2007 Events:
Literature and the Arts in Senegal I:
Birago Diop and Léopold Sédar Senghor, Then and Now
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March 29-April 1, 2007
Indiana University Bloomington
Comments from Participants:
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"Cela fait
longtemps que je participe à des rencontres littéraires comme, du reste,
la plupart des invités de la semaine dernière. Eh bien, c'est la
première fois que j'ai senti une telle énergie et tant de forte
complicité, au milieu de débats sans concession."
— Boubacar Boris Diop, Novelist
"Je voulais te remercier déjà par mail avant de le faire de vive voix
pour ces moments si forts de discussion et d'échanges. C'est quelque
chose qui restera ancré en moi non pas comme un colloque parmi tant
d'autres, non pas comme un colloque particulièrement intéressant, mais
vraiment come un moment d'une intensité extraordinaire où à travers les
mots, les images, et tous les différents échanges, j'ai l'impression
d'avoir tant appris; et de rentrer avec tant de choses, une sorte de
cadeau."
— Odile Cazenave, Boston University
"I want to let you know how much I enjoyed the presentations and other
activities of the POAET symposium on Birago Diop and Léopold Sédar
Senghor. I can say without hesitation that it was the highlight of the
academic year for me. All of the presentations I heard were excellent.
But excellent presentations would only make it a good academic
conference. The symposium was much more than that; the intensity of
each session and the engagement of the participants were truly
remarkable. This was undoubtedly due to the participation of Senegalese
scholars and artists from both sides of the Atlantic for whom the topic
had personal meaning. The symposium set a new standard for the way we
should do conferences related to Africa."
— Maria Grosz-Ngate, Indiana University
"I want to thank you a thousand times for the wonderful "Literature and
the Arts in Senegal" symposium in Bloomington. This is undoubtedly the
best conference I have attended for several years, and I really mean
it. Being a relatively small group of people attending everything
enabled a clear progression in the debates, something which never
happens in big conferences ... I also found the interdisciplinary focus
extremely inspiring, and I will certainly use more of what has been done
in literature and the visual arts to further develop my own ideas on
dance. The combination of scholars, artists, journalists, and people
who do all of these things worked very well too, as the different
perspectives enrich each other."
— Hélène
Neveu Kringelbach, Oxford University, UK
Symposium Program
Wednesday, March 28
7:30 - 9:00pm PRE-SYMPOSIUM FILM SCREENINGS: SHADES OF BIRAGO
Woodburn #009 Two shorts by Mansour Sora Wade:
Picc Mi (1992) &
Fary l’anesse (1989) 30 mins; and
L’Os (filmed production by Senegal National Theater) 45 mins.
Thursday, March 29
9 - 10:45am PANEL # 1: BIRAGO DIOP & SENGHOR IN THEIR
CONTEXTS
Lilly Library Moderator: Abiola Irele (Harvard U)
Edris Makward (U Wisconsin),"The Legacies of Léopold Sédar
Senghor &
Birago Diop: An Intergenerational Dialogue"
Alioune Diane (Université Cheikh Anta Diop), "Panser les
blessures du temps:
Senghor, Birago
Diop et les valeurs de la poésie"
Adama Sow Dièye (Université Cheikh Anta Diop), "Birago
Diop, l'autre
versant de la Négritude ou l'oeil calme du cyclone"
11am: - 12:45pm PANEL #2: BIRAGO DIOP,
STORYTELLER & MEMOIRIST
Lilly Library Moderator:
