My Country Is Witnessing a Messy, Buffoonish End of Rule
On Dec. 31, 1980, Léopold Sédar Senghor, the first president of Senegal, announced that he was leaving power. At 74, he felt that his time was up. When courtiers tried to convince him to reverse his decision, he reportedly replied, with a smile: “Don’t you know how the Senegalese are? If I go back on my word, they’ll laugh at me”. His act was especially remarkable at a time when dictators for life were common across the African continent. Even if his political record remains controversial to this day, Mr. Senghor, a fervent Catholic poet, was open-minded enough to lead a majority Muslim country and even managed to make it a model of stability in the region.… Seguir leyendo »