Socialism as an African Social and Political Philosophy: Senghor’s Paradigm

Abstract

The paper interrogates the meanings and practices of African political thoughts, especially the theory put forward by Leopold Sedar Senghor. What is the distinguishing factor of African Socialism? What is the direction of African socio-political philosophy? What is the African conception of man that determines the socio-political theory? It is in an attempt to answer these and other related questions that the paper is written. We argue that Socialism is socialism; there cannot be anything like African Socialism, European Socialism, American Socialism and even Scientific Socialism. This is because socialism is based on two premises: (i) Equity (ii) Non-exploitation. These are value-laden, moral and non-scientific. Socialism can be applied as a means of economic, social and political advancement in any society. Although situation and condition may differ but the basic productive and distributive principles remain the same.