Every Wednesday evening we broadcast a piece from our sound library that relates to ongoing or previous research. This week we’re proud to present a rare cassette recording of a waxtaan (community dialogue in wolof) by the cultural association Pencum Tilleen, in Dakar’s working class neighbourhood of Medina, circa late 1970s – its members are also among the founders of the Senegalese Cultural Front, a group of Maoist thinkers and makers organising against the cultural policies of the-then regime of President-Poet Leopold Senghor.
Along with the circulation of revolutionary art, poetry and music, the Cultural Front produced history from below, highlighting the trajectories of anti-colonial figures such Lamine Senghor or Aline Sittoe Diatta, or historical events, such as the Thiaroye Massacre of 1944, that were obscured by the neocolonial state.
This recording is a telling-in-music of the infamous Thiaroye Massacre – narrated by Ousmane Faty Ndongo, one of the main organisers of the Cultural Front, accompanied by guitarist Charles Katy and members of Pencum Tilleen. With a brief introduction by the historian Fatoumata Seck, who kindly shared the recording with us.
Wednesday, 25 March 2026 from 7pm
Live on the Pan African Space Station
Tune in!
