Leopold Seghor Influences

Leopold Sedar Senghor, a African American writer and politician. A man who had accomplished so much throughout his entire life time. He had done so many things for himself and the country he lived in. Senghor's writing were greatly influenced with things he had done and things that had happened to him. The poems he wrote had been influenced by his life and things he had achieved. He is one of Africa's most famous poets. Senghor spoke out about what it’s like to be black. Leopold has written many poems, many of them are about African American life. A lot of his books were written in French and some had been translated into English. One of his most famous books called the Collected Poetry was one that was translated. It talks about poems
he has written and about him being president. Another one of his famous poems was Hosties Noires or in English Black Victims. It could be called Black Sacrifices, Black Victims, or Black Hosts. This poem talks about how black people have been both victims and sacrifices to the European race. This was one of the poems he had written while he was in the concentration camp. In the 1940’s he had helped to introduce Presence Africaine. It was a journal that had became an important voice of the literary and political thoughts for the individual of the African American race. In the year of 1984 Senghor had revised an anthology of the French-language poetry by black African Americans that had became an influential part of the African American movement. Leopold lived a very good life.
He accomplished so many things while he was alive. At the age of 31 years old, Senghor had got captured and taken to a Nazi concentration camp. He spent two years of his life in the camp. While he was in the camps though he did not stop writing. He kept writing and published some more poems that he had written upon his release. He then joined the resistance in France. He then set up the Senegalese Democratic Bloc in 1948. During the year of the 1950 he would make different kind of speeches he would request a better lifestyle for the people of his country. Then in the year of 1956 Senghor became the mayor of Thies. When he was 54 years old he became the President of Senegal. He started his presidency in the year 1960. In that same year he led Senegal into independence. He was the first ever president in Senegal. While he was in office in 1960 he created the country's national anthem. He called it Pincez Tous Vos Koras, Frappez les Balafons. In English it is called Pluck Your Koras, Strike the Balafons. In the year 1980 is when he ended his presidency. The next year in 1981 he gave the leadership to one of his close and good friends Abdou Diouf. Then in 1986 Leopold became an individual of
the Leopold Senghor's culture in his life and home affect his writings a lot.
Leopold Sedar Senghor is his full name. He was born on October 9th, 1906 in Joal-Fadiouth, Senegal. His father was a serer planter and his mother a Roman Catholic. He grew up living in a wealthy family. When he was younger he wanted to become a priest. But at the age of 20 he soon realized that it was not what he was meant to do. In 1935 he became the first African agrere. That is the highest rank of a qualified teacher in the French school system. He was then able to teach lycee and university levels. In the year 1945, it had marked the time Leopold's political career had begun. He spent many years involved with the government and politics. He then finally retired from politics a home in France. Leopold Sedar Senghor died on December 20, 2001 at the age of 95. He died in a home he had lived in for a good period of time in Verson, France. Even though he died a while back his poems and stories still live on to this
day. Leopold was a very influential and a very inspiring writer African American writer. He created and published writings about life as a black person and things he has done that were inspirational to the African Americans.If Senghor did not write the poems and stories he had, would there still have been as big an African American movement as there was?