>> Lanisa Kitchiner: Hello,
I'm Dr. Lanisa Kitchiner,
Chief of the African and
Middle Eastern Division
of the Library of Congress.
It's such a wonderful
joy to have the privilege
to introduce Dr. Mamarame
Seck, who joined us
as a Lilly scholar here in the
division for this summer 2022.
When Dr. Seck was
here, he helped us
to unpack what is the
autobiography incorporated
in our Omar Ibn Said collection.
Dr. Seck's research helped us
to have an even more robust
understanding of not only
who Omar Ibn Said was when he
arrived in the United States
as an enslaved African man
sold at auction in Charleston,
South Carolina, but who
he was before he got
on that ship, who
he was in Africa.
Dr. Mamarame Seck holds a PhD in
linguistics with a special focus
in discourse analysis.
His research interests include
one of language and culture,
Senegalese society and
culture, Islamic discourses
in West Africa, and the
functions of Sufi oral discourse
and the practice of Islam
in Senegal, in particular,
the socialization
of the Sufi disciple
and his relationship
with the Sheikh.
Dr. Seck has published several
books and book chapters.
Among them are Uson Jour
[phonetic], a cultural icon
and leader in social advocacy,
published under Peter Lang
in 2020, and narratives as
Muslim practice in Senegal,
also under Peter Lang, in 2013.
He is also the author, author of
an intermediate Wolof textbook,
published with the National
African Language Resource Center
at Indiana University
in Bloomington.
After teaching at the University
of North Carolina Chapel Hill
for six years, Dr. Mamarame Seck
joined the fundamental Institute
of Black Africa in
Senegal, which is located
at Cheikh Anta Diop
University in Dakar.
He now serves there as
researcher in the Department
of Languages and
Civilization precisely
in the Laboratory
of Linguistics.
He is currently the curator
of the Historical Museum
of Senegal in Goree.
Dr. Seck's current research
focuses on Omar Ibn Said,
a Muslim slave from Fuuta Tooro,
in the Senegal River Valley.
>> Mamarame Seck: Thank you,
everyone for having
me in this panel.
Today's presentation will
be titled In the Footsteps
of Omar Ibn Said, Muslim
Slave From Fuuta Tooro.
I'm Dr. Mamarame Seck from
Cheikh Anta Diop, the University
of Cheikh Anta Diop of Dakar.
And I will be presenting
my research
on Omar Ibn Said to you.
I will begin by reminding
what Professor Sylviane Diouf
advocated in 2019, at a
conference held at the Library
of Congress, to ask Senegalese
scholars to continue to research
on Omar Ibn Said,
using oral history
or the sources of local history.
Following this recommendation,
and getting more
and more interested in the
narrative on Omar Ibn Said
in the United States,
we undertook to carry
out investigations to find
the true story of him,
that of his life
before his enslavement,
which has never been
addressed before.
This will undoubtedly facilitate
the reading of his autobiography
in the light of an
alternative historian framework.
Through our surveys,
we have given privilege
to the oral tradition,
the repository
of local and regional history.
To do this, we conducted
interviews with the inhabitants
of nine villages
identified in Fuuta Tooro,
which choice was
not random at all.
It was dictated by our
reading of Omar's text,
and its translation in
French and Wolof beforehand
by our guide and consultant Mr.
Abdoulaye Gueye, the collection
of geographical and
historical data on Fuuta,
and finally by the local
populations and their knowledge
of the history of the region.
We started with the hypothesis
that the reading of Omar's text
by the Fuutanke, meaning
the people of Fuuta,
will certainly reveal things
to us that another reader,
even gifted in reading
and interpreting texts
in classical Arabic,
could not do better.
The reason for such certainty is
to be found in the simple fact
that Omar brought in an Ajami
or foreign Arabic, as indicated
by the etymology of the word,
the reading and interpretation
of which requires
a deep knowledge
of the local culture
and language.
This paper has a dual purpose.
First it explores the
origin of Omar Ibn Said
and Fuuta Tooro drawn not
only from his autobiography,
but also from his letters
and other writings held
in American libraries
and museums.
Second, it poses the question
of the symbolic restitution
of these documents
and of Omar's memory
to the populations of Fuuta.
Prior to our trip
to Fuuta Tooro,
an investigation protocol
had been established.
