The Teranga

DJ Zeyna in the house

2012-03-08T20:09:00.001Z

Under the name of DJ Zeyna, a teenager overcame social stigmas to follow her dream of becoming Senegal’s first pro female DJ.

By Sheriff Bojang Jnr, Dakar

In a long queue of dozens of fellow graduates, 19-year-old Seynabou Ndoye – aka DJ Zeyna – is having one of the most memorable and emotional moments of her life. After months of hard work and defying the odds, Seynabou Ndoye is graduating from Senegal’s only hip hop school, Hip Hop Akademy. With this intensive DJ-ing course under her belt, she’s on her way to become the country’s first professional female DJ.

Hip Hop Akademy, located in the outskirts of Dakar, was set up by a group of local artists and sponsored by the US Embassy in Senegal and the NGO Trust Africa. Its aim is to scout and develop young talents.

Senegal has a popular and growing local hip hop and rap scene. However there are very few women in the industry. The few female rappers that do exist are often labeled as liabilities by their families and communities in this Muslim-dominated country.

According to Amadou Fall Ba, an executive at the Akademy, DJ Zeyna’s tutors are amazed by her performance and commitment to learn and excel. ‘It’s up to her to now inspire other women into hip hop. If she excels outside the Akademy in the same way as she did here, others will know that the barriers are no longer there,’ says Ba.

Hip hop blood
DJ Zeyna’s love affair with hip hop started when she was a child. As she proudly holds her graduation certificate, she says “When I was young, the first music I listened to was hip hop and I fell in love with it immediately. I was particularly touched by the lyrics and how these hip hop stars were able to make every line rhyme.”

She was aware that her surrounding community did not share her passion and even looked down on it, but she decided to follow her heart.

Parental support

When DJ Zeyna enrolled at Hip Hop Akademy last year, her friends and neighbors didn’t understand why she decided to become a “loose woman”. “As far as they are concerned, people like me who are involved in hip hop are not to be respected,” she says with a smile. “They think such people lack values and have no dignity. I am strange to them.”

She received much strength from her parents who gave their support. “I was very pleased when my parents came to see me here at the Akademy. It represented a new level of love because it made me realize how much they trust me. This is all that matters to me: the blessing of my parents. Now others can say whatever they want about me.”

DJ Zeyna’s mother, Awa, is confident that her daughter will succeed in her career. “We asked her what she wanted to do with her life because she was not serious about school. And this is what she came up with. We trust and stand by her. I know with God’s guidance she will make us proud.”

Winning hearts

While the stigma surrounding DJ Zeyna and her choice of career continues, many of her friends and neighbors who were initially disappointed in her are now starting to accept her for who she is. “I’m not sure if some finally think I have made a good choice. But they have learned to live with the DJ part of me without any prejudice. I guess I am once again the same girl they knew before I got into hip hop.”

Aissatou is one of the friends who changed their minds about DJ Zeyna’s ambitions. “At first a lot of us didn’t get it. It was all very strange but now we know there’s a great career ahead of her. She’s the real deal,” she says with a broad smile.

And for many other friends, DJ Zeyna is already a star with a bright future. On graduation day, dozens of well-wishers were there to cheer her on when she collected her certificate.

As she prepares to take on Dakar’s many splendid nightclubs, DJ Zeyna vows to encourage other young women to follow in her path.

Unrest in Senegal as opponents tell president to cancel looming election

2012-02-24T10:53:00.007Z

Abdoulaye Wade, seeking a third term after pledging to serve only two, plans to allow weekend poll to go ahead

It is one of west Africa's more stable democracies, often singled out as an example to its benighted regional rivals. But Senegal is teetering on the edge of the kind of electoral confrontation that has troubled the likes of Ivory Coast and Liberia recently.

In the worst riots in the country for decades, thousands of opposition activists have taken to the streets daily for the past month in protest at a decision by the country's constitutional council to allow the incumbent president, Abdoulaye Wade, to run for a third term in the election this weekend.

The 85-year-old leader came to power in 2000 on a platform of limiting presidents to a maximum of two terms. He even chastised African leaders who stayed in power too long and was loved by many of his people.

Sheriff Bojang Jnr in Dakar

guardian.co.uk, Friday 24 February 2012

In 2001, he delivered on his promise when he effected key constitutional amendments bringing in the two-term rule and cutting the duration of a term from seven years to five.

At a 2007 press conference after he won a second term, Wade said: "In the 2001 constitution I set a limit of two terms. I therefore cannot run for president again in 2012 because the constitution forbids me."

But the veteran leader triggered controversy and tension when he overturned his previous position and announced a bid for a third term. He attributed the U-turn to "the people's hunger for democratic continuity and general satisfaction" over his leadership.

Recent riots have been led mainly by young people dissatisfied with Wade's "illegitimate" bid and with the general affairs of the country. Many of them are unemployed graduates who blame their embattled leader for failing in his promise to create jobs for the youth.

Masamba Thiam, a 2010 graduate of engineering and a regular protester in Dakar, says: "Wade energised us so much when he came to power. We basically stopped attending lectures then just to campaign for him because he promised us that we'll have jobs under his reign and we believed in him.

"But 12 years after, his lies and broken promises have left us with no choice but to fight in the streets for his exit."

Aissatou Seck Thioune was a teenager when Wade came to power. But now she holds a placard at a Dakar protest stating: "My country or my life."

She recalls: "Everybody here was obsessed with Wade when he first came to power. My parents brought his posters home and I attached them all over my room and they told me I didn't have to worry about my future any more because Wade would take care of everything. I was hopeful. But look at the country now. Life is hell for everybody. Time is up – he has to go."

Wade's bigger problem with his people is over his son, Karim Wade, who was born in Paris and has spent most of his life outside Senegal. The president's decision to appoint him as official adviser and give him responsibility for major projects gave rise to suspicion that he plans to create a monarchy.

Opposition supporters have held several street protests against what they see as Wade's plan to hand over power to Karim, described by local media as the minister of sun, sky and everything in between – in reference to his numerous ministerial portfolios. But opponents see him as an alien.

Mademba, a sociologist at a private Dakar university, says: "Karim Wade is technically not a Senegalese. He doesn't speak any of the local languages and he makes no attempt to speak them.

"He started coming to Senegal after his father won the presidency. He doesn't have any Senegalese friends and he doesn't understand our country or our culture."

Latif Coulibaly, Senegal's most prominent investigative journalist, says: "Karim is a Senegalese just by paper. To have him as our president is like having French or Gambian to be our president. Wade's plan will fail."

opposition united against Wade

Any time the Karim issue is put to Wade, he responds by saying: "Karim is a citizen like every other Senegalese." He even contested in a Dakar mayoral election in 2009 and lost.

The recent anti-Wade riots have led to the deaths of at least seven people. One of them was 32-year-old Mamadou Diop, a student at Cheikh Anta Diop University. He was reportedly run over by a police vehicle. He was shown on local TV stations leading opposition pre-protest prayers shortly before his death.

Diop's death left his friend Alioune shattered. "It was cowardice … total madness by the police. Mamadou had so much hope of a peaceful regime change this year and he devoted his life and time for this. But now those who hate to see these changes decided to eliminate him. It's unbearable."

The interior minister, Ousmane Ngom, described Diop's death as an accident. But Alioune says: "The minister is a heartless liar who shouldn't be in any public office. I hope he and those directly responsible are tried for this crime."

With the ongoing tensions, many people are questioning the prospect of a credible election this weekend.

Dr Ibrahima Fall, a presidential candidate and former UN assistant secretary general (under Kofi Annan), this week called for a postponement of the election, arguing that "the current situation will not allow a genuine poll".

There are increasing fears that whatever the outcome of the election, the country cannot avoid unrest. As a result, some voters say they will not go out to vote on Sunday for safety reasons.

Senegal: Why anti-Wade protests and momentum might end in heartbreak

2012-02-18T15:26:00.003Z

Like all other street protests in recent years, I was out there in the streets of Dakar on Friday evening for another round of the so-called citizen protest aimed at stopping Senegal’s octogenarian president, Abdoulaye Wade from running for a controversial third term.

By 6pm, thousands of protesters scattered around the ‘forbidden’ independence square, the epicenter of opposition protest in recent days. They are Senegalese citizens from all regions across this beautiful West African nation. They are united by one goal: To force their ageing president to quit.

They wore T-shirts and held placards with such clearly spelt messages as ‘Down with Wade’, ‘We are fed up’, ‘You leave in peace or be forced to leave: It’s your choice’, ‘We are sick of your lies’ and ‘Where are the jobs you promised us, Mr. President’. One cheeky placard held by a young Cafe Touba (local coffee) seller reads, ‘Coffee for all except Goorgui (Wade’s local name)’.

By Sheriff Bojang Jnr.

Most of these protesters are young people between 16 and 30 years. They are jobless. They are hopeless. They are bitter. They have no faith in the system. They are sick and tired of not being their government’s priority. They are tired of being tired and frustrated. They want change… whatever change there is to it. They are desperate for a system that will look after them.

