ABSTRACT
Senghor was born on 9 October 1906 in Joal, south of Dakar in what was then French West Africa. He was the fifth son of six children born to Basile Diogoye Senghor, a farmer and merchant, and his last wife Gnilane Bakhoum. Senghor was born into a prosperous Serer Catholic family, but he was born outside the four communes where Africans were entitled to French citizenship and some other privileges. In 1914 he began his education at the Catholic boarding school in N’Gasobil, and then from 1923 was a pupil at the College Liberman in Dakar. He passed the baccalaureate in 1927 and on the basis of his excellent academic results was granted a scholarship by the French government. In the following year he left for France to continue his studies at the Lycée Louis-le-Grand in Paris and from 1931 at the Sorbonne University where he studied literature. In 1933, with the help of the Senegalese politician Blaise Diagne, he was granted French citizenship and subsequently became the first African to pass the agrégation de l’Université in grammar, one of the highest examinations in France, which selects teachers for secondary schools and universities.
