Sekouna DIATTA

Rose Dieng, un cerveau sans frontières
Une sénégalaise vivant en France désignée scientifique de l'année.

Une sénégalaise vivant en France vient de gagner le prix de la scientifique de l'année en remportant le prix Irène Joliot-Curie. Première africaine a entrer à l'école Polytechnique de Paris dans les années soixante dix, Rose est issue d'une famille de 7 enfants et s'entendait dire à l'école "Vous, les Africains, êtes moins intelligents que les Blancs. Vous feriez mieux d'écouter !", de la part d'une institutrice. Le journal français Le Monde lui consacre un portrait dans son édition du jeudi.


Elle porte un bien joli prénom, Rose Dieng. De ceux qui éclairent une vie, la font s'épanouir. La vie, c'est vrai, a souri à la gamine de Dakar, première Africaine reçue à l'X, chef de projet à l'Institut national de recherche en informatique et en automatique (Inria), lauréate 2005 du prix Irène Joliot-Curie décerné par le ministère de la recherche et la Fondation EADS à "la scientifique de l'année". Des épreuves, elle en a sans doute connu. Des blessures, que l'on devine à un regard parfois rêveur, une question éludée. Elle qui a grandi au Sénégal au milieu de sept frères et soeurs n'a pas d'enfants à qui communiquer son optimisme. De ce qui fait que la vie n'est pas toujours rose, elle préfère ne pas parler. Pudeur, ou coquetterie, comme son hésitation à avouer ses 49 ans, dissimulés derrière un rire et un froncement de nez de petite fille sous une savante coiffure de tresses cuivrées et de mèches permanentées. Elle veut voir, Rose, le bon côté des choses.
"Je crois, dit-elle d'une voix douce, à la force des symboles." Si elle raconte son histoire, c'est pour "témoigner qu'une femme noire peut s'épanouir dans la recherche scientifique, dans une France terre d'accueil, y assurer des responsabilités et transmettre sa passion à des jeunes, en particulier à des jeunes filles".
Son parcours, elle le sait, n'est pas commun. Peu d'Africains s'y reconnaîtront. Beaucoup d'immigrés le trouveront décalé. Rose n'a pas la prétention d'être un exemple. Elle pense, simplement, que son itinéraire est porteur de "valeurs qui dépassent la couleur de la peau, la religion ou l'origine sociale", comme "le partage des connaissances, le goût de la découverte, l'ouverture à d'autres cultures, la tolérance". Ces valeurs, ce sont celles que lui a inculquées son père, auquel elle dédie le prix Irène Joliot-Curie. "Il venait d'une famille très pauvre, explique-t-elle. Sa mère, analphabète, élevait seule ses deux enfants. L'école était la seule façon de s'en sortir. Il n'a jamais oublié cette leçon." Il lui enseigne, comme à chacun de ses frères et soeurs, "le sens du travail et de l'effort, l'honnêteté, la loyauté". Une éducation "sévère" dont elle lui sait gré. Elle se souvient, aussi, de cette pique d'une institutrice à l'école primaire : "Vous, les Africains, êtes moins intelligents que les Blancs. Vous feriez mieux d'écouter !" Et de sa réaction : "Avec tous mes camarades sénégalais, nous avons travaillé encore plus dur."
Au lycée Van-Vollenhoven, l'un des plus cotés de Dakar, elle collectionne les prix d'excellence, rafle le 1er prix au concours général en mathématiques, français et latin et le 2e prix en grec, décroche la mention très bien avec félicitations du jury au baccalauréat. Dans un pays dont le président, Léopold Sédar Senghor, fait de la lutte contre l'analphabétisme la clé du développement, elle devient une star.
Lettres, sciences ? Elle n'a que l'embarras du choix. Elle rêve d'être écrivain, mais "un professeur de physique extraordinaire" et une bourse de coopération décident de son orientation. Ce sera maths sup et maths spé au lycée Fénelon de Paris. Puis, à 20 ans, Polytechnique, où elle est la première représentante du continent africain. Suit une thèse en informatique sur "la spécification du parallélisme". Sa voie est trouvée : la recherche, à l'Inria de Sophia-Antipolis, pôle technologique de la région niçoise. Elle y est la première femme à monter et à piloter un programme, Acacia, exotique acronyme pour "acquisition des connaissances pour l'assistance à la conception par interaction entre agents". L'objectif est de mettre au point des méthodes et des outils logiciels permettant à une communauté, entreprise ou institution, de "capitaliser et partager des savoirs" fondateurs d'une "mémoire" collective. Savoir, mémoire, partage... Les vertus cardinales pour cette idéaliste, qui imagine "un Web de connaissances reliant individus, organisations, pays et continents". A la fin de ses études, confesse-t-elle, s'est posé "un dilemme difficile" : retourner en Afrique où la recherche en informatique était inexistante, ou rester en France pour mener une carrière scientifique au meilleur niveau. Elle a choisi la France et conservé la nationalité sénégalaise, comme "une attache symbolique très forte". "Femme, noire, spécialiste d'intelligence artificielle : je me suis retrouvée au carrefour de beaucoup de minorités. On m'a traitée de masochiste, sourit-elle. Mais je n'en ai pas souffert dans mon travail." Même si elle s'est "très vite aperçue que, pour les responsabilités confiées aux hommes et aux femmes, la France n'est pas encore la patrie de l'égalité". Privilégiée - elle le reconnaît volontiers -, elle a échappé aux discriminations sociales, raciales, économiques, qui sont à ses yeux au coeur de la récente flambée des banlieues. "Je n'ai pas vécu en cité. Et j'ai eu la chance d'avoir un père qui incarnait pour moi un modèle. Mais je comprends le désespoir de ces jeunes qui ne se voient aucun avenir", reconnaît-elle.
Elle déplore pourtant "le basculement dans la violence" à laquelle, admiratrice depuis son plus jeune âge de Gandhi et de Martin Luther King, elle est "viscéralement opposée". Son combat à elle, son "message", comme elle préfère le nommer, c'est "celui de l'éducation, des études, de la science".
Face à la polémique sur le passé colonial de la France, elle adopte la même posture. "C'est une histoire faite de beaucoup de souffrances, pense-t-elle. Ma génération, qui n'a pas connu la colonisation, doit en garder la mémoire. C'est quelque chose d'essentiel, dans la vie d'une nation et dans la vie d'un homme. Ce qui blesse, ce qui détruit, c'est l'absence de mémoire. Je le sais aussi pour travailler sur la mémoire des entreprises." Rose Dieng, qui n'a pas oublié ses rêves d'écriture, caresse aujourd'hui le projet de rédiger ses propres Mémoires. Un roman autobiographique. Ce serait celui d'une petite Sénégalaise au nom de fleur, éprise de l'"humanisme" et de la "civilisation de l'universel" chantés, avec la "négritude", par Senghor, et devenue, grâce à la science, "citoyenne du monde".
source : Le Monde.fr / Rewmi.com

