Billed as “a tribute to all women,” the Henriette Bathily Women’s Museum was founded in 1994 on the small Senegalese island of Gorée. It operated there for two decades before moving to Dakar, where the space remains dedicated to exhibitions and educational programs about female Senegalese life.

Annette Mbaye d’Erneville, Adama Cissé Wellé, and Ousmane William Mbaye teamed up in partnership with the Consortium of Audiovisual Communications in Africa to create an institution that focuses on female history and culture in Senegal.

Named after Henriette Bathily, the director of a ballet company and a supporter of female African artists, the Henriette Bathily Museum aims to direct increased attention to the important parts women play in Senegalese society, including their social roles in the community and their place in ritual and art depending upon ethnicity.

Through exhibitions, research, the development of archives, and museum journals, the museum endeavors to attract national and international interest in Senegalese culture through a female lens.