Saint Louis, Senegal, known as Ndar to the Wolof people, existed as seasonal fishing village for inhabitants of the Waalo kingdom. Old regime France negotiated to create a fortified outpost on a strip of land that sits at the mouth of the Senegal River where the river meets the Atlantic Ocean. Strategically located, the fort at Saint Louis gave French mercantile companies access to upriver trade as well as trans-Saharan trade networks controlled by Bidan Moors of the western Sahara. This presentation explores the making of multi-religious, multi-ethnic, multi-racial, and multi-cultural societies emerged in this port to raise key questions about the relationship of Islam and Christianity, power negotiations and confrontations between African and European authorities, and the importance of labor migration and trade networks in creating an “urban Wolof society” at the intersection of the Atlantic and Saharan worlds.
Join the IHGC for this Roundtable presentation, featuring University of Kentucky's Dr. Hilary Jones (Department of History and Africana Studies) and UVA’s Dr. Njelle Hamilton (Department of English). Dr. Mamadou Dia (Department of French) will also introduce his new film project, Augustus, a film inspired by the journey of African American photographer Augustus Washington to Saint Louis, a prosperous Senegalese island in 1861as France began its colonial occupation. The film was awarded the Guggenheim (2023) and the Creative Capital and Virginia Museum of Fine Arts fellowships (2024).