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Sub Saharan Africa

Senegal

 Flag of Senegal

Map of Senegal Last reviewed: 02 June 2009

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HISTORY

The areas of Senegal around Dakar and St Louis, colonised in the 1840s, were the earliest parts of the formal French empire in sub-Saharan Africa. Dakar was the capital of French West Africa from the early 1900s. Some Africans from this region were granted full French citizenship, and a handful of individuals became prominent in French public life, such as Blaise Diagne and Leopold Sedar Senghor, both members of the French parliament in the colonial period.

On independence in 1960, Senghor became the country’s first President. Famous for his intellectual and literary achievements, his rule was peaceful and largely benevolent, although the country was a one party state from 1966 until multiparty democracy was introduced in 1974. In 1980 Senghor retired, handing the presidency to his Prime Minister Abdou Diouf, who subsequently confirmed his position by winning presidential elections in 1983 and again in 1988.

The presidential elections of 1988 were marred by allegations of fraud and followed by serious rioting. Opposition leaders were tried for incitement to violence, and some, including the veteran opposition leader Abdoulaye Wade, were convicted. The Socialist Party (PS) won legislative elections in 1993 and 1998 and President Diouf was re-elected in 1993. However, with the economy declining in the 1990s and with a series of splits within the PS, the party's old aura of invincibility began to fade.

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