Babacar Fall

Babacar Fall is a historian specializing in social history and education at the Faculty of Science and Technology of Education and Training (FASTEF) at Cheikh Anta Diop University in Dakar, Senegal. He is Director of the Institut d'études avancées in Saint-Louis, Senegal, and Inspecteur général de l'éducation et de la formation (IGEF) at the Ministry of National Education. He is the author of several publications on work, migration, young people, women and educational innovations.

The project

Title: Symposium : What counting means in an imperial and colonial situation

"This symposium will look at accounting and statistical approaches in imperial and colonial contexts (thematic maps, field surveys, demographic or economic statistical series, etc.) to draw out all the information they are likely to provide on societies and understand the situations they seek to shed light on. Econometric interpretations of the effects of modern colonial domination based on colonial statistics, and research questioning the interactions between colonial empires, colonized populations and international institutions, are sparking renewed interest in imperial statistical production. Yet little is known about this phenomenon. The seminar aims to deepen our understanding of the links between colonial and imperial statistics and domination, based on current research. What were the statistical practices of the colonial empires of the 19th and 20th centuries? How did they train their statisticians? Who was involved in data collection, and what were the objects of choice? In what way(s) does this statistical production create links or, conversely, marginalize and exclude certain groups? What role(s) does it play in colonized territories? What contribution have these imperial practices made to the globalization of statistics over the past two centuries? And how can we appropriate these data, often brandished by those who wish to make definitive assessments of colonization and the colonial empires of the contemporary era?"

Hosting institution: Université de Lille et Réseau COUNT CNRS

Selective Bibliography

• Africa: young people between insecurity and the aspiration for decent jobs in Madelaine Moore et al, The Elgar companion to decent work and the Sustainable Development Goals, Edward Elgard Publishing Cheltenham, UK • Northampton, MA, USA , Forthcoming in January 2025, pp225-235.
• The Stakes in Senegal’s 2024 Presidential Elections: political Democracy and Young People’s Growing Demand for Greater freedom and Social Justice in Africa Today, Volume 70, Number 4, Summer 2024, pp88-96
• L’autonomisation des femmes à l’épreuve de la Covid-19. Le cas du Sahel »,  in Ibou Diallo et al , Comprendre le Sénégal et l’Afrique – Mélanges offerts à Momar Coumba Diop, Paris, Karthala, 2023 p. 631-638
• Recomposition du champ syndical et nouveaux enjeux pour l’école sénégalaise in Revue Internationale de l’Éducation Sèvres, Numéro 91, Décembre 2022, pp131-140  avec Mamadou Khouma
• Le travail au Sénégal au XXe siècle, Karthala, Paris 2011, 329 pages
• Le travail forcé en Afrique Occidentale Française : 1900 – 1945 Karthala, Paris, 1993 ; 339 pages.