The anonymization of the
respondents was preferred
because of potential
conflicts of interest
that our research could trigger.
A series of questions on
regional and local history
on Omar Ibn Said, on his
autobiography and other pieces
of writings, on the reading of
specific words, such as the name
of the village where he said
in his 1819 text that he wanted
to return to, where were
asked to our respondents.
There is also the question
of the appropriation or not
of Omar's manuscripts by the
populations of Fuuta with a view
to a possible restitution of
his entire work to Senegal.
A 10-day stay from February
14, 2021 to February 23,
2021 took us to Saint-Louis,
former capital of Senegal,
Fuuta Tooro and Matam.
Our team was made up of a
journalist, Jennifer Haves,
working at the Post and Courier
in Charleston, South Carolina,
a fellow photographer
Gavin McIntyre,
a Sorbonne history student,
Amandine Sita Bocco,
who was at that time doing
an internship here in Senegal
with me at IFAN, a translator
from Fuuta, Abdoulaye Gueye,
a driver from IFAN, the
institute I am working at,
Serigne Ndiaye, and a
driver-guide Youssou Badji.
We started our visit
with Dimat Waalo
and Dimat Dieri on
February 16th.
Coppe Mangay and Alwar,
that's on the 17th,
Dimat Dieri on the 18th, Hore
Fonde, Gababe and Barobe Jakkel
on the 19th, and Guia
on the 20th of February.
Among those nine villages we
visited, Coppe is the closest
to what we had come to Fuuta,
that is the home village
of Omar Ibu Said, where he had
gone from to study for 25 years,
and where he returned and stayed
for six years before the attack
that led to his capture
and enslavement.
Our choice was based on
three sets of evidence:
linguistic evidence,
geographical evidence,
and historical evidence.
Here you have the Coppe Mangay.
I am on this picture with the
translator Abdoulaye Gueye.
On the linguistic level,
the reading of the name
of the village or region as
Coppe mentioned by Omar Ibu Said
in his letter dated 1819 as
being the place where he would
like to return, has
been confirmed
by most our consultants.
Geographically Coppe is
located on the Isle of Morphil,
between the Senegal
and Doue rivers.
There is no other village in the
region that has the same name
or a name that comes
close to it.
Also a village named Kaba, which
is possible reading of the word,
does not exist in
the region, either.
So, here you have a picture
of Coppe, as you see it is
in the banks of the
Senegal River.
Historically, according to the
villagers, the scene described
by Omar, which has led to the
massacre of several people
and his capture, was
frequent in this village.
At least two tangible
facts attest to this.
The first one is the story of
a woman who was once kidnapped.
She called the villagers
for help
and was rescued and
free later on.
That woman remained in the
village until her marriage,
and today her great
grandchildren still live
in the village.
The second fact is that there
is a place in the village
where human bones are
found on the clay soil.
It is probably an old cemetery
or a place of massacre,
like the one described by
Omar in his autobiography.
You will see a picture
of it very soon.
Another historical element
is that this village is
over 400 years old while the
capture of Omar dates 1807.
This shows that the village
predates the attack Omar is
referring to in his
autobiography.
Here is a picture, you see
the bones on the surface.
So this is a place that
looks like the place
where things did happen
in 1807 in the village.
Another historical evidence
is this text written by Omar.
At the bottom left
of which he signed
with his mother's name,
Oumou Hani Yero Mac.
And when I asked the
village whether they know
about this name, they said it
is a common name in the village
and some people still
bear that name today.
Actually the chief
of the village's great-great
grandmother bought that name.
Therefore, I asked him to try
to trace his ancestry to see
if he has any connection
with Omar.
On this picture, you see the
translator this person is one
of the villagers who translated
in his own words in Wolof
and Pulaar, the autobiography
of Omar, even though we brought
with us another translator,
but we have several translators
looking at the text to kind
of see whether they were
conformity or differences,
you know, in the translations.
Now, on the question
of restitution,
in the United States, the
question of the restitution
of Omar's work was
poses and asked.
But what we've learned from
that is that it is a serious,
it poses a serious, serious
issue to the institution
that hold today, the work of
Umar Ibn Said, such as museums
and libraries, also
the local community.
So a different approach
from that used in Europe,
for the restitution of
objects that belongs
to Africa needs to be used.
Indeed, respondents believe
that African Americans,
especially Black Muslims,
they claim Omar as one of them
and identify with
him and his legacy.
