Despite the Covid-19 pandemic which has seen a number of cultural events canceled or postponed, such as the Dakar Biennale, initiatives have continued to flourish in the Dakar landscape. So KENU (“Pillar” in Wolof), a hybrid place. This is a project led by the multidisciplinary artist Alibeta, accompanied by the electro musician Ibaaku. It is designed in the manner of a triptych: to the cultural space is added an album Ña (“We” in Wolof) as well as a written and visual manifesto, Ñuni Neen (“between us”). In short, a global reflection on links, culture, as a factor of development, but also Pan-Africanism.
Rethinking circles of connection
Starting point and soul of the project, Ñun the new album of the “Afropolitan troubadour”, is a collaborative project since Alibeta is surrounded by Ethno-Jazz, an orchestra composed of musicians from Morocco, Cameroon, Mauritania… The 14 songs produced locally, revisit the heritage and showcase the influences of the continent. It is also for this committed artist who places at the heart of his work the pan-African question the opportunity to approach subjects such as heritage, decolonization or travel. Current themes always with Pan-Africanism and the question “How to re / build African unity?” “.
“The album invites us to revisit the circles to which we belong: oneself, one’s community, one’s nation, one’s continent, one’s world. We are built thanks to inheritances, made of links because only we do not exist. Even if we live in a world in crisis of links, we are all linked to each other, if only by our human condition, ”explains the artist who thus shows the strength of union, of living together and of living together. The importance of culture “which connects the living”, all the more so in Africa where “the link is vital and the community, very strong, our resource”, he adds.
Culture, a weapon of development
Initially, it was a neighborhood house in which they lived and worked. Alibeta and Ibaaku have decided to make it a unique place, deeply rooted in its territory. The space will be dedicated to culture, artists will be able to exhibit and train there, and it will be open to everyone, particularly to residents of the neighborhood, who are the wealth of Ouakam. KENU- the LAB’oratoires des imaginaires, self-funded via the Baraka association founded in 2012 by Alibeta as well as its creative agency created in 2018, opens its doors in January 2020. Recording studio, training place, exhibition space , space for exchanges … this hybrid place offers multiple possibilities. Latest creation: the launch on February 6 of the Kandang platform created to serve as a springboard for current music in Senegal.
KENU also wants to be a place of conservation of local heritage, but accessible where knowledge is made “digestible and audible”. Among the questions that interest the people involved in the project, those of the relationship to orality and the circulation of knowledge. “Transmission takes place mainly orally in Africa. This art is the oldest in the world: it structures society, governs relationships but is also an object of power for those who have the say, ”he analyzes. With the spoken word, a whole imagination unfolds, all the more so when it is influenced by mysticism, Ouakam being a Lebou village where the elders have concluded pacts with the spirits in order to allow its creation. A crossroads of imaginaries “which allows us to study a microcosm, its social practices and the neighborhood’s living together. It’s all this cultural spectrum, all this heritage, that we want to pass on to young people, ”underlines Alibeta.
In the absence of the Dakar Biennale, the first exhibition Ña Wa Kaam (“We the people of Ouakam”) by KENU was held during the Partcours, an artistic event during which exhibitions take place in different places in Dakar for two weeks. On the program of this premiere which ended on January 31? The enhancement of local artists through photographs, sculptures, cartoons, collages, etc. So many threads that tell the story of the life of the neighborhood in different forms and different points of view. At the same time, a whole cycle of conferences, workshops and concerts had been designed by the two curators of the exhibition, Delphine Buysse and Alibeta.
The name of the space, KENU, which means “pillar” in Wolof, recalls its key function. “Culture is a massive weapon of daily development, not just at artistic events. It is essential to rethink our relationship to it in Africa, because it is our umbilical cord, it is what shapes our vision of the world ” insists the Senegalese from a family of artists.
Serving the community
Because KENU is also a resource center. Composed of researchers in the human sciences, community actors, artists, students, a team led by sociologist Sandrine Lemare has the mission of mapping the neighborhood in order to make a diagnosis. “A first community anchoring to grasp the cultural realities and dynamics of Ouakam”, explains the poster plastered on one of the walls of KENU.
Quantitative surveys continue to be carried out on four major very current themes: culture and heritage / environment and urban space / women and entrepreneurship / youth and citizenship. “This documentation and research process allows us to analyze local issues. We will then be able to carry out concrete actions on the ground. We are really action-oriented, with a model that mixes popular education and the arts, ”says Alibeta.
The manifesto Ñuni Neen (“Between us”), the spirit of the project, draws up a clear guideline: art and culture are presented as “vectors of development at the service of the community, and are means of solving problems for allow harmonious living together ”. From this perspective, culture appears as a tool for tackling topical issues and can serve as advocacy, whether it be education, migration, development or other central themes.
Anxious to always include the community, consultations with the population and intermediation between civic actors and civil society were proposed to identify the actions to be carried out. “The artist creates a link with the community and has the role of facilitator. It is with community and active mobilization that we can make living together last. It is a question of weaving a common history and highlighting the potentials and possibilities of the territory ”, supports the artist who is already pleased with the investment and the interest of the inhabitants of the district for KENU, the LAB’oratoire des imaginary.
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