Looking into the eyes of these young people protesting for their desires, I saw pain, helplessness, exhaustion and distress. I watched them over and over as they proudly showed me marks and scars they sustained from police batons… and I saw determination, sacrifice, defiance, valor and vigor.

The risk of not voting
But whenever I talk to these young and determined protesters about what kind of changes they yearning for and how they intend to effect those changes, I am always left disappointed, afraid and very sad. A lot of these youngsters have now become street champions but they are clueless about what exactly they are fighting for.

Whenever I ask if they are going to vote on February 26 in order to get rid of Wade, most of the responses are totally shocking and painfully depressing. They either don’t have voters card or they don’t feel the need to vote. Voting is not part of their plans. Others are undecided who they will vote for... just a week before the poll. One protester who has not registered to vote and will therefore not vote calmly told me ‘my vote is just one vote and it won’t determine anything. I know others will vote and they won’t vote for Wade.’

I look out at such young people in the eye and I feel so sorry for them… very very sorry. I feel sad and sorry because I know that with the trend of them not voting to bring the change they fighting for day in and day out, there is a strong possibility that all those sleepless nights spent street battling with the police, the shouting and chanting for change, the momentum the built, the endurance of police whipping and running around Dakar all day, will go in vain.

I listen to their individual stories of how the Wade regime fails them and I feel emotionally attached to them. But the fact that they won’t vote or at least vote for policy rips my heart asunder.

I stay with them whenever they are out protesting. My presence and those of other journalists make them feel they not alone out there. Whether we admit it or not, we give them courage... with our press kits running around with them. We tell their story to the world and that alone energizes them.

But when I look at the faces of at least those I am familiar with because of their consistent presence at protests over the past few years, I wonder what will happen to them, how shocked they will be and whether they will ever be the same in the event Wade wins the election. And he CAN.

Loyal servants, confused lords!
If Wade wins the election, it won’t be because the youngsters did not wage a good battle. No it won’t! It will be because he contested against a very confused and fractured opposition that has not offered any alternative to the ‘bad’ Wade regime. Over and over again, all we’ve been hearing from the several opposition camps is anti-Wade sentiments. This is what brings them together and this is also what separates them.

With a week to the poll, they have not yet provided any clear and tangible political alternatives, policies or programmes. They have not given the street battling youngsters why they should get rid of Wade. All they have been telling them is that Wade is a bad leader and hell it’s time for him to go.

Secondly, with all the noise from the opposition on how Wade is violating the constitution by going for a third term, there is hardly any clear message from the leaders to encourage the young people to take their street battle to the polling booth, to let them know that they must vote in order to accomplish their mission. In most of their rallies, they don’t even mention the need to vote.

I can understand their frustration at Wade going for term three, but for heaven’s sake the Constitutional Council (highest authority of the land) has endorsed his candidacy… period! He is already crisscrossing the nation campaigning and nothing will stop his face from appearing in the ballot papers on February 26. Therefore, I find it bizarre and sad that the opposition is putting most of its energy on stopping the unstoppable rather than getting people out there to vote against the ageing president.

While politicians are all about winning and occupying big offices, it is a matter of survival for the young Senegalese people. If there’s any winner in this election, it is surely them. But if there’s also any loser, it is them.

They have been loyal to the opposition and the various opposition leaders for so long. A lot of them are even fighting for the success and dignity of their individual leaders. But I’m afraid the confusion and the lack of alternative message in the opposition camp is too huge a problem in the young people’s quest for change.

On many occasions recently, the thousands of young people who take to the streets to protest, do so to answer to the call of their leaders. When the moment arrives, most of those leaders do not turn up for whatever reason. But as loyal supporters, the youngsters are always present, battling the hard way for a change that might not come at all.

A lot of them have become my friends through my capacity as a journalist looking for stories for a living and their roles as sad but determined young people with different stories to tell. They often ring my phone to say someone's been arrested etc. I am now emotionally attached to them. The thought of these helpless youngsters being disappointed after all their sacrifice and struggle is breaking my heart. I have nightmares because I know these can all end in vain. For some of them, this is the end of their sufferings and frustrations, but I know it might not. Others are anticipating a new life with a new president, but the chances of having to live under the same old president they despise so much are there.

As I prepare to join them again in the streets in less than two hours, I feel so sorry for them. I am scared and sad for them. How their hearts might be broken... my friends from the street.

Senegalese youth on the streets for change

2012-02-03T13:35:00.004Z

Dakar (RNW) - “I never thought Senegal would get to a stage when the police would beat us and shoot at us just because we are asking the president to leave power. I never thought that some would die in a brutal way for merely exercising their democratic right to protest,” says a 24-year-old Senegalese named Lemzo. He is a former street trader responding to reports that a student had just been run over by a police truck.

Lemzo is one of the thousands of young Senegalese who are gathering at the popular Place De l’Obelisque to call on President Abdoulaye Wade not to run for a third term. Wearing a black t-shirt emblazoned with a message to Wade to not use force to his bid to stay in power, Lemzo sits on a tiny wooden box and looks on as his colleagues set car tires on fire.

by Sheriff Bojang Jnr, Dakar

Lemzo was forced out of business last year due to the high cost of goods. Currently working as a newspaper vendor, he earns very little to take home to his family.

Mistrust rising
The mistrust between the youth and the Senegalese government has only worsened in recent months. “All these things – the killings, the injuries, the burning of car tires, everything – could have been avoided if the president lived up to the young people’s expectations or at least listened to them after failing them,” says Lemzo.

Since 23 June when nationwide protests forced the president to withdraw his controversial plan of constitutional reforms, the youth have formed groups to better coordinate street protests.

Youth grievances
“The young people have been angry and frustrated for a long time but the president was too blind to see this reality,” according to Lemzo. “Wade thought he was untouchable and he still thinks he’s the only good citizen. And now we’re in a crisis and we’re taking the fight all the way to his palace. But he’s still too ignorant to see it.”

The Constitutional Council’s ruling in favour of Wade’s bid for a third term as president is the immediate reason behind the latest riots across Senegal. However youth grievances remain at the heart of the matter. Young protesters often cite unemployment and the general lack of other opportunities as reasons for their involvement in the protests.

Can’t just sit at home
Mame Aida, a final year university student, agrees that the “Constitutional Council blah-blah” is just the outer, cosmetic, reason behind the protests.

“The real reason why we have over ten thousand people here is because almost all of them are unemployed and hopeless. My parents would kill me if they knew I am out here protesting. But I can’t just sit at home and do nothing while my colleagues are out here fighting for my future,” says Aida who is very worried about finding a job after she graduates later this year.

“Sometimes I wonder if there’s any point to go to school. Even if you graduate, you still have to be the luckiest person around to actually get a job. But with what I have seen here, I am hopeful that before I graduate the president will be forced to leave and perhaps the next president will create jobs. So I am excited. Let’s protest!"

Hands raised

In one of his first rallies after he came to power in 2000, Wade faced thousands of young people in the crowd and asked those without a job to raise their hands. Thousands raised their hands and the then-popular president promised to create jobs for them. But for Mame Aida, “those thousands of hands are still raised because they are still jobless.”

The young people’s protests are gaining momentum across the country but so far there are no signs that Wade will listen and quit. But he remains a leader full of surprises. As one radio commentator put it: “Wade can wake up tomorrow and announce he’s stepping down.”

Nigerian Women scared to bring up birth control

2012-01-16T13:45:00.004Z

pic courtesy of onislam.net

Christian women in Nigeria talk about birth control more than Muslim women do, a new study found.

Women are often nervous of bringing up family planning with their husbands, especially in the mainly Muslim north where polygamy is quite common. God is the provider and women have no right to stop giving birth, people say.

Thirty percent of Muslim women say they’ve talked about family planning with their husband compared to 54 percent of Christian women, Love Matters heard at the International Family Planning Conference in Dakar, Senegal. The figures come from a study by the US-based Bloomberg School of Public Health working with Nigerian family planning organisation NURHI.

Birth control is seen as anti-Islamic in many states of Nigeria's mainly Muslim north. Twelve big northern states are governed by Sharia Law, which recognizes polygamy as long as long as the husband treats his wives equally.

Polygamy
A third of married women in Nigeria – most of them in the north – are in polygamous marriages, according to a 2008 health survey. Around one in six men have more than one wife. Polygamy is more common in rural areas, among older men, and among men with lower levels of education.

By Sheriff Bojang Jnr
Lovematters.info

Many women feel that their husbands might be against using birth control, says Dr Saad Abdulmumin of NURHI. A man might even feel it calls into question his ability to provide for his family.

pic courtesy of newnigerianpolitics.com

Some women fear a row over birth control might make their husband start preferring another wife – or even lead to divorce. So they deliberately choose to have a lot of children in a bid to hold on to their husband’s affections, recent studies found.

