Arts and Politics in Senegal 1960-1996 (review)

REVIEW Tr acy DL Snipe! Af McaWo r W Pr ess, New Jer sey. 1998. As a polit ical scient ist , Tracy Snipe is m ost concerned wit h utilizing Senegalese polit ico- int ellect ual hist or y as a case study on t h e int eract ion of cult ural policy and cult ural polit ics. Her research draws upon an ex trem ely rich aest het ic and int ellect ual period in which philosophical debat es of pan- Africanism mixed wit h m od er nizat ion narrat ives, ant i- colonial st ruggle, and ar t ist r y t o produce signif icant , and at t im es, cont roversial im aginings of black subjectivity, post - colonial nat ionhood , and universalism . The analysis compares t he i n st i t ut ionalizat ion and im plem ent at ion of cult ural policy under Senegal's t wo presidents since 1960, Leopold Sedar Senghor and his successor, Abdou Diouf. Changing at t it udes t owards t he cent ralit y of culture in t h e d evel opm ent process and t h e st at e's role as patron are set against broader socio - polit ical condit ions such as t h e inf luence of Islam ic brot herhoods in t he politico- econom ic spheres, t h e legacies of French colonial assimilat ionist policies and neo- colonial presence , and t h e struggles over dem ocratic reform s. Her f irst chapt er develops a g en er al t heor y about cult ural polit ics. She suggests not only t h at dist inct ions be made bet ween broader n o t ions of cult ural politics and t he specifics of cult ural policies but also t h at t r ad it ional approaches which assume politics det erm ine policy be r evised t o allow for t h e possibility t h at policies precede polit ics. The latter argum ent could, in t h e Senegalese case, provide a useful way to view t h e im pact and st rengt h of Negritude i d eology upon t h e cult ural productions and art ist ic discourses of t h e period. However, t h e aut hor f ails t o clearly draw and t hen m aint ain t hese su g gested dist inct ions or t o convincingly support her propositions wit h t h e m at er ial available to her. She event ually adm it s t h at policies and politics act as int erdependent variables - a point which seems al l t oo obvious t o t hose f am iliar wit h t h e ex tremely com plicat ed and of t en uneasy m arriage b et ween polit ics, art ist ry and ideology in Seneg al . Chapter t wo is largely hist orical, providing a very useful overview of French colonial policies. Sen eg al was t h e only colony in which t h e French at t em pt ed t o im plem ent fully t heir assim ilat ion policies. While t hey soon abandoned la mission civilisatrice in favor of a more pract ical policy of associat ion, t his early engagem ent r esulted in a lively polit ical cult ure wit hin t h e four com m unes (Dakar, St . Louis, Ruf isque, and Goree) and a lasting legacy of metissage. Her analysis in t h e t hird and f ourt h chapt ers, focusing on t h e hist ory of Negrit ude philosophy, it s i n f luences upon Senghor's cult ural policies as president and t h e new cu l t u r al t errain which em erged under Diouf, represents a useful Englishlanguage source for scholars of t his period. As one of its main proponent s, Senghor used Negritude as a blue print for forging nat ional and supranat ional ident it y discourses. Regarding culture as a medium of change and t...