A wonderful week between Paris and London, ending with an enchanting evening.
It started on a sad note (as I had to cancel my stay in my beloved Bristol...).
But in the end, it was a time of growth and beautiful reunions, enjoying exceptional art and engaging in deep conversations, all that while covering some of the most dramatic crisis in the world, as a journalist.
Very grateful.
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A summary in pictures: Tonight at the 'Magasins Généraux', in Pantin, near Paris:
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A bit more here:
Senegal's Constitutional Council on Thursday overturned the postponement of this month's presidential election, a move that plunged the country into its worst crisis in decades.
The Council said the law adopted by parliament on February 5 -- which delayed the election for 10 months and would thus keep President Macky Sall in office beyond the end of his term -- was unconstitutional, according to a document published on social media and authenticated by a source within the institution.
The constitutional body also annulled Sall's February 3 decree that modified the electoral calendar just three weeks before the vote, postponing the election from February 25 to December 15.
Sall's move provoked widespread outcry from Senegal's opposition and civil society, who decried it as a "constitutional coup".
It prompted violent protests during which three people were killed and dozens arrested.
Senegal's major international partners also condemned the move and called on the government to hold the election as soon as possible, fearing violent unrest.
The exhibition opened a few days ago at the Royal Academy of Arts, London:
Much more soon!
ENG - Senegalese voters living in Paris, France, met on 10 February 2024 to protest the election delay. They believe their president, Macky Sall, is trying to stay in power beyond the end of his term on 2 April. Last weekend, he postponed the presidential polls from 25 February to later in the year. The Parliament then voted for a new date: 25 December. Voters believe the official calendar can still be respected.
FR - Des électeurs sénégalais vivant à Paris, en France, se sont réunis le 10 février 2024 pour protester contre le retard des élections. Ils estiment que leur président Macky Sall tente de se maintenir au pouvoir au-delà de la fin son mandat du 2 avril. Le week-end dernier, Sall a reporté les élections présidentielles du 25 février à plus tard dans l'année. Le Parlement a alors voté une nouvelle date : le 25 décembre. Les électeurs estiment que le calendrier officiel peut encore être respecté.
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More soon
Just a few days before the start of this series of talks at the Royal Academy of Arts, London, as part of their groundbreaking exhibition 'Entangled Pasts':
Wolfson British Academy Room | Burlington Gardens
Short course
Join us for this 6-week lecture series as we explore the role of art in some of the world’s major protest movements.
In 2020, as the Black Lives Matter movement took hold, a statue was removed from its plinth and toppled into the waters of Bristol Harbour. This act gave birth to a creative movement, generating new ways of thinking about memorialisation and Britain’s colonial past and playing into a long tradition of art taking a central role in grassroots activism.
In this course, we will examine the myriad ways art can harness the power for social change. From the French Revolution and the role of art in revolutionary society to the Guerrilla Girls’ campaign for gender equality, to the work of contemporary artists such as Ana Mendieta on the climate crisis, we will discuss the beginnings of activist movements that have shaped our society, and consider the place of art within these.
Exploring prescient issues such as the fight for racial equity, feminism and climate change, this lecture series examines art as both a constructive and destructive medium. Talks are given by academics, curators and art-world professionals, with the opportunity for questions and discussion.
An introduction to the history of the long relationship between art and conflict, from revolutions such as the French Revolution and the Haitian Revolution, to the present day.
Melissa Chemam is a journalist, broadcaster and writer on art, music, social change, multiculturalism, African affairs, North/South relations, and activism. She is the author of the book Massive Attack - Out of the Comfort Zone (2019), and has been published by BBC Culture, Al Jazeera, RFI English, Art UK, CIRCA Art Magazine, the Public Art Review, the New Arab, The Independent, Reader’s Digest, UP Mag and Skin Deep. She also worked as a journalism lecturer and as the writer in residence at the Arnolfini art centre, in Bristol, from 2019 to 2022.
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For more, read the latest post on my newsletter from here:
https://melissa.substack.com/p/on-our-entangled-pasts-and-how-to
I met with Raphael in January to prepare my talk at the Royal Academy on 13 February.
I went to see the exhibition twice, and with my colleague from RFI went to the final performance on 3 Feb.
Here is a insight, commented by the artist:
Slavery has been a prominent theme in contemporary US and British art for many years, but French institutions have been slower to foreground the issue.
This winter, the Panthéon monument in Paris gave carte blanche to artist Raphaël Barontini to bring lesser-known figures of emancipation into the light.
His visuals were accompanied by an original sound piece by American music producer Mike Ladd, as well as two performances by the Caribbean carnival group Choukaj.
The exhibition ran from 19 October 2023 to 11 February 2024.
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Out of the 20 candidates on the list to campaign for the presidential role in Senegal, 13 have now formed a collective to act and face the current political crisis.
Among them, the representative of the candidate of ex-Pastef Bassirou Diomaye Faye, the deputies Déthié Fall and Thierno Alassane Sall, and the former minister Aly Ngouille Ndiaye.
All denounce the "constitutional coup" by President Macky Sall to keep power beyond 2 April, the date was to cede it to his successor.
“His mandate expires on 2 April. After this deadline, Macky Sall will no longer be recognised as President of the Republic," Aly Ngouille Ndiaye, candidate and former minister, told RFI. "He will not be able to take any action that will commit Senegal,” he added.
