The US Embassy in Dakar, on Thursday June 8 at 3pm, organized a live Zoom panel on a topic relating to current developments in the United States and titled Protest for Change: An American Tradition. The panel, which was held in french with the following title: Comment dans l’histoire de l’Amérique les protestations ont conduit à un changement? included the following speakers: Ndeye Bineta Mbodj, a PhD student of University Gaston Berger(UGB) currently a Fulbright scholar at Georgia State University, Dr Pape Malick Ba, an American literature specialist at University Cheikh Anta Diop and Professor Ousmane Sene, specialising in American literature and Director of the West African Research Center (WARC).

After the introduction made by the moderator, Kine Diakhate, from the US Embassy, Professor Sene was called upon to document how the Boston Tea Party in 1973 was instrumental in giving new impetus to the American war of independence and to the advancement of Civil Rights for white Americans who were seeking to emancipate themselves from the tyranny of the british empire. Subsequently Professor Sene elaborated on the Montgomery Bus Boycott which, in 1955, fuelled the Civil Rights Movement and peaceful civil disobedience of the 50’s and 60s with the leadership of Martin Luther King.

While Mrs Ndeye Bineta Mbodj underscored the leading roles of great African American women leaders in the National Women’s Suffrage Campaign of 1913 and commented on the Delano California Grape Strike of 1965, Dr Pape Malick Ba discussed the bus boycott and current events and the state of human rights for African Americans in the United States in light of the George Floyd episode and its ongoing consequences in the US.

The event, which was followed by 46,000 people worldwide, was streamed live and the panelists interacted with many viewers and fielded their questions.