Volume 37, Number 20 · December 20, 1990
Born Again African
By Roger Shattuck, Samba Ka
Black, French, and African: A Life of Léopold Sédar Senghor
by Janet G. Vaillant
Harvard University Press, 388 pp., $29.95
Œuvre poétique
by Léopold Sédar Senghor
Editions du Seuil, 439 pp., fr 18.95
Ce que je crois
by Léopold Sédar Senghor
Bernard Grasset, 254 pp., fr 33.75
On July 7, 1928, the graduation ceremonies of the new French lycée in Dakar, Senegal, were dignified by the presence of the governor general of West Africa Primarily the children of white colonial administrators and businessmen, the school's hundred-odd students included about fifteen Africans, only one in the graduating class. They had been put through their paces for the baccalaureate by examiners sent from Bordeaux to maintain French standards. After the speeches, when the prizes were finally awarded, the same student walked forward time after time to receive the book prize in each academic subject and then one last time to receive the outstanding student award conferred by the governor general himself.
Review, 7146 words
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