DAKAR, SEPTEMBER 4, 2019 - A BRIDGE OVER THE ATLANTIC

By Sylvain Sankalé

Written in conjuction with the exhibition Saint-Louis to St. Louis

The sister cities of St. Louis, Missouri and Saint-Louis, Senegal, have links that go far beyond their common name.

Separated by the Atlantic Ocean, they possess rich histories and share a common heritage.

First, both are river towns—one on the Senegal River, one on the Mississippi—and these settlements ordered access to the two aquatic boulevards, raising formi- dable commercial issues and bringing together varied people, goods, ideas and cultures.

They were founded by French merchants a century apart (the Senegal port in 1659, its Missouri counterpart in 1764), and were named for Louis IX, the 13th century French king and Catholic saint.

Both cities operated under the auspices of multiple colonial powers and were grafted onto the territories of an indigenous population, the Illini of central North America and the Wolof people of northwestern Senegal.

Each saw its fortunes rise remarkably through the first part of the 20th century, becoming economic and cultural capitals of their respective countries.

As of the 1900 census, St. Louis, Missouri, was the fourth most populous city in the United States, with 575,238 inhabitants. In 1904, it hosted a World’s Fair and organized the third Olympic Games of the modern era.

Saint-Louis, Senegal, was, in colonial times, the capital of two border countries, Senegal and Mauritania, and therefore was home to two governors, a unique international arrangement.

As the century progressed, however, their respective fortunes began to change. The Great Depression ravaged the United States during the 1930s, while Senegalese independence and other political factors— specifically, the movement of the capital from Saint-Louis to Dakar— decreased the former’s prestige.

Since then, the two cities have experienced their share of struggles and are trying to regain at least some of their former splendor.

Is it at all surprising, then, to add that they recognized these parallel destinies by becoming sister cities in 1994?

Even their built environments echo one another, as the arches of the iconic Faidherbe Bridge, connecting the island of Saint-Louis of Senegal to the river- bank, recall the Gateway Arch, the famous monument of its American sister!

But beyond their similar stories, the two cities decided to rise from the ashes of their economic struggles, and through culture reminded the world of their existence.

Sports, music, dance, fashion, painting, sculpture, architecture, photography, and video, come together to convey dreams and hopes of a better future.

Women and men, at the whim and chance of sometimes difficult and tortured lives, forgetting the excesses and atrocities of a history sometimes not long past. Instead, they opted for dynamism, looking to the future while not forgetting the past, allowing them to overcome and thus to dominate it.

Saint-Louis, Senegal has always been a melting pot where stories and destinies of countless lives, races, castes, cultures and fortunes have intersected and intertwined, and have made a form of “civilization” to which so many people seek to relate. LIke its signares, the French-African women who in the 18th and 19th centuries forged some measure of financial and economic independence through business in Saint-Louis, the city knows how to charm and enchant a diverse group of inhabitants and visitors alike.

Despite the obvious poverty and all the ills it causes both in terms of health and hygiene and the ongoing decay of its once-beautiful homes, Sint-Louis leaves no one, visitor or resident, indifferent.

Modou DIeng, a Sain-tlouisian by birth but who by fate was led to an American life, wanted to build a bridge over the Atlantic, to gather what was spare and to give the American St. Louis what Saint-Louis, Senegal, could have-spontaneity and dynamism that move the lines and vibrate the light.

This is how the story of this meeting was born, this event that I so little want to call an exhibition, as it is so much more than that relatively narrow description can express.

We can draw up a catalogue of the artists who have willingly lent their support to this adventure, between those who settled there, those who have only passed by, and those whose creativity it maintains— but who all recognize themselves as Saint-Louisians. We find photographers who love places or sensations, but all of them, American, French or Senegalese, give us back this “atmosphere” like no other.

Whether it is the American photographer Laylah Amatullah Barrayn with her images that show us the city and its inhabitants with so much grace and poetry; whether it is Jarmo Pikkujämsä who in his photos questions us through the transparen- cies of the river’s water and the sea; whether it is Adama Sylla, one of the oldest masters of photography in Sene- gal, Djibril Sy, who better than anyone else knows how to see our city and show us as we want to see it, despite its inju- ries, or Malick Welli, the youngest and most promising, with quirky images where materials and colors meet, all these photographers have had the eye to capture poignant moments, magic, light, and grace!

The sculptor Sara de la Villejegu, who has deep roots in the West Indies but is also impacted by her stays in Benin and Senegal, always returns to terracotta and drawing to capture her impressions, emotions and passions.

Joining her, albeit with different materials, is Serigne Mbaye Camara, a Saint-Louisian “exiled” in Dakar whose small metal figures, like dynamic Carte- sian divers, populate both his three-dimensional assemblages and his paintings, when he decides to indulge in canvas and brushes. His world is poetic and mesmerizing.

And then there are the painters! Modou Dieng transposes on the canvas his vision of the city and its architecture in a universe that combines sobriety and aggressive colors in a striking contrast.

Abdoukarim Fall also devotes his meticulous work to the representation of the city’s main monuments and, in a very sober palette of tones, restores not only its forms and lines, but also its rich- ness and diversity.

But make way for dancing, color and cheerfulness with the multicolor works of Manel Ndoye, which go beyond appearances to encourage us to discover a part of the Saint-Louisian culture and protect it from extinction. The energy and tone that emerges are a treat for the eyes and the mind.

And then Rama Diaw appears, reminding us that the elegance of clothing is a constant of the city, its charms and its baits. Who, better than she, could illustrate the alliance of tradition and modernity, the synthesis between worlds and eras, which characterize Saint-Louis and its fraternal message of openness and diversity?

With particular origins in Senegal and the Caribbean, Sylvain Sankalé, now a consultant, ran a parallel career as a lawyer at the Bars of Dakar and Paris while completing a doctoral thesis in history of law and economic and social facts devoted to Saint-Louis of Senegal and important activities of art criticism.

blackpuffinJuly 22, 2021