1966 — The First World Festival of Black Arts

On April 1, 1966, Dakar opened its doors to the First World Festival of Black Arts. Poet-president Léopold Sédar Senghor welcomed some 2,500 artists, musicians, and writers from 30 African nations and the diaspora. Among them were Duke Ellington, Josephine Baker, Langston Hughes, Aimé Césaire, and Wole Soyinka, gathered in Senegal's capital for a celebration unlike any that had come before it.

It was the first state-sponsored showcase of Black art to a global audience, and Senghor framed it as more than a festival. It was a living declaration of Négritude, the idea that Black culture, in all its forms, deserved its own stage at the center of the world.