African Insitute Hosts Senegal Conference

A two-day international conference at School of International and Public Affairs on Senegalese culture, led by the Institute of African Studies, capped off a year of change for African programming since the institute reopened this year.

Entitled “Tolerance, Democracy, and Sufis in Senegal,” the conference drew scholars from across the globe this weekend. Mamadou Diouf, professor of African Studies, said that he saw the gathering as a milestone for the newly reinstated institute.

The conference itself centered around the intersection of Islam and politics in Senegal as scholars presented their own papers and research on Senegalese history and culture—notably Diouf and fellow Columbia professor Souleymane Bachir Diagne, who teaches French and Romance philology. But the keystone event of the weekend was the opening of the “Saint in the City: Sufi Arts of Urban Senegal” art exhibit at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem, which was presented by the University and the Schomburg center, and curated by the Fowler Museum at UCLA.

“By combining an academic conference with an exhibit at the Schomburg ... we have been able to connect with the community which is living around us—in particular, the Harlem community,” Diouf said. “It’s also something that is crucial for the Institute of African Studies to participate in the dialogue which is the dialogue of not only Africans, but also of African-Americans.”

The Institute of African Studies, which was suspended in June 2006 after seeing a revolving door of interim directors after losing its director, Mahmood Mamdani, in 2004, reopened in October with Diouf at its helm. Diouf said he believed that such an expansive conference was a testament to the progress that the institute had made in establishing itself in the world of African studies.

“It is a testimony that the Institute of African Studies is now not only part of the fabric of the University, but we are bringing on the table something ... around which we can walk with other institutes,” Diouf said.

Sunday’s public opening of the Schomburg art exhibit drew both scholars and Harlem locals. The exhibit was largely devoted to an exploration of the sheikh Amadou Bamba, a Muslim activist whose image is omnipresent in Senegalese art and culture.

“I like what I’m seeing. It’s beautiful,” said Monica Medley, who traveled from Pennsylvania to see the exhibit.

“It’s a pretty intriguing, powerful story. Growing up Muslim in America, and hearing the story, and knowing what sheikh Amadou Bamba went through and how he was able to defeat or overcome all these hard things that were put upon him, it makes you want to be a stronger, more spiritual personal,” said Thakiyah Yankowy, who also attended the exhibit. “If he can do that, I can do what I want to do in life.”

Allen Roberts, director of the African Studies Center at UCLA and one of the curators of the exhibit, expressed confidence in Diouf’s leadership of the institute.

“The phoenix is rising again of the great African Studies program here at Columbia,” Roberts said.

alix.pianin@columbiaspectator.com