Senegal wants to acquire the property of its former president Senghor auctioned in Caen

The property of Léopold Sédar Senghor, the former president of Senegal from 1960 to 1980, will be sold at auction on Saturday October 21 in Caen. We find “jewelry and military decorations of Léopold Sédar Senghor” and various other objects. Rings, bracelets, pendants and watches are cited as part of the collection.

Senegal has announced that it wants to acquire these goods for “preserve memory and heritage” from the former president in a press release sent Friday October 20 to AFP. “These lots from the estate of Léopold Sédar Senghor come from an individual and not from the fund bequeathed to the town hall of Verson“, the locality which housed the family home of the wife of the former Senegalese head of state, Colette Senghor.

Possible discussions with the Senegalese embassy

President Macky Sallasked the Minister of Culture and Historical Heritage (Aliou Sow), in conjunction with the Senegalese Embassy in Paris, to initiate appropriate discussions with the auctioneer (of the auction), with a view to allowing the acquisition by the State of Senegal of the objects put up for sale“, indicates a press release from the Ministry of Culture.

Poet and writer, Léopold Sédar Senghor was a champion of Négritude, a movement for the defense of the cultural values ​​of the black world that he founded in the 1930s with the Martinican Aimé Césaire and the Guyanese Léon Gontran Damas. Graduated in French grammar, he was the first African member of the French Academy. He died in 2001 in Verson at the age of 95.

Finnish and Saudi objects and collections of valuable coins according to the commissioners, will be auctioned at the same time as President Senghor’s objects.