That is what certainly
explains a mosque
in Fayetteville be
named after Omar.
In addition, unlike the
objects stolen from Africa
and transported to Europe,
Omar's manuscripts were produced
in the United States and
therefore belong there.
However, we believe that the
broken or misunderstood link
between the African American
community and the motherland,
Africa, could be
reestablished through Umar,
whose message was very clear.
He was grateful to the Owen
family from North Carolina,
who owned him, for
the humane treatment
that they have reserved for him,
but he also expressed the wish
to return to a place
in Africa called Coppe,
referring to his letter in 1890.
Here you have a picture of
me and the people of Coppe.
We are holding pottery that
they gave to me as a as a gift.
So they do excavations
very often in the village.
It's a village that is very
rich in terms of archaeology,
history, and forecourt as well.
So they gave me this
pottery as a as a gift.
So this study aimed to
present the adventures
of research leading to
the finding of the origins
of Omar Ibn Said in Fuuta
Tooro, his native land,
based on facts drawn from
his autobiography at 1831
and his other writings
composed mainly of letters.
One particular one
was the 1819 text.
A 10-day stay in nine villages
in the Senegal River Valley
enabled us to find the village
of Coppe, which comes
closest to Omar's description
of his home village and the
conditions of his captivity.
The methodology used to achieve
such an endeavor consisted
of handing over the writings of
Omar to the scholars of Fuuta,
who can read Ajami Arabic and
are steeped in the culture
and history of their land.
In addition, this article
has addressed the issue
of sharing Omar's legacy,
including his written history,
and his correspondences
with Africans,
more specifically the
Fuuta, Toora population.
Indeed, since the discovery
of this, of his autobiography
and other texts, Fuuta
claims the legacy
of Omar and appropriates it.
Therefore, I advocate the
sharing of this treasure
with the people of
Senegal in general
and Fuuta, Tooro in particular.
>> Lanisa Kitchiner: Dr.
Seck, thank you so very,
very much for such a rich
and wonderful presentation
of your research
on Omar ibn Said.
If I may just jump in with
a couple of questions,
the first of which is inspired
by the two week residency
that you completed in the
Library of Congress African
and Middle Eastern Division,
courtesy of the Lilly program.
During your two weeks
in the division,
you engaged with the
Omar Ibn Said collection
and you worked closely
with our staff.
Can you share with us
a little bit about how
that experience helped to build
upon your travel and engagement
with our colleagues
and friends in Senegal
and in Futa Tooro, broadly?
>> Mamarame Seck:
Thank you, Dr. Kitchener
for asking me this question
which would allow me here
in this panel to say,
how important my visit to
the Library of Congress was
to the accomplishment
of this project.
As you know, we discovered the
narrative of Omar Ibn Said,
through the work of
American scholars
who have done tremendous
work to tell us who Omar was,
where he lived, but also share
his autobiography with us.
So I couldn't complete any
research on Omar Ibn Said,
without coming to the U.S.
meeting physically or virtually,
both through their
productions, those scholars
who have done work, who are
the pioneers of this project
on this research of Omar Ibn
Said, and I was very lucky
to have your staff
working closely with me.
I can give some names.
Edward Minor was one of them.
Your Arabic specialist,
Mohammed, was so very helpful.
And you also as a host, I think
you all did a wonderful job
getting me all the
books I wanted to see,
showing me the collection, even
having me touch physically,
you know, the copy, the
unique copy, original copy
that exists today that is
in the Library of Congress.
So to me, this was a privilege.
You know, because I was dying
to see that autobiography
and you showed it to me, and so
that was a privilege, but also,
it was there that
I wrote this paper,
basically because I
had all the elements,
except the section
on the United States.
So the interviews I wanted
to conduct with some people.
So there, and once I have I
gathered all those elements,
I was able to write and finish
the paper within the 15 days
that I spent in your library,
so I can't be grateful enough
to you for giving
me that opportunity.
>> Lanisa Kitchiner:
Well, thank you.
You know, it was an honor
and a privilege to have you
in the African and Middle
East Eastern Division,
because your research
so immediately dovetails
with so much of what
we are doing
with the Omar Ibn
Said collection,
but you had a very unique
approach to the material.
We have engaged the material
from the vantage point
of Islamic Studies,
from the vantage point
of American history,
particularly in the history
of enslaved people in the United
States, we have looked at it
within the context
of slave narratives.
