The centre will be strategic in the dissemination of Spanish in sub-Saharan Africa

Queen Letizia inaugurates the new Cervantes Institute in Dakar

photo_camera PHOTO/Alejandro Cana/Cervantes Institute - Meeting with Spanish students

Queen Letizia inaugurates this Monday the new Cervantes Institute in Dakar (Senegal), a country with more than 350,000 students of Spanish and some 3,000 teachers of our language. The Cervantes headquarters will promote Spanish language and culture throughout sub-Saharan Africa, where until now the institution has only had two Cervantes Classrooms: the one in Dakar, created in 2010 and which will continue to operate, and the one in Abidjan (Ivory Coast), recently opened.

The opening ceremony (at 12 noon Spanish time) will include speeches by the Senegalese Minister of Culture and Communication, Abdoulaye Diop; the Director of the Instituto Cervantes, Luis García Montero, and the Secretary of State for Latin America, the Caribbean and Spanish in the World, Juan Fernández Trigo, who will highlight the importance of the work that this strategic centre will carry out in promoting Spanish and its culture in that subcontinent. Olga Cabarga, Spain's ambassador to the African country, will also attend.

This will be followed by a panel in which two experts will discuss the presence and growing interest in Spanish in the country: Leontine Ndiaye, professor at APES (Association of Spanish Teachers in Senegal), and Ángela Rodríguez Perea, professor at Cheikh Anta Diop University. The round table will be moderated by the director of the Instituto Cervantes in Dakar, Néstor Nongo Nsala.

Among the guests will be the prestigious Senegalese singer, composer, businessman and politician Youssou N'Dour, former Minister of Culture and Tourism, highly respected for his commitment to the country's social and cultural affairs and who has disseminated Senegalese popular music throughout the world.

Carmen Noguero, secretaria general del Instituto Cervantes, y Néstor Nongo, director del centro, atienden a la prensa en la sede del Instituto Cervantes en Dakar

The ceremony could not miss music, which, according to Néstor Nongo Nsala in his article in the 2021 Yearbook, had a decisive influence on the penetration of Spanish in the region, first through boleros and rumba, then through salsa, and now through reggaeton, as well as soap operas and the Spanish football league. 

For this reason, two short musical performances will be included: one by Raúl Rodríguez and Sirifo Kouyate, who fuse Spanish and Senegalese music; and another, Afroflamenco, by Dem Dikk, led by the musician Sidy Samb. Both groups will give concerts for the public on the 13th at 19:00. After the colloquium on Spanish, Doña Letizia will tour the facilities of the new centre, starting with the multimedia classroom, with capacity for around 50 people. She will then visit the exhibition 'ILUSTRAD/AS. A look at female creation in avant-garde illustration', which brings together 12 illustrations by 12 nationally and internationally renowned female creators, and she will visit the library, which is fundamental to Cervantes' support for teachers and students of Spanish, and whose collection has been transferred (as well as other materials and furniture) thanks to the collaboration of Iberia and IAG Cargo.

Finally, the Queen will sign the Book of Honour, unveil a plaque commemorating the inauguration and close the visit with a greeting to the Spanish-American ambassadors, Hispanists and representatives of the Spanish colony.

The inauguration ceremony can be followed live on the Instituto Cervantes website and its YouTube channel.

El presidente del Gobierno de España, Pedro Sánchez, Luis García Montero, director del Instituto Cervantes, y Néstor Nongo junto a un grupo de alumnos de la Universidad Cheikh Anta Diop en la palloza de la nueva sede del Cervantes de Dakar
A refurbished 1960s villa

The new centre, located in a detached villa of 686 square metres built in the 1960s, has - in addition to the above-mentioned rooms - three classrooms, a staff room and various offices spread over two floors (ground and first).

After the refurbishment works, which President Pedro Sánchez visited last April, the building has air conditioning, voice and data network and other improvements, as well as large outdoor spaces. It is located near the well-known Cheikh Anta Diop University (UCAD), whose Department of Romance Languages has a Spanish section. 

On the occasion of the inauguration, the artist Suso33 will perform a live intervention called 'Poesía Fosilizada Dakar 2021' (Fossilised Poetry Dakar 2021) on Monday afternoon, while the concerts are being offered, in which he will paint words on a wall of the auditorium, from the reading done by the guests.

Submitted by José Antonio Sierra, Hispanismo advisor.

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