‘Corruption’, over the years, has emerged as Senegal's national political style. And it is a style locally worn with a certain characteristic elegance. Outsiders of all kinds (technical assistants, journalists and scholars of various nationalities) have long recognised the prevalence of the style. Their reactions, whether in the case of right-wing bureaucratic technicians or of left-wing socialist modernisers, have in general included at least an element of puritanical disgust. Those with a sense of humour have found corresponding material for their amusement in the devious Senegalese machinations, those with a sense of style have found something to admire in the sheer bravura of local political intrigue. This span of reactions applies to citizens of neighbouring African states as well as to European or American observers. To their neighbours, the Senegalese have been objects of contempt for the apparent amorality of their political life. Beneath this gratifying disdain, however, one can usually detect some reluctant admiration for the skill of Senegal's political elite. And for this writer also the reaction and the judgment remain somewhat ambivalent: before solemnly pronouncing judgment, however, I think that it is important (necessary) to disentangle the various political activities stigmatised as ‘corrupt’, to attempt some historical explanation of their development, and to suggest reasons for the success (at least in its own terms) of the Senegalese political style.