Dakar, Dec 21 (APS) – The Minister of Youth, Sports and Culture, Khady Diène Gaye called for the preservation of the work of Léopold Sédar Senghor (1906-2001), considering that the poet president “neither did not just write about Africa, but built and transformed it.
''President Senghor [Léopold Sédar Senghor premier président du Sénégal de 1960 à 1981]whose memory must be preserved, was not content with writing Africa, he wanted to build and transform it, to place it in modernity,'' she declared.
Ms. Gaye spoke at the opening of the exhibition dedicated to the life and work of Léopold Sedar Senghor at the Maison de la culture Douta Seck with the theme ''Senghor from pen to trowel, an ambition for the Senegal''.
It is part of the commemoration of the 23rd anniversary of the death of the president-poet.
''If we honor Léopold Sédar Senghor today, it is not out of nostalgia, it is because his legacy is always a compass which teaches us that culture strengthens the identity of a nation'', underlined the minister.
She indicated that Senghor, whose pulse beats to the rhythm of culture, is ''a man who knew how to combine his poet's pen with the trowel of a builder of the national framework''.
For the director of books and reading Ibrahima Lo, ''this exhibition offers another perspective on the life and work of Léopold Sédar Senghor'', because he continues, ''it highlights his intellectual and political contributions , but also its ambitions for a modern and universal Senegal.
According to Ibrahima Lo, the richness of his heritage and his dream of a proud and sovereign Africa, emancipated and open to the world, are a source of inspiration.
''From the architect of consciences quite simply to the architect of infrastructures and institutions, Senghor wanted a Senegal affirmed in its cultural singularity and living from its own genius,'' he said.
Politician, writer and poet, Léopold Sédar Senghor born in Joal in Senegal and died in Verson in France was the first African to be admitted to the French Academy on June 2, 19883.
He was also the first grammar teacher in 1935.
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