Lamine Senghor (born 15 September 1889 in Joal, Senegal and died 25 November 1927 in Fréjus, France) was a Senegalese political activist, Senegalese

nationalist Nationalism is an idea or movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the State (polity), state. As a movement, it presupposes the existence and tends to promote the interests of a particular nation,Anthony D. Smith, Smith, A ...

, and member of the

French Communist Party The French Communist Party (, , PCF) is a Communism, communist list of political parties in France, party in France. The PCF is a member of the Party of the European Left, and its Member of the European Parliament, MEPs sit with The Left in the ...

. He ran as a candidate in the Paris local elections in 1924. Nonetheless he remained committed to an independent Senegal and became part of the internationalised struggle against

colonialism Colonialism is the control of another territory, natural resources and people by a foreign group. Colonizers control the political and tribal power of the colonised territory. While frequently an Imperialism, imperialist project, colonialism c ...

and

imperialism Imperialism is the maintaining and extending of Power (international relations), power over foreign nations, particularly through expansionism, employing both hard power (military and economic power) and soft power (diplomatic power and cultura ...

. In 1926 he co-founded the ''Comité de défense de la race nègre,'' which after a split turned into the '' Ligue de Defense de la Race Nègre'', a successful French anti-colonialist organisation which, after his death, spread to Germany. In 1927, shortly before his death, he was invited to attend the Congress of Oppressed Nationalities in

Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...

, where the

League against Imperialism The League Against Imperialism and Colonial Oppression (; ) was a transnational anti-imperialist organisation in the interwar period. It has also been referred to as the League of Oppressed People, and the World Anti-Imperialist League, or simp ...

was established. The meeting was significant because it brought together representatives and organizations from the communist world and anti-colonial organizations and activists from the colonized world. In his speech he denounced the crimes committed by the colonial administration in Congo, concluding that: "Imperialist exploitation has as a result the gradual extinction of African races. Their culture is going to be lost... For us, the anti-imperialist struggle is identical to anti-capitalist struggle."

Works

* Lamine Senghor: ''La Violation d´un Pays'', Paris 1927.

References

Senegalese activists 1889 births 1927 deaths Immigrants to France {{Senegal-bio-stub