The Diplomat
The Queen will preside over the inauguration of the new Instituto Cervantes center in Dakar on December 13, the first to open in sub-Saharan Africa. In addition, on December 20, Doña Letizia will also preside over the Annual Meeting of Cervantes Directors, which will be held in San Sebastian (Guipuzcoa) for three days.
The presence of Doña Letizia at the official event in Dakar (the first inauguration of a Cervantes center since 2011, when it opened in Hamburg, Germany) “is a boost for the Spanish language in the African subcontinent, where almost two million people study it, and a support for the Institute’s commitment to having a physical presence in this strategic area with great potential for economic growth,” the Spanish cultural diplomacy institution stated in a press release.
The Queen will be accompanied by the Minister of Culture, Miquel Iceta; the director of the Instituto Cervantes, Luis García Montero; and the Spanish ambassador to Senegal, Olga Cabarga; as well as representatives of the Senegalese authorities. The opening ceremony will feature two experts who will speak on the situation of Spanish in Africa and its prospects for growth, as well as a musical performance. Afterwards, the Queen will tour the building, which has four classrooms, a library, a multipurpose room and several offices, and will unveil a plaque.
Directed by Néstor Nongo Nsala, born in the Democratic Republic of Congo and naturalized Spanish, the Dakar Cervantes Center occupies a two-story building of 680 square meters located on a plot of 1,500 meters. These open-air spaces will be used for cultural, academic and leisure activities. The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, visited the facilities on April 9, when they were still being remodeled. The center is located at 125 Cheikh Anta Diop Avenue, very close to the prestigious Cheikh Anta Diop University (UCAD), which has a Spanish section in the Department of Romance Languages.
The new center comes eleven years after the launch of the Aula Cervantes in Dakar, which the Queen visited on December 12, 2017 and which will continue to operate. In addition to teaching Spanish classes to enrolled students and hosting events that disseminate the culture of Spain and Latin America, the center will help the more than three thousand Spanish teachers in Senegal and collaborate with the African country’s education system.
On the other hand, the Queen will inaugurate on December 20 in San Sebastian the Annual Meeting of Cervantes Directors, which for the first time will take place in the Basque Country. The meeting of the heads of the institution -both in Spain and in the centers around the world- will last three days, until December 22. The opening ceremony will take place at 11:30 a.m. at the Tabakalera international center for contemporary culture in the capital of Gipuzkoa.
