A year after his 2012 inauguration as Senegal’s fourth president, Macky Sall delivered a compelling speech – half in French, half in English – at Harvard University in the United States.

Sall had won the presidency after a cut-throat election campaign against his mentor and former President Abdoulaye Wade, under whose wing he had served as minister, prime minister, head of the National Assembly and even as Wade’s own campaign director.

Speaking at the fourth Harvard African Development Conference, Sall told a captivated audience about democracy and development challenges in Africa and the need to “lay down the weapons” and to focus on what unites rather than divides Africans. Speaking at the fourth Harvard African Development Conference, Sall told a captivated audience about democracy and development challenges in Africa and the need to “lay down the weapons” and to focus on what unites rather than divides Africans.