Some Thoughts on Africa

A Continent in Development

Bibliographic Data

ID4034032
AuthorsLéopold Sédar Senghor (corresponding author), Léopold Senghor
Year1962
Volume38
Issue2
Pages189-195
Publication date1962-04-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueInternational Affairs (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0020-5850 • E-ISSN: 1468-2346
PublisherOxford University Press (OUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/2610377
OpenAlexW2042437958
LanguageEN
Citations received9

I AM always glad to be in London, where, just after the last war, I took part in a series of Pan-African discussions whose importance for the future of Afro-European relations needs no stressing now. These discussions brought together African intellectuals of English and French culture. That was a foretaste of the Africa we want to build, of diverse but complementary elements. Despite the well-founded resentment we may have felt at that time, we have never wanted to place Africa outside the current of history, to cut her off from the other continents. It serves no purpose to deny facts that are incontrovertible. We have always been conscious of the fact that colonialism is a transitory stage, like feudalism, like capitalism. Colonialism has had its dark moments and its moments of light. If it destroyed some of the values of our civilization, Europe sometimes brought us substitutes, almost always fertile ones: complementary ones. The clash between two civilizations has always been an arduous experience for the weaker of the two. In fact, what matters is that from this encounter, inhuman though it may be at first, a new civilization should arise, grafting the skills of the colonizer on to the living stock of the colonized. Certainly Europe brought destruction to Africa, but she also brought values which we lacked: technical skill and method. Here in London it was in English and French that we discussed the future, as, for example, in the 'Old Africa Congress', convened under the initiative of Mr Nkrumah. It is not by chance that the idea of the Commonwealth came from London, or that the concept of the Communaute was born on the banks of the Seine. In both cases it was a question of an association founded on equality, friendship, and co-operation, born of life and memories in common, of mutual and familiar interests, an association founded on mutual respect and solidarity. The only difference between the Commonwealth and the Communaute lies in the traditions of the two ancient Motherlands. The Communaute is a Commonwealth 'a la fran,aise'. It is based on written laws, whereas the Commonwealth is based on tradition. I have spoken of the vertical solidarity which binds us to Europe and thanks to which our presence carries more weight, with each day, in the concourse of modern nations, in this harsh world of large groups of states. It is obvious that this solidarity should rely on and be balanced by another I89

Development economics · Economics · Geography · Political science · African cultural and philosophical studies

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