West African scholar relates hope, anxiety in Killam Lecture
Mamadou Diouf describes tremendous pace of change, laments lack of initiative among youth determined to “make it” in the West.
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Diouf spoke at this year’s Killam Lecture series on Thursday at the Dalhousie University's Tupper building. (Photo: Jenna Pennington)
"The West is not going to change Africa. Africans are going to change Africa," said a leading historian of West Africa on Thursday.
Mamadou Diouf spoke at this year’s Killam Lecture series, titled The Future of Africa Considered. He is both a professor and the director of Columbia's Institute of African Studies as well as a leading historian of Senegal and Francophone West Africa.
Thursday evening he filled Dalhousie University's Tupper Theatre with an audience of nearly a hundred people where he discussed the changing identity of West Africa.
"I come from a country that is changing so fast that to study it is near impossible. You collect data and then a year later you have to redo your research because everything is different," said Diouf.
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Diouf spoke to over one hundred student and staff. (Photo: Jenna Pennington)
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A focal point of Diouf's research is the changing role of the youth through pre-colonial, colonial and post-colonial periods. Diouf argues that West African social accountability is based on a system of hierarchy.
The elders of the community were said to have wisdom, knowledge and experience that should be respected by younger generations. But with widespread poverty in West Africa in the '80s, the elders were no longer able to provide for their families and seemed to give up on stimulating economic change.
"It was the simplest of systems that were collapsing. There was no garbage collection. There was no sense of community identity," said Diouf.
His face glows when he speaks of the '80's youth who stepped in to take on leadership roles, and stimulated change and pride in their communities.
"I remember it because I was there. These were my students and the people I was studying. They painted the wall of the city with dreams and images. They filled the streets with colour and music and new ways of dance. These were the urban youth," said Diouf.
Diouf said the new generation of youth don't seem to take the same initiative and instead are focused on migration and “making it” in the West.
"They would rather go away and send money home to their families than to change the cities their families live in," said Diouf.
"When I go home I see positive and negative changes. There is new infrastructure and the country is developing but there is no one there to lead the country."
Diouf was born and raised in Senegal. However, he left his country and moved to France to pursue studies in medieval history at the University of Paris-Sorbonne. It was only after finishing his undergraduate studies that a sense of citizenship brought him home and he changed the focus of his research to understanding the urban development of West Africa.
"I was always an academic. I never planned to be anything else," said Diouf.
In the last month he has attended a 10-day conference in Beijing, spoken at the Killam lecture series and will now continue on to Chicago for a conference discussing the progress of African studies in universities.
For Diouf, conferences and discussions like the Killam Lecture Series are essential for enabling continuous conversation about the issues West Africa faces.
"Lectures like this are a time for scholars to engage each other, compare notes and offer those that are not academics a view of the African experience and condition," said Diouf.
Diouf does not see himself as a direct actor in the change that is occurring in Africa. He describes himself as a scholar who simply provides the framework for discussion.
"As a historian I am not going to change Africa. Citizens are changing Senegal and I offer the information for the debate."
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