This talk explores the transformation of economic imaginaries in Senegal following the implementation of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank’s structural adjustment programs. It examines Senegal’s most famous comic strip, Goorgoorlou, created in 1987 by Alphonse Mendy (alias T.T.Fons), and follows the life of the satirical cartoon across different media and languages to illustrate how the cartoonist uses popular culture to give shape to a changing imaginary of work, thereby offering insights on the inner workings of social change. By showing how those who work with words and images leave their mark on society, this talk highlights how the spontaneous and unplanned fabrication of imaginaries occurs.

Fatoumata Seck is an Assistant Professor of French and Francophone studies at Stanford University, affiliated with the Center for African Studies. She holds a joint appointment at the Center for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity and a courtesy appointment in the department of Comparative Literature. Before coming to Stanford, Seck was an Assistant Professor at the City University of New York, College of Staten Island (CUNY/CSI). She received a PhD in French with an Anthropology minor and a certificate in African Studies from Stanford University. Her scholarship has appeared in The Journal of African Cultural Studies, The Journal of Haitian Studies, Etudes Littéraires Africaines, Le Monde Afrique and is forthcoming in The Routledge Encyclopedia of African Studies.