Listen to Africa: A Call from LS Senghor. Translated by Pierre de Fontnouvelle

Authors

Josiane Nespoules-Neuville
University of Maryland
Pierre De Fontnouvelle

Keywords:

African Identity, Leopold Senghor, Poetry, African philosophy

Synopsis

Standing at the crossroads of two civilisations, Leopold Sedar Senghor views Africa today as unstable and deeply vulnerable, the whole continent in danger of losing its soul, its culture, while Western ideologies expand in a predatory manner, involviong the suppresion of alternative identities.
The contemporary world, driven by the Power of Science and Economics, which disregard Man's specific spiritual dimension, has become a cauldron of senseless violence. Faced with this formidable challenge, Senghor calls out with the utmost urgency to all men, in both Africa and the West: Heed the Ancestral Voice of Africa!
These timeless voices reflect fundamental ethics, emphasize the Life force and focus primarily on being. IN this traditional African view, man is called upon to develop and experience fully his intellectual, spiritual and sensual nature, in a quest of harmony with mankind, the cosmos and God.

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Chapters

  • Front matter
    Foreword: LS Senghor: The man and the author
  • Part One: Entering the forest of intiation
    1. The mutilation of Man; 2. Civilisations at a Standstill
  • Part Two: The night of Initiation: The many forms of existential Angst
    1. The acknowledgment of Anxieties, 2. Responses to anguish
  • Part Three: The initiatory teaching: Presence and transcendence
    1. Negritude, 2. The African tradition and Christology
  • Conclusion: Tradition and universalism
    Notes, Glossary, Bibliography, Index

Author Biography

Josiane Nespoules-Neuville, University of Maryland

Josiane Nespoulous-Neuville holds a Master's Degree in Law from the UNiversity of Bordeaux, and a PhD in Literature from the University of Maryland and the University of Benin in Lome, Togo. She has made a close study of the works of Leopld Senghor, statesman and poet. IN 1988 Dr Nespoulous-Neuville received from the Academie Francaise the prestigious Narcisse Michaut aard for her essay From tradition to universalism, a discussion of the many sources of Senghor's poetic inspiration and the relevance of his thinking to some of the challenges facing our societies. This was swiftly folloed by several other publications on Senghor's works, including `How I became a Senghorian dsiciple' in Ethiopiques - a special issue for President Senghor's birthday.

Published

June 17, 1999

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