Dakar burial for Senghor
2001-12-23 09:23
Dakar - Leopold Sedar Senghor, the first president of independent
Senegal who died in France last week aged 95, is to be buried in
Dakar this week in a private ceremony, officials said on Saturday.
According to the official programme for Senghor's funeral, the
former head of state will be buried on December 29 "in the privacy
of his family" after a tribute by the current president of the west
African state, Abdoulaye Wade.
The body of the former president, who died on Thursday, is
expected to arrive in Dakar on the evening of December 27, where it
will be met by members of Senghor's family, the official programme
said.
The Senegalese ambassador to Paris, Doudou Diop, said that the
body would be flown in an Air Senegal plane made available to
Senghor's family by president Wade.
On Friday, Senghor's body will be placed in the parliament
buildings in Dakar to allow the Senegalese people to pay their
final respects.
Diop said the following day an official ceremony would take
place in front of the presidential palace when the former president
would receive military honours as well as a tribute from president
Wade.
The actual burial would take place later in the afternoon at the
Bel-Air cemetery in Dakar "according to the wishes of his family",
explained Diop.
On Thursday, Wade announced a 15-day period of national mourning
for Senghor, one of his former political adversaries and the man
who lead Senegal through its independence from France in 1960 up
until 1980.
He lived from 1980 until his death in Normandy, France, with his
French wife, Colette Senghor.
The two-week period of mourning for Senghor has resulted in
several cultural and political events being cancelled, and there is
some doubt as to whether Senegal's sporting calendar will be
maintained in its entirety over the next two weeks.
Meanwhile tributes to the former head of state, who was also an
acclaimed poet, continued to pour in.
In a telegram sent on Saturday to Wade, Democratic Republic of
Congo President Joseph Kabila called Senghor "an unparalleled
eulogist of the black condition" who "left us with the difficult
task of completely assuming our black identity".
Kabila praised Senghor for "building modern-day Senegal and
giving blacks a sense of pride".
Guinean President Lansana Conte said in a message of condolence
sent to Wade that Senghor was "a great statesman and man of culture
who devoted his entire life to African unity and the promotion of a
universal civilisation".
Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos hailed the former
Senegalese head of state as "one of the pioneers of the fight to
liberate the people of the African continent".
"Leopold Sedar Senghor was doubtless one of the most brilliant
personalities in modern nationalism, an intellectual who was deeply
committed to the problems of the African continent," Dos Santos
said. - Sapa-AFP
- SAPA