The Emergence and development of the theory of "African socialism" by Léopold Senghor

Abstract

The theory of "African socialism" by Léopold Senghor emerged in the late 1940s and early 1950s. It developed as a theory of political, socio-economic, and cultural progress adapted to African conditions and represented an attempt to establish a "middle path" of development, equally distant from both real socialism and Western capitalism. The ideological sources that played an important role in the formation and development of the theory were quite diverse. It was influenced by Pan-Africanism, "democratic socialism," the concept of Négritude previously created by Senghor, African traditions, Marxism, the ideas of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, and others. In Senghor's theory, Senegal sought the key to solving a number of problems that had arisen during the national liberation struggle and had intensified particularly in the years of independence.