Kwawisi Tekpetey (Central State U of Ohio)
Andrée-Marie Diagne (Ecole Normale Supérieure, Dakar), "Le
conte chez
Birago Diop
et Léopold Sédar Senghor, véhicule
d’un humanisme africain"
Micheline Rice-Maximin (Swarthmore), “Birago Diop
et l'art de la
transformation: «Les Co-épouses bossues»
et «Les Mamelles» / de
l'orature à la littérature”
Eileen Julien (Indiana U), “Southern Exposure:
Reading Birago Diop through
the
Prism of the Local”
Koffi Anyinefa (Haverford College), “Birago
Diop: The Memoirist”
2 – 3:45pm ROUNDTABLE #1: LEGACIES
& REMINISCENCES
Lilly Library Moderator: Eileen Julien (Indiana U)
Ben Diogaye Beye (filmmaker)
Boris Boubacar Diop (novelist, journalist)
Abiola Irele (Harvard U)
Mohammed Mbodj (Manhattanville College)
Amadou Guèye Ngom (filmmaker, journalist)
4:30pm
IU Art Museum EXHIBIT: CONTEMPORARY WEST AFRICAN
IUAM Gallery VISUAL ARTISTS
Works by Tijani Sitou and Kalidou Sy
— Amadou Kouyate plays the kora —
5 - 6:30pm WELCOME
IUAM Artists & Scholars read the writings of Birago Diop & Léopold Sédar
Senghor
Lower Atrium
— Musical interludes with kora —
6:30 - 7:30pm RECEPTION: IUArt Museum
Upper Atrium
8:00 - 10pm FILM SCREENING & DISCUSSION
#1:
Radio-TV 251 Un amour d’enfant / Children in Love
(2003) 96 mins.
Introduction & discussion with filmmaker Ben Diogaye Beye
Friday, March 30
9 - 10:15 am
LECTURE: Souleymane Bachir
Diagne (Northwestern U)
Lilly Library “On the Power of Fabulation in Birago Diop, Senghor, and Sartre”
10:30am - 12:15pm PANEL #3: POETICS
Lilly Library
Moderator: Oana Panaïte (Indiana U)
Oumar Ndao (Université Cheikh Anta Diop), “Lieux
dramatiques et espace
théâtral dans
Les
contes d’Amadou Koumba”
Elizabeth Scheiber (Rider U), “Traveling
Along Senghor’s Vertical Axis:
Romanticism,
Pragmatism and Optimism in Chants d’ombre”
Abiola Irele (Harvard U), “Approaching the Senghorian Elegy”
Alison Rice (Notre Dame), “Resonances & Inheritance: Nimrod Sings the
Praises of Léopold Sédar Senghor”
12:30 - 2:15 pm LUNCH/CONVERSATION #1:
SENEGAL THEN
IMU Edris Makward interviews Cheik
Aliou Ndao (novelist, poet, playwright)
Tudor Room
2:45 - 4:30pm PANEL #4: ROOTS & ROUTES
Lilly Library Moderator: Mohamed Taifi (Virginia Military Institute)
Mamadou Badiane (U Missouri-Columbia), “Léopold Sédar Senghor et
Nicolás Guillén: deux auteurs du métissage”
Tsitsi Jaji (Cornell U), “Jazz in Senegal: Sounding Out Pan-Africa”
Hélène Neveu Kringelbach (Oxford U) “‘Il
faut s’enraciner avant de s’ouvrir!’:
The Evocation of Senghor’s Legacy in Contemporary Senegalese Dance”
Jean Eudes Biem (Harvard U), “Cultural Syncretism and the Cosmopolitan
Project of Senegalese Literature: Aesthetics, Epistemology, Politics”
4:45 – 6:30pm PANEL #5:
RE-APPRAISALS: SENGHOR & HISTORY
Lilly Library
Moderator: Mohammed Mbodj (Manhattanville College)
Cheikh Ndiaye (Union College), “Léopold Sédar Senghor: The Writing of
the
Spoken Word and the Reconstruction of History”
Moussa Sow (State College of New Jersey), “Tirailleur sénégalais:
Senghor et
la dette coloniale française”
Charles Sugnet (U Minnesota), "Francophonie in Action:
How Senghor Ruled Senegal"
Natasha Vaubel (Indiana U), “’Kif Kif’: Representations of the Thiaroye
Massacre from Senghor to Sembène”
6:30 – 7:30pm LILLY
LIBRARY RECEPTION & EXHIBIT:
Correspondence & Manuscripts by Birago Diop
First Editions of Poetry Anthologies by Léopold Sédar Senghor
7:45pm FILM
SCREENING & DISCUSSION #2:
Woodburn #120 Et si Latif avait raison? / What if Latif were Right? (2005) 95 mins.