Fatherly
In the southern regions of Nigeria, girls tend to be educated and marry relatively late, according to a Nigerian Population Council survey. But in the northwest, more than half the girls aged 15 to 24 are married by the time they are 15, and most are married by 18.

This means it’s common for wives to be ten or more years younger than their husbands in northern Nigeria. Many husbands are actually old enough to be their wife’s father, especially in polygamous marriages.

For a young wife, it can be even more awkward to bring up the thorny matter of birth control with a man who feels like a fatherly figure.

Love Matters is produced by Radio Netherlands Worldwide and influenced by a Dutch view of sexuality and sexual health.

President Youssou Ndoure? Hell no… not 2012

2012-01-06T18:59:00.014Z

Youssou Ndoure the musician is bigger than Senegal. To describe him as a mere music super star is an understatement. He is bigger than that… much bigger. He is an icon. His charm rocks the world. His influence and presence boost Africa’s image from afar. And above all, his artistic journey is the perfect riposte to anyone who doubts Africa’s contribution to the rest of the world.

The New York Times described Youssou Ndoure’s voice as an “arresting tenor, a supple weapon deployed with prophetic authority”. Rolling Stone described him as "perhaps the most famous singer alive" in Senegal and much of Africa.

Mbalax revolution
In the 1970s, the then little known and young Youssou began a music career in his home city of Dakar. Within two decades, he rose to international fame thanks to his brand new genre: a mixture of less fancied Senegalese mbalax (mainly the param parum param sound of drums) with Cuban samba, American hip hop, jazz, rock and soul. This is Youssou’s creation! Today, millions of people from all over the world form his fan base.

By Sheriff Bojang Jnr

As a singer, songwriter and percussionist, Youssou over the years performed with some of the greatest artists of the century… Tracy Chapman, Peter Gabriel, Sting, Wyclef, Paul Simon, Dido, Axelle Red, Bruce Springsteen, Branford Marsalis… you name them. His collaboration with Neneh Cherry for the international hit 7 Seconds is one of his most celebrated partnerships.

Achievements
The 52-year-old’s achievements as a musician are beyond imagination. Last year, he officially became Dr. Youssou Ndoure after Yale University awarded him with an honorary doctoral degree. In 2005, he won the Grammy Award for his 2004 super-cool but controversial album, Egypt. He served as Goodwill Ambassador for various international organizations, including UNICEF and FAO, performed at several charity shows and supported several social and political causes. Together with Axelle Red, Youssou wrote and performed "La Cour des Grands", the official anthem of the 1998 FIFA World Cup in France.

He even played a lead role in the 2006 slavery movie, Amazing Grace, which chronicles the efforts of William Wilberforce to end slavery in the British Empire. Youssou played the role of Olaudah Equino, the African-British abolitionist.

The media empire

I was interviewing Youssou in 2010

As an investor, Youssou succeeded in building a very powerful media empire at home. His radio (RFM), newspaper (L’Obs) and television (TFM) are at the top of the list in Senegal. And his old but household-name nightclub, Thiossane is still one of the most popular spots for the crème de la crème of Senegal and the sub-region. He believes in his country so much that every single asset he owns is in Senegal. He owns no assets abroad!

The bid for presidential palace
Youssou Ndoure has conquered every sector with conviction and courage. But to many people’s surprise, he is now eyeing for the highest seat of his land. In the late hours of January 2, he went on his TV to officially declare his presidential bid for the February presidency. He had always stayed away from local politics in the past. This is the first time he is taking a visual stand in Senegal’s politics. And questions have been pouring in: Why is he contesting? Is he joking? Who advised him to contest? Is he electable?

And his answer: "For a long time, men and women have demonstrated their optimism, dreaming of a new Senegal. They have, in various ways, called for my candidacy in the February presidential race. I listened. I heard.”

Like many of his countrymen and women, Youssou’s presidential bid came as a surprise to me. I first interviewed him in April 2010 and when I quizzed him on the rumour that he was preparing for a political career, his answer was short and confusing: ‘As a Senegalese citizen, I will exercise my rights and join others to change Senegal’.

After that, I interviewed Youssou three more times and I must say that the more the political thing came up on each of the occasions, the more I was left confused and clueless as to what he was planning to do. But here we go… finally.

Youssou’s advantages over the rest
So far, Youssou is vying for the presidential palace with at least 18 others including incumbent leader, Abdoulaye Wade, four ex-prime ministers, one of Senegal's most celebrated lawyers, career diplomats and veteran politicians.

Most of his opponents will be busy selling their names to the electorate and he will not because 'Youssou Ndoure' is already a brand name in Senegal the same way it is in many parts of the world. African politics is about money and they will sweat for every penny to fund their campaign (or buy votes) but this won’t be the case for Youssou because he already has money to spend.

In every election worldwide, the media sets the agenda and sometimes decide who wins and who loses. Youssou’s opponents will be bothered by media publicity but this won’t give him a sleepless night because he owns and controls Senegal’s most popular media group.

Most of the opponents have been in the government before and they will have to work hard to convince voters of their past records. Youssou will have to skip that turbulent part of the race because this does not apply to him.

And most importantly, whoever is going to win the February race will have to lay down employment plans to the voters. Youssou will have less to do here because through his media group and nightclub, he has created thousands of jobs already and feeding perhaps hundreds of thousands more.

But African politics is not just about clean records and personal successes.

Why Youssou will not win
Senegal is a bizarre country where too much emphasis is placed on education (as in school education), where people are trusted merely because of academic intellect, and where you stay in school too long that you end up riding in the same school bus as your son or daughter. Youssou is the least educated among the contenders. He is just a little junior school drop-out while his opponents are university professors, lawyers, doctors, geologists etc.

Youssou even acknowledged the value of education in this race during his televised presidential bid announcement. ‘It is true that I do not have a university education – but the presidency is not something you go to school for." He went on to talk about his global experience and connections and so on. Of course, experience is the best teacher and he graduated from the school of life experience. But I doubt if his lack of higher education won’t work against him.

Secondly, politics in our part of the world is a game for veterans. Youssou is a fresh fish in the pond and the old ones who have been there for decades play the game better. This is a dirty, cruel and sad game. It’s no scrabble or tennis.

In politics and in election times, politicians do whatever they have to do and say whatever they have to say to win whatever. They throw away whatever dignity or decency they have. They drop whatever values they believe in. They make promises they know they cannot fulfill. They lie blatantly.

As everyday politician, you face the crowd and look at a helpless mother in the eye with her baby on her back and tell her ‘if I win, your child will have a good future’ when you know very well that the poor mother and her child and millions like them will never be your priority.

You say YES when you mean NO. You detach yourself from your roots and easily forget those who put you in power. This is the everyday successful politician and this is the game he plays. Politicians are naughty… and I mean all politicians. I don’t care if my friend’s father or uncle is.

But Youssou Ndoure is a wise man, a good man and a decent man. He is what he is today because of his strong family values, his bond with the poor and his dignity. He is too good, too proud and too innocent to play the dirty and cruel game of politics. And unless he plays, he won’t win. One month is not enough time for him to become naughty even if he wants to.

Thirdly, Youssou is used to attracting crowds. But let’s be clear. Anytime he faces a crowd, they are his fans… hundreds and thousands of them who gather to sing with him, dance with him and shed tears for him, his voice, his lyrics, melody. Political arena is not a dance stage. For once, all the songs, lyrics and everything will stop and the political crowd of both supporters and critics will listen to Youssou on what he has for them. Any word that comes out of his mouth will make or break his presidential bid.

Politics is character assassination and for once, Youssou’s strength and endurance as politician will be tested. He will be mocked and ridiculed. His personal life (which he has worked so hard in keeping from public) will be exposed. Even his children will be victims. Lies will be fabricated against him and his family. He will be insulted with the intention of breaking him down. Of course some of his family and friends will be more affected than others. Is decent Youssou thick-skinned enough not to flinch? I don’t think so. Will he fight back the same ruthless way? Absolutely NO!

Back the victorious
Youssou Ndoure the musician has a very strong fan base in Senegal and some of them are already worried that his political life might dampen his music career. I say to them: Never! Youssou’s songs are just too good to be hated by even his main opponent, President Wade. You can hate the man but you can’t stop spending your bucks buying his CD or attending his concert. But unfortunately, his fan base will very unlikely translate into votes this time.

However, I bet that while Youssou is not electable this year, whoever he backs at any stage of the race will win the presidency. Whether he chooses to do so now or at a later stage doesn’t matter. But I am certain that whoever is to win must be endorsed by Youssou first.

Learning the Wyclef way
Youssou and US-based Haitian rapper and producer, Wyclef Jean collaborated a little over a decade ago for Diallo, a track (in Wyclef’s album The Ecleftic) in memory of Amadou Diallo, a 23-year-old Guinea immigrant shot dead by four officers of the New York Police Department. Since then, Youssou and Wyclef built a strong friendship and the two collaborated for other singles.

Wyclef’s popular song If I was President was a great success. But after a failed presidential bid in Haiti, the millionaire platinum-selling rapper must have since realized that a mere lyrical wish of becoming a president doesn't make one a president.

