The Madrilinear Oral Archive is an initiative that documents and amplifies feminist voices across generations, bridging historical and contemporary feminist movements within Africa and its diaspora. The project will launch alongside the 2024 Dak’Art Biennale and the KIMPAVITA Pan-African Feminist Festival. Central to the archive is the involvement of Marie Angélique Savané and Ken Bugul, older women whose testimonies embody decades of resistance, empowerment and change. The multi-generational archive will include interviews, narratives and historical insights in Wolof, French, Pulaar and English. The goals are to develop at least ten interviews into open-source podcasts, host reading groups and expand partnerships with female-driven organisations to strengthen feminist networks. The long-term vision is to establish a permanent repository of oral histories in Senegal. This evolving archive will preserve and honour the voices that have shaped liberation and resistance, ensuring their legacy remains accessible and relevant for future generations.
AWU is a feminist collective dedicated to studying, preserving and disseminating literature, histories and knowledge of African and Afro-diasporic women. Serving as both an intellectual and communal space, it functions as a women’s library, housing over 500 titles.
