Décolonisation et construction nationale au Sénégal

Abstract

Décolonisation et construction nationale au Sénégal This study takes decolonisation as being the time during which several political formations were suggested and ideas for economic strategies forged. For Senegal, this period began roughly after the Second World War and ended in 1963, when the moderate forces had won against the more radical ones. This analysis focuses on the most powerful political actor, the main party on the Senegalese side. The party’s main concerns were the improvement of living standards, the removal of colonial and racist structures, and the reconquest of cultural dignity. During the decolonisation process, cultural emancipation and strategies for economic development were discussed by Senegalese intellectuals and politicians. The idea of federalism, reaching beyond borders and covering all or part of French West Africa, was also one of the slogans of this fight against colonisation and for the advent of a solid economic ensemble. But as can be seen today, all this eventually only lead to the formation of a nation-state.