For Faye, my father, the fascination with the president began in the late 1970s when he started translating Senghor’s poems to help cement a sense of cultural identity and pride in the Serer people, who mostly come from the western part of the country. Though Senghor may have occasionally spoken his poems in Serer, they were only ever written down in French. 

My father faced a daunting task: official figures put Senegalese adult literacy rates at 60%, and although Serer is the third most popular language spoken by roughly 15% of the country, the younger generation is losing interest in favour of Wolof or French.

Faye has long argued that students educated primarily in French or English will lose their connection with their roots. Using Senghor’s written works, Faye has pushed for the government to standardise the Serer language, which was previously written according to French phonetics but had no official written rules.

In 1978, Senghor established a committee that would decide on the language’s official spelling, using Latin script: “Until the late 1970s, the language never had an official way of writing, something that’s crucial for the legitimacy and modernisation of any language,” Faye said.

Senghor and Faye met in the late 1970s to “check over some of the translations and so Senghor could give me feedback,” Faye said. “I was lucky to get a meeting with Senghor and we got along so well. Our meeting was supposed to last for 15 minutes, but we ended up talking for nearly an hour.”

Senghor was pleased with Faye’s work and the pair stayed in touch, corresponding until the former president’s death. One of the former leader’s letters concluded: “Rest assured that my Sererness has never left me, and be certain of my loyalty to my roots.”

Faye has since translated three major collections of Senghor’s poems into Serer, which have recently been released in Senegal. He is putting the finishing touches to a four-part analysis on the president’s work in French and would like to see all of Senegal’s school textbooks translated into Serer one day.

Seydou Nourou Ndiaye, his editor and director of Editions Papyrus Afrique, a company publishing poetry and non-fiction in west African languages, warned that although local languages are experiencing a renaissance “there is virtually no money invested into the industry, and no profit to be made – despite the invaluable cultural richness”. 

“During Europe’s reformation the printing press was able to make thoughts and ideas available to the working classes by publishing them in local languages, not Latin. The same needs to happen in Africa,” he said.