So there's been a literary
engagement with the text,
religious engagement
with the text,
multiple disciplinary approaches
to Omar Ibn Said's
autobiography,
but yours is special and unique,
partly because you are looking
at the linguistic
elements of the text.
And that's exciting.
Can you tell me a
little bit more
about why you have taken
this particular angle,
in terms of dealing
with the autobiography
and the letters of
Omar Ibn Said?
>> Mamarame Seck: Thank you.
So I have to say first that,
as you said, I am a linguist
and I did my dissertation at
the University of Florida,
on the structure of Sufi
oral narratives from Senegal,
in Wolof, so, that
was my entry point
to this particular research
because I am a narrative
analyst.
And also I believed
from the very beginning
that maybe the missing
piece of the scholarship
on Omar was his own people.
I believe that knowing how we
tell stories, how we write,
how we do things in
this area, showing
and sharing Omar's autobiography
with the people of Fuuta,
in general, because at that
time we didn't know where to go.
We just said, you know,
let's talk with some people
from the region, who know
the history of the region,
who know with such things
may have happened, you know,
the things described by
Omar Ibn Said in his texts.
So we said, let's go around and
show the text to the Fuutankans,
without, I mean with distance.
Just tell them, what do you
think this man is talking about?
What do you think this, where
do you think this could happen
in the Fuuta Tooro?
So because I believe
from the beginning
that something will definitely
come from this, this sharing,
because they will recognize,
you know, the writing style,
they will recognize the
language and the approach.
That's, that's what
led me to this project.
>> Lanisa Kitchiner: You know,
one of the great travesties
of the transatlantic slave
trade was the displacement
and disconnection of
enslaved African people
from their homeland, so
much so that many of us
in the diaspora whose
ancestors went
through that experience
cannot name a place.
We could, you know, we
could do a DNA test.
We do genealogy studies,
and perhaps give a long list
of you know, 20%
Cameroonian, 15% Ghanaian.
I'm very interesting
breakdowns there,
but your work is very focused
on placing Omar Ibn Said,
returning that sense of home by
identifying a precise location,
and today, you know, the
record has been unclear.
We've got three remarkable
photographs
that give us the
image of the man.
We have his written word that
enables us to capture elements
of his voice and his experience,
but we have been able
to place him precisely.
Senegambia, northern
Senegal, Fuuta Tooro,
and so we're getting narrower
and narrower, but you have honed
in on Coppe, and
you've given us evidence
in this presentation
here, but I wonder
if you could speak a little
bit more about what makes you
so certain that you have
identified the home place
of Omar Ibn Said.
>> Mamarame Seck:
Very good question.
You know Arabic is a
language which root,
the radical of a word is
always a series of consonants
and it is the diacritics
that they use,
that would make the word,
you know, sound different,
that will carry also
the meaning of a word.
I can give an example
with the word for,
Arabic word for wrote, kataba.
In kataba you have a series
of consonant ca, da, ba, so,
but this was three consonant
you can build different words.
You can have Kitab
etc, for example.
So what makes the difference was
is the diacritics that you use,
you know, to, to change
the meaning of the word.
So that was the first
problem we ran
into when we wanted
this word to be read.
Ajami has that particularity
to kind of change the writing
from classical Arabic to kind
of account for some sounds
that are not in Arabic.
Example, the sound put.
So, but in the word that Omar
used to say that he wanted
to return to this particular
place, we have two consonants,
the ca and the ba sound.
Now, you have the diacritics.
So that's why in
my presentation,
I said that the word
could be read as caba.
So we asked people around, you
know of any village or place
in Fuuta Tooro called caba?
The answer was no.
And let me tell you this, in
the first village, we went,
which is Dimat, the Imam of
that village, read the texts
and without any doubt,
said, Coppe.
You must go to Coppe Mangay.
He was surrounded by
other learned people.
He passed the text to them who
confirmed it, but we said okay.
This might be a blessing for
us, but, you know, we came here
with the project of finding the
real place where Omar was from.
We got an answer, but we
may also get other answers
from different people.
Let's continue our journey.
So that's how we went to
different places based
on indication of other
people, you know,
who knew the history of Fuuta.
