Senghor's On African Socialism comprises three significant essays that articulate his vision for nationhood and the distinctive character of African societies as they progress towards national development and socialism. These writings are regarded as classics in contemporary African political philosophy.

Ujaama: Essays on Socialism by Tanzanian leader Julius Nyerere serves as a valuable comparison to Senghor's political ideas.

Janet G. Vaillant's biography, Senghor, Black, French, and African: A Life of Léopold Sédar Senghor, provides comprehensive insight into Senghor's education, political endeavors, and relationships with writers and statesmen. The biography is written in a clear and accessible manner.

Aimé Césaire's Notebook of a Return to the Native Land is a lengthy poem, blending prose and verse, that narrates the poet's return to Martinique. As a close friend of Senghor and a fellow advocate of the negritude movement, Césaire symbolically portrays the rebirth of the black poet, transcending the fragmented and damaged self-images inherited from both black and white perceptions.

The Negritude Poets, edited by Ellen Conroy Kennedy, offers an extensive collection of poets from Africa, the Caribbean, and the French-speaking islands of the Indian Ocean, including Madagascar and Mauritius, who were inspired by the negritude movement. This volume provides valuable context for the founding poets—Senghor, Césaire, and Damas—and demonstrates the broad impact of their influence and ideas.

Franz Fanon's Black Skins, White Masks is a profound and influential examination of personal identity within a racially divided, colonial society. Written during his psychiatry studies in Paris after World War II, Fanon's book delivers a powerful and poetic account of his encounters with French racism and his own false self-perceptions as a French-educated colonial subject from Martinique. The similarities and contrasts between Senghor's and Fanon's experiences as students in Paris provide valuable insights.