Mali Federation
Senegal gained independence on 20 August 1960, when it separated from the Mali Federation and became an independent country on its own. It took approximately five years to before Senegal adopted its own coat of arms. It was designed by Suzanne Gauthier, a French heraldist from Paris, in 1965. It incorporated the lion and the baobab tree - both symbols were previously utilised on earlier Senegalese emblems.