Henry Robertson Craig RHA (1916-1984)
H.E. Mr. Leopold Senghor, President of Senegal, in Procession in the Champs Elysees, Paris
Oil on canvas, 60 x 101cm (23½ x 39¾'')
Signed; also signed,...

Henry Robertson Craig RHA (1916-1984)
H.E. Mr. Leopold Senghor, President of Senegal, in Procession in the Champs Elysees, Paris
Oil on canvas, 60 x 101cm (23½ x 39¾'')
Signed; also signed, inscribed and with oeuvre number RC545 on stretcher

Léopold Sédar Senghor (1906 2001) was a Senegalese poet, politician and cultural theorist who for two decades served as the first president of Senegal (196080). Ideologically an African socialist, he was the founder of the Senegalese Democratic Bloc party.

In 1983 Senghor was elected as a member of the Académie française, at the 16th seat where he succeeded Antoine de Lévis Mirepoix. He was the first African to sit at the Académie. Although a socialist, Senghor avoided the Marxist and anti-Western ideology that had become popular in post-colonial Africa, favouring the maintenance of close ties with France and the western world. This is seen by many as a contributing factor to Senegals political stability: it remains one of the few African nations never to have had a coup, and always to have had a peaceful transfer of power.

On 31 December 1980, he retired as President in favour of his prime minister, Abdou Diouf. On news of his death in 2001, Jacques Chirac is quoted as saying Poetry has lost one of its masters, Senegal a statesman, Africa a visionary and France a friend.

 

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