HIGHLIGHT: Book Launch: Femmes Noires Francophones (Kala-Hermann, 2020) and Gouvernance et Luttes d’Influences  Politiques au Sénégal: 1960-2000  (Kala-Hermann 2020)

Kala is a new publishing house created in Senegal to promote the publication of essays and other writings by academics, intellectuals and other thinkers in an effort to further contribute to a wider dissemination of knowledge in Senegal, Africa and the rest of the world.

Two of its recent publications were presented at the West African Research Center (WARC) on June 3^rd, 2021. The first one, Femmes Noires Francophones by Dr Odome Ongone, a faculty at University Cheikh Anta Diop (UCAD) is an essay on patriarchy and sexism in the 20^th-21^st centuries. It is a compilation of stories documenting the variegated experiences of contemporary african women determined to tell their own stories and shape their own destinies in spite of the challenges of patriarchy and other male-constructed hurdles.

The second, Gouvernance et Luttes d’Influences Politiques au Sénégal (1960-2000) by Dr Mohamed Lamine Manga of University Assane Seck of Ziguinchor is a political biography shedding light on the initiatives and actions of the senegalese political elite from Leopold Senghor, the first president to the era of President Abdou Diouf. The major political crises which upset the country as well as the various power struggles during that period are well documented by the book.

The panel, composed of the two authors and two other faculty at UCAD, Dr Babacar Mbaye Diop and Dr Mounirou Diallo, was attended by 29 people.