The members of the collective also filed an appeal with the Supreme Court on Monday to overturn the president's decree which cancels the convocation of the electoral body on 25 February.
They will file another appeal as quickly as possible to the Constitutional Council to challenge the law passed on Monday which postpones the election to 15 December.
A collective of Senegalese civil society groups and religious leaders also called for mass mobilisation against the delay to this month's presidential poll.
They are planing actions including a protest and a strike as the country faces a political crisis.
In response to the protests that stormed Dakar from Sunday, President Sall told a cabinet meeting on Wednesday evening that he wanted to embark on "a pragmatic process of calming down and reconciliation".
He did not detail what measures he wanted the authorities -- particularly the justice ministry -- to implement, stating only "his desire to bring peace to the public arena".
Sall also reaffirmed his decision not to take part in the election and "renewed his confidence in Prime Minister Amadou Ba".
Ba has so far kept silent on the current crisis, but has expressed his support for the postponement of the election, a statement from the presidency said.
Sall also repeated his decision not to take part in Senegal's next presidential election and his camp denied he was trying to hang on to power.
“It is not the one who sought to shorten a 7-year mandate who will try to eat away 10 months,” the Secretary General of the government, Seydou Gueye, told RFI. No one should any longer suspect the president of wanting to keep power.”
The opposition feels supported by the recent declaration from the United States, which said the delay "cannot be considered legitimate".
Ecowas also called Senegal to reconsider sticking to the original date in February, which now seems very unlikely.
But the group's wording was "very soft," according to Rama Salla Dieng, a Senegalese lecturer in African Studies at Scotland's University of Edinburgh.
She said Ecowas was prepared to "issue statements but when it's time to act and uphold the principles for which it was created, it doesn't do anything."
She seems to think the group should consider excluding Senegal.
Senegal's opposition Tuesday denounced a "constitutional coup" after parliament voted to delay the presidential election by 10 months, plunging the country into its worst crisis in decades.
Issued on:
Lawmakers backed postponing this month's polls until 15 December during a lengthy and heated debate, which at times descended into shoving and pushing.
President Macky Sall should in consequence remain in office until his successor is installed, probably in 2025, while his second mandate was due to expire in early April.
As this decision unfolds, opposition members claim the country has been taken "hostage" and have decried the erosion of Senegal's democratic norms.
"The situation is completely catastrophic, Senegal's image is ruined, and I don't think we'll be recovering from this democratic bankruptcy, this tsunami in the rule of law, any time soon," opposition deputy Ayib Daffe said after the vote.
"We are all devastated. It's a blow to Senegalese democracy," said Pape Djibril Fall, one of the 20 candidates who had been in the running for the presidency.
Aliou Mamadou Dia, another candidate, reiterated the phrase "constitutional coup": "They have taken the country hostage," he fumed.
A supporter of Prime minister Amadou Ba, the former director of the 'Futurs Medias' group Mamoudou Ibra Kane told RFI that even Ba is frustrated, and feels that the president wants to "hang to power".
Kane even called Macky Sall to quit.
It is the first time in history that Senegalese voters, who were due to elect their fifth president on 25 February, have faced such a crisis.
Security forces earlier on Monday used tear gas to disperse opposition protesters outside parliament, where demonstrators chanted "Macky Sall dictator".
The move also unleashed widespread outcry on social media, despite the suspension of mobile internet access by the government on Monday.
More than 115 academics and personalities also teamed up to publish a column describing the president as the "gravedigger of the republic".
"The real crisis is the one that will result from this unprecedented decision calling into question the electoral timetable, for which he is the sole initiator and ultimately responsible," they wrote.
The researcher and writer Felwine Sarr, signatory of this column, told RFI: “The president claimed that there was an institutional crisis, a dispute between two institutions, which is not true.
He claims Sall created the crisis himself.
"An internal crisis in his party, with problems of legitimacy of the candidate they have chosen, with the fear of losing the elections. And he transfers this internal crisis to the entire country."
The vote to delay Senegal's presidential election until December "cannot be considered legitimate", the US state department said.
The department also called on Senegal's government to respect freedoms of peaceful assembly and expression, including for members of the press.
The West African bloc ECOWAS said Tuesday it "encourages" member state Senegal to urgently restore the electoral timetable, adding it was following events "with concern".
Senegal is often viewed as a bastion of stability in the volatile region and has never experienced a coup since gaining independence from France in 1960.
From 20 January to 30 June 2024, the ICI — Institut des Cultures d’Islam presents La Rose de Jéricho, an exhibition by Aurélia Zahedi
Embracing drawing, sculpture, photography, painting, installation and performance, Aurélia Zahedi has been developing for several years a body of work devoted to the Rose of Jericho, a plant said to be immortal, blown here and there by the wind, and blooming thanks to the rare and precious rain that makes the desert blossom.
In Palestine, alongside the Bedouins of Nabi Moussa, the artist composes a protean narrative exploring the myths of the Rose, in a land torn apart by human madness. In the intimate atmosphere of the ICI’s hammam, the exhibition highlights the power of the imaginary against oblivion, at a time when beliefs, orality and memory oscillate between emergence and obliteration.
The exhibition is accompanied by a multidisciplinary events programme that includes Aurélia Zahedi’s Rose Ceremony (combining botany and poetry), a conference on the access to water on the West Bank, a film featuring young Palestinian women, a literary teatime, tales and a concert to coincide with Ramadan, a film screening and art workshops for children.
Detailed information on the website: www.ici.paris