Introduction & Discussion with filmmaker Joseph Gaї Ramaka
Saturday, March 31
8:45 -10:30am PANEL #6: CONTINUITIES / DISCONTINUITIES
Lilly Library Moderator: Mamadou Diouf (U Michigan)
Mahriana Rofheart (Rutgers U), “To Hide
Beneath the Waves: Escape and
Drowning in Senegalese Tales”
Ayo Abiétou Coly (Dartmouth), “Ken Bugul and the Contouring of a
Postcolonial Senegalese Womanhood”
Odile Cazenave (Boston U), “Pour un
nouveau partage du sensible: esthétique
et politique chez Boubacar Boris Diop et Fatou Diome”
Nasrin Qader (Northwestern U), “Le cavalier et son ombre:
Law and Narration”
10:45am - 12:30pm FILM SCREENING & DISCUSSION #3:
DOCUMENTARY
Lilly Library
SHORTS -- CONTEMPORARY SENEGALESE SOCIETY
Une fenêtre ouverte
(Sylla, 2004), 52 mins;
Génération Boul Fale
(Baker, 2004) 6 mins;
United Nations of Hip-Hop
(Choe, Baker, 2005) 10 mins;
La lutte (Ngom, 1990)
7 mins.
Introduction & Discussion with filmmakers:
Khady Sylla, Esther Baker-Tarpaga, & Amadou Guèye Ngom
1 – 2:30 pm LUNCH/CONVERSATION #2:
Samira's
THE POLITICS OF CULTURE /
THE CULTURE OF POLITICS
100 W 6th St Boris Boubacar Diop (novelist, journalist) &
Joseph Gaї Ramaka
(filmmaker) in dialogue
3 - 4:30 pm ROUNDTABLE #2: THE FUTURE
OF CULTURE IN SENEGAL
IMU Faculty Club Moderator: Souleymane Bachir Diagne (Northwestern U)
Babacar Thiaw (Université Cheikh Anta Diop)
Mamadou Diouf (U Michigan)
Cheik Aliou Ndao (novelist, poet, playwright)
Khady Sylla (novelist, filmmaker)
Esther Baker-Tarpaga (UCLA; dancer/choreographer, filmmaker
5:00pm
PERFORMANCES: GUEST ARTISTS SHARE THEIR WORKS
IMU Faculty Club
Sunday, April 1
10am - Noon GRADUATE STUDENT ROUNDTABLE:
Ballantine #004
THE NEXT GENERATION RESPONDS
Moderator: Lindsey Campbell-Badger (Indiana U)
Symposium Co-Conveners:
Eileen Julien;
French, Comparative Literature,
African American & African Diaspora
Studies, and African Studies, INDIANA UNIVERSITY
Souleymane
Bachir Diagne;
Philosophy and African Studies,
NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY
Oumar Ndao;
Département de Lettres Modernes,
L'UNIVERSITE CHEIKH ANTA DIOP
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Symposium Participants:
Artists:
Ben Diogaye Beye (filmmaker)
Boubacar Boris Diop (journalist and novelist)
Amadou Kouyate (musician)
Cheik Aliou Ndao (playwright, novelist, and poet)
Amadou Guèye Ngom (filmmaker and journalist)
Joseph Gäi Ramaka (anthropologist and filmmaker)
Khady Sylla (filmmaker and novelist)
Scholars:
Koffi Anyinefa (Haverford College)
Mamadou Badiane (U Missouri-Columbia)
Esther Baker-Tarpaga (UCLA)
Jean Eudes Biem (Harvard U)
Lindsey Campbell-Badger (Indiana U)
Odile Cazenave (Boston U)
Ayo Abiétou Coly (Dartmouth)
Andrée-Marie Diagne (Ecole Normale Supérieure)
Souleymane Bachir Diagne (Northwestern U)
Alioune Diane (Université Cheikh Anta Diop)
Adama Sow Dièye (Université Cheikh Anta Diop)
Mamadou Diouf (U Michigan)
Abiola Irele (Harvard U)
Tsitsi Jaji (Cornell U)
Eileen Julien (Indiana U)
Hélène Neveu Kringelbach (Oxford U)
Edris Makward (U Wisconsin)
Mohammed Mbodj (Manhattanville College)
Oumar Ndao (Université Cheikh Anta Diop)
Bouna Ndiaye (Duke U)