Introduction

The Diola community is in Casamance, in the south of Senegal. It is in the south of The Gambia and the North-West of Bissau Guinea too. In the whole Diola community, children initiation called “Bucut” has the same aim: to prepare the young people to be responsible in their future.

I. Diversity of the Diola community

In Casamance live many communities. The mains are: Balante, Diola, Manjack and Peulh. The Diola community is mainly in the area of Ziguinchor and it's subdivided into different parts (Boulouf, Calounaill, Djiragone and Fogny in Bignona, Bandial in Ziguinchor and Cassa in Oussouye). Administratively, Bignona, Oussouye and Ziguinchor are departments of Ziguinchor area. According to this subdivision, the initiation is different from middle to an other. Our expose is articulated around initiation in Boulouf area where is my native village. In this area there are at least twenty villages and one by one, they organized the initiation ceremony. From a ceremony to an other, there are twenty-five or thirty years. Some times there are more.

II. The initiation
The initiation in the Diola community is a continued process but we will divide it into two stages.
 The first initiation

The first initiation of the young boy in the Diola community begins around five, six or seven years. The young people start to be together. The children are subdivided according their ages into different groups and each of them has a part of work to do. And when one of them makes a mistake or does something wrong the entire group is corrected. This correction can be a private of food all over the day, a physical exercise etc.