Youssou Ndoure might as well realize that 7 Seconds success in music is not 7 Seconds success in politics.

Senegal: Pressure, fear and uncertainty ahead of polls

2011-12-23T14:59:00.005Z

Wade insists he can run again

Until six months ago, the chance of instability, major violence (or call it civil unrest) in Senegal was as slim as the Iranian leader, Ahmedinejad finally accepting that the Holocaust did happen.

But with less than two months before the Senegalese voters head to the polls, that chance is now as big as average British Premiership club, Tottenham finishing this season without any trophy.

For once, the vulnerability of this great nation is quickly emerging.

Latest events have shown that Senegal is no longer different from any other country on the continent. Continuous peace is possible. But something else other than peace is also possible.

First, it was the wild June 27 street riots that ended with the burning and looting of houses of government ministers and other senior officials. This followed the torching of several official vehicles four days earlier by anti-government supporters over planned constitutional amendment.

Deadly clash
And yesterday (just three days before Christmas), a clash between opposition supporters and ‘ruling party militants’ ended with one death and at least two injuries. It took place in the early afternoon when firebrand former ruling Socialist Party youth leader and Mayor of a Dakar Municipality, Barthelemy Dias and his colleagues were reportedly attacked by dozens ruling party militants in pick-up trucks. The whole thing was like a crime movie.

By Sheriff Bojang Jr.

A live TV footage showed Barthelemy holding two pistols and firing at a certain direction. He later told journalists that he was shooting at the alleged attackers in self-defense.

As I am writing this piece, there is a rising concern and anxiety here. In less than two hours, both the ruling party and the opposition will be out on the street for separate congresses. The venues for both events are less than two kilometers apart. We can only hope and pray that it all ends in peace.

The big U-turn that changed the game
The recent protests and violence in Senegal surround the legality of President Abdoulaye Wade’s bid for a third term in February. When he came to power in 2000, he promised to limit the presidential term to two.

The new leader even questioned why African leaders often stay in power for ‘ages’. This was the Wade that most Senegalese voters voted for, the veteran politician that was loved and cherished by his people and seen across the world as a symbol of hope and the ultimate change for Africa.

In 2001, he won a bigger praise when he showed Senegal would no longer be business as usual by effecting key constitutional amendment limiting presidential term limits to two. He also cut each term from seven to five.

Wade started talking tough against corruption, nepotism and every other similar everyday terms and buzzwords used by politicians (especially new ones in power) to win the hearts and minds of their subjects. He embarked on major infrastructural projects… big roads, big bridges etc. He became the ‘promised messiah’ to many of his loyalists.

At a 2007 press conference after he won a second term, the question of his bid for a third term came up for the first time and the incumbent leader declared, ‘In the 2001 constitution, I set a limit of two terms. It is not possible. I cannot run again because the constitution forbids it. I therefore have decided not to run again for president in 2012.’

protester urges Wade to quit

In September 2009, Wade triggered controversy when he made a big U-turn by announcing he would seek another term in 2012. ‘If God gives me a long life and keeps my brain and my health in shape, I will be candidate again’, he declared to the shock and surprise of many people and to the anger of his opponents.

The incumbent leader attributed this change of position to ‘the people’s hunger for democratic continuity’ and general satisfaction over his rule.

Wade and his officials argue that the 2001 constitutional reforms came into effect a year after he was elected for the first term and that the reforms did not apply to that term.

Circumventing the constitution
The opposition came out barking and accused the president of trying to ‘circumvent’ the constitution to suit his needs. Macky Sall, former Prime Minister and manager of Wade’s 2000 election campaign (now opponent) described his ex-boss’ third term bid as a joke.

Professor Abdoulaye Bathily of main opposition coalition, Benno Siggil Senegal accused Wade of ‘playing with fire’ and said the opposition would not allow him to go a for a third term.

Over the past few months, the debate has been taken over by legal experts. Professor El Hadj Mbodj, one of the most prominent and respected constitutional experts in Senegal accused President Wade of misleading the population ‘over a simple constitutional matter.’ The 2001 reforms, according to him, apply to the very day Wade came to power.

‘The president will exhaust his cartridges at the end of his current term and he can therefore not take part in the 2012 election’, Mbodj told me in an interview at his residence.

Other opponents and experts have described the president’s third term bid as ‘constitutional coup d’etat’.

But on the other side of the political and legal divide, the president has his own backing. Prime Minister, Souleyemane Ndene Ndiaye says ‘the constitution states clearly that our president can run for another term.’ Ndiaye has in fact been chosen by Wade to lead his 2012 campaign.

Failed constitutional reforms plan
While the issue of third term lingers, Wade’s popularity and authority were once tested on June 23 when he formally presented a key electoral reform bill to the parliament. Article 33 of the constitution stipulates that in the event no candidate obtains the absolute majority of votes cast, there will be a second round of voting.

In fact in the February 2000 election, Wade lost in the first round to his predecessor and longtime opponent, Abdou Diouf who managed to get just 41.3% of the votes. Wade won in the second round with 58.5% against Diouf’s 41.5%.

Barthelemy Dias at the June 23 protest

In the constitutional reforms bill he sent to the parliament in June, a candidate can be declared president with just 25% of the votes cast, instead of the current 51%. He had also wanted to create an elected post of vice-president.

For the opposition and the civil society, this was too much for the country. They mobilized the biggest gathering in Senegal’s political history under the banner of the "Don't Touch My Constitution" coalition, to protest against the bill.

As members of parliament were debating the bill, thousands of protesters gathered outside the parliament and other major centers across Dakar and other towns and villages to express their disapproval of the bill. Most of the protesters arrived at the venue as early as 5 a.m.

The opposition accused Wade of flirting with the constitution to remain president at any cost. Mbaye Niang, a parliamentarian from the main opposition coalition, Benno Siggil Senegal said the proposed law would mean "a president of the republic can be elected against the will of 75% percent of the population.’

One of the high profile critics of the proposed law is the Grammy-Award winning singer, Youssou Ndoure. He described the move as "abuse of authority".

The protesters include hundreds of members of Yen a Mare (We’re Fed Up), a group of local rappers and music producers. Since the formation of the group earlier this year, it has been making national and international headlines for its outspokenness against the Wade regime.

The protests ended in riots. At least a dozen government vehicles and public transports were set ablaze. Government offices and houses of ministers and ruling party members were ransacked and dozens of people, including prominent human rights activist, Alioune Tine were injured. Tine was reportedly attacked by armed militants of the ruling party.

At 15:00 GMT and amidst continuous protests, Justice Minister Cheikh Tidiane Sy who was presenting the bill at the parliament announced that the president had dropped the constitutional reform plans ‘after listening to the concerns of the MPs and the religious leaders’. This followed a lengthy telephone conversation between Sy and the president while the MPs patiently waited for the outcome. His announcement was received with rounds of applause and jubilation by the parliamentarians both in the ruling and the opposition benches.

In the run up to the debate, several members of Wade’s own party were critical of the proposed law.

Too little, too late
The veteran leader’s decision to drop the bill was too late to calm the protesters down. Anger and frustration continued with isolated riots across Dakar for the next three days. On June 27, thousands of young people took to the streets again, attacking and looting houses of ministers and other top government officials.
It is estimated that property worth millions of dollars were vandalized or looted.

President Wade had remained silent and out of the public eye for three weeks following the riots. On July 14, he appeared on state television, surrounded by his officials and supporters for a state of the nation address.
The incumbent leader, looking relaxed, described the rioters as bandits and said he had given ‘firm instructions to the security forces to protect the nation and the population’.

Early polls and power sharing

anti-gov't protesters set vehicles ablaze

In the one hour broadcast, he mocked that the opposition parties are afraid of elections and challenged them for early polls within 60 days.

‘I can call a presidential election ahead of schedule in order to preserve a peaceful social climate and national unity. The constitution allows me to do that and I am ready to do so if the opposition is in a hurry and believes that it controls the majority of the electorate’, Wade declared.

Wade also pledged to share power with the opposition, but warned that the pledge ‘should be seen as a facility, a show of good faith and openness’ and not an obligation on his part.

To Wade’s supporters, his call for early polls and willingness to share power manifest his political maturity and sense of responsibility. But for the opposition, the incumbent leader was merely diverting attention from core issues surrounding the legality over his third term bid.

In a statement, Benno Siggil Senegal declares ‘We are ready for elections anytime but any election must be held without the participation of Abdoulay Wade because he cannot run for third term’.

Wade earlier invited the opposition for dialogue, but the opposition leaders had laid down their own demands before they accept any dialogue.

One of these demands is for the president to step down. He indicates he will not do that. Peace!

Worldwide Focus on Family Planning Begins at West African Forum

2011-12-01T12:51:00.001Z

DAKAR, Senegal – The second International Conference on Family Planning Tuesday opened in the capital here, aiming to draw on renewed political support and funding for family planning, as well as highlighting new contraception research.

