This is a visual essay on Senegal in West Africa. My argument in part 1 is that Senegal has not established a strong national identity. In its colonial history it was a part of the much larger French West Africa, and so its memorials--and even its currency point--to a regional identity that surpasses that of Senegal itself. In addition, the first president of Senegal, Leopold Senghor, was a founder of the Negritude movement, which emphasized the unity of Black experience around the globe. Institutions built on Senghor's point of view, whether a museum or memorial, will resist presenting a purely nationalistic perspective. The strength of these larger transnational identities brings about the weakness in presentations of Senegal's national identity.
