By 4pm, the dais in the yard of the West African Research Center (WARC) was already teeming with a large audience. People from all walks of life (retired international civil servants, reporters, academics, students, etc. hailing from various West African nations including Niger, Mauritania, Ivory Coast, Senegal) gathered to listen to the lecture on the issue of African Integration. Former West African Research Association (WARA) President, Professor Emeritus of the University of Wisconsin (Madison) and current Vice-Rector of the University of the Gambia, Professor Edris Makward, was among the audience. Dr. Ousmane Sene, Director of WARC, seized the opportunity to change the established procedure and ask Professor Makward to moderate the panel and the subsequent discussions. The exchanges were lively, thoughtful and concise. Many members of the audience praised WARC for the lecture series and some even suggested that such activities be decentralized and brought to other Senegalese cities and towns in other regions of the country. The idea may be pursued for next year's events.

The panel, which focused on the various fortunate and unfortunate experiments in the integration of the African continent, featured Professor Boubacar Barry, a specialist of the history of Senegambia teaching in the department of history, University Cheikh Anta Diop, and Dr. Amady Aly Dieng, an economist and social scientist teaching in the department of philosophy and a very active member of the Senegalese intelligentsia.

Judging from the various reactions and suggestions from the audience, it is fair to say that WARC is certainly contributing to the intellectual and cultural life of Dakar.

View local news coverage of lecture series here.