You say, okay, some people
did make the connection
between Omar Ibn Said and
Abdelkader Khan [phonetic],
who was murdered in
the same year as Omar,
when he was captured and
shipped off to America.
That same, very same year,
that's when Abdelkader
Khan was murdered.
So some people thought that
okay, maybe Omar is referring
to this, you know, murdering,
which happened in Boracay
which is not in Fuuta Tooro.
So we, just to tell you that
we went by multiple options,
possibilities, but everyone,
with the majority of the people,
we've talked to confirm that
reading and get in touch
with the Imam, to discuss with
him and get his own words,
you know, about the reading of
this particular word as Coppe.
So they consulted each other.
So and the majority
of them confirmed it.
Those who had some kind of
doubt, they said that, you know,
they're may be other possible
readings of the word just
because of the way Omar
writes, but also the fact
that this is Ajami,
you know, and it's,
you know, the text is very old.
Some passages are
almost unreadable.
So, but the majority
of them confirm
that possible reading
of the word as Coppe.
So, as you know, we went,
you know, to nine villages,
you know, some of them were
not even in Fuuta Tooro
and the answer was simple.
Omar said he is from Fuuta
Tooro, this is not Fuuta Tooro,
so go back to Tooro, because
Fuuta is divided into provinces,
and one of them is Fuuta Tooro.
And the fact also he refers
to his particular
village are being located
between the two rivers in in
Pulaar, when you say akuna maki,
everybody would think
of the Isle of Morphil.
So they said, you know,
this, this thing happened
in the Isle of Morphil.
So you should go there.
You know, as you tell
you, as I tell you before,
they were indications in the
texts that led to the place,
but also the reading
of the word as Coppe.
>> Lanisa Kitchiner: So,
I want to take this idea
of naming the place a little
bit farther if we can.
You know, Senegal, as far as I
understand it is a place where,
you know, there are long
standing family names,
Dieye, Said.
Omar Ibn Said is a name,
but it's not a family name
that we can easily place so that
when you are in Fuuta Tooro,
you can say, Omar Ibn Said,
who is of the family of,
you know, fill in the blank.
So, could you talk a little
bit more about just some
of the intricacies of Omar
Ibn Said and his naming,
which makes the effort
to actually place him
in Fuuta Tooro, probably
a bit more difficult,
because he's not, you
know, in the United States
as an enslaved person
he might have taken
on the name of his enslaver.
So he would have been Omar
Ibn Said Owen, or something
like that, but that's
not what we have.
We have Omar Ibn Said whom
we can place with the Owens
because they were his enslavers,
but we cannot place him
in the same way in Senegal,
because his family name is not
a part of how we identify him.
So could you, could you just
unpack that for us a little bit
so we can understand some
of the challenges there.
>> Mamarame Seck: That was
definitely one of the challenges
and we will ask that question.
Did Omar give his
family name to anyone?
Is it written anywhere?
So that made the thing very,
very, very hard, but also,
when you, when you
tell a Fuutanke,
I'm looking for Omar Ibn
Said, this is Arabic,
like pure Arabic, you
know, way of saying things.
What they know is Omar Said
because sometime, you know, you,
they use the name of the
person, but also the name of one
of his parents, it could be, you
know, the name of the mother,
just like Chef Jabril Khumba
that you must say was
one of his teachers.
So, some, in some
translations people say Kemba,
but Kemba is not is not a word
that is familiar
to the Fuutan case.
So they read it as Khumba,
says you will Khumba,
The phraseKumba, Kumba is a
first name, female first name.
So maybe this is, this was
referring to Jabril's mother,
just like Omar did said
Amin because he was asked
to write his life as he said,
in Arabic so he used a classical
Arabic to say I'm Omar Ibn Said,
but when you, when you go to
a village and say I'm looking
for Omar Sadu [phonetic],
people will say, oh Omar Sadu,
you know, he's here or
there, or he's not here.
So, the fact he didn't mention
his father's name was definitely
a problem.
And that also led to some
confusions, because as you know,
there is a scholar who
locates Omar in Barobe Jakkel,
a link linking him with
a Coppe family, you know,
just because he said I want
to be in a place, you know,
and called Coppe or Coppa.
So, but the reading of this
sentence does not make any,
you know, doubt like it is
clearly that Omar is referring
to a place not a family name.
So Omar did not tell
us who his father was.
