women-academics-from-senegal

"I’m proud to be a mentor to several female students majoring in mathematics both in the USA and in Africa."

"My advice to young scholars is to pursue their dreams. Don’t let anyone stop you from pursuing your passion. If you love mathematics, go for it."

"I am also proud to be the first Black female with a doctoral degree in mathematics from my graduate institution and to be awarded tenure from the Eberly College of Science at Penn State University."

"President of Convergence of Actors in Defence of Republican Values “C.A.R Lenen”. Candidate in Senegal’s 2012 presidential elections, retrieved on June 21, 2012"

"Women talk about parity everywhere, even in the bush. They bring parity to the leadership and they demand parity. I think it has already been very successful. Several women have considered my candidacy entirely normal, which would not have been the case in earlier times. They say they have always supported men and now that parity has been adopted they often support women. Women know that if a woman is elected their concerns will be better taken into account – a woman who assumes power having been a mother, with boys and girls, and who could never discriminate against either gender."

"am a woman who has advanced many reforms on behalf of women in Senegal. Amssatou has supported children by creating "SOS right to education" and by helping Senegalese students avoid what would otherwise have been a lost academic year. Amssatou initiated the first national conference, bringing together in an amphitheatre the party in power, the opposition and civil society to reflect on the country's political situation. During this conference, Amssatou called on students to return to their classes."

"The only trigger was the general situation of the country. Senegal is suffering a great sickness. The ship is taking on water on all sides, and men and women alike must use all of their strength to keep it from capsizing. All Senegalese people, of every political persuasion, suffer when legal instruments are rigged and institutions are undermined. What we have seen in recent decades obliges us to dedicate ourselves to serving the Senegalese people. If we fail to act we become complicit. For all of these reasons we have created a citizens movement, because the people, who have not been respected, should have the last word. This movement has captured the interest of many Senegalese people, who for decades have observed that we are not evolving normally and that our rights have steadily eroded. It is because the Senegalese people aspire to break away from the status quo that we have created the Convergence of Actors in Defence of Republican Values "CAR Lenen"."

"Between 2021 and 2024, Senegal went through a delicate phase in its political history. A period characterized by repeated crises and violence stemming from political demonstrations (more than 65 deaths and 1,000 injured, not to mention the massive destruction of public and private property)"

"We have observed that there are tensions, we prefer that there be consultation. […] We want there to be consultation, a dialogue around this issue"

"I realised how few of us were able to evolve in the top strata of the industry."

"I came to understand that Mali has such a rich musical culture that is not being exported as well as it should. It felt natural that I should bring my know-how, the experience I’d gained around the world over a twenty-year period to Mali, to create a viable music production platform here."

"When you try to do things well, it’s not perceived as trying to be more rigorous, it’s perceived as being “bossy”"

"I felt the need to utilise my experience, the network and access I had gained in the US, but it had to be done from my own premises. I knew that I had the ability, as a young African woman, to sustain a music management company that would cater to international artists."

"I knew that I had the ability, as a young African woman, to sustain a music management company that would cater to international artists."

"I was among a first generation of African women researchers who, after independence, have given a voice not only to African issues, but also to women. My encounters in the 1980s, and during the UN Women’s Decades with Women’s Studies and feminist critiques in North American universities as well as feminist organisations from the South have enriched my own analysis on various topics ranging from environmental issues to women’s leadership, from reproductive and sexual rights to the impact of religion and culture on women’s citizenship."

"In my own life, I tenaciously fight prejudices and inculcate feminist principles in my children. I draw my inspiration from the solidarity and company of other feminist sisters and from the key principles of honesty and modesty."

"It operates as one of the political idioms at the very moment when democracy is becoming essential as a universal, unavoidable reference."

"So how can we imagine a space for interaction where collective issues are put up for discussion? The case of Côte d’Ivoire, the reform of the Family Code in Senegal, and the tragedy in Rwanda are examined."

"The African state seems unable any longer to guarantee its citizens’ security. The human body is becoming an integral part of the territories where conflict is occurring."

"What is being challenged is the sovereignty of the state, which means that the symbolic construction of a people transforming the state into a nation state is no longer possible"

"The crucial questions, when thinking about emergent humanisms, have to do with the exegesis of the political, and at its heart democracy, citizenship and the management of violence, which obstinately appears as a constant in the political experience in Africa."

"Phallocratic and patriarchy maintained sexual violence and controlled women. Their way of controlling was to rape, female genital mutilation, force marriage and polygamy. European did not succeed in wiping out the black African civilization. The mothers/ancestors of the country, they held on to their belief to keep African civilization alive."

"The European feminist imposed the false argument “Rape is to women what lynching is to Blacks”. Women in the text suffered from double domination and double enslavement by the colonial phallocratic."

"The European view point of exploitation of women in Europe compared to the African American women shows an inaccurate judgment."

"In the phallocratic system European women and African women suffers oppression and exploitation by the capitalist as the male worker. Women also struggle wage on their own native land. Women and man fighting and bearing arms for the liberation of their country, only then they are seen to be equal as man. Women are capable just as men in assimilating skills of guerrilla warfare."

"Women must fight and realize the system that is controlling and denying them, that system is patriarchal and phallocratic. Many were unconscious whether to rebel against this system that exploits them or accept it and remained in slavery. So many women were confused on what they should do because if they rebel they were dehumanized and disposed of."