1960 — Senegal Independence Day

On April 4, 1960, Senegal, joined with French Sudan as the Mali Federation, signed its transfer of power from France in Paris, winning full independence. Poet Léopold Sédar Senghor, who had survived a Nazi prison camp, became the nation's first president. The federation itself split just two months later, but the date endured, and April 4 remains Senegal's Independence Day.

Dakar has marched in celebration every year since. The day holds both parts of the story: a federation that did not last, and a nation that did. At its head stood a poet who had known captivity and now led a free Senegal into its first chapter.