By Sheriff Bojang Jnr - for UNFPA

Two years after the first conference in Kampala, Uganda, more than 2,000 experts, first ladies, ministers, decision-makers, donors, researchers, practitioners and advocates are gathering through Dec. 2 to share success stories and ideas and identify key accomplishments and shortcomings. They will also advocate for broad family planning access and support around the world.

The conference is organized by the Bill and Melinda Gates Institute for Population and Reproductive Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the Senegalese government in collaboration with, among others, the UN Population Fund, UNFPA.

In his opening speech at the conference, UNFPA Executive Director Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin said the event “is officially about family planning, but it’s also about a larger effort to improve women’s and children’s health. It’s about every woman, every child. It’s about accelerating social and economic progress. And it’s about a new path to sustainable development.”

“Increasing access to voluntary family planning could prevent up to 1 in 3 maternal deaths and 1 in 11 child deaths. This is critical to achieving all the Millennium Development Goals, especially 4 and 5. Every year, 358,000 women die from pregnancy-related complications,” he said.

To respond to the global demand for family planning, Dr. Osotimehin called for galvanizing more political and financial support.

Funds for UNFPA
In good timing, the United Kingdom announced on opening day a pledge of about $55 million to UNFPA to enable, among other programmes, a rapid-response unit to supply contraceptives, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa, where shortages are acute.

Dr. Osotimehin said the contribution “will go a long way towards saving the lives of women and children, as well as to strengthening health systems and reducing poverty.”

Dr. Osotimehin also stressed in his opening remarks the need for young people to be involved in family planning and other reproductive health issues. “Today we have the largest cohort of young people the world has ever seen. We need to serve the reproductive health needs of these young people. We need to design programmes that reach young people in their own terms and serve their specific needs.”

In a video statement, Melinda Gates, a co-Chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, saluted the young people and highlighted the needs of women and children worldwide. She called on governments to meet the needs of women worldwide.

Other speakers at the inaugural ceremony included Dr. Michael Klag, dean of the John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade, the First Lady of Burkina Faso, Chantal Campaoré, Stephen O’Brien, under secretary of state for international development in the United Kingdom, and United States Ambassador to Senegal and Guinea-Bissau Lewis A. Lukens.

The four-day event includes more than 140 plenary sessions and panels in which participants will mobilize more financial support for family planning, as well as hold governments accountable for their commitments to these matters.

Worldwide, 215 million women want family planning help but are not getting what they need. Most of them live in the rural areas of sub-Saharan Africa and parts of Southeast Asia, but they are also found in developed countries in these regions.

In Senegal and the rest of West Africa, fertility rates are among the highest in the world, with lack of access to contraception cited as a major contributor to unintended pregnancies, resulting in high maternal and infant mortality in the area. One out of every three women who want to avoid pregnancy cannot because they have little access to family planning information and services.

“At UNFPA, we are determined to address unmet needs for family planning as we strive for universal access to reproductive health,” Dr. Osotomehin said.

Senegal: Beach parties and death traps

2011-07-25T14:21:00.002+01:00

RNW - July 25, 2011 - The Senegalese capital, Dakar, is a wild party spot known for its non-stop music, exotic sandy beaches, modern amusement parks and trendy nightclubs.

By Sheriff Bojang Jnr

July, August and September are the most exciting and busiest summer months especially for young people in Senegal. In these months, thousands head to the beach everyday to party and they are spoilt for choice when it comes to choosing which of the many exotic beaches to go to.

From volleyball players to free-style rappers, surfers to new lovers, the beach goers stay at the beach from dusk until dawn especially on weekends.

Death trap
But the summer beach party also has its tragic side. Danielle is a Gabonese student in Dakar who chose to celebrate her 23rd birthday recently at one of Dakar’s most popular beaches instead of in her hometown of Mayumba. Celebrating the day with friends at the beach, according to her, was one of the most beautiful moments in her life.

But in the middle of the celebration, a new Senegalese friend who Danielle had just met at the beach that morning, went to go swimming with Danielle and her friends.

Never came out of sea
Hundreds of other people were swimming at the same time but when Danielle and her friends went out of the sea, their new friend was not among them.

Danielle says, ‘It took us at least an hour to realize he was not out of the sea. At first, we thought he had gone to another side of the beach as everyone does’.

Drowned
When it was time to go home, she wanted to say thank you to the new friend for helping organize her birthday but the man was still nowhere to be seen. Two days later, Danielle’s classmates informed her that the guy had drowned and his body was removed at on another stretch of beach the previous night.

This is just one of several deaths reported at Dakar’s beaches during the summer. The government says it has registered 27 deaths by drowning in June alone.

Most of the young people who go into the sea have no swimming experience, an issue the authorities blame for the high rate of deaths.

Dangerous beaches
According to Amadou Canar Diop, the head of Studies and Operations Department of the Civil Protection Office in Dakar, some of the beaches have been classified as dangerous. Despite public notification that certain areas are risky for swimming, he says, people keep going there.

Many people are criticizing the authorities for not doing enough to protect those dangerous beaches from public use, and for not sensitizing the people enough about the dangers out there.

Beach is a beach
I ask a young couple at a beach whether they think the area is dangerous, and the man responds, ‘I don’t think so. People have been coming here for years and there are hardly any deaths’.

The woman adds, ‘A beach is a beach and death is death. Anybody can die here but anybody can die at home too. We have to enjoy this moment. It’s summer man.’

As part of new preventative measures, police on horseback have now been dispatched across Dakar’s beaches for safety.

Copyright 2011 By RNW. All Rights Reserved.

Scant recognition for ex-soldiers in Senegal

2011-07-21T13:44:00.003+01:00

RNW - July 19, 2011 - Soldiers in Senegal face a bleak future when leaving the armed forces due to inadequate training during service.

Thousands of Senegalese soldiers are currently serving on UN and African Union peacekeeping missions in various countries including Darfur, Liberia and Ivory Coast. Several thousand more are, or have been, deployed to the Casamance region of Senegal where a separatist rebellion is simmering.

By Sheriff Bojang Jnr.

Yet despite the demand for military personnel there are approximately 40,000 ex-soldiers in Senegal. Half of these have left the armed forces in the last decade.

Joblessness everywhere
Alassane was 19 years when he joined the military. He enlisted partly because his childhood friend, who was already a soldier, convinced him that the army would open the gateway to employment and success.

“There was joblessness everywhere in Dakar and it impacted more on those of us from the suburbs that didn’t have rich or influential relatives,” he says.

Alassane’s initial idea was to serve the mandatory two-year term in the military and within that period he would learn electrical engineering given that he had an interest in wiring. He mentioned this idea to some of the recruiting officers and they assured him that it was possible, and lauded him for his ‘sense of purpose’.

False dreams
But more than twelve months into his military career, he was becoming convinced that what he had planned he would never achieve.

Although he received recommendations from his superiors for his ‘leadership qualities’ on numerous occasions, he waited in vain for them to mention the skills training that persuaded him join the force.

Alassane discussed his disappointment and fear with his colleagues but the responses were the same; ‘forget about whatever skills training you’re dreaming about. It’s not going to happen.’

After two years of successful service in the army, based in the troubled region of Casamance, Alassane was discharged from the military. His first challenge was how to fit back into the civilian life, and the second challenge was how to find a job.

Psycho
With no skills suitable for the civilian labour market, he spent more than two years looking for job. He started by looking for a ‘decent job’ and later moved to looking for ‘any kind of job’.

He moved to a family house where he shared a small bedroom with five others. His privacy disappeared; family and neighbours respect for him dwindled. Then Alassane’s childhood sweetheart who he planned to marry wasn’t interested anymore because she believed the situation has turned him into a 'psycho'.

“It surprises me how the whole world can turn against you just because you are no longer getting up early in the morning to go to work or you are unable to solve the problems of neighbours and relatives,” recalls Alassane.

Alassane currently spends his days serving as a referee for non-league football games on the dusty fields of Dakar.

Treated like animals
Jean Leopold Gueye, the Secretary General of the Association of Ex-Senegalese Soldiers blames both the government and the military hierarchy for ignoring the plights of his colleagues who were prepared to ‘sacrifice their lives for Senegal’.

The authorities, according to Gueye, are treating the ex-soldiers like animals.

The army was unavailable to comment at the time of writing, despite repeated requests. But a government official admitted that thousands of ex-soldiers are either jobless or are engaged in low-income jobs because of a lack of post-military skills training.

45 days

The Senegalese army has recently initiated a 45-day skills training programme for soldiers completing their military careers. Mohamed is one of the ex-soldiers who has completed the programme and according to him, it was “a joke.”

“How can anybody seriously learn a skill in 45 days?” he asks.

Mohamed, an army infantry officer who also served in Casamance, spent the 45 days trying to acquire skills in mechanics. He now works as a security guard for a private security firm. He joined the firm after unsuccessfully looking for ‘good jobs’ for more than a year.

Most of the private security guards in Senegal are ex-soldiers who are overworked and underpaid, with hardly any medical insurance or other benefits.

