Art, sociology professors prepare for West African trip

October 30, 2006 —

SVSU associate professor of art Mike Mosher and professor of sociology Scott Youngstedt have planned a three-week spring study abroad trip to the West African country of Senegal with the anticipation to increase understanding of African art, learn from cultural diversity, and break stereotypes.

"I think it's very important for students in the United States to understand how much of our culture has been brought to us by the African people," Mosher says. "I think for students living in Michigan - a state which has benefited so much from the African-American culture of Detroit and other cities - it is very important to have an appreciation of a source of so much: Africa."

Students who participate in this trip will receive credit for SOC 390, ART 390, or CM 590, and the main purpose for going will be to attend the World Festival of Black Arts in Dakar, Senegal. This will be the third time the festival has taken place since its inception in 1966, and it will focus on the themes of the African Renaissance and global black unity.

"Attending this festival will be an amazing experience," Mosher says. "Artists are coming from all over Africa and the African diaspora to strut their stuff - to really bring the latest and the best in so many art forms."

The festival will feature a wide range of art forms including music, dance, painting, photography, sculpture, hairstyling, film and video, theatre, literature, and architecture.

Mosher and Youngstedt believe their students will be interested in studying how Senegal has had a public art policy from the time the country was peacefully granted independence from the French in 1960. Its founding president, Leopold Senghor, was a poet who not only initiated the festival, but also granted government support for art schools and the exhibition of art forms in public places.

Today, the cosmopolitan country of Senegal remains dedicated to the arts and is a stable democracy. Heavily influenced by the French, Senegal is considered to have a sophisticated economy. However, Mosher and Youngstedt mention there is still serious poverty in Senegal that students will witness firsthand. They believe those who participate in this trip will be exposed to people living in a depth of poverty that they haven't been exposed to before, and they feel that it should be an eye-opening experience.

As Senegal is a country with a more than 90 percent Muslim population and a Christian minority, Mosher and Youngstedt are pleased that their students will find that the Islamic people are very tolerant and open to having relations with people outside their belief system.

"We could learn from this example that Muslims and Christians can have a mutual respect and friendship across this difference," Youngstedt says.

Mosher and Youngstedt hope to inspire their students to be curious and to question assumptions of all origins. They will begin tackling stereotypes in the three weeks of classes leading up to the June 1 flight from MBS to Dakar.

"When I tell people I work in Africa, they ask me, 'Do you speak African?' Youngstedt laughs. "And I say, 'Well, I speak one of about 800 different languages on the continent, and the name of that language is Hausa.'"

"I once met a student here who was surprised to learn that Africa was not a name of a country, but that there were 53 countries that make up Africa as a continent," Mosher recalls. "When I heard that, I realized we had work ahead of us."

Mosher and Youngstedt, who have both traveled to Africa before, hope that the students who embark on this journey with them will be influenced greatly by the experience they have to offer.

"Teaching is a sharing process - sharing opportunities like this," Mosher says. "It's about sharing what I know about world culture and saying, 'Hey this is yours, too. Make it yours. Understand it. Don't see it as something apart from you. Instead, realize that you have as much of a right to understanding it and appreciating it if you put a little work into meeting it on its terms and learning about it.'"

For more information on the trip, contact Stephanie Sieggreen in the Office of International Programs at 964-2793, Mosher at mosher@svsu.edu, or Youngstedt at 964-4288.