He gave us information
about his family life,
which is actually why we
want, also as you know,
we want to have a
documentary film on Umar's life
in Fuuta Tooro, just to
show, to give people an idea
of how family is
organized in Fuuta Tooro
at that time, and today.
You know what it means also
to go to study for 25 years,
you know, Omar said it in a
sentence, but it means a lot,
because 25 years is very long.
So we need to know, you know,
what kind of knowledge
one would learn
through those 25 years
except that long journey.
So everything that Omar, you
know, just mentioned quickly
in his text, but
needs to be known
to be, you know, developed.
So that is the next project
that I have with some
of my colleagues,
you know, to do.
>> Lanisa Kitchiner:
It's fantastic.
This brings me to what is,
just due to the lack of time
that we have, probably my
final question, if I may.
And that is that
without an ability
to place Omar Ibn
Said's family, you know,
I wonder how we can help
to expand the narrative
of who he is.
And your work helps
us to do that.
As you know, as a
scholar of Omar Ibn Said,
the story often starts
here in the United States,
beginning with his arrival in
Charleston, South Carolina,
and it goes from there,
but that's, you know,
rarely would one ever
start a story in the middle
and never get back to the
beginning, and the bits
and pieces of the beginning
that we do have are
somewhat controversial.
There is the thought
that perhaps Omar Ibn Said was
engaged in criminal activity,
which might have been one of
the reasons for his capture,
and then his thing
sold into slavery,
but then there is a school of
thought that completely detaches
from that argument as well.
I'd love to hear from
you how the recovery work
that you were doing
in Senegal can help
to create a more well-rounded
and even more robust story
about Omar Ibn Said so that
those of us on both sides
of the Atlantic can have a far
more complete picture of history
and our sense of connectedness
across the Atlantic.
>> Mamarame Seck: Very,
very good question.
And you said you mentioned it
earlier, you said, you know,
how important it is for
some African Americans today
to find their, to trace their
ancestry in Africa, and also,
to also know that they come from
well organized, very robust,
well-structured societies.
So I think this project would
help start the foundation
of the relationship between
African Americans and Africa.
When we handed this
autobiography to the people
of Fuuta, they appropriated
it very quickly.
When they looked at the
picture, you can tell, you know,
on their face, how
sensitive they are, you know,
to this story, and to Omar, but
also to slavery in the area.
You know, we thought that
maybe claiming Omar to be part
of them would pose problems just
because of the circumstances.
Omar was a slave, but this does
not cause any problem at all.
They think that Africa
and people
of African descent
should reconnect.
So they're ready to
build a library in Coppe,
where they will hold every
single piece of riding by Omar
on Omar, but also
on all the slaves
because I think we should start
now tracing the ancestry using
historical facts, evidence,
linguistic, not just assuming
that okay, I may
be from the Gambia,
I may be from Sierra Leone.
No, we need to do research to
help people find their origin
in Africa, and Omar is just
a gateway to this project.
And I think, you know, this
is a must, this is a must.
Africans want it.
African Americans are
so I'm sure they want,
but they don't know
how to go about it.
You know, but I'm sure
there is the will.
The will does exist, you
know, the goal does exist.
So we just need to work
together and make it happen
for the benefit of Africa,
but also of America.
So, Omar belongs to you, but
he also belongs to Africa,
just like all the
African Americans.
They belong to the
United States,
because that's where
they were born.
That's where they did their
study, that's where they work,
but their ancestors
are from Africa.
Then they should come back
to Africa, work with African,
you know, find themselves in
Africa, and for that, you know,
our hands are open and we
can also use our, you know,
knowledge, you know, of the
history of, of the languages,
of the culture, but also
of the United States.
So because we, we, I was
trained, I'm grateful
to the United States for
giving me the opportunity
to get good education and a PhD.
So I have to give
something back to America,
which is really what
I'm doing right now.
So we have to work
together, you know,
to kind of create
that connection.
>> Lanisa Kitchiner: Well,
Dr. Seck, in the spirit
of working together, may I say,
thank you so, so, so very much
for the knowledge, the
passion, the time, oh,
shared with the African
and Middle Eastern Division
of the Library of Congress.
It has been an honor and a
privilege to work with you
and I hope in the
spirit of connection
and just our shared histories
that we will continue
to work together.
Thank you so very
much for joining us.
>> Mamarame Seck:
You're very welcome.
Thank you.