Many more ex-soldiers across the country are unemployed.

Copyright 2011 By RNW. All Rights Reserved.

These are no Laambs!

2011-07-08T17:44:00.006+01:00

New African - July 2011 - Traditional wrestling in Senegal, popularly known as Laamb has now become the nation’s number one sport, overtaking football which used to be the main national game. As Sheriff Bojang Jnr reports from Dakar, Laamb brings excitement and unity to the people.

From the rearview mirrors of taxis to street corner shops, portraits of wrestlers are the easiest you can find in Senegal, a country where until recently, wrestling was too primitive for many people’s liking.

Interestingly, wrestling started in Senegal in small villages where farmers wrestled for honour, masculinity and respect during the dry or ‘idle’ season. There was no financial reward. Today, wrestling is a fast growing career in the country. Wrestlers have become celebrities and in fact some attract thousands of fans. Sometimes, fans camp out their houses for hours either to have a glimpse of them or have their photos taken with them.

Top wrestlers such as Yekini, Tyson and Balla Gueye II earn an average of $200,000 per match, most of which last less than three minutes. In March, Yekini, the national champion, fought with another top wrestler, Bombardier, for CFA 100m ($217,000). On the night of 4 April, two big wrestlers (not among the Top Ten) fought for CFA 75m, which is more than $162,000. The minimum that the Top Ten wrestlers can earn per match is CFA 50m ($103,500).

As a result, top wrestlers such as Yekini, Tyson and Balla Gueye II earn an average of $200,000 per match. . A few years ago, the wrestlers used local football fields and abandoned schools as training ground. But today, most of them go to the US where they hire professional trainers to help them improve physically.

Most of them are from poor backgrounds with no education or financial opportunities as youngsters. But today, some of them are swimming in money as wrestling has become the event that brings people together.

On big wrestling days, the only issue of discussion is how one wrestler will beat the other. Tens of thousands of fans will fill a stadium, dancing to popular tunes, chanting the names of their champions, blowing horns and waving portraits and placards of the wrestlers.

Outside the stadium, hundreds more will troop along the streets waving at and singing for the wrestlers who are always driven to the stadium in their fancy vehicles, flanked by trainers and dozens of muscular aides.
As soon as the wrestlers enter the stadium, loud noise and chanting reverberate to welcome them

Two hours before the fight, the streets are as empty as ghost town's. Shops close and taxi drivers stop work and head for nearest restaurant to watch the fight on TV or join roadside groups following the fight on live radio broadcasts.

The most prominent aspect of Laamb is the issue of black magic. Fortune tellers and spiritual leaders are as important as the wrestlers they serve. Senegal is a country known for its strong religious and traditional values.

Wrestlers turn to fortune tellers and other religious leaders collectively known locally as marabouts. They consult these marabouts for advice, and what to do and what not to do before and during the fights.
The wrestlers perform pre-match rituals to the last second before the referee blows whistle for the commencement of a fight.

Most of them bring several dozen bottles and jars of different spiritual liquids from their marabouts to the pitch, while others release white bird infront of the crowd for luck and wisdom. They also cover their bodies with knots of Koranic scripts which are supposed to empower them against the ‘enemy’. The top wrestlers pay the marabouts up to $10,000. After fights, fans the blow horns and sing and dance throughout the night as they escort the champion to his house.

Laamb is booming thanks to promoters, advertisers and TV rights.

Today, Dakar boasts several hundred wrestling schools where young men take wrestling courses. They all want to be rich, and become celebrities, like big name wrestlers.

Copyright 2011 By New African. All Rights Reserved.

Your hands off our fish

2011-07-04T18:41:00.003+01:00

Fishermen in Senegal have been at loggerheads with the government over the ‘illegal’ presence of foreign fishing trawlers in the Senegalese waters. In April, thousands of the angry fishermen from fishing villages and towns across the country turned their backs on the sea in a ‘no fishing day’ protest against the foreign boats. It was one of the series of actions they plan to challenge the government’s decision to allow at least 20 foreign fishing trawlers to fish in Senegal where fishing is one of the main sources of income.

By Sheriff Bojang Jnr.

Kayar, 52km northwest of Dakar, is Senegal’s third largest fishing center. Like other fishing centers, fishing is the sole source of income in this village. For most of the thousands of fishermen, fishing is a family affair. They inherited it from the parents at a very tender age.

Daouda, 49 is one of the most industrious fishermen in Kayar. He is from the Lebou ethnic group which is mostly associated with fishing in Senegal.

A few years ago, his two cellular phones would ring almost every 15 minutes as clients, mainly middle class Senegalese from Dakar and other cities and tourists from hotels in nearby villages ordered their fish supplies.
While Daouda read the clients’ orders from his shabby notebook, his 18-year-old son, Mass would pile up the orders in nicely-arranged metal containers.

With a broad smile, Daouda said, ‘in those days I received orders from everywhere, everybody. Sometimes people called me and I had no idea how they got my number. I never asked either. I knew I was dealing with rich people, big government people because they always sent their drivers with their expensive vehicles to pick their orders’.

Daouda’s booming business suffered a major blow when his supplies could no longer march his clients’ demands. Week after week, he saw his luck dwindling, his net catching less and less fish.
As the situation worsened, he stopped taking calls from his clients in order to avoid disappointing them or lying to them. Sadly, they stopped calling.

‘I was no longer their trusted fisherman because I could not provide any fish anymore. They all gone… all of them’, Daouda laments.

Today, he rents out his only pirogue to other fishermen with hardly any regular income. To cater for his family’s daily needs, he sells locally-made café touba at the beach, earning less than a dollar each day.

Foreign invasion
Daouda blamed the change of his fortunes on foreign competitors in the sea.

The government issued licenses to at least 20 fishing trawlers from countries including Russia, Ukraine and Belize. The deal is expected to bring lot of money to government’s coffers.

The maritime ministry defended the decision and said the foreign boats have been authorized ‘to fish for migratory species which local fishermen lack the equipment to catch’.

But the local fishermen say the commercial foreign boats are keeping them out of business, and blame them for depleting fish stock.

While foreign trawlers are equipped with sonar radars that can trace fish from any location in the sea, local fishermen use locally-made pirogues and hand-held nets which goes with luck and superstition to make any catch.

How Africa feeds Europe
In a documentary ‘Cry Sea’, prominent Senegalese ecologist Ali El Haidar said, ‘it’s believed that 50% of Senegal’s fish is now caught by industrial trawlers and shipped straight to Europe. The remaining 50% has to provide a living for 600,000 people’.

Under an EU-Senegal agreement, European commercial fishing trawlers are allowed to fish in Senegalese waters.

In a recent report titled ‘How Africa Feeds Europe’, oceans campaign group, Greenpeace says the EU and other nations have systematically overfished their own waters, and are now expanding their reach in West Africa, fishing with some of the world’s largest and most powerful fishing vessels with capacity to process hundreds of tons of fish per day.

In Senegal, where living cost gets higher and higher, and prices of basic goods skyrocket, fishing is what brings food on the tables of hundreds of thousands of households. Fishermen sell their fish and whatever remains unsold goes back to the family for meals.

Fishing is also a tradition for the people, most of who turned their backs on farming many years ago due to poor harvests, unreliable rainfall pattern and lack of attractive markets to sell their harvests.

In April when the fishermen took to the streets of Dakar to protest against ‘foreign invasion in the Senegalese waters’, anti-riot police used batons and teargas to keep them of the streets.

A similar protest was quelled in the artisanal fishing village of Joal Fadiouth in Mbour, 59km off Dakar.
Greenpeace Africa oceans campaigner, Oumy Sene wrote ‘it’s time for African governments to manage our oceans for the benefit of our communities, and not narrow (foreign) fishing industry interests.’

In an anti-overfishing film, ‘The End of Line’, ecologist Haidar says of foreign trawler operators ‘When I see what this guy does, I want to fight him. I want to fight with his boat. I want to fight with the government that takes his money.’

Associate Professor Rashid Sumaila of University of British Columbia said ‘if the fish goes, the people are left poorer and what happens? They try to emigrate. The Europeans like our fish but they don’t like the people. The fish has visa to come in but the people are turned back’, in reference to Africans who migrate to Europe.
Some experts suggest that in 10 years, there will be no more fish left in Senegal’s waters.

Ten years is long way ahead but Senegal’s fishermen are already feeling the heat. With hardly any fish to catch, foreign vessels invading their waters and their government so far not willing to hear their cries, they have no choice but to wait and hope for divine intervention.

And for Daouda, his family will have to deal with one meal a day, from the three meals just a few years ago.

‘It’s a difficult situation but we believe that it’s Allah who gives and takes. And I hope He salvage us from these people who pushed us out of business and out of life. We will wait for the future’, he said in low tone.

Senegal’s lifesaving board game

2011-06-13T15:01:00.006+01:00

RNW - June 2, 2011 - Board games like monopoly, scrabble and ludo are used for fun and relaxation. But in a tiny, remote Senegalese village, a new board game is saving lives.

