Mois de la Francophonie San Francisco: Felwine Sarr on Identity and Language

Centered on Felwine Sarr’s Dahij—soon to be released in English for the first time by the new Seattle-based independent publisher, Peregrine Press— Villa Albertine San Francisco is delighted to highlight this moving meditation on identity, exile, and self-reclamation in the presence of the author. Blending philosophy, memory, and poetic storytelling, Sarr explores what it means to belong in a world shaped by migration and colonial legacies, writing with urgency and intensity in pursuit of personal and intellectual freedom. Rooted in African traditions yet deeply universal, Dahij invites readers to listen closely to an African voice imagining the future on its own terms.  

The conversation between Felwine Sarr and Victor Reinking will explore how geography, religion, and identity intersect and shape one another, while also considering how African literature travels—across languages, institutions, and global audiences.  
 
This event is part of Villa Albertine San Francisco’s celebration of Mois de la Francophonie. This annual month-long celebration focuses on the French language and its cultural heritage. In addition to this event, Villa Albertine San Francisco is a proud supporter of the growing French language collection at the San Francisco Public Library, which includes books and graphic novels for adults and children, showcasing unique voices from around the globe.  

Please check back soon for additional details.

Felwine Saar  

Felwine Sarr is a Senegalese academic and writer. He is Anne-Marie Bryan
Distinguished Professor of Romance Studies at Duke University in North Carolina,
after teaching at the Université Gaston Berger in Saint-Louis, Senegal, where he is
Professeur Titulaire des Universités and agrégé in economics. His academic work
focuses on economics, the ecology of knowledge, contemporary African
philosophy, economic policy, epistemology, economic anthropology and the history
of religious ideas.
He has published Dahij (Gallimard 2009), 105 Rue Carnot (Mémoire d’Encrier
2011), Méditations Africaines (Mémoire d’Encrier 2012), Afrotopia (Philippe Rey,
2016), Ishindenshin (Mémoire d’Encrier, 2017), Habiter le Monde (Mémoire
d’Encrier, 2017), Ecrire l’Afrique-monde (collective work co-edited with Achille
Mbembe, Philippe Rey/Jimsaan, 2017), Restituer le patrimoine Africain (Philippe
Rey/Seuil, 2018) with Bénédicte Savoy, Politique des Temps (co-edited with Achille
Mbembe, Philippe Rey/Jimsaan 2019), La Saveur des derniers mètres (Philippe Rey,
2021), Traces (Actes Sud, 2021, translation into Wolof Watit, 2023, éditions EJO),
l’Économie à venir (Les liens qui Libèrent, 2021) with Gaël Giraud, Les Lieux
qu’Habitent mes Rêves (Gallimard, 2022) and Le Bouddhisme est né á Colobane
(Philippe Rey /Jimsaan, 2024).

Victor Reinking   

Professor Emeritus and former chair of Modern Languages and Cultures at Seattle University, Victor Reinking has written extensively on 18th-century French and African literature. A contributing editor to Paradoxa, a literary journal that publishes articles on genre literature, he has contributed to multiple publications as both a writer and a translator. He is currently the editor of Peregrine Press, a new Seattle-based independent publisher of translated works by African authors.