Interview with Souleymane Bachir Diagne

He is one of the most eminent figures in African philosophy. Born in Saint-Louis, Senegal in 1955, Souleymane Bachir Diagne did his higher education in France and today works in the United States. Although he initially studied logic and mathematics, his career also led him to be interested in Islamic philosophy, translation, intercultural dialogue, and today the more general question of universalism. How can cultures dialogue, when the news more often seems to depict a world at war? For this professor at Columbia University, black and Muslim in a white and Christian society, always straddling Africa, Europe and America, this is not a theoretical question but a daily reality. Lawyer of a lateral universalism » and dynamic, it shows that the challenge is not so much to propose a new base of values, as to imagine new ways of coming together to dialogue and debate.

You grew up in Saint-Louis, Senegal. What influence did your native country have on your thinking?

Saint-Louis has been a mixed city from the beginning. It was born both French and African, welcomed numerous migrants throughout its history – Moroccans, Mauritanians, etc. – and remains a major intellectual center for the Islamic culture of West Africa. French schools were created there from the beginning of the 19^e century, while the town received the status of “full-function commune” – the inhabitants were not subjects of the French State but citizens represented by a deputy in the Assembly. All this creates a “Saint-Louisian” state of mind: in Senegal, there is even a unique Wolof expression to designate the “children of Saint-Louis”, while we do not say “the children of Dakar” or “ de Gorée” for example. It is a culture of mixing, valuing education and intellectual research. My parents passed on their desire for school to me, my mother because she always wondered what her life would have been like if she had studied for a long time, and my father because he had gone too late. to his taste – at the age of only 12. He was a voracious reader, our libraries were overflowing everywhere. I remember the complete works of Sartre and Camus, Koranic treatises by great Muslim masters, but also numerous novels. Sometimes my father would recite the first paragraphs of Atlantis (1919) by Pierre Benoît, whom he knew by heart.

And you, what were the first stories that had an impact on you?

My mother told me a lot of stories. One of my first books must be The Beautiful Story of Leuk-le-Lièvre (1953). It is a collection for children written by the future president Léopold Senghor and the teacher Abdoulaye Sadji. In Senegal, the hare occupies the same place as the fox in France. It is an intelligent but cunning animal. Each tale illustrates a simple moral: gluttony is always punished, cunning can triumph over force, etc. But rereading it as an adult, I realized that the chapters form a cycle: Leuk-the-Hare little by little transmits his malice and his wisdom to the latest born animal, a little human raised by lions. He makes him aware of mutual aid and solidarity, allowing him to return to his village of origin and become its king. It is an initiatory story that promotes education and humanism. Later, as a teenager, I was especially attracted to novels with a philosophical scope. I loved those of Jean-Paul Sartre, whose plays I also read – even if I didn’t understand everything! These personal readings were crucial for my training, because at school we studied classics in old French, such as the medieval poems of Rutebeuf, which was absurd and not very educational in reality.

What led you to study philosophy in France?

In Senegal, I was lucky enough to be admitted to a high school of excellence, where the highest ranked students entering sixth form and the children of French cooperants met. It was in final year that I discovered the preparatory class system. I remind you that Senghor himself had been trained at the Louis-le-Grand high school in Paris, and that he was a model for many young Senegalese people. This pushed me to choose the same establishment when I was admitted to hypokhâgne. At the same time, I also had the opportunity to continue my studies at INSA Lyon, a major engineering school. I took the plane to France in total indecision! I loved philosophy, but I also loved science and math. I finally opted for the path of passion, at a time when we could still afford it. It was the beginning of the 1970s, there was full employment and an optimistic atmosphere… If I had to make the same choice today, I would probably bet on a career as an engineer. In prep, we learn humility. After being used to being at the top of your class, you discover for the first time that you can get bad grades. Or failing the Normale Sup exam first before passing, as I have experienced with many.