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6 - Ruins of Utopia

Ponty and the University of the African Future

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 March 2022

Ferdinand De Jong
Affiliation:
Freie Universität Berlin
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Summary

General Faidherbe founded the École normale William Ponty in Saint-Louis to train the sons of colonial chiefs and assimilate them in French culture. In the early twentieth century, the school was moved from Saint-Louis to Gorée, then to Sébikotane, just beyond Rufisque. During the colonial era, the school educated many African students hailing from all over Afrique-Occidentale Française, several of whom went on to lead their countries into independence and became their first presidents. President Abdoulaye Wade was one of the Ponty students. This chapter examines Wade’s initiative to establish the University of the African Future on the same site where the ruins of the Ponty School stand today. It looks at the architecture of the campus, the envisioned curriculum, and its stated aim to stop the brain drain from Africa. Conceived as a Pan-African institution, the university was placed alongside the Ponty School as its postcolonial incarnation. However, as the funding for the project fell through due to changing international politics, the site now houses the ruins of two educational infrastructures standing side by side. This chapter examines how both infrastructures were conceived as Afro-utopias and generated Afro-nostalgia for futures to come.

Type
Chapter
Information
Decolonizing Heritage
Time to Repair in Senegal
, pp. 185 - 210
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

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  • Ruins of Utopia
  • Ferdinand De Jong, Freie Universität Berlin
  • Book: Decolonizing Heritage
  • Online publication: 10 March 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009086189.008
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  • Ruins of Utopia
  • Ferdinand De Jong, Freie Universität Berlin
  • Book: Decolonizing Heritage
  • Online publication: 10 March 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009086189.008
Available formats
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Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Ruins of Utopia
  • Ferdinand De Jong, Freie Universität Berlin
  • Book: Decolonizing Heritage
  • Online publication: 10 March 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009086189.008
Available formats
×