Senegal: Friends Fall Out

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Until recently. President Leopold Senghor and Premier Mamadou Dia of peanut-producing Senegal were as close as two nuts in a pod. Both worked feverishly to win Senegal's independence from France in 1960, and they have shared the struggle to make the hot little West African nation a going concern. Then, six months ago, Dia, back from a trip to Moscow, took a sharp left turn in his official policies. Moderate President Senghor disagreed violently with Dia's new line. Last week, in a showdown in the sunny capital of Dakar, Senghor shucked his old friend and clapped him under arrest in a palace guest house.

It was a case of political fast-draw. Without warning, a no-confidence resolution designed to force Dia's resignation was produced in the Senghor-controlled Parliament. At the news, Dia sent rifle-carrying police into the chamber, ordered it dissolved. But Senghor called in his own band of paratroops; they promptly surrounded Dia in his administration building. When the frantic Premier attempted to speak through a loudspeaker, a pro-Senghor mob drowned him out by playing thundering tomtom records, full-blast. At last, Dia surrendered, and was led away to captivity.

The outcome leaves Senegal firmly in the hands of West Africa's most distinguished intellectual and one of its most staunchly pro-French leaders. A Sorbonne-educated, internationally noted poet, the 56-year-old Senghor served in the postwar French Assembly, even sat in the Paris Cabinet (as Secretary of State for Scientific Research) under Premier Edgar Faure. He is also a devout African nationalist and prominent exponent of "négritude''—the concept that sees Africa as the wave of the future. Nevertheless, Senghor is convinced that Senegal's best hopes for strength and prosperity lie in continued close association with France. Such a philosophy suits French President Charles de Gaulle just fine; it is one reason France provides Senegal with $50 million in aid a year, almost half the Senegalese budget.