Rutgers: West Africa and the Caribbean in the snow!
Shortly after the opening ceremony of “Writing Through the Visual/Virtual… in Francophone Africa and the Caribbean” until the next day, it snowed in New Jersey.
It was in the snow and the sparkling atmosphere it creates that scholars, researchers, artists, and students discussed on contemporary ritual celebrations in Benin and Togo, traditional wrestling and griot in Senegal, painting in Haiti, translation and cultural context in Egypt and so forth.
“Writing Through the Visual Art/Virtual” began on Thursday 7th March at the Zimmerli Art Museum on the College Avenue in New Brunswick. More than a hundred people attended that important moment for the Center for African Studies (CAS) and the entire Rutgers University community. The Director of the museum, Suzanne Delahanty, the Dean of Humanities, School of Arts and Sciences, James Swenson, the Chair of the French Department, Carole Allamand and the Director of CAS, Ousseina Alidou warmly welcomed the participants.
African food, music and dance created the mood. Shikaorsor Ademu-John from Sierra-Leone catered the event. Malang Jobateh from Gambia played his Kora, making some excellent melodies, and Hardo-Ka, a dancer and choreograph from Senegal was applauded for his skills on African contemporary dance. It was the first of his three performances.
The first day ended with a speech from the keynote speaker Rokhaya Fall Diawara, who is working on a series of children’s books “Bouba and Zaza” in order “to speak, to explain the world to African children through their own cultural images”. The author works at the Unesco Bureau in Dakar, Senegal. Snow later made the atmosphere very special until Friday morning. Despite the difficulties it created on roads, people managed to arrive on time.
Professor Ousseina Alidou during the opening ceremony
The conference took place at the University Conference Center on Friday 8th March.
After the opening remarks by the Associate Director of CAS, Renée Larrier, the Chair of Women’s and Gender Studies, Abena Busia and the Director of the Institute for Women Leadership, Alison Bernstein, participants from Benin, Niger, Senegal, Kenya, Tanzania, Egypt, France, Haiti, Guadalupe and the USA presented exciting and excellent papers on panels.
The papers presented were on Inscribing Popular Culture: from Recipes to Bandes Dessinées, Transmuting Culture, Transforming Identities, Literary, Graphic and Kinetics Dynamics in West Africa. Scholars also presented and discussed with colleagues on Text and Image in Haiti and Morocco and Writing on the body.
The body was again at the center of the deep and exciting debates following the documentary “Cette couleur qui me dérange” by Khardiata Pouye, the Senegalese winner of the UEMOA Award at the African Film Festival of Ouagadougou, FESPACO 2013 in Burkina Faso. Pouye denounces through shocking images the practice of skin bleaching in Senegal.
Panels continued on Saturday morning on Visual and Verbal Artistry: Textiles as Epistemology. Scholars presented on the subject through images and fieldwork reports from Niger and Cameroon. The role of oral history in the management of food crises in the Sahel region was mentioned. Cultural Individualities and Identities in Caribbean Francophone were debated too.
Some participants to the conference
The three day conference ended at the Loree Dance Theater on Douglass Campus. The young singer and dancer, Sanoussy Dialo, the mime artist, Fatou Diangoura from Guinea, and Hardo-Ka, the African contemporary dancer and choreographer filled our heart with joy, emotion, and nostalgia.
No comments yet