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The Underground Lives of Texts: Lamine Senghor’s La Violation d’un pays from Interwar France to Senegal’s Decolonization

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 May 2025

Fatoumata Seck Open the ORCID record for Fatoumata Seck [Opens in a new window]
Fatoumata Seck*
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Stanford University
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Email: fatoumata.seck@gmail.com
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Abstract

In 1979, the Maoist-inspired cultural movement Front Culturel Sénégalais (FCS) renewed interest in Lamine Senghor’s La Violation d’un pays (1927) through the underground republication of this pioneering work. Exploring the material history of La Violation d’un pays through the FCS’s repurposing of Senghor’s legacy as a key figure of interwar anti-imperialism during the long 1960s—when ongoing decolonization movements and youth protests fueled new forms of anti-imperialism—reveals transtemporal forms of anti-imperial solidarity and or: highlights the role of underground literary production in political struggle.

Résumé

Résumé

En 1979, le mouvement culturel d’inspiration maoïste Front Culturel Sénégalais (FCS) a renouvelé l’intérêt pour l’œuvre La Violation d’un pays (1927) de Lamine Senghor par la réédition clandestine de cet ouvrage pionnier. L’exploration de l’histoire matérielle de La Violation d’un pays à travers le repositionnement par le FCS au cours des longues années 1960 de l’héritage de Senghor comme figure clé de l’anti-impérialisme de l’entre-deux-guerres—lorsque les mouvements de décolonisation et ceux de la jeunesse contestataire alimentaient de nouvelles formes d’anti-impérialisme—révèle des formes transtemporelles de solidarité anti-impérialiste et le rôle de la production littéraire clandestine dans la lutte politique.

Resumo

Resumo

Em 1979, a Front Culturel Sénégalais (FCS; Frente Cultural Senegalesa), um movimento cultural inspirado no maoismo, fez recrudescer o interesse por La Violation d’un pays (1927; A Violação de Um País), de Lamine Senghor, através da republicação clandestina desta obra pioneira. A análise da história material de La Violation d’un pays e da recuperação, por parte da FCS durante a longa década de 1960 do legado de Senghor enquanto figura central do anti-imperialismo de entre guerras—quando os movimentos de descolonização e os protestos juvenis desencadearam novas formas de anti-imperialismo—permite identificar formas transtemporais de solidariedade anti-imperial e compreender o papel da produção literária clandestina nas lutas políticas.

Keywords

literatureanti-imperialismLamine SenghorundergroundLéopold Sédar Senghordecolonizationarchive

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Article
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African Studies Review , First View , pp. 1 - 24
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of African Studies Association

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