Cheikh Ndiaye (Union College)
Oana Panaïte (Indiana U)
Nasrin Qader (Northwestern U)
Alison Rice (Notre Dame)
Micheline Rice-Maximin (Swarthmore)
Mahriana Rofheart (Rutgers U)
Elizabeth Scheiber (Rider U)
Moussa Sow (State College of New Jersey)
Charles Sugnet (U Minnesota)
Mohamed Taifi (Virginia Military Inst)
Kwawisi Tekpetey (Central State U of Ohio)
Babacar Thiaw (Université Cheikh Anta Diop)
Natasha Vaubel (Indiana U)
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POAET
thanks the following units at Indiana University for their generous
support:
African Studies, African American & African Diaspora
Studies, Black Film Center/Archive, College Arts & Humanities Institute, College of the Arts &
Sciences,
Communication & Culture, Comparative Literature, Cultural Studies,
French & Italian (Barr-Koon Fund),
IU
Art Museum, International Programs, Lilly Library, New Frontiers in the
Arts & Humanities, Office of the Vice President for Institutional
Development & Student Affairs.
For
information on lodging or other symposium matters,
email Natasha Vaubel, nvaubel@indiana.edu
Symposium
Overview:
Senegal is today a nation of nearly 11,000,000
people. Home to the four communes in which Senegalese were entitled to
the rights of French citizens and to the former capitals of French West
Africa, St. Louis and Dakar, Senegal remains a distinctive community
marked by cosmopolitan and local traditions, from souweer glass
paintings to international art biennials, from mbalax and
Afro-Cuban-inspired rhythms to rap and Sufi tariqas; from novels
in global circulation to taasu, the oral praise poetry that is
central to the social life of women in baptisms and weddings.
Following the centennial birthdays in 2006 of
Léopold Sédar Senghor, the poet, prophet of négritude, and first
president of Senegal, and of Senegalese veterinarian and ambassador
Birago Diop, the remarkable raconteur of neo-traditional tales, this
symposium seeks to honor these two figures in the cultural life of
Senegal and West Africa, to situate their creative practice, and to
assess their legacies for contemporary “francophone” and Senegalese
literature and culture. It is one of a series of symposia sponsored by
Indiana University, Northwestern University, and the Université Cheikh
Anta Diop to consider the past and future of culture in Senegal.
Legacies of the Past / Expressive Practices
Today
How might we best think about the lives and creative legacies of
Senegal’s cultural pioneers? Do Birago Diop’s neo-traditional poetry
and tales arise from a nostalgic, nativist impulse to preserve a dying
art? Does Birago help to construct, as in Fanon’s disparaging view, a
dubious pan-African racial identity? What might such
neo-traditional forms have to say about the theoretical and critical
issues of today: epistemology, language, ethnicity,
and social relations? Is the tale as a genre compatible with
contemporary political and economic realities? Under what guises and
modes—orality, performance, short story, novel, film-- might it be
found? Traditionally practiced by women, is the tale still an
attractive genre for women writers and feminists?
