Senegal is a laboratory.

— Ibrahima Thiaw

2024

Ibrahima Thiaw

Ibrahima Thiaw is a Professor of Archaeology at the Institut Fondamental d’Afrique Noire/University Cheikh Anta Diop of Dakar (Senegal). This interview was conducted in English in Dakar, Senegal.

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Conversation Transcript

The Unfinished Conversations Series were started them in Senegal. […] Now, I can say that Senegal is a laboratory. It is a laboratory, and it is one of the oldest laboratories to explore these processes. You have possibilities of looking at the Trans-Saharan and the Atlantic and having the two interact within the same space for even centuries. And even in the current debates, it is still a laboratory on how identities are negotiated and how commemorations should be carried out, who’s left in and who’s left out, the role of power. […] Also, it was, in terms of curatorial practice, it was an experiment. We wanted to do something new, collect stories in a different way, develop new kinds of relations with the communities we were engaging, and make sure that certain practices in terms of collecting and curating aren’t reproduced.

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