In this lecture, delivered at the international workshop “Places of African Philosophies,” Romuald Fonkoua presents a comprehensive intellectual history of the influential journal and publishing house Présence Africaine, founded in 1947 by Alioune Diop.

Fonkoua organizes his analysis around three key dates—1947 (the journal’s founding), 1949 (the establishment of the publishing house), and 1956 (the first Congress of Black Writers and Artists)—to illustrate how Présence Africaine became a cornerstone in the emergence of modern African and diasporic thought.