20 great quotes by Léopold Sédar Senghor

“Léopold Sédar Senghor is a Senegalese artist, poet, politician, writer and president. He was born on 9 October 1906 in Joal, Senegal. He died on 20 December 2001 in Verson, France. He was the first president of the Republic of Senegal. He chose to leave politics to devote himself fully to poetry. A poet who fell into politics in spite of himself, he explains in a quote: “I entered the political world of chameleons in spite of myself, my vocation was different.”

Afroculture.net presents you with some fantastic quotes from this great inspirational man :

Quote 1:

“No, you didn’t die for free. You are witnesses of the immortal Africa, you are witnesses of the new world that will be tomorrow.”

Léopold Sédar Senghor – Blacks in the Nazi campsN

Quote 2:

“No one has the right to erase my culture, because a community without culture is a people without human beings.

Quote 3:

“To think and act by ourselves and for ourselves, as Negroes…, to access modernity without trampling on our authenticity.”

Quote 4:

“Our new nobility is not to dominate our people, but to be their rhythm and their heart.”

Chants d’ombre followed byHosties noires, Léopold Sédar Senghor, éd. Seuil, 1945

Quote 5:

“Racists are people with the wrong anger.”

Quote 6:

“You have only to listen to God’s trombones, to your heart. Beating to the rhythm of blood, your blood.”

Citation 7 :

“We do not inherit the land from our parents, we borrow it from our children.”

Citation 8 :

“I say there is no armed peace, no peace under oppression. No brotherhood without equality. I wanted all men to be brothers.”

Citation 9 :

“Who can sing to you but your brother in arms, your brother in blood. You Senegalese Tirailleurs, my black brothers with warm hands, lying under ice and death?”

Hosties noires (1948), Opening poem by Léopold Sédar Senghor

Citation 10 :

“Deep in the well of my memory, I touch your face where I draw the water that refreshes my long regret.”

Chants d’ombre followed byHosties noires, Léopold Sédar Senghor, éd. Seuil, 1945

Quote 11:

“I sing of your passing beauty, a form I fix in the Eternal, before jealous fate reduces you to ashes to nourish the roots of life.”

Chants d’ombre suivi deHosties noires, Léopold Sédar Senghor, éd. Seuil, 1945

Quote 12:

“To dance is to discover and recreate, especially when the dance is a dance of love. It is, in any case, the best mode of knowledge.”

Quote 13:

“The poem is only complete if it becomes song, word and music at the same time.”

Quote 14:

“I dreamed of a world of sunshine in the brotherhood of my blue-eyed brothers.”

Quote 15:

“Poetry must not perish. For then, where would be the hope of the World?”

Quote 16:

“I dreamed of a world of sunshine in the brotherhood of my blue-eyed brothers.”

Quote 17:

“We are the men of the dance, whose feet regain strength by striking the hard ground.”

Chants d’ombre Hosties noires de Léopold Sédar Senghor

Quote 18:

“Every clump of grass hides an enemy.”

Quote 19:

“I will tear the Banania smile off every wall in France.”

Quote 20:

“Unlike the classical European, the Negro-African does not distinguish himself from the object, he does not hold it at a distance, he does not look at it, he does not analyse it. He touches it, he feels it, he smells it.”

Credit: Léopold Sédar Senghor quote