By Sheriff Bojang Jnr, Dakar

The Wure, Were, Werle, or W3, is a safe motherhood game introduced in Khombole village, east of Senegal’s capital Dakar by Plan International and other organisations to raise women’s awareness of maternal and child health.

Maternal mortality in Senegal is estimated at 1,200 per 100,000 births. The high rate is partly attributed to illiteracy and lack of adequate health information, particularly in the rural areas.

At the Khombole Health Centre, Coura and other young mothers are surrounded by a group of women as they play the W3 game. Every playing card shows a cultural image and typical cultural notions and proverbs are written underneath.

Winning the game
Scrolling her fingers on the three-coloured deck of the wooden box, Coura explains: “Red shows the risk factors, yellow represents the detection methods and green is the solution.”

After a few tricks, Coura wins the game and is awarded a set of green marble balls that she stores in a wooden box. Displaying a card bearing a Sheppard, she says: “This represents a risk which can be related to the height of the woman. For example, the pregnancy of a woman who is 1 meter and 50 centimeters is a risky pregnancy.”

In Khombole, there are hardly any job opportunities or social activities for the residents to engage themselves in. And because most women in the village can’t read or write, they have little idea of the progress of pregnancy.

No game to relax
But with the W3 game Plan International is enlightening these women through the colours they are familiar with and the signs and images that relate to wellbeing.

For Coura, “this is not just a game that relaxes us. It is a life changing exercise. There are many pregnancy-related issues that I would have taken for granted and that would have been detrimental to my health. But with this game, I’m aware of all these issues and I am now able to undergo safe pregnancy and motherhood.”

The W3 was introduced to educate rural women like Coura on 24 pregnancy and motherhood risk factors, originally identified by the World Health Organisation.

More than symbols
In rural Senegal women can’t openly discuss pregnancy and motherhood issues. So what the W3 game does, is to give an informal platform to the women to discuss and learn about their health through symbols and images rather than words.

According to local health officials, more and more women in Khombole are having a safe pregnancy thanks to the W3 game. And since the introduction of the game, more women than ever are coming to the health centre for advice.

Coura hopes that the game is introduced to more villages around the country. “It’s great fun and it had changed our lives. Other women in Senegal should also be given this great opportunity’, she says with excitedly.

Click here to listen to the audio version of this article

Copyright 2011 By Radio Netherlands Worldwide. All Rights Reserved.

Mobile technology saves pregnant women in Senegal

2011-06-13T14:53:00.007+01:00

RNW - June 1 - During her first three pregnancies she would either forget her appointments or she just wouldn't bother to go to the health center. Fatou Tine, a 25-year-old mother of four from Khombole village east of the Senegalese capital Dakar, had the habit of missing her appointments with health specialists.

By Sheriff Bojang Jnr

She had no access to basic health information until two years ago. She also didn’t have a cell phone. The explosion of mobile technology across the world didn’t make her life any different.

But when Fatou was pregnant of her fourth child, she never missed an appointment thanks to a mobile text message service introduced to her village by Plan International and a consortium of six other organisations to promote safe motherhood.

The project started in Khombole 2009 in response to women’s habitual failure to visit the health centre for checkups and counseling. According to Deguene Fall of Plan International, 150 women were given free cell phones initially as an experiment.

Messages send to illiterates
Through the project, women receive regular text messages sent from a central server in Dakar about their antenatal, delivery, postnatal and newborn care. They are monitored during the pregnancy, and those at high risk are brought in for check-ups.

Khombole women display their phones

Showing her basic Nokia cell phone, Fatou says “Over the past few months, I’ve received at least four text messages about my appointments with doctors and the vaccination of my children. I have personally seen its effect because my last pregnancy was much easier than the three previous ones thanks to the messages I received on my phone.”

Fatou, like most of the women in Khombole, is illiterates and their children, husbands and neighbours read the text messages for her.

Reminder of responsibilities
According to Fall the text message service has seen a rise of women’s health centre attendance rate. “Most women seemed reluctant to go for checkups. But because they now receive regular messages that remind them of their responsibilities, they visit the health centre regularly.”

The text message initiative has also enabled community health workers to track a woman's progress from pregnancy to birth.

In rural Senegal, like in many other African countries, pregnant women on the countryside live miles away from health facilities. Because of a lack of transport and knowledge of their delivery date, most of them deliver their babies at home with the help of untrained traditional birth attendants.

More messages in Senegal
Studies have shown that many pregnant women die from bleeding, infections and other circumstances which can be easily prevented in health centres.

But in Khombole this is no longer the case as pregnant women now keep track of the progress of their pregnancy, thanks to the regular text message they receive.

With the success of the project, Plan International and their partners are planning to extend the initiative to other villages across Senegal.

Click here to listen to the audio report of this article

Copyright 2011 By Radio Netherlands Worldwide. All Rights Reserved.

Senegal: Dakar’s classic thieves

2011-05-26T17:46:00.001+01:00

RNW - May 12 - Open any tour guide book on Senegal and you will come across the same warnings: Be careful of robbers, watch out for thieves and be aware of pick-pockets when you are in a crowd.

By Sheriff Bojang Jnr, Dakar

Besides its beautiful weather, sandy beaches, attractive architecture and the warm hospitality of its people, the Senegalese capital Dakar is known for its high rate of street robbery.

Snatch and run
With tourists and expatriates as main victims, the robbers normally snatch bags, wallets, cell phones and other belongings from people in the streets, markets, nightclubs and other public areas. Usually, the robbers would be suspicious-looking disgruntled youths in their dirty clothes and their trick would be snatch and run.

But Dakar has recently been witnessing a new type of robbery. Lately, robbers no longer look suspicious either by the way they dress or approach their victims.

Tickets to Mali
Lee Evans is a British carpenter who visited Dakar with a friend from Brighton as part of their voluntary work in West Africa. I hosted them for a few days through online social network, couchsurfing. One morning, Lee and his friend left my house to go to the city center to buy their coach tickets for Mali.

On their way, a gentleman wearing a suit and carrying a file, approached them. ‘He told us that his family owned a travel company and he could take us to the office to buy our tickets to Mali’, Lee says.

Professional
The two British lads trusted the man because ‘he looked genuine and his approach was professional’.
Lee and his friend also needed to change some cash and the gentleman again offered to help them out. He claimed his family had a money exchange shop. They handed over their bank notes of more than 100 pounds sterling to him.

After a long walk and interactive discussion with the man, they arrived at a street corner with a narrow walkway. He told them to wait for him in the corner while he went into the ‘shop’ to change their money. When the man didn’t come out for about 10 minutes, Lee and Evans looked into the ‘shop’ to find out what their helper was up to. To their surprise, it was in fact a walkway leading to a busy main road.

Fancy car
This new form of robbery also extends to the middle-class neighborhood of Dakar. Madame Kane and her husband were at work when a smartly-dressed man parked his fancy car in front of their house.

The man told the couple’s maid that he worked with Madame Kane and that he was instructed by her to collect some items from her bedroom. The mysterious man pretended he was talking to Kane on the phone and the maid believed his story.

All was left for him to do was to walk into the bedroom and take Kane’s expensive jewelries and other personal items before driving off.

Desperation
Hassane (not his real name) is serving a six-month jail term for robbing a Belgian couple earlier this year. He introduced himself as a smart bar owner in Dakar and conned the couple into believing that he was taking them to his bar.

Hassane eventually took them to an isolated area and while they were taking photos of the area he ran off with their bag containing money, bank cards and passports.

He was given a light sentence after pleading guilty of the crime. While he feels sorry for the couple, he blames the system for his action.

‘I was not born a thief but what else could I do? There’s no job and no one in high offices care about poor youth like us’, he said in the prison meeting room.

Confusing

Asked if he would rob again when he’s out, he said with a broad smile: ‘Only God knows. I’m only human’.

The rate of ‘classic’ theft has been growing, Police Inspector Gueye told RNW, citing the dress code and new tactics used by thieves.

“Because the new thieves dress smart and approach their victims in a professional and confident manner, it would be difficult to arrest them since the police would not know if they are genuine people or thieves”, the inspector says.

Maxima the grassroots princess visits Senegal

2011-05-13T20:40:00.005+01:00

RNW - May 12 - Princess Maxima has already won the hearts of the Dutch people and now she looks set to win those of Africans. As part of her West African tour of Senegal and Mali, the Crown Princess of the Netherlands is acting as a UN advocate for inclusive finance in the fight against poverty. Her goal? To prove that microfinance can turn dreams into cash and self-reliance.

By Sheriff Bojang Jnr

Inside the PAMECAS microfinance office in Dakar, about a dozen middle-aged women sit quietly waiting to be served by one of the microfinance officers.

All these women are brought together by a common enemy: poverty. And they turn to microfinance for a way out.

