France, Sept. 22 -- The congress took place from 19 to 22 September 1956 - a pivotal time following the Second World War, when the Cold War, colonial rule and segregation were shaping world affairs.

It brought together leading intellectual figures of the time, including Sengalese intellectual and author Cheikh Anta Diop, Senegal's future president Leopold Sedar Senghor, future president of Martinique Aime Cesaire and African-American author Richard Wright - as well as the event's organiser Alioune Diop, Senegalese writer, politician and founder of the literary journal Presence Africaine and the publishing house of the same name.

Diop wanted to hold an event that would draw attention to the long-overlooked contribution to human heritage ...