Pan-African movements and the continuity of the decolonial struggle

Omar Sene

14.00-14.45 (BST)

This presentation will focus on the situation of social movements in Dakar/Senegal and how they are part of pan-African movements. Using the example of an event called The Popular University of Citizen Engagement (UPEC), I will describe the continuity of the decolonial struggle. UPEC is a transnational gathering of social movements from different African countries (p. ex. Balai Citoyen/Burkina Faso; Lucha/Congo; Filimbi/Congo; Sofas/Mali; Athiame/Togo) which since 2018 is regularly organized in Dakar/Senegal by the local youth movement, Y’en a marre. What connects all the movements is the neocolonial situation and the crisis in their respective country (high cost of living, power cuts, financial scandals, bad governance/political clientelism, extraction of natural resources by multinational companies, etc.). UPEC creates a space where all the movements unite and debate the substance of the national, transnational and global context - it is in these meetings where Pan-Africanism rises up the spirits and practices of anti-colonial thinkers such as Thomas Sankara, Amílcar Cabral, Cheikh Anta Diop, Frantz Fanon etc.

Omar Sene is an activist, dancer, choreographer and teacher in the Compagnie Om'Art Scène in Dakar. He started with his activism in 2003 when he worked with a group of young artists and students in his neighborhood Dalifort to establish the spirit of changing the daily crisis situation and improving living conditions. In 2011 Omar Sene became a member of the youth movement Y’en a marre. In 2013 Omar Sene brought dance to the streets, which he named Weuriko, a term in Wolof meaning improvisation. This idea led to the creation of the first dance festival in his neighborhood Dalifort Danse Festival, of which he is the director. Since 2014, he has been a member and teacher in the first Dance Academy in Senegal called Blaise Senghor, known as the Regional Cultural Center of Dakar. Today for Omar Sene, his mission is to train young people in dance, but also to promote civic engagement and critical thinking throughout Senegal and the world. To his understanding, dance performances "must come out of the halls, they need to be exteriorized in the streets for and with the populations and more precisely in the Banlieues of Senegals cities."

See more here: https://www.dalifortdansefestival.com/