 The initiation ceremony


If there is a tradition which causes many mysteries, they are well the rites of initiation.
Here something which is completely foreign for us... We will speak to you about the rite of initiation at Diola because it is people which still keep living this ritual.
Initiation is a long ceremony which marks an important stage of the life of the man diola. This rite, very old, touches only the men. At the beginning, it publicly took place, on the place of the village. The central moment of the ceremony was the circumcision, called Kahat. But to preserve and protect the ancestral traditions, the rite became secret and taken then the name of “Bukut”.
 Preparation
The ceremony takes place at the village all the twenty-five or thirty years. The date is fixed by the council of old, which consults boekins, fetishes (you point out that Diola are one of the people having kept beliefs animists more). All the boys having the age to be initiated are prepared: one makes them drink a drink, whose preparation remains secret, which will make them invulnerable throughout initiation. Little before the beginning ceremony, they visits the maternal family, receives gifts. One shaves their hair to them, in their leaving only one wick which will be shaven at the end of initiation.
 The departure
Initiation takes place in what Diola call "sacred Wood". Its access is strictly reserved to the young initiates. The day of their departure for “sacred Wood”, the young boys go initially to the Mosque then close to the tree crowned to pay homage to the fetishes. All the village is in festival: it is one moment of joy and joy for all the families. The village accompanies the young people with the entry by "sacred Wood": it is the moment of separation: the mothers are at the same time sad to leave for one moment their sons, but they are so proud!
 The retirement of “sacred Wood”
At the time of their retirement in "sacred Wood", the young people are accompanied by the former initiates and the elders who will transmit to them what will make them men: secrecies, the morals and principles of the religion animist. They are also subjected to hard physical tests. During the retirement, the women prepare everyday the meal of the initiates. The large dishes are left with the entry of wood. The come evening, the initiates will seek them, without showing itself whoever.
In order to reassure the mothers, a furtive meeting is organized during the retirement. The initiates cover white clothing which covers all the body to them, including the head and the face. They are aligned and a former initiate shows has head of each boy, one by one: the mothers thus see during 2 seconds the face of their children: it is one intense moment... The cries, the percussions, the dances animate this moment of jubilation.
 The exit of “sacred Wood”
At the exit of this hard test, the lately initiated boys have the right to rest a one week. Then comes the day from the great festival where they will find the village and their family: it is impressive to see all the dishes which were prepared!
III. Conclusion
But what did it really occur during initiation? And well you will never know it! Indeed, which occurred remains an absolute secrecy that the initiates do not have the right to reveal with the uninitiated persons: that which would violate this law of silence would take the risk to be to strike by the curse, like its family and, this, perhaps for several generations....
The initiation is a very important stage of the young people in the Diola community. But nowadays there are many changes because the Diola community has been in contact with other cultures. Now the initiation ceremony takes just three weeks.

Sékouna DIATTA
Class : 5 BD Dakar English Language Center
PROJECT WORK


Introduction

Micropropagation, or in vitro propagation are terms used for procedures to propagate plants from plant cells, tissues or organs under aseptic conditions (in a controlled artificial environment). The term 'tissue culture' is used for a wider aspect of culturing plant (and animal) cells, including for research that not necessarily aims at the prodaction of a functional organism. The umbrella term for these procedures is 'biotechnology'.

The developpment of micropropagation started at the beginning of the 20th century when some researchers observed that plant cells have the biological capacity to reproduce an entire plant in vitro, given the right balance of plant hormones, minerals, vitamins and sugars. Initialy, tissue culture was purely an academic research exercise to elucidate the mystery surrounding the growth and development of plants. In recent years, tissue culture techniques have been used on a commercial level to produce larges quantities of clean propagules (of horticultural crops such as bananas, pineapples, citrus, ornamental plants etc.)

Principle

Tissue culture techniques are based on the principle of omnipotency or totipotency, meaning that indifinite culture of plant cells is possible under ideal conditions. In recent years, the tissue culture of animal cells has also become possible. In order for cells to survive outside the organism, the surrounding environment must mimic the optimal conditions in term of light, temperature, humidity and supply of nutriments, vitamins, and hormones. The balance of auxins and cytokinins enables the manipulation of shoot or root formation in vitro. Auxins are needed to promote the development of roots, an auxin-free subtrate is necessary for maturation of tissues, and a substrate containing cytokinins and gibberellins is needed to start the differentiation of shoot tissue. By careful subculture on or in substrates containing different ratios of these hormones and increasing levels of nutriments, it is therefore possible to control the stages of development. Hardening of the young plantlets is similar to 'normal' seedlings in a greenhouse under shade and high humidity conditions until strong enough to withstand field conditions.

Reasons for micropropagation

The main reasons why micropropagation of agroforestry trees can be considered are:
To multiply a tree which cannot readily be multiplied by seed or conventional vegetative methods.
To rapidly propagate large quantities of propagules of superior tree provenances.
To clean pathogen infected clonal plant material .
To rejuvenate older trees through repeated in vitro micrografting.
To multiply pathogen-free propagules for farmers.

Requirements

Micropropagation work requires a small number of well-trained and skilled workers , some laboratory space and time to produce large quantities of propagules.
Unlike the conventional vegetative propagation of agroforestry trees in a nursery, micropropagation requires an organized laboratory space:
Preparation room
Transfer or inoculation room
Incubation or culture room
Greehouse

The salts medium most commonly used in tissue culture work is that of Murashige and Skoog (1962). Other modified media have ben formulated e.g. the woody plant medium by McCown and Lloyd (1981).
The most critical requirement for successful in vitro propagation is maintenance of aseptic conditions as well as the control of temperature and humidity during the entire process of micropropagating plants.

Techniques

1. Embryo rescue
2. Axillary shoot formation
2.1. Shoot apical meristem culture
2.2. Axillary shoot culture
3. Adventitious shoot formation
4. Micrografting
5. Somatic embryogenesis


Conclusion

Micropropagation techniques are very useful for agroforestry in a few cases. Using micropropagation, millions of new plants can be derived from a single plant. This rapid multiplication also can be used to establish and maintain virus-free plant stock.

