HIGHLIGHT

WARC honors « Black Lives Matter » with SOAS (London) and UCI (California)

Two major academic and research institutions in the United Kingdom and the United States teamed up with the West African Research Center (WARC) to pay tribute to all the victims who inspired the creation and emergence of the Black Lives Matter Movement and to contribute to the discussion on race issues in the world.

On Friday, July 17th from 3 to 5pm GMT, as part of its Festival of Ideas event, the School of Oriental and African Studies of the University of London, held a virtual symposium on the theme « Black Lives Matter/Britain is not Innocent ».

The event involved a number of distinguished speakers including the Director of WARC who was invited to discuss the history of Black Movements in the US. Professor Séne of WARC dwelt on the topic and summarized the historical process of black resistance with four words: mutiny, riots, boycotts, protests.

The other presenters focussed on issues such as the Black Lives Matter Movement in the US (Stephanie Guirand, a Phd student at SOAS), Race, Racism and Anti-Blackness (Dr Alana Lentin, SOAS), Waking up White (an essay presented by the author herself, Debby Irving) and an intersectional analysis of race and gender issues titled The Triple Cripples.

The Virtual event was attended by over 60 viewers.

Likewise, another webinar was held on Wednesday, July 22nd, from 3 to 4pm GMT, by the University of California Irvine (UCI) to explore the topic « Black Lives Matter, from a Global Perspective ». The event began with a summary introduction from Dr Douglas Haynes, Vice Chancellor for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (UCI) and included the following speakers: Professor Hakim Adi, History of Africa and the African Diaspora, Chichester University (UK), Marketus Presswood, Phd History (UCI).

In his presentation, the Director of WARC summarized the various events that took place in Senegal and other parts of the continent to show support to the Black Lives Matter Movement and protest the violence regularly visited on Blacks the world over. He particularly emphasized the role of the West African Research Center (WARC) in such events, specially in Senegal with several webinars held at WARC, various TV and radio shows featuring the WARC Director and the facilitation offered by WARC for a meeting between the US ambassador in Dakar and local civil society organizations on the issue.