Senegal

The Republic of Senegal declared its independence from France on 4 April 1960. The region of Senegal was inhabited during ancient times, and the eastern part of the country was once part of the Empire of Ghana.

In the 11th century Islam, the dominant religion in the country, came to Senegal, before European nations (Portugal, the Netherlands and Britain) began to vie for its trade until the French took possession of the island of Gorée in 1677—the departure point for millions of West Africans during the period of the slave trade. In the 1850s, the French began to expand their foothold onto the Senegalese mainland.

In 1959, the country merged with what was then known as the French Sudan, forming the Mali Federation, which became fully independent on 20 June in 1960, following France’s agreement on 4 April to transfer power. After internal political difficulties the Federation dissolved, and the separate countries of Senegal and Mali emerged. Today’s poet, Léopold Senghor, was elected Senegal’s first president in September 1960. In 1962 there was an attempted coup, which was successfully put down. Senghor retired from politics in 1981, handing power over to Abdou Diouf. Diouf acted as president from 1981 until 2000. The current president is Abdoulaye Wade. In the south of the nation there is a violent separatist movement—Wade announced in 2004 that he would sign a peace treaty with this group, but there hasn’t year been a resolution.


I am Alone

I am alone in the plains
And in the night
With trees curled up from the cold
And holding tight, elbow to body, one to the other.

I am alone in the plains
And in the night
With the hopeless pathetic movements of trees
That have lost their leaves to other islands.

I am alone in the plains
And in the night.
I am the solitude of telegraph poles
Along deserted
Roads.


— Leopold Sedar Senghor
Translated from the French by Melvin Dixon
From The Vintage Book of Contemporary World Poetry