20th century
Dakar, Senegal
The Dakar Conference on Black Literature was a 1963 cultural and literary gathering sponsored by Léopold Sédar Senghor. It became a site of sharp criticism of négritude, especially through Ezekiel Mphahlele’s argument that national culture should precede broader Pan-African objectives. The conference exemplifies the institutional setting in which debates over African identity, literature, and political liberation unfolded after independence.
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The Story
The Dakar Conference on Black Literature took place in 1963 in the Senegalese capital. It was sponsored by Léopold Sédar Senghor, whose presidency and cultural patronage had helped give institutional visibility to négritude. The conference therefore brought together a movement’s supporters and some of its most significant critics within an official cultural setting.
Ezekiel Mphahlele, a South African writer, delivered a trenchant attack on négritude at the conference. His criticism focused on the movement’s tendency to romanticize African culture and to speak primarily to a small intellectual elite. In contrast to the Pan-Africanists of the 1945 congress, who had placed national independence first, Mphahlele argued that national culture must come first.
Mphahlele nevertheless envisaged a relationship between national culture and Pan-African ideals. He argued that cultures could contribute to Pan-African goals from a position of national strength. The conference thus represented not a simple rejection of continental solidarity, but a dispute over the order, scale, and political foundation of cultural liberation.
20th century
Dakar, Senegal
The Dakar Conference on Black Literature was a 1963 cultural and literary gathering sponsored by Léopold Sédar Senghor. It became a site of sharp criticism of négritude, especially through Ezekiel Mphahlele’s argument that national culture should precede broader Pan-African objectives. The conference exemplifies the institutional setting in which debates over African identity, literature, and political liberation unfolded after independence.
Continue exploring
The Story
The Dakar Conference on Black Literature took place in 1963 in the Senegalese capital. It was sponsored by Léopold Sédar Senghor, whose presidency and cultural patronage had helped give institutional visibility to négritude. The conference therefore brought together a movement’s supporters and some of its most significant critics within an official cultural setting.
Ezekiel Mphahlele, a South African writer, delivered a trenchant attack on négritude at the conference. His criticism focused on the movement’s tendency to romanticize African culture and to speak primarily to a small intellectual elite. In contrast to the Pan-Africanists of the 1945 congress, who had placed national independence first, Mphahlele argued that national culture must come first.
Mphahlele nevertheless envisaged a relationship between national culture and Pan-African ideals. He argued that cultures could contribute to Pan-African goals from a position of national strength. The conference thus represented not a simple rejection of continental solidarity, but a dispute over the order, scale, and political foundation of cultural liberation.
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