Can négritude and its impulses be mined for
today’s and tomorrow’s needs? How does the political Senghor
fare among today’s historians and philosophers? And how does his
political legacy shape our thinking about the creative Senghor?
The symposium seeks to grasp historical and
esthetic legacies and to address equally important questions about the
continuities and discontinuities between early cultural and esthetic
experiments and those of today. As transnational processes give rise to
new and innovative expressive practices, are these early figures models
for Senegalese or West African creators? Are they points of
reference for youth thinking about history and identity?
What aspects of these legacies and practices do our
varied scholarly discourses— area studies, francophonie,
postcolonialism, postmodernism—highlight and hide?
Special Guests and Events
Invited guests include:
filmmaker Ben Diogaye Beye; journalist and novelist Boubacar Boris Diop;
playwright, novelist, and poet Cheik Aliou
Ndao; filmmaker and journalist Amadou
Guèye
Ngom; anthropologist and filmmaker Joseph Gäi Ramaka; and filmmaker and
novelist Khady Sylla.
In conjunction with the symposium, the Lilly Library, Indiana University’s archive of rare books,
will host an exhibit of correspondence and manuscripts by Birago Diop as
well as first editions of poetry anthologies by Léopold Senghor. The
symposium will also coincide with an exhibit at the Indiana University
Art Museum of works by two contemporary West African visual artists,
Tijani Sitou and Kalidou Sy. Films by guest filmmakers will also
be screened.
La littérature et les Arts au Sénégal
I:
Birago Diop et Léopold Sédar Senghor, Hier et Aujourd’hui
March 29 – 31, 2007
Indiana University Bloomington
Le Sénégal est aujourd’hui une nation peuplée d’à peu
près 11.000.000 d’individus. Berceau des quatre communes où les
Sénégalais avaient droit à la citoyenneté française et des anciennes
capitales de l’Afrique Occidentale Française, Saint-Louis et Dakar, le
Sénégal demeure une communauté distincte marquée par des traditions
locales et cosmopolites, de la peinture en verre souweer aux
biennales internationales d’art, du mbalax et des rythmes Afro-Cubains
au rap et aux tariqas Sufi ; du roman universel au taasu -
poésie de louange orale - un élément essentiel à la vie social des
femmes durant les baptêmes et mariages.
Suite
au centième anniversaire en 2006 de Léopold Sédar Senghor, poète,
prophète de la Négritude, et premier président du Sénégal, et du
vétérinaire et diplomate sénégalais Birago Diop, le remarquable
raconteur des contes néo-traditionnels, ce symposium vise à honorer ces
deux personnages de la vie culturelle sénégalaise et ouest africaine, à
situer leur pratique créative, et à évaluer leur héritage pour la
littérature et culture contemporaine ‘francophone’ sénégalaise. Ce
symposium est l’un d’une série de symposiums sponsorisés par Indiana
University, Northwestern University, et l’Université Cheikh Anta Diop
sur le passé et l’avenir de la culture au Sénégal.
Héritages du Passé/ Pratiques Expressives d’Aujourd’hui
Comment pourrions nous mieux réfléchir sur
la vie et l’héritage créateur de ces pionniers de la culture sénégalaise?
Est-ce que la poésie et les contes néo-traditionnels de Birago Diop
surgissent d’une impulsion nostalgique et nativiste cherchant à
préserver un art mourant? Est-ce que Birago Diop aide à construire, pour
reprendre l’expression dépréciative de Fanon, une douteuse identité
raciale panafricaine? Quelles perspectives de telles formes
néo-traditionnelles pourraient-elles avoir sur les questions théoriques
et critiques contemporaines telles que : l’épistémologie, la langue,
l’ethnicité, et les relations sociales? Le conte, en tant que
genre, est–il compatible avec les réalités politiques et économiques actuelles?
