Ken Bugul entrusts personal archives, manuscripts to UCAD

The University Library of Cheikh Anta Diop University of Dakar (UCAD) has received a major literary donation from renowned Senegalese writer Ken Bugul, who on Wednesday, April 29, 2026, deposited her personal archives and manuscripts with the institution in a move seen as a powerful investment in scholarship, literary memory, and national heritage.

The donation includes not only the author’s personal papers and manuscripts, but also her private library, significantly enriching the university’s special collections and research holdings.

Speaking at the ceremony, Dr. François Malick Diouf, Director of the UCAD University Library, emphasized the significance of the gesture, noting that creating a body of work is already an act of intellectual generosity, and that preserving it for future study deepens that contribution even further.

The importance of the decision is heightened by the wider context. At a time when African literary archives are attracting growing international interest, Ken Bugul chose to keep this part of her heritage in Senegal despite foreign interest. That choice sends a clear message: literary memory is not only a matter of prestige, but also of intellectual sovereignty.

By keeping the archive at home, the writer has helped ensure that Senegalese and African researchers will have stronger access to materials that illuminate her creative journey, intellectual development, and literary universe. It is a decision that strengthens local research capacity while also enhancing UCAD’s place in global scholarship.

Even more notably, Ken Bugul announced her intention to bequeath the entirety of her works to the UCAD library, affirming a long-term commitment to the university’s research mission.

The collection, which includes both physical and digital archives, is expected to offer scholars a rare opportunity to study not only the finished texts, but also the deeper process of literary creation — drafts, reflections, revisions, and other materials that help explain how a writer’s voice is formed over time.

The ceremony also included an academic discussion under the theme “Archiving Literature: Reflections from Ken Bugul,” bringing together researchers and literature enthusiasts around the broader question of how African literary heritage should be preserved, studied, and transmitted.

The initiative is part of ARCHIFEM (Archives des Femmes Écrivaines), a collaborative project involving the International Research Group Léopold Sédar Senghor, the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), and the Institute of Modern Texts and Manuscripts.

A symbolic moment of the event came when Ken Bugul signed the guest book of the University Library, marking her passage through one of Senegal’s leading institutions of knowledge and underscoring the cultural weight of the donation.

More than a ceremonial handover, the event was a reminder that archives are not dead storage. They are living foundations for research, interpretation, memory, and future thought. In entrusting her literary legacy to UCAD, Ken Bugul has strengthened not only a library collection, but also Senegal’s capacity to study, protect, and honor its own intellectual inheritance.