Slavery scholar to speak in St. Martinville March 6

Friday, March 6, at 4 p.m. in La Maison Duchamp here, Dr. Ibrahima Seck, academic director of the recently opened Whitney Plantation Museum of Slavery in St. John the Baptist Parish, will lecture and sign copies of his book “Bouki fait Gombo: A History of the Slave Community of Habitation Haydel (Whitney Plantation) Louisiana, 1750-1860.”
Dr. Seck is a long-term friend of the African American Museum and the City of St. Martinville, having helped welcome many delegations from St. Martinville to Senegal, and to Dakar and Goree Island in particular, with whom St. Martinville is twinned.
A member of the History Department of Cheikh Anta Diop University of Dakar (UCAD), Senegal, Seck’s research is mostly devoted to the historical and cultural links between West Africa and Louisiana with a special interest for religious beliefs, music, foodways, and miscellaneous aspects of folklore. In 1999, he defended a doctoral dissertation entitled “African Culture and Slavery in the Lower Mississippi Valley, from Iberville to Jim Crow.”
Dr. Seck is also a collaborator of the West African Research Center located in Dakar, Senegal, where he initiated the Bouki Blues Festival in 2002. This festival and other events allow him to connect West African musicians and musicians from the US South.
Call (337) 394-2230 or 394-2233 for more information.