The Essential Senghor

African Philosophy and Black Aesthetics

By: Leopold Sedar Senghor, Doyle D. Calhoun (Editor, Translator), Alioune Fall (Editor), Cheikh Thiam (Editor)

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Paperback | 14 April 2026

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416 Pages

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15.2 x 23.0 x 2.6

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Senegalese poet, philosopher, and politician L©opold S©dar Senghor, together with Aim© C©saire and others, developed the influential and perennially relevant negritude movement â" a Black artistic, philosophical, and political expression of Black presence in the modern colonial world. The Essential Senghor provides a new opportunity for English-language readers to engage with Senghorâs critical and philosophical writings spanning from 1937 to 1985. This collection includes Senghorâs key philosophical interventions in discourses on freedom, Blackness and being, humanism, history, and more. It portrays Senghor as a pivotal intellectual in the fields of African and Black studies whose work engages a wide range of disciplines, including literature, linguistics, anthropology, religion, and art history. The Essential Senghor invites readers not only to reflect on negritude and its importance for our political present, but also to reconsider intellectual genealogies of decolonial thought, Black liberation, and African philosophy.

Industry Reviews

"This invaluable reader makes Senghor's thought directly available to an English-language audience, offering a very good overview of his philosophy, perfectly capturing his original text, and assembling selections with precision and care. It will become a touchstone for those in African studies, philosophy, art, and beyond."-Souleymane Bachir Diagne, author of, African Art as Philosophy: Senghor, Bergson and the Idea of Negritude

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