At the onset of 2025, Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW) considered hospitality and conviviality in a variety of forms through its exhibition and research project Musafiri: Of Travellers and Guests, putting forth plural understandings of nomadism, welcoming, and belonging. This endeavour reasserted notions of movement, fluidity, and politics of arrival within the house. 

Against this backdrop, Tongue and Throat Memories continues its approach of hosting chefs-in-residence by welcoming another figure of culinary innovation: Dakar-based Chef Tamsir Ndir, known for his mastering of West African cuisine. In the course of his thirty-year-long career, Ndir has been a great advocate of the use of local products and spices to promote the food traditions of his grandmothers’ generation. He has brought culinary knowledge from his hometown in Saint Louis, in north-west Senegal, to top-rated restaurants in Dakar, Abidjan, Paris, Montréal, and beyond. 

This iteration of Tongue and Throat Memories, entitled Jolof Stories from the Falémé Valley to the Lands of Teranga, is an occasion to unpack and offer contemporary readings of Teranga—the traditions of hospitality from Senegal and the Senegambian region. Formerly known as Jolof, the latter was mostly populated by Wolof, Serer, and Fulani communities of the Falémé Valley situated between the two sister rivers of Senegal and the Gambia from the fourteenth century onwards. The etymology of the word teranga as explained by historian and anthropologist Abdourahmane Seck, who contributes to the programme, takes its roots from various sources related to the Wolof language of fishermen and farmers as well as other community groups. As Seck observes, ‘Teranga is not just a word, it is a political structure, which conveys meaning and dynamism, because life evolves. … Ter, which is to land after a journey, to arrive on solid ground as used especially in the field of fishing … Teu has to do with waiting, but it is not a passive wait but rather preparing the place and acclaiming the one who arrives; teran conveys the idea of reaching one's own meaning, or the possibility of truly becoming oneself, or the fullness of being, and finally, terang, which speaks of receiving with care, taking care of the other, because the other is someone equal to oneself.’[1]

One of the main articulations of Teranga resides in food making and the idea of welcoming travellers and guests with delicious homemade dishes, especially with Ceebu Jën. Voted in a nationwide poll as Senegal’s ‘national dish’, Ceebu Jën was formally recognized by UNESCO as ‘intangible cultural heritage’ (for what it’s worth). The dish originated in the fishing communities of Saint-Louis, in north-west Senegal. Although recipes vary from region to region, Ceebu Jën is generally made with fish, broken rice, dried fish, shellfish, and seasonal vegetables and spices, such as onions, parsley, garlic, chili peppers, tomatoes, carrots, eggplant, white cabbage, cassava, sweet potato, okra, and bay leaf. The quality of the fish and the choice of vegetables are determined by the importance of the event the dish is being prepared for. For this evening at HKW, Chef Tamsir’s culinary skills unfold through the making of Ceebu Jën as well as various local Senegalese snacks for a delectable experience of collective food sharing and storytelling. 

Teranga also resonates with the idea of a ‘welcoming home’ via its associated practices of design, spatial creativity, and hospitality, which are often articulated through a combination of clothing and home decor, as well as olfactive immersion. These aspects of hosting are unpacked and re-enacted in this edition of Tongue and Throat Memories with the contribution of fashion designer Khadija Aisha Ba, founder of L’Artisane, a brand she established on the foundations of Senegalese fashion from the 60s and 70s. Today, her designs revisit these approaches in response to the growing influence of western fashion, which threatens to erase this heritage. Ba has also established Le Sandaga, her studio-shop named after Sandaga market, a landmark located at the centre of downtown Dakar. The market is housed within a neo-Sudanese building complex from 1935 and has resisted modern redevelopment for more than 80 years. 

Bridging connections to moments of food sharing, music, and convivial gatherings, the evening is underpinned by storytelling centring the Teranga traditions and its principles of reciprocity, as theorized by Seck.   

[1] Abdourahmane Seck interviewed by Analía Iglesias ‘La “teranga” es un puente político hacia el otro’ [‘The “teranga” is a political bridge to the other’], EL PAÍS (25 November 2019), https://elpais.com/elpais/2019/11/21/planeta_futuro/1574338182_211804.html. Quote translated into English from Spanish by Marie Helene Pereira. 

Programme

19:00 
Le Sandaga 
D: Mamy Tal, 2021, 6' 29"  
Short film screening, introduced by Khadija Aisha Ba L’Artisane 

Followed by a conversation (in English) on Teranga and the principles of reciprocity with Abdourahmane Seck, Chef Tamsir Ndir, Khadija Aisha Ba L’Artisane, and Marie Helene Pereira  

20:30 
Ceebu Jën 
A curated dinner with Chef Tamsir Ndir and Khadija Aisha Ba L’Artisane 

22:30 
DJ set by Chef Tamsir Ndir a.k.a DJ Tchoub Tchoub