Essence and Existence X
By Franz J. T. Lee
7th November, 1999
Léopold Senghor
SCENE: Philosophy Seminar
(A week later. The usual procedure.
Prof. Coseino gives his lecture and sums
up the previous debate. Then he opens the discussion period.)
Coseino: My dear students, I see that the hall can't take all the inquisitive "hornets" anymore. Perhaps, next time, we should move next door to the "bull-ring". Anyhow, today Léopold Senghor is on the order of the day. Next week, we will deal with Frantz Fanon . Before, in my introductory lecture, I already introduced the Diops, Césaire and other African poets. Thus, let us begin with Senghor today! Nelson, I know that you are world renown, and that you are fully acquainted with all African presidents. Kindly introduce us to Senghor.
Winnie: Professor, this is a man's world. Nelson, who favours "One Man, One Vote" in Africa, for sure, will give us a "man's view", let me try to seduce Léopold!
Coseino: Fair enough. If you do not mind, Nelson, let Winnie do the job for us. Surely, you two are a typical case study for Wilhelm Reich. Also, for Jung, who would have been mightily pleased, extremely excited, to study your specific human "archetype". Kindly, emphasize the political philosophic aspects of "Negritude" today! They are extremely relevant in the drafting of a new philosophic outlook.
Karl: Nothing to do with psychology; their problem is a simple case of a "lovers' quarrel", generated by jealousy.
Patricia: But, Karl, "jealousy" is psychological, it has to do with the "inferiority complex", which Frantz Fanon mentioned.
Nelson: Never mind what they are gossiping about, Winnie; it is a sado-masochistic trait worth psychological analysis and treatment. As you confirmed already last time, everybody knows that I am an English gentleman, that it is my British inheritance. Go ahead, my dear! We will not make bones, or throw tokoloshe bones, about this issue.
Winnie: Léopold Sédar Senghor was born on Oct. 9, 1906, in Joal, in French West Africa, now known as the politically independent State, Senegal. His father was a rich trader of the Serer tribe. Like most African men, who had received a little education from some Christian mission school or seminary, -- which, as all of us know, was also the case of Prof. Coseino himself, -- Léopold wanted to become a religious teacher, a Roman Catholic priest.
However, at the age of 20, perhaps, thanks to the sweet Serer ladies, he changed his mind. His father, noticing the worldly desires of his beloved son, then decided to send him to a secondary school, to a Lycée in Dakar. However, like most "Third World" male intellectuals, the young student was also dreaming about Paris. In 1928, aided by a scholarship, he inscribed himself at the Lycée Louis-le-Grand and, later, as a university student of the Sorbonne. (The classical case of the inferiority-complex of the "colonized", as described by Frantz Fanon...)
Already then, among African writers and poets, the belief in the "greatness" of African arts, music, painting, sculpture and poetry was sown to the four winds of the globe. The young Senghor was a brilliant student, and in 1935, he was the first African to reach the level of agrégé, the highest ranking of a teacher in the then reigning French School system.
Albert: This means that the road was clear for Léopold to become more French than the French themselves. Soon he would become a "Darling" of France, a "Sweetheart" of the "Western World", which would crown him with literary honours, political decorations and book prizes. And the poor "Africanist" students would be forced to study his "Negritude Philosophy".
Winnie: Surely, exactly that was happening, which is another macho "complex", which our William should study. In Tours, he began to teach French to French.
Mahatma: But, in 1939, the European Second World War broke out. What did the assimilated "foreigner" do? Why did he not return to French West Africa, to apply his knowledge at home, to educate his fellowmen?
Patricia: Mahatma, now you are arguing like a German Foreign Officer, who is applying the Immigration Law! Why should he not do whatever he felt like, or work where it pleased him?
Winnie: This is exactly what Léopold
did, but he suffered the consequences. In 1939, he was drafted as a French
citizen, then
during the war, in 1940, the Nazis captured him, and he was thrown into
a concentration camp.
Alfred: Oh, my gosh! This becomes interesting. I do not understand, why they made such a fuss about "Gandhi"; they should have filmed "Léopold".
Bill: For sure, Alfred, but not this Léopold, the other one, King Léopold II, the "Butcher of the Belgian Congo", who had possessed that huge African territory as his personal private property. It is a similar case, like Cecil John Rhodes, who personally had owned the whole of Zimbabwe, and more. Can you imagine filming over 10 million murdered Africans, resurrecting, holding hands, going right around the globe, holding "the whole world in their arms". And then, they would begin to sing: "We Are The World! We Are The People!" Imperialist, European Arrogance and Inhumanity have no limits, not even the sky is the limit; there are no words in any world language to describe this "civilized, cultural" farce! And, these imperialist countries want to teach us about "human rights", "democracy" and "peace"!
I certainly could supply Microsoftware for this gigantic plastic enterprise. Also, nobody talks about paying compensation to any descendants of enslaved Africans, nobody made a film about the 25000 African victims of Hitler's Germany, who lived there and were considered to be an "impure race". They were sterilized by force, to avoid that they could violate the "Aryan" women; they were robbed of their citizenship, and many of them were vegetating, and eventually perished in the labour and concentration camps.
Coseino: Proceed, Winnie. How long did he vegetate in the Nazi concentration camp?
Winnie: During a much shorter period than many an unfortunate Jew. And, like the Arab philosophers, there he wrote many of his most brilliant poems. He was lucky, two years later, he was released, but, looking for more trouble, he immediately joined the French Resistance.
