Senghor and the Federal Republic of Germany’s Opening in 1968 : For a Transnational Germany-France-Africa History

Résumé 0

The awarding of the peace-award by the union of German editors and booksellers (Börsenverein) to Léopold Sédar Senghor in 1968 should have, according to the organizers, symbolized the opening of West-Germany cultural politics towards the African continent and the former European colonies. However, Senghor’s role in the student uprisings in Senegal in May 1968 gave rise to a massive protest campaign organized by the German student movement and the Union of German socialist students ( Sozialistischer deutscher Studentenbund, SDS) against the Senegalese president on the occasion of the awarding in Frankfurt’s Paulskirche in September 1968. This paper analyzes the transnational networks that shaped the perception of Senghor and the black African culture in the 1950s and 1960s in Germany among both the supporters and the opponents of the distinction. It reveals the important role played by the relationship with France during this period to forge the image of the poet and, more generally, of the African continent in the German public opinion. The strong ties that united the young Federal Republic to France on the level of cultural policies underline the necessity to qualify the concept of the "Westernization" of West-Germany after 1945 which is usually associated in the historical debates with the exchanges with the US and the Anglo-Saxon world. The case studied here thus underlines once more the importance of a broader transnational approach for understanding of Germany’s contemporary history after 1945.