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ABSTRACT
In tune with the atmosphere of the ‘global 60s’, Senegal experienced a major political crisis in May 1968 that began with a student strike, followed by the workers in a general strike. May ‘68 in Senegal was both global and local, and these aspects are not in opposition as has sometimes been the case in political and academic debates. The article goes beyond the events themselves and attempts to shed light on a period of ‘revolutionary politics’ that was triggered by the revolt of 1968. This has scarcely been documented, but has had a real influence on contemporary Senegalese politics.
RÉSUMÉ
Sensible à la conjoncture des « Global Sixties », le Sénégal a connu une crise politique majeure en mai 1968 qui a débuté par une grève étudiante, suivie par une grève générale de la part des travailleurs. « Mai 68 » au Sénégal fut un événement à la fois global et local, ce qui a conduit à des interprétations opposées dans le champ politique et dans l’univers académique. Cet article ne se focalise pas seulement sur cet événement mais s’efforce aussi de reconstituer la séquence de politisation révolutionnaire, déclenchée par la révolte de 1968. Cette histoire n’a guère été documentée alors qu’elle a exercé une influence importante sur la vie politique sénégalaise contemporaine.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Note on contributor
Pascal Bianchini holds a PhD in Sociology (Paris VII, 1997). He has recently published Scolarisation, mobilité sociale et genèse d'une société de classes au Burkina Faso (2018, L’Harmattan). His research interests include educational policies but also social movements and revolutionary left organisations in Africa.
Notes
1 A revised edition was issued for the 50th anniversary of May 1968 (Bathily Citation2018).
2 See, for instance, Diop (Citation2002, 65) for insightful comment on the gap in Senegalese historiography regarding the Parti africain de l’indépendance, due to a ‘political culture of clandestinity’ and a prevailing ‘law of silence’ even several decades after this period.
3 The author based this article on 22 life-story interviews with former militants; and five interviews with witnesses/analysts of the 1970s and the political history of the left in Senegal (see Appendix I, and for information about the interviewees and further information about the paper, its aims and methodological approach). The author also visited the French diplomatic archives in Nantes and La Courneuve in France in July 2018.
4 The expression of malaise paysan (peasant unrest) refers to the crisis in the groundnut economy during the late 1960s: peasants indebted to government agencies such as the Office national de coopération et d’assistance au développement (National Office for Cooperation and Development Assistance, ONCAD) refused to pay these debts and turned away from official marketing channels (Casswell Citation1984). Therefore, the term of ‘unrest’ here must be understood as an ‘exit option’ rather than openly voicing disagreement.
5 The decisive role of the army under Jean Alfred Diallo is now clearly established, with the publication of a memo from Diallo in which he asked Senghor to accept a compromise with the trade unionists (Bathily Citation2018).
6 Islam in Senegal is overwhelmingly organised within the Sufi brotherhoods as the Tijanis and the Murids, with a personal connection between the marabout and his disciple (talibe).
7 Lat Jor was the last damel (king) of Cayor. He fought against the colonial troops of Faidherbe but was defeated and killed in 1886. Along with other figureheads such as Alboury Ndiaye, Lat Jor epitomises the anticolonial resistance from the Wolof kingdoms.
8 David Diop (1927–1960) was Senegalese and was born in France in Bordeaux. He is well known for his poems (Coups de pilon, 1956) but was also a member of the Parti africain de l’indépendance (PAI) who went to Guinea in 1958 in solidarity with the new independent state established against the French commonwealth (Communauté franco-africaine).
9 A detailed account of this two-tier process can be found within the novel Les sanglots de l’espoir (The sobs of hope): the political organisation is named after Fanon’s book The wretched of the earth and the name of the grassroots organisation is the Artistic, Literary and Cultural Centre of the River Region (Foyer artistique littéraire et culturel du fleuve) (Dia Citation1987).
10 Omar Blondin Diop also took part in Jean-Luc Godard’s film La Chinoise in 1967. An exhibition in Centre Beaubourg in Paris and a documentary by Vincent Messeen have been dedicated to him (Meessen Citation2018).
11 Daniel Cohn-Bendit organised an anti-Senghor demonstration in Germany when the Senegalese president was invited to the Frankfurt Book Fair in October 1969 (Blum Citation2012, 173).
12 During the same period, another organisation, the Mouvement démocratique de la Jeunesse du Sénégal (Democratic Movement of Senegalese Youth) was launched in March 1970 (MDJS Citation1970). Most of its leadership were former student activists, as was its president Abdoulaye Bathily, a PAI member who took part in the negotiations between the UDES and the Senegalese government in September 1968. The idea was to bring youth – students and workers alike – together, but the movement has not existed for a long time.
13 The experience of the Incendiaires has been recounted in a leaflet ‘Lettre de Dakar’ inspired by ‘situationists’ (Libre association d’individus libres Citation1978), though it is not really accurate to consider the Blondinist group as situationists.
14 The other members of PAI remained in hiding and their party was known as ‘PAI-Senegal’ until 1981, when it was made legal under the name of Parti de l’indépendance et du travail (Independence and Labour Party, PIT).
15 Téerébtánnu taalifu xare Senegaal : Ferñent mën na taalug daay (Citation2016 [1977]), which means ‘Collection of Senegalese struggle poems: a spark can start a prairie fire’.
16 These ‘post-68’ aspects are more developed in a forthcoming article, ‘1968 au Sénégal : un héritage politique en perspective’, based on my paper presented at a workshop in Bayreuth (Bianchini Citation2017), whereas this article focuses on the political history of the radical left in Senegal during the decade after 1968.