As an assimilated French citizen, he became a member of the French Constituent Assembly, and in 1946, he became a deputy to the National Assembly in Paris. As we can see, Léopold integrated himself fully into the French status quo. He would never ever represent the cause of the "Wretched of the Earth". This fact we should not forget while we continue to elaborate his philosophy, or rather "Ideology of Negritude".
Mahatma: I am amazed how smart, how serpentlike many a "Great African Leader" can be! If I remember correctly, around 1947, in Senegal, he was elected on a Socialist ticket, and in 1948, he founded the Senegalese Democratic Bloc.
Winnie: You see what I mean! Léopold was already self-governing, governing by himself.
Jeanette: We always read about the topics of our next class beforehand; now I understand why in 1956, Senegal was the first African country to oppose the French loi cadre Act, which was intended to give the Overseas French Territories a certain measure of self-government. Also, it is clear, why Léopold was a co-founder of the Senegalese Progressive Union, the successor of the Socialist Party, which, till the early 1990s, remained as the ruling party of Senegal.
Mahatma: By 1962, even his own African people noticed, that he, including his Negritude, was simply a henchman of French Imperialism. Winnie, what happened thereafter?
Winnie: Well, traitors never have real friends. In late 1962, his old-time friend and protégé, Prime Minister Mamadou Dia, attempted a coup d'état against his government.
William: And, of course, the psychology of the masses during fascism, in this case, neocolonialism, celebrated its victory. Mind control then already functioned perfectly well. Do you agree with me, Jeffrey?
Jeffrey: Of course, just look what happened in Senegal! In the Sorbonne, the French Illuminati had trained Léopold exceedingly well in bamboozling the mind of the masses. Parallel, in British Guiana, a similar Maquiavellian figure, Linden Forbes Sampson Burnham, played the same "Socialist" tune! Winnie, please, tell us what happened in Senegal!
Winnie: At University, I was never taught the "real thing". Now you understand why I insisted that Nelson should not relate the "Negritude" Drama. He surely would have told us another story, His Story, about "History". Okay! Of course, the Senegalese masses, the manipulated, mind-controlled "Pavlov-Dogs", who had been leading a stray dog's life under his iron-fist neo-colonial rule, rallied behind him, in support of their maximum leader.
Martina: In this case, the "people" deserve their master, and the master deserves his slaves. Nothing more to say! Also, nothing to cry or lament about anymore!
Winnie: Yes, indeed, the colour of the political panorama had changed, no more was it European "white", it, "the future", was "black" for Senegal. To make a long story short: Mamadou Dia was captured and sentenced to life imprisonment. Then, a new neo-colonial constitution was ratified, and Senghor was ready to be elected and to be reelected until December 15, 1980, serving five long successive terms of office, "serving" his people. They, the masses love their "Great African Leaders", and if Senghor had not retired all by himself, in the next millennium, the people, the masses would still vote for him. Mind Control has miraculous political effects!
Coseino: Now, let us scrutinize "political philosophy", the face value of the "socialism" of "negritude". Let us see how ideology operates, using "revolutionary vocabulary". Exactly all these, Frantz Fanon will criticize later.
Senghor, in his "socialist" euphoria, wanted to "modernize" Senegal, starting with its agriculture. Socially, he aimed at instilling a sense of "French Enlightenment" into the pauperized masses. Like all African leaders, he claimed to combat corruption and mismanagement of the economy.
Co-operating with France, as CEO, Senghor advocated "African Socialism", founded on firm African realities, culture and customs, but it should be democratic, humanistic, should be liberated from "Marxist" atheism and excessive "materialism". Hear, hear, he even protested against the "unfair terms of trade" on the world market!
If you did only know about Senghor, what I have mentioned just now,
and nothing else, then for sure, we would be fascinated by him, he would
be our "Man in Dakar"! This is why I always overstress, that we should not
listen to "sweet talk", nor quote any passage, from any author, which by
accident suits us, nor be fascinated by any article of anyone, whose ideology
we have not studied, even if we feel tantalized, and even if (s)he says exactly
that, what we want to hear. Surely, this is still no proof of the eating
of the pudding; hence, we should look before we leap,
think before we swallow, transcend before we digest any
text, any statement, any publication.
Already before, in the 1940s, Senghor and others had "discovered" Negritude as the literary, artistic and poetic expression of the Black African experience. He wrote "beautiful" poetry about this "experience", but in real political life, he applied drastic French colonial measures. So, why read or study a single poem which he wrote? Or, should we do it, just because he is "black", because he is an "African", or because it sounds "nice"?
Patricia: Nevertheless, tell us, which major works did he publish?
Coseino: Surely, I do not want to spoil
your literary appetite. Hundred thousands are fascinated by his poetry.
Here is a list:
Chants d'ombre (1945; "Songs of Shadow"),
Hosties noires (1948; "Black Offerings"),
Ethiopiques (1956),
Nocturnes (1961),
Elegies majeures (1979; "Major Elegies"),
Oeuvre poétique (1990; "Poetical Work").
As a result of his global fame, in 1984, Senghor became a honoured
member of the French Academy, being the first Black
member in the history of this cultural institution.
Jeanette: I have a serious problem. I do not see what we could learn from the ideology of Negritude. I don't know why we should study it at all. It does not serve the purposes of any new philosophy. It is just a waste of precious time.
Coseino: You just said it. All that, we can learn. It indicates to us what Ideology is, and how Philosophy does not exist. It shows how Ideology functions, and how Philosophy can make it dysfunctional. Surely, these are excellent lessons.
(The bell rings. Senghor fades away.)