In recent weeks, thousands of Senegalese took to the streets of Dakar, the capital of the West African nation, to protest the arrest of Ousmane Sonko, who is the popular leader of the opposition party and widely considered the strongest challenger to second-term president Macky Sall. Sall’s initial popularity has waned following corruption allegations against his relatives, a record of dubious detentions of his political rivals and a coronavirus-related economic downturn. Indeed, Sall is so distrusted now that the charges against Sonko, who has been accused of rape, are viewed as politically motivated. As many as 11 demonstrators are dead after clashes with authorities. Now an uprising known as #FreeSenegal has broken out.

In response, the courts have provisionally released Sonko until his trial, and Sall finally gave a televised news conference calling for “calm and serenity.” But young protesters may not be satisfied. Many think that their deeper grievances — corruption, trade relationships that benefit French corporations rather than the Senegalese, stark economic challenges exacerbated by the pandemic — have not been addressed by the Sall administration.

This is not the first time that Senegalese youth are resisting authoritarian behavior and foreign control. In 1968, young demonstrators also rose up to protest a system that was failing them, and through their collective action made Senegal a more democratic country. Today’s protesters may do the same.

The headquarters of France’s West African Empire until 1959, Senegal has a complex history with its former colonial oppressor. A series of negotiations dating to the 1940s — coupled with France’s realization that maintaining its colonies posed a financial burden — paved the way for Senegal’s relatively peaceful path to self-determination. These included cooperation agreements in the realms of military affairs, education and trade that placed France in an advantageous position.

Senegal’s first president, Léopold Sédar Senghor (1960-1980), who was educated in France, married a French woman and appointed multiple French officials to his administration, faced questions about his national patriotism.

Like other world leaders in 1968 (in the United States, Mexico, Germany, France, Czechoslovakia and elsewhere), Senghor clashed with inspired youth. The issues: economic hardship, continued French influence and demands for increased democracy. Poor groundnut harvests laid bare Senegal’s overdependence on agricultural production, decimating gross domestic product and prompting budget cuts. Student funding earmarked for the newly constructed University of Dakar (now Cheikh Anta Diop University) was on the chopping block, and the Senghor regime slashed scholarship payments by as much as 50 percent.