On Tuesday Nov. 3, for the final symposium presentation of the day in the Library’s Impact Beloit first floor classroom, Academic Curator Christa Story moderated a panel presentation and discussion by six students, Kate Mann’27, Liv Fisler’28, Vivian Kopka’27, Oliver Idzikowski’28, Jamie Edwards’28, and Max King’29. Many panelists wore multicolored t-shirts depicting an image of Cheikh Anta Diop, a Senegalese anthropologist and intellectual, whose work focused on challenging common conceptions regarding Egypt and its overstated distance from the rest of African history and who is a cultural icon in Senegal.
The session was titled From Belot to Dakar: Art, Decolonization, and Social Change in Africa, and the student panelists began by sharing their day to day experiences during their two weeks in Senegal as a part of a Global Experience Seminar. Mann shared that it was “always an adventure to go outside and hail a cab,” noting that many in the group crammed into the backseat of these older, more compact diesel automobiles. “That smell of diesel has stayed with me to this day,” Mann said. She also emphasized that living together in apartments and traveling in close quarters throughout the trip created a sense of what Mann called “crafted community.” Fisler expressed how valuable it was to meet students from Cheikh Anta Diop University in Dakar, even joining them on a night out to see an orchestra. “Being together with people we met throughout our trip was my favorite part,” Fisler added.
Fisler then turned things over to Kopka who discussed common sayings in Wolof, the native language spoken in Senegal, most notably “teraanga,” which has no direct English translation, but conveys the art of hospitality and humane treatment of others. Kopka also highlighted the group’s experience at Tabaski, a Senegalese celebration of the Muslim holiday Eid, meant to represent the willingness of Abraham to sacrifice Issac at the top of the mountain in Islam, and revolves around the ceremonial slaughter of a sheep to be cooked and eaten with family. Idzikowski then spoke about the wealth of art the group had the opportunity to interact with while in Dakar, saying “every day we got to see street art, religious art, and museum art.” Idzikowski highlighted the everpresent image of Sufi Saint Amadou Bamba, drawn everywhere from churches to street corners. One photograph of St. Bamba, commonly used as reference for art, shows his face shrouded in shadow. Idzikowski described the image as a “cup filled with an infinite amount of water,” because replication of the photograph does not diminish its power but further amplifies it. Edwards then briefly touched on the sensory experiences of Senegal, recalling the loud braying of sheep and calling of a hawk that served as a morning wake-up call.
On one of the days the group was in Dakar, they traveled to a community just outside of the city called Guédiawye to visit the Guédiawye Hip-Hop center, in the process learning about hip-hop not only as a musical genre, but a conduit for the formation of an artistic community, including the five pillars of hip-hop: DJ-ying, MC-ing, breaking (b-boying), graffiti, and knowledge. Guédiawye is also a place of community healing, and Mann recalled seeing the words “peace, love and unity” written on walls throughout the community, identifying the phrase as a “core theme of the trip.”
Featured image: Ground Up
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