The Director of the Boston University African Studies Center, Professor Fallou Ngom, and the Center’s Assistant Director, Dr Eric Schmidt, visited the West African Research Center (WARC) on Tuesday, July 31st, for a highly promising meeting with the WARC Director and some of his collaborators.

The purpose of the visit was to explore ways and means to consolidate the already very productive collaboration between the two institutions. As Professor Fallou Ngom (BU) and Professor Sene (WARC) agreed, the collaborative effort which has been operating between the two centers so far has been grounded on mutual trust and confidence, accountability, professionalism and the same eagerness to serve the academic, research and student communities on both sides of the Atlantic.

The successes already recorded in the various joint efforts engaged in by WARC and the BU African Studies Center are encouraging enough to warrantee the consolidation of the achievements recorded so far and explore other avenues for collaboration and mutual support.

In this respect, the African Studies Center will offer opportunities for training and human resource development to WARC staff in a number of areas; WARC will also serve as the hub of a number of activities to be initiated by the African Studies Center such as Phd opportunities for mandinka speaking graduate students in the Gambia and Senegal. Also, at the end of the Ajami project, funds will be provided to equip WARC with a server to support the activities of the Center’s library.

Study abroad activities were also discussed at length and, with the extensive experience of WARC in that area, the BU African Studies Center will be soon launching a program based at the West African Research Center in Dakar.

It should be noted that the BU African Studies Center has been hosting for years the office of the WARC governing body, the West African Research Association (WARA) on the BU campus in Boston.