CONFERENCE - 8 Mai 2008

"Histoire, colonisation et débats mémoriels dans la France contemporaine"

Professor Catherine Coquery-Vidrovitch (Paris VII - France):

Prof. Coquery Vidrovitch giving her lecture moderated by Prof Boubacar Barry, Prof. Thioub and Sene sitting next

Quality audience attended the lecture

For Catherine Coquery-Vidrovitch, Professor Emerita of History at the University of Paris VII, France, schools, colleges and universities in the french educational system should overhaul their curricula and give more substance and impetus to the teaching of african history and french colonial history while keeping in mind that those histories were not simply made by the explorers, colonial military and administrators. Indeed, the "colonized" contributed a lot to the political, economic and cultural advancement of France and it is high time that this plain truth were acknowledged by french academia and decision-makers so as to give a new positive twist to the relations between France and her former colonies which, most of the time, are strained as the result of a deliberate and wilful amnesia in the country of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

In a nutshell, such was the conclusions resulting from the Professor's survey of the handling of colonial history by many french scholars and in all french learning institutions for over several centuries now.

The lecture, which was attended by 64 people, was moderated by Professor Boubacar Barry of the Department of History - Ucad, who reminded the audience of the many years of collaboration and team work between himself and Professor Vidrovitch. Indeed, many of the Senegalese faculty currently teaching in the Department of History, University Cheikh Anta Diop, are Professor Vidrovitch's former graduate students.

Warc offered presents to Prof Vidrovitch

The lecture was the joint initiative of the West African Research Center, the Crepos project and the Department of History-Ucad.

Ousmane SENE, WARC Director