Excerpts from Books and Wikipedia
"Farther up the coast is another key African Bulge country, Senegal. This democratic state demonstrates what stability can facilitate: without oil and other major income-generating resources, and with an overwhelmingly subsistence-farming population of 15.6 million, Senegal nevertheless managed to achieve some of the region’s highest GNI levels." [Geography: Realms, Regions, and Concepts, 17th Edition, p. 307]
"Léopold Senghor often said he would prefer to be remembered as a poet than as a politician. . . . . His presidency received less favourable reviews. . . . Despite French assistance, Senegal’s economy, heavily dependent on groundnut exports, remained largely stagnant. . . . The ultimate accolade for Senghor came after his retirement. In 1984 he was elected to membership of the French Academy, one of forty living ‘immortals’, as they are called, each considered to have made an enduring contribution to the legacy of French culture and statecraft. It was the highest honour France awarded to its men of letters. Senghor died in France in 2001 at the age of ninety-five." [The Fate of Africa, p. 268-71]