 After passing his baccalauréat in Senegal, Diagne was admitted to the demanding public secondary school Lycée Louis-le-Grand in Paris, following in the footsteps, almost a half-century later, of his compatriot and the first president of Senegal, Léopold Sédar Senghor.There he prepared for the entrance exams to the École Normale Supérieure, meanwhile receiving his "license" and "maîtrise" level degrees in philosophy at the Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne.At the École Normale Supérieure he studied with Althusser and Derrida.