This is the thirty-third installment of The Cocoon Goes Global, a series that gives a sense of what the philosophy profession looks like outside of the Anglophone West. This installment is by Hady Ba, Associate-Professor of Philosophy, is the Head of the Philosophy Department at Cheikh Anta Diop University’s Teachers College in Senegal.
1. General information
Senegal is a country in West Africa with 18 million inhabitants living over 75,951 sq mi. The population is very young with more than 60% under 25 years old and 41.19% under 14 years old. 46.7% of the population lived below the poverty line in 2011. It is a relatively unequal country since the Gini index is 38.1. For comparison, France's Gini index is 32.4 and that of the USA is 41.5. Senegal is therefore less unequal than the USA but more so than France.
A former French colony, Senegal has around twenty ethnic groups who speak as many languages. French is, however, the official language of the Republic of Senegal while the 6 codified local languages officially have the status of national languages. As such, education and state affairs are conducted in French, a former colonial language spoken by the educated elite. De facto, one of the national languages, Wolof, spoken as a first or second language by the overwhelming majority of the population serves as a lingua franca. As in many African countries, multilingualism is the rule. The Senegalese declare themselves muslims at 97.2%, and christians at 2.7%. Traditional African religions, however, persist either in the form of syncretism with imported religions, or, more rarely, in a pure form.
The Republic of Senegal is supposedly democratic. Senegal is one of 6 African countries out of 54 to have never experienced a coup or attempted coup since their independence. Despite the fact that the country is 97.2% Muslim, our first President, the poet and philosopher of Negritude Léopold Sédar Senghor was a Roman Catholic who ruled the country with an iron fist in a velvet glove for 20 years before passing power to his successor. Since Senghor, there have been three democratic changes and the country is preparing for presidential elections in 2024. The country's Constitution makes it a strong presidential system and successive leaders have often abused their power in the absence of effective parliamentary and judicial control. Despite everything, Senegalese democracy still holds strong thanks to a vibrant civil society and a culture of demonstration and resistance to abuse that dates back to colonization. The Senegalese even managed to obtain gains from the French during the colonial period.
2. The education system
Overall, the Senegalese school and university system is heir to the French system. Despite a series of reforms and transformations, school and university culture remains fundamentally French-speaking and Francophile. The Baccalaureate, a secondary school leaving diploma, is a national examination organized and delivered by the Cheikh Anta Diop University of Dakar, which is the first and main university in the country. Education is considered a public good deemed to be provided by the State from primary to higher education.
In fact, many children are not in school or are in madrassas which teach the Koran rather than providing general or vocational training. Traditionally, the children of these madrassas begged at specific times of the day to ensure their subsistence, instill in them the virtues of stoicism and facilitate their collective care by the community. The current perversion of this system means that these children learn less and less of the Koran and spend more and more time on the streets begging to bring money to their teachers. The State is trying to encourage the formalization of madrassas and support those of them that agree to take children off the streets. The least we can say, however, is that the State of Senegal completely fails in its mission to protect these children and gives in to the lobby of Koranic teachers, some of whom import children from abroad to exploit them under the guise of religious schooling.
Officially, Law No. 2004-37 of December 15, 2004 makes schooling compulsory for all children of both sexes aged six to sixteen and the State must provide this schooling free of charge. Actually, only 56.4% of the population aged 15 and over can read and write. Since the structural adjustment plans of the 1980s, the Bretton Woods institutions have forced the State of Senegal to reduce its spending on public services. Recurrent strikes followed, destabilizing the public.
A private education system has consequently developed alongside the public, from primary to higher education. These private schools mostly follow the official Senegalese curriculum and are, paradoxically, subsidized by the State to help it ensure its public education mission. With the exception of some elite public schools, the state run schools have become de facto, at the primary and secondary levels, the refuge of disadvantaged populations and public school activists. Despite everything, public schools remain of quality and win prizes in standardized exams compared to their private counterparts who are much better endowed.
3. Philosophy in Senegal
Most Senegalese students discover philosophy during their last year of high school. A philosophy course is compulsory in most tracks. Philosophy is the dominant subject in literary majors and a fairly important minor in scientific majors. The Senegalese generally have an extremely positive view of philosophy which is often considered to be the counterpart of mathematics in terms of intelligence and esotericism. In high schools, philosophy teachers are the only ones who only teach final year, a subject known to be difficult and even dangerous.
The philosophy class and end of high school exam are a rite of passage for every educated Senegalese. Most students have either enthusiastic or horrified memories of this subject. Senegal being a 97.2% Muslim and very practicing country at that, philosophy has a sulfurous reputation, being seen as the subject which either promotes atheism or drives its practitioners crazy. It is not uncommon to be criticized and kindly called crazy when you study or practice philosophy.
The first President of Senegal was a philosopher as much as a poet and the country has kept a tradition of having philosophers as advisors to the Head of State and certain personalities of the Republic. Philosophers like Alassane Ndaw, the first black professor of philosophy during colonization, Souleymane Bachir Diagne, currently professor at Columbia University in New York, served as advisors to the head of state of Senegal. Other philosophers have been parliamentarians or even ministers. Philosophers are also frequently called upon by the press as experts on diverse and varied subjects, sometimes even somewhat removed from their specialty, which does not fail to raise ethical questions.
University teaching of philosophy in Senegal is eminently pluralistic even if history of philosophy and continental European philosophy occupy a special place. The first two years, students must take courses in different fields ranging from ancient philosophy to logic, including African philosophy and the history of science. It is also mandatory to study one of the codified national languages and one European language other than French. They also have to choose either psychology or sociology. The more they advance in their university career, the more they specialize. Logic, epistemology and analytic philosophy generally go together.
The Revue Sénégalaise de Philosophie is a biannual journal created in 1982 and publishes exclusively philosophy, understood in the broad sense. After lethargy in the early 2000s, it began to appear again in 2012. There are a number of other scientific journals in Senegal publishing philosophy alongside other disciplines. Most Senegalese philosophers publish and express themselves more readily in French even if there is a timid revival of interest in national languages. We mostly publish in local journals and in other Francophone African countries.
Although most students who undertake the study of philosophy do so with the aim of teaching philosophy in high school, many other opportunities are open to them. There are only two Departments of Philosophy in Senegal, both at Cheikh Anta Diop University in Dakar. The first is at the Faculty of Letters and Human Sciences. The second, at a Faculty which statutorily trains teachers for the State of Senegal: FASTEF.
Normally, students follow a path that goes from the first year to the Master's degree at the FLSH then they take the FASTEF competition to undergo one year of training and become teachers in public high schools. Some other exams are open to holders of bachelors or master’s degrees in philosophy.
As a result, trained philosophers occupy positions of responsibility in various administrations and companies after additional training. For example, the current Chief of Staff of the Senegalese Army as well as President Mohamed Bazoum of the Republic of Niger are philosophy graduates from the Cheikh Anta Diop University of Dakar who have embraced careers other than education. After the Master of Philosophy, students can also pursue a doctorate either at Cheikh Anta Diop University in Dakar or abroad, particularly in France. Many Master of Philosophy holders chose to do so in related disciplines such as political science. Cheikh Anta Diop University diplomas are generally recognized throughout the world, which facilitates the expatriation of graduates.
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