References

McCown BH and Lloyd G. 1981. Woody plant medium (WPM). A mineral nutrient formulation for microculture of woody plant species. HortScience 16: 453.
Murashige Tand Skoog F. 1962. A rivised medium for rapid growth and bioassays with tobacco tissue cultures. Physiologia Plantarum 15: 473-497.

Sékouna DIATTA
Class: 6B
Tel. (221) 650 00 54
E-mail: sekouna@hotmail.com
Dakar English Language Center
Intensive Session : July-August, 2005


Monday 1rst June, 2005




Writing about winning something
Page 77




Write about someone you know who does something very well





Pierre Goudiaby called Atepa (meaning the builder in Diola language) is a Senegalese architect. It wasn't a surprised when in 2001 he was elected person of the year in our conutry. He was congratulated by his colleagues and his friends. Since 2000 he has been the Senegalese President adviser in architecture.
Atepa has extremely high standards for design. He paid more attentions in what he does. His designs are appreciated by everybody. The first big design he made in 1975 was the Central Bank of West Africa which is in Dakar, the best one in the world. In 1999 his realized a central conference with 6000 places and 16 presidential detached houses in Malabo (Equatorial Guinea) for the meeting of the Central African states Presidents. At the same time he made the Gambian International airport design. He won all this markets.
Many people recognize that Atepa is one of the biggest designers not only is he in Senegal but in all Africa.

• Real Name: Sarah Lois Vaughan
• Genre: Vocal Music
• Active: '40s - '80s
• Instrument: Vocals
Biography

Possessor of one of the most wondrous voices of the 20th century, Sarah Vaughan ranked with Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday in the very top echelon of female jazz singers. She often gave the impression that with her wide range, perfectly controlled vibrato, and wide expressive abilities, she could do anything she wanted with her voice. Although not all of her many recordings are essential (give Vaughan a weak song and she might strangle it to death), Sarah Vaughan's legacy as a performer and a recording artist will be very difficult to match in the future.

Vaughan sang in church as a child and had extensive piano lessons from 1931-39; she developed into a capable keyboardist. After she won an amateur contest at the Apollo Theater, she was hired for the Earl Hines big band as a singer and second vocalist. Unfortunately, the musicians' recording strike kept her off record during this period (1943-44). When lifelong friend Billy Eckstine broke away to form his own orchestra, Vaughan joined him, making her recording debut. She loved being with Eckstine's orchestra, where she became influenced by a couple of his sidemen, Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, both of whom had also been with Hines during her stint. Vaughan was one of the first singers to fully incorporate bop phrasing in her singing, and to have the vocal chops to pull it off on the level of a Parker and Gillespie.

Other than a few months with John Kirby from 1945-46, Sarah Vaughan spent the remainder of her career as a solo star. Although she looked a bit awkward in 1945 (her first husband George Treadwell would greatly assist her with her appearance), there was no denying her incredible voice. She made several early sessions for Continental: a December 31, 1944 date highlighted by her vocal version of "A Night in Tunisia," which was called "Interlude," and a May 25, 1945 session for that label that had Gillespie and Parker as sidemen. However, it was her 1946-48 selections for Musicraft (which included "If You Could See Me Now," "Tenderly" and "It's Magic") that found her rapidly gaining maturity and adding bop-oriented phrasing to popular songs. Signed to Columbia where she recorded during 1949-53, "Sassy" continued to build on her popularity. Although some of those sessions were quite commercial, eight classic selections cut with Jimmy Jones' band during May 18-19, 1950 (an octet including Miles Davis) showed that she could sing jazz with the best.

During the 1950s, Vaughan recorded middle-of-the-road pop material with orchestras for Mercury, and jazz dates (including a memorable collaboration with Clifford Brown) for the label's subsidiary, EmArcy. Later record label associations included Roulette (1960-64), back with Mercury (1963-67), and after a surprising four years off records, Mainstream (1971-74). Through the years, Vaughan's voice deepened a bit, but never lost its power, flexibility or range. She was a masterful scat singer and was able to out-swing nearly everyone (except for Ella). Vaughan was with Norman Granz's Pablo label from 1977-82, and only during her last few years did her recording career falter a bit, with only two forgettable efforts after 1982. However, up until near the end, Vaughan remained a world traveler, singing and partying into all hours of the night with her miraculous voice staying in prime form. The majority of her recordings are currently available, including complete sets of the Mercury/Emarcy years, and Sarah Vaughan is as famous today as she was during her most active years. ~ Scott Yanow, All Music Guide
Representative Albums:
Sarah Vaughan with Clifford Brown, The Complete Sarah Vaughan on Mercury, Vol. 1, Young Sassy


Sékouna DIATTA
HI 1
English Language Program
Nimey; Niger