Senegal's first president dead

PARIS, France (CNN) -- Leopold Senghor, statesman, poet and Senegal's first president, has died, the French Foreign Ministry has confirmed.

He was 95 and had been living in France for many years. French President Jacques Chirac said Senghor was "one of the greatest contemporary humanist figures."

"Poetry has lost a master, Senegal a statesman, Africa a visionary and France a friend," he said in a statement distributed on the wire services.

Born in 1906 and son of a rich landowner, Senghor, gifted in literature, won a scholarship to study in Paris.

"In Paris, he met writers such as Aime Cesaire and Leon Damas with whom he formulated the concept of negritude, which asserted the importance of their African heritage," according to a biographical sketch in encyclopedia.com.

He served in the French army in World War II and after the war he represented Senegal in the French legislature.

In 1960, when Senegal became independent, Senghor was elected president of the West Africa nation. He worked for African unity and in the 1970s, Senegal joined six other nations in the West African Economic Community. He was re-elected president in 1963, 1968 and 1973. He quit power about 20 years ago.

Senghor has had a reputation as a distinguished intellectual and has written many volumes of poetry and essays in French.