African Presidents of Sudanese Origins (1/3): President Senghor – “I Am Nubian”

Ambassador Atta Al-Manan Bakhit
Sudan occupies a central position at the heart of a long geographical belt stretching from the shores of the Red Sea to the fringes of the Atlantic Ocean, known as the Sudanian Belt. Since ancient times, Sudan has played a major role within this interconnected belt. It was a land of significant migrations, most notably the great migration following the collapse of the Kingdom of Kush; the migration of Arab tribes and groups that arrived from the Maghreb and West Africa, carrying with them the message of Islam across western Sudan; and, finally, the continuous migrations that made Sudan an essential corridor along the African pilgrimage route.
These migrations endowed our country with a unique ethnic diversity within the African continent. At the same time, Sudan left a profound imprint on the culture and demographic composition of the countries of the Sudanian Sahel through population movements and interactions. It is therefore common to encounter individuals from various West African countries who affirm that their roots are Sudanese and who feel a deep nostalgia for the land of their ancestors. In this series of articles, we will discuss prominent African heads of state who were proud of their Sudanese origins. I have chosen to focus on these figures because they have all passed away; as for those still living, it would not be prudent to write about them at this time.
After voluntarily relinquishing the presidency of his country, the former Senegalese president and leader of independence, Léopold Sédar Senghor, devoted himself fully to the intellectual and cultural pursuits he had loved since early youth. He was one of the founders and theorists of the Negritude movement in the 1930s, which later evolved into a major current known as Africanism. Following the independence of most African states, Senghor travelled widely, delivering lectures on intellectual and cultural issues.
In 1982, President Senghor visited Sudan at the invitation of the Sudanese Socialist Union, then the sole political organisation of the May Revolution. He delivered a captivating lecture at the headquarters of the Socialist Union, expertly moderated by Dr Ismail Al-Haj Moussa, the Minister of Culture, himself a member of Sudan’s Francophone community.
At the time, we were students in the Department of French at Omdurman Islamic University, and we rushed enthusiastically to hear one of Africa’s towering intellectual figures and one of the great masters of the French language. We had studied Senghor’s poetry as part of our African literature curriculum. He was the author of Senegal’s national anthem, The Red Lion, and the poet who had early on celebrated the beauty of African blackness in his famous poem:
Black woman,
Gazelle whose limbs are joined to paradise,
And stars are jewels in the night of your skin.
That evening, Senghor was creative and astonishing. He surprised the audience when he spoke about the Meroitic civilisation and the great migration that followed the collapse of Meroe. He said that this major migration had moved towards West Africa, reaching as far as Senegal—specifically the small coastal area inhabited by the Serer tribe (with a short “s”), to which Senghor himself belonged. He then paused briefly and said: We are Nubians—and if you wish, we are Sudanese. The audience erupted in applause, tinged with astonishment.
Senghor continued: Do not be surprised by what I am saying; I will prove to you that I am Nubian. He asked who among the audience spoke the Nubian dialects of northern Sudan. Some stood up, and Senghor began to quote words in the Serer language, asking for their meanings. The meanings corresponded exactly with those of Nubian dialects in northern Sudan. He went on to explain the customs and traditions of the Serer tribe in times of joy and mourning, which proved to be identical to those of the Nubians of northern Sudan.
After another brief pause, Senghor continued, to the audience’s amazement: Did you know that we are the only tribe in West Africa that built pyramids, just as our Nubian ancestors did in northern Sudan, and for the same purposes? He explained that these pyramids were burial sites for tribal leaders. We did not find stone in our region to build pyramids, he said, so we built them from reinforced clay, and they still stand today. He added that anyone visiting Senegal could ask about the Serer pyramids, which are not far from the capital, Dakar.
That unique lecture, with all its astonishing details, remained vivid in my memory from my days as a university student. Fate would later lead me to visit Senegal in the late 1980s and to work there for many long and fulfilling years. Once I had settled in Dakar, I began asking about the Serer pyramids, which were not widely known. My friend Ahmadu Bamba eventually took me to the Centre for the Study of Black Africa at the University of Dakar, where I found abundant information about the Serer pyramids and their location, about one hundred kilometres from the capital.
I set out joyfully to visit the Serer pyramids and found them exactly as President Senghor had described: a group of pyramids built from reinforced clay, the largest of which rises to about twenty metres, constructed on the same angles as the ancient pyramids of Meroe, and used as burial places for the great leaders of the Serer tribe. It was an unforgettable encounter with history.
I left the Serer pyramids with a question that still lingers in my mind: why have our steps fallen so short of those of our great ancestors? They spread far and wide, leaving enduring and noble traces across the continent, while we continue to fight over a country that is shrinking in our hands.

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