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ROAPE’s Leo Zeilig interviews researcher, writer and activist Florian Bobin on the deepening crisis in Senegal. Bobin describes the repression and bloodshed of the last few years, and the efforts to unseat the president. He analyses the potential for a radical left alternative emerging in the country, based on the “deep, systemic re-foundation” of society and its institutions. If this does not happen, Bobin argues, the ranks of the opposition once in power will have at their disposal the same powers that oppressed them.

Fifty years ago, on May 11, 1973, young Senegalese revolutionary philosopher Omar Blondin Diop died in detention under suspicious circumstances in Dakar. Our understanding of liberation movements in Africa tends to focus on struggles in colonial settings, yet Florian Bobin argues that over sixty years after Senegal’s independence, Diop’s life, work, and legacy reveal what revolutionary politics looks like in a neo-colonial context.

In March, Senegal experienced unprecedented popular protests. Recently released from prison, activist Guy Marius Sagna, founding member of the Front for an Anti-Imperialist Popular and Pan-African Revolution (Frapp–France Dégage), argues in this interview with Florian Bobin and Maky Madiba Sylla that anti-imperialism is gaining ground in the country.

In Senegal, the “Diary Sow case” has reopened the debate on the elitist French grandes écoles system. Over fifty years ago, Senegalese revolutionary Omar Blondin Diop had made a strong case against them in a film synopsis. Today, his family has decided to make this previously unpublished text public. Florian Bobin writes about what is going on.  

The mythification of ‘poet-president’ Léopold Sédar Senghor has blurred our understanding of his real legacy. Recalling that he was both a poet and a president is a fact, but associating both, while refusing to recognize the authoritarianism he displayed, Florian Bobin argues, creates a dangerous historical myth.

On May 11, 1973, young Senegalese revolutionary philosopher Omar Blondin Diop died in detention under suspicious circumstances. Our understanding of liberation movements in Africa tends to focus on struggles in colonial settings, yet Florian Bobin argues that sixty years after Senegal’s independence, Blondin Diop’s life, work, and legacy help reveal what revolutionary politics look like in a neo-colonial state.

This series on state repression and police brutality in Senegal arrives as the nation transitions to a new presidency. The blog documents cases of torture, killings, and unlawful arrests suffered by political opponents and ordinary citizens in Senegal, providing clear evidence to the public of the abuses under the Macky Sall regime. ROAPE shares two pieces by journalist Moussa Ngom, which are introduced by Senegalese Scholar-activist Rama Salla Dieng and contextualised by activist Florian Bobin.

Eugénie Rokhaya Aw, imprisoned under the regime of Léopold Sédar Senghor, was an active Senegalese left-wing activist who fought clandestinely for the country’s democratisation in the 1970s. More than a year after her passing in July 2022, her testimony sheds light on the struggles of several generations who fought imperialism beyond official African independences.

David Tonghou Ngong writes about the importance of understanding Leopold Senghor’s poetry when thinking about his perspective on political power. Senghor’s 1951 poem “Chaka” captures his own situation as a person torn between his duties as poet and politician. Ngong argues that from this perspective, we should see Senghor as a complex figure who was neither saint nor sinner.

As large protests have rocked Senegal, the government has used live fire and militias to crush the movement. A collective of Senegalese artists and academics calls for President Macky Sall to be held accountable for his crimes.