Par quels vecteurs et formes – oralité, performance, nouvelle, roman,
film -- pourrait-il être décélée? Pratiqué traditionnellement par les
femmes, le conte est- il toujours un genre attractif pour les écrivaines
et féministes?
Est-ce
que la négritude et ses élans pourraient servir pour les besoins
d’aujourd’hui et de demain? Quelle est l’image de Senghor, le politique
auprès des historiens et philosophes contemporains ? Comment est-ce que
son héritage politique influence notre perception du Senghor créateur?
Ce
symposium vise à saisir les héritages historiques et esthétiques et de
soulever des questions importantes sur les continuités et discontinuités
entre les premières expérimentations culturelles et esthétiques et
celles d’aujourd’hui. Est-ce que ces premiers personnages servent
d’exemple aux créateurs sénégalais et ouest-africains pendant que les
procédures transnationales donnent naissance à des pratiques expressives
nouvelles et innovatrices ? Est-ce qu’ils représentent des points de
référence à la jeunesse par rapport à son histoire et identité ?
Quels
aspects de ces héritages et pratiques sont mis en relief ou cachés par
nos différents discours érudits que sont – les études régionales, la
francophonie, le post-colonialisme, le postmodernisme ?
Invités Spéciaux et Événements
Parmi les invités il y aura:
Ben Diogaye Beye (cinéaste), Boubacar Boris Diop (journaliste et romancier), Cheikh Aliou
Ndao (dramaturge, romancier, et poète), Amadou Guèye Ngom (cinéaste),
Joseph Gäi Ramaka (anthropologue
et cinéaste), et
Khady Sylla (romancière et
cinéaste).
En
conjonction avec le symposium la section archive des livres rares de la
Bibliothèque Lilly d’Indiana University abritera une exposition de
correspondances et manuscrits de Birago Diop et des premières éditions
d’anthologies- poème de Léopold Senghor. Le symposium coïncidera aussi
avec une exposition, au Musée d’Art d’Indiana University d’œuvres de
deux artistes contemporains ouest africains : Tijani Sitou et Kalidou
Sy. Des films produits des cinéastes invités seront vus aussi.
La
participation est gratuite à toute personne inscrite.
Co-organisateurs:
Eileen Julien:
French, Comparative Literature,
African American & African Diaspora Studies,
and African Studies, Indiana
University
Souleymane Bachir Diagne:
Philosophy, African Studies,
Northwestern University
Oumar Ndao:
Département de Lettres Modernes,
L’Université Cheikh Anta Diop
CONVERSATIONS:
2006 POAET Grantees Report on their Research
January
19,
2007 Ballantine
#006
Bagels
& coffee will be available from 8:15 am
Panel
I
Visual Arts 8:30-9:30
AM
Clark Barwick
Behind the
Studio: Alexander Gumby & the Negro Renaissance Archive
Jessica Hurd A
Tale of Two Dogon Art Markets: An Exploration of Meaning behind the
Sculptures of Amahiguere Dolo
Panel
II Music
& Performance
9:40-11:00
AM
Cullen Strawn
Malian
Hunters & their Musicians
Angela
Scharfenberger
'Young & Wise' in
Ghana: A Musical Response to HIV/AIDS
Sheasby
Matiure Performing
Zimbabwe in North America: An Ethnography of Mbira & Marimba Performance
Practice in the United States
Panel III:
Culture, Memory &
History 11:10
AM-12:30
PM
Juan Eduardo Wolf Tumba!
African Descendants Reconstruct Chile's History through Performance
Mathew
Timothy Bradley
The
African-American Graveyard in Birdtown: A Concrete Link to the
Multi-ethnic Past of Pre-reservation Cherokee, North Carolina
Moses
Muziwandile Hadebe Kaleidoscope
of Resistance: Competing Representations of Anti-colonial
Revolt in Twentieth-century South Africa
For more information, contact Natasha Vaubel:
nvaubel@indiana.edu.
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