Tu ne reposeras jamais en paix

With Tu ne reposeras jamais en paix (“You Will Never Rest in Peace”), visual artist and performer Mbaye Diop and choreographer Alioune Diagne present a powerful performance inspired by a moment of historical tension: the dispute that erupted during the funeral of the poet and first president of Senegal, Léopold Sédar Senghor. This conflict arose from the wishes of his Serer community and those of his wife, Colette Senghor. The point of contention: where should his body be laid to rest? In Joal-Fadiouth, his birthplace, or in Bel-Air, a district of Dakar? The resolution was an unexpected and symbolic compromise – a separation of body and spirit, each assigned a different grave. Through the grace of movement and the force of spoken word, Tu ne reposeras jamais en paix seeks to mend the fracture caused by this imposed division. In Senegal, particularly in Casamance, Senghor’s native region, dance plays a vital role in funeral rites. It honours the deceased but can also restore justice by revealing causes of death or summoning spirits to punish the irreparable. Shifting between the poetics and politics of the body, this performance becomes a posthumous tribute to Senghor, a sensitive weaving of memory, reparation and ritual, in search of reconciliation and peace.