Princess Maxima of the netherlands

Escaping poverty
Ndeye Toure is a 48-year-old mother of three young children. Her husband was a factory worker in the suburbs of Dakar in the 1990s but was laid off due to poor health. With no job or earnings, Ndeye couldn’t send her kids to school.

In order to put food on the table for her family, she cooked for people in her neighborhood whenever they have occasions such as weddings and christening ceremonies. She earned just enough to buy three loaves of bread for her sick husband and the three kids.

Grassroots banking
By late 2009, Ndeye was introduced to microfinance by a relative who had seen the benefits of grassroots banking. At first, she thought her semi-educated relative was plotting to use her own poverty and illiteracy for personal gains.

‘When she told me that she was taking me to the microfinance office so that I could take out a loan and start my own business, I was a bit suspicious because I could not imagine me of all people taking educated people’s money and starting my own business’, she says.

But after her relative used her own household items as a guarantee, Ndeye was given a loan of 50,000 CFA Francs (about 75 Euros) to start her own business. She started selling vegetables in a market stall, before adding soap and body cream to her stock list. Today she’s the proud owner of three different hair and body cream shops and multiple market stalls across Dakar. Her children are all going to school and she provides a job for at least seven of her relatives.

Senegalese women
Like the case of Ndeye, the booming microfinance market is changing the lives of many women in Senegal. According to the West African Central Bank (BCEAO), nearly 40% of Senegal’s population (most of which were women) borrowed money from microfinance providers in 2003.

At present there are over 600 microfinance institutions across Senegal, with numbers of grassroots borrowers steadily increasing.

Maxima champions microfinance
Senegal’s fight for inclusive finance was boosted this week by a visit from the Crown Princess of the Netherlands, Princess Maxima, as part of a tour around West Africa.

In her role as the UN Secretary General’s Special Advocate for Inclusive Finance, Princess Maxima met with Senegalese authorities including President Abdoulaye Wade and other non-governmental stakeholders to push for inclusive finance for all.

I pose here with the charming princess

In an exclusive interview with Radio Netherlands Worldwide (RNW) in Dakar, the Princess said: “what I try to advocate is that everyone can have access to an array of financial services that are affordable for everyone needing them, provided by a variety of sound and sustainable institutions.’

'A lot of work underway'
Princess Maxima is impressed with the rapid growth of microfinance in Senegal. However, she told RNW that financial institutions now need to “reduce their costs and therefore reduce the interest rates for the people.”

When asked about the future of Senegal, the princess replied: ‘There are lots of challenges but I think we’ve had some very good conversations and there’s a lot of work underway.’

While microfinance has changed the lives and fortunes of many Senegalese people, especially women, some experts often describe the initiative as a way for micro-financiers to exploit the finances of everyday people.

Click here to listen to Sheriff Bojang Jnr's interview with Princess Maxima

Copyright 2011 By Radio Netherlands Worldwide. All Rights Reserved.

Forgotten by Senegal, honoured by the US

2011-04-16T19:13:00.001+01:00

On Sunday May 29, 1994 Senegalese army captain, Mbaye Diagne rang his wife, Yacine Mar Diop from a military base in Rwanda, where he was serving with the UN peacekeeping team.

By Sheriff Bojang Jnr.

RWN - April 15 - Cpt. Diagne’s final words to his wife: ‘We are completing our mission in 12 days and I’ll come home. Tell everybody at home to pray for me’.

Similar name

Two days later on the fateful day of May 31, Yacine was at home when a relative informed her that RFI had announced the death of a UN soldier with a similar name as her husband. When she tuned in to listen, she was confused as the radio broadcaster announced the family name of the dead soldier as Ndiaye instead of Diagne, even though the rank and first name were right and it was clear the soldier was a Senegalese UN peacekeeper in Rwanda.

As Yacine was preparing to go to the military headquarters in Dakar to find out if it was her husband, her brother-in-law arrived at her house and confirmed the news.

‘I broke down in tears and I remember repeatedly saying no it couldn’t be my husband’, she says.

Saving hundreds of lives
Cpt. Diagne was one of the hundreds of officers who served in the United Nations Peacekeeping Mission in Rwanda (UNAMIR) during the 1994 genocide.

His mandate as a military observer was just to observe the horrific events but he defied orders to just stand and do nothing. With determination and mostly risks, he smuggled hundreds of Rwandan civilians from danger zones into UN-protected hotels without the knowledge of his bosses. He sometime bribed armed militias at checkpoints with money and cigarette to pass through with smuggled citizens.

Mark Doyle, BBC’s correspondent in Rwanda during the genocide is one of the witnesses of Cpt. Diagne’s heroism and he helped in spreading the captain’s rescue mission to the world.

In an interview with Frontline TV for a documentary, ‘Ghosts of Rwanda’, he says of Cpt. Diagne, ‘He saved quite a lot of people by driving through the front line, hiding people in his car, driving back through the front line and so on. … You could see he was never hanging around the car park like some of the UN officers.’

Cpt. Diagne's widow, Yacine

Cpt. Diagne was also credited for saving the two children of moderate Rwandan Prime Minister, Agathe Uwilingijimana when she was murdered at her residence by Tutsi forces. He hid them in a closet and then in his car to safety.

End of the road
After a busy day on May 31, 1994 Cpt. Diagne was sitting in his vehicle in Kigali when a mortar shell hit him in the back of his head, killing him instantly.

His UN colleagues held a ceremony in his honour in Kigali before his body was flown to Senegal for burial.
On April 6, US State Department honoured Cpt. Diagne for his courage and heroism in Rwanda. But in Senegal, the captain seems to be long forgotten. His friends complain of the fact that nothing has been done by the state to keep his image and memory.

Believer
Cpt. Diagne’s widow, Yacine has been taking care of their two children on her own, with no support from the state or any other institution.

‘I am a believer in God. My husband died saving people he was not even related to and this legacy will stay with us, his family.’

Mark Doyle complains: "Can you imagine the media coverage a dead British or American peacekeeper of Mbaye's bravery and stature would have received? He got almost none."

And for Cpt. Diagne’s children, he will always be remembered for his ‘big smile, tenderness and generosity.’

Senegal united by anger

2011-03-20T11:02:00.007Z

RNW - 19 March 2011 - Momodou Ba, Asse Sylla and thousands of others met at Dakar’s Independence Square this morning where they have gathered for one of the biggest anti-government protests in Senegal.

Holding placards with messages like ‘Enough is enough: Senegalese are fed up with lies’, Ba and Sylla stand shoulder-to-shoulder among the crowd. It is the first time they have ever met but it doesn’t take long before they become true friends. The two men are united by one thing: unemployment.

By Sheriff Bojang Jnr.

26-year-old Ba has graduated from college in 2007. His initial plan was to find a job, save some money and start his own business.

He has been searching for a job for more than three years now. Ba fills his days hanging out in front of electronic stores in Dakar asking tips from foreigners, showing them directions to places they already know in order to earn some money. He earns a maximum of 10 dollars every week.

“I wake up every morning and head to the electronic stores because that is my job. I had so much ambition but because I don’t have a father, an uncle or a cousin who is a top government official, it’s impossible for me to get a job.”

Job applications without feedback
Between late 2007 and 2010, Ba sent out at least 200 CV’s and application letters to employers, but he received no feedback from any of them. He blames the government for his ill-luck.

“In this country, the government and the population are like two separate countries. Government officials live in luxury while the masses suffer. They don’t create any job for us and as a result the lives of most of the youth are being wasted. My friends always try to give me hope but I don’t have any hope anumore. My life will never be any better under this government”, Ba says in tears.

Betrayed by government officials
Ba’s friend, Sylla, was one of President Abdoulaye Wade’s youth campaigners in the suburbs of Dakar during the election in 2000 which brought him to power. He spoke a few times at Wade’s political rallies and he had hoped that he would be guaranteed of a job once his candidate won the election.

But in 2005, Sylla left the ruling party for the former Socialist Party. “During the 2000 campaign, I had access to Wade and most of the officials of his campaign team. They needed the votes of the youth and they turned to me for mobilisation. They promised me jobs would be created and the youths would be better off.”

Used and dumped
But after Wade won the presidency, Sylla’s access to him was stopped. The president’s officials stopped taking his calls and never gave him a job. “I feel betrayed”, he says. “And most of my colleagues who campaigned for him feel the same. We were used and dumped."

Sylla, Ba and thousands of other Senegalese in the major towns and cities across the country took to the streets to call for the president’s resignation.

On Independence Square, approximately eight hundred meters away from the presidential palace, Sidy Lamine Niasse, a prominent Islamic Religious leader, mobilised at least five thousand people to express their ‘disgust and anger’ to the president and his regime.

Forced to listen
They sing and chant songs such as ‘Wade is dead and he needs to be buried.’ The protesters vow to stay on the street until the president steps down,. They are fed up with the frequent power cuts, lack of employment, high cost of living and bad economical situation in their country.

Despite heavy security presence, Ba is confident that for once, President Wade will be forced to listen to the population who put him in power.

“For 11 years, he disconnected himself from us. But with this protests, with the determination and