Maison Senghor

La Maison Léopold Sédar Senghor

I’ve visited the Senghor Museum a few times now. It’s not really a museum in the traditional sense of the word because it’s actually just the Senghor home preserved exactly as it was left by the president and his wife. So, about Senghor: he was the first president of an independent Senegal. He is widely known as the “Poet President“ and the father of modern Senegal. I learned about him and read some of his poetry as part of my masters in French literature. This post isn’t really about the life of Senghor, but about the house/museum, so go here if you want to learn more about him.

The visit of the house takes about 45 minutes. Barthélémy Sarr, the man who does the guided visit actually worked on Senghor’s security detail while he was president, which was from 1960 to 1980. This house was built for the Senghors as their residence for after they left the presidential palace in 1980. Mr. Sarr actually oversaw the building of the house and everything that had to be done in order for the former president, his wife and their son to move in. The house was built on the Corniche (the road that follows the coastline of Dakar).

Senghor was passionate about architecture and had the house designed following a concept he’s credited for inventing: asymmetrical parallelism, which is why it’s such an interesting shape. The people of Dakar called it “The Sea’s Teeth” after a film of the same name that had been released in 1975, just 3 years before the building of the house. The architect was French, Fernand Bonamy, as was the interior decorator that they used, Jean-Pierre Brossard.

The Senghors moved into the house in January of 1981, the moment he handed the reigns over to Abdou Diouf, the 2^nd president of Senegal. We learned that Senghor didn’t spend all his time living in Dakar, but also spent time at their property in Normandy, where his wife Colette was from. While he was very involved in the design of the home, tragedy struck in 1981 that left them little affection for the home they had so meticulously created: their son Philippe, who had moved with them into their new house, died in a car accident that June. The Senghors spent less and less time there as the years went on, especially after 1983 when he was the first African to be elected to the Académie Française. After a heart scare in the late 90s, his doctors in France advised him not to travel by plane anymore and he never returned to his home in Dakar, which was practically abandoned. When his wife and eldest son decided to donate it to the Senegalese government, a Senegalese company, Eiffage Sénégal, donated their services in order to restore it to as close to its original state as possible so it could be opened as a museum. None of the interior decorations were changed, and even the books, which were all cleaned a restored, were returned to the exact place Senghor left them.  

As I stated earlier, they commissioned a French designer by the name of Brossard to design their home, which is very interestingly designed. We started out our tour on the ground floor, to see the formal dining room, salon, and Senghor’s larger office where he met with people. The whole formal area is done in muted beiges, pale pinks and off whites, with a beautiful marble table and white leather couches. The book shelves are full of the gifts he received as a head of state, and interesting titles in multiple languages that show the widely varying interests of the poet president.

What I found amusing was how much the décor, the look, and feel of the house changed as soon as we left the formal ‘presidential’ section of the house. The ‘Salon Vert’ was the first private part of the house we saw, where the president and mrs. Senghor entertained their personal guests, friends and family. No more beige and white! A bold, beautiful green covered the walls and the upholstery. Apparently green was Colette Senghor's favorite color, which would be apparent when we went upstairs and saw the other rooms.

But before we went upstairs we stopped at their son Philippe’s room, which was cobalt blue. The walls, the bed, the curtains, the art. It is an ode to the 70s, with graphic art on the walls, a rotary dial telephone and a large stereo system as the centerpiece of the room. The bathroom has a sunken bathtub the size of a public pool Jacuzzi!

We also visited the two guest rooms, one statelier than the other, with beiges and whites, and the other more striking with a burgundy floral pattern adorning the walls and bed. Apparently Mrs. Senghor would show both rooms to her guest and have them choose which they preferred. I think I’d choose the beige room, just because it’s on the corner of the house and therefore has 2 walls with large windows, making it much brighter. After the guest rooms, we saw President Senghor’s room and that of his wife. The funny story that goes along with this particular part of the visit is the stipulation that Colette Senghor put on this part of the visit. You see, when they were decorating the house, Mrs. Senghor gave President Senghor the interior design book Brossard had containing all the options and had him choose his room. Being the head of the household, she felt it was important that he have first choice of the type of room he wanted. He chose the one he liked the most, which happened to be the simplest of the options.

She told him he had to look again and choose a ‘nicer’ room because it wasn’t fitting for a former president to have such a basic room. He told her that she had told him to choose what he wanted and that was what he’d chosen, so that’s what he’d have thank-you-very-much!! Her room, on the other hand, is a bit more luxurious, with the walls covered in a beautiful green floral wall paper and white-lacquered wooden furniture, including a cathedral-esque headboard. Her stipulation to Barthélémy Sarr when the museum opened was that he explain very clearly to people, lest they think badly of her, that she had not chosen a lesser room for her husband, but that he had made that decision himself!

I think my favorite room in the house is actually the one they call ‘La Chambre de Mamie’ because it’s where Colette’s mother stayed when she came for Philippe’s funeral. It is done simply, in various shades of lighter greens. It has a sliding glass door on one wall that leads to a terrace, which makes the room very bright. The sole painting above the bed is of two horse-back riders on a trail in a modern, geometric forest, a nod to Colette’s Normandy roots. The whole house was really interesting and definitely worth the visit, especially when the person giving you the tour is like a museum himself!

Statue of Senghor outside his house