Senegal to buy first president, Senghor’s jewellery at auction

Senegal said Friday it wants to buy former possessions of its first president at an auction Saturday in France, to “preserve the memory and heritage” of Leopold Sedar Senghor.

President Macky Sall has asked the culture minister, together with the Senegalese embassy in Paris, to enter into “appropriate discussions” with the auctioneer, it said in a statement received by AFP.

The items, to be auctioned in Caen, include Senghor’s military jewellery and decorations, as well as various other objects, the culture ministry said in the statement.

Rings, bracelets, pendants and watches are listed as part of the collection.

“These lots from the estate of Leopold Sedar Senghor come from a private individual…,” the Caen auction house said on its website.

Senghor, a poet, writer and professor before he became president, was a champion of the “Negritude” movement founded in the 1930s with Aime Cesaire and Leon Gontran Damas.

He fought for France during the Second World War and was the first African to be admitted to France’s Academie Francaise.

President of Senegal from 1960 to 1980, he died in France at the age of 95.

AFP

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