"Black is our cause": the Dakar 66 festival or blossoming negritude (3)

Audio 48:30

Dakar airport, April 1966. Jean Mazel collection.

© PANAFEST Archive Collection

By: Valérie Nivelon

1 min

Third and last episode of our series “Noire est notre cause” or the first World Festival of Negro Arts in Dakar.

In the very young independent Senegal, the poet president Léopold Sédar Senghor inaugurates the first World Festival of Negro Arts.

For the first time in Africa, the creativity and thought of black artists and intellectuals is celebrated.

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After the creation of the review and publishing house Présence Africaine in 47, after the two congresses of black writers in Paris in 56 and Rome in 59, the World Festival of Negro Arts finally celebrates the flourishing negritude.

The culmination of a long fight initiated by Alioune Diop for the cause of blacks.

With :

The crossed testimonies of Bernard Schoeffer and Kader Diop, French and Senegalese journalists, they were 20 years old in 66 and they covered the festival.

As well as the testimonies of Roland Colin, former chief of staff of Senegalese Prime Minister Mamadou Dia and Paulin Joachim, Beninese poet.

The voices of Senghor, Alioune Diop, André Malraux, Aimé Césaire and Katherine Dunham.

And the participation of

Sarah Frioux Salgas

, head of archives at the Quai Branly Museum.

Archives and unpublished testimonies

Rfi and Ina sound documents

Festival soundtrack

“Noire est notre cause” is a series of three programs written with Amaury Hauchard and broadcast by Cécile Pompeani and Sophie Janin, with the help of Guillaume Thibault in Dakar.

Our thanks to

Sarah Frioux Salgas

for sharing her personal archives, as well as to

Jacqueline Sorel

, former producer of RFI and

Françoise Delignon,

our documentalist for the sound archives of RFI and Ina.

The website of Présence Africaine.

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  • Senegal

  • Literature

  • Culture Africa

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