Quote by Léopold Sédar Senghor: “Emotion is Negro as reason is Hellenic.”

Léopold Sédar Senghor was arguing that African culture is grounded in emotional and intuitive ways of knowing the world, not just rational analysis. Though controversial, it was a deliberate attempt to revalue African ways of being in a world that had dismissed them.

Senghor developed Negritude theory through the 1950s and 1960s as a philosophical and literary movement that celebrated Black African culture, history, and values. This was a direct response to French colonial ideology, which had systematically devalued African thought and aesthetics.

Senegalese poet, politician, and philosopher who became the first President of Senegal in 1960. He was a co-founder of the Négritude movement, which celebrated African cultural identity in response to French colonial assimilation policies, and the first African elected to the Académie française.