Editing Léopold Sédar Senghor (section)

==Négritude==
{{Main article|Négritude}}
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[[File:MohamedSayeh.jpg|thumb|Senghor with [[Habib Bourguiba]] and [[Mohamed Sayah]], [[Carthage Palace]], 1980]]

With [[Aimé Césaire]] and [[Léon Damas]], Senghor created the concept of ''[[Négritude]]'', an important intellectual movement that sought to assert and valorise what they believed to be distinctive African characteristics, values, and aesthetics. One of these African characteristics that Senghor theorised was asserted when he wrote "the Negro has reactions that are more ''lived,'' in the sense that they are more direct and concrete expressions of the sensation and of the stimulus, and so of the object itself with all its original qualities and power." This was a reaction against the too-strong dominance of French culture in the colonies, and against the perception that Africa did not have a culture developed enough to stand alongside that of Europe. In that respect ''négritude'' owes significantly to the pioneering work of [[Leo Frobenius]].

Building upon historical research identifying ancient Egypt with black Africa, Senghor argued that sub-Saharan Africa and Europe are in fact part of the same cultural continuum, reaching from Egypt to classical Greece, through Rome to the European colonial powers of the modern age. [[Négritude]] was by no means—as it has in many quarters been perceived—an anti-white racism, but rather emphasised the importance of dialogue and exchange among different cultures (e.g., European, African, Arab, etc.).

A related concept later developed in [[Mobutu]]'s [[Zaire]] is that of ''[[Authenticité (Zaire)|authenticité]]'' or Authenticity.

===Décalage===
In colloquial French, the term décalage is used to describe jetlag, lag or a general discrepancy between two things. However, Senghor uses the term to describe the unevenness in the African Diaspora. The complete phrase he uses is "Il s'agit, en réalité, d'un simple décalage—dans le temps et dans l'espace", meaning that between Black Africans and African Americans there exists an inconsistency, both temporally and spatially. The time element points to the advancing or delaying of a schedule or agenda, while the space aspect designates the displacing and shifting of an object. The term points to "a bias that refuses to pass over when one crosses the water". He asks, how can we expect any sort of solidarity or intimacy from two populations that diverged more than 500 years ago?