬
‭Léopold Sédar Senghor, Élégies majeures‬
‭Léopold Sédar Senghor came to France from Senegal to study for his baccalauréat in 1928,‬
‭and founded a magazine in 1934. He gave it the title L'Étudiant noir and, with his friend Aimé‬
‭Césaire, coined the term négritude. He defined it as follows: Negritude is the awareness of‬
‭being black, the simple recognition of a fact that implies acceptance, taking charge of one's‬
‭destiny as a black person, one's history and one's culture. Senghor's fellow student at‬
‭Louis-le-Grand, where he studied hypokhâgne and khâgne, was Georges Pompidou, the‬
‭future President of France.‬
‭The first African agrégé at a French university, he was appointed professor at Tours and then‬
‭at Saint-Maur-des-Fossés. Prisoner of war‬

‭ risoner of war in 1939, he fell seriously ill, was released and then took part in the‬
P
‭Resistance. His political career led him to the highest responsibilities in his country: in 1960,‬
‭he was elected President of the Republic of Senegal. A man of great culture, Léopold Sédar‬
‭Senghor was a poet of sensitive, elegant and inspired writing. He published Chants d'ombre‬
‭(1945), Hosties noires (1948), Éthiopiques (1956), Nocturnes (1961), Lettres d'hivernage‬
‭(1973) and Élégies majeures (1979). Elected to the Académie française in 1983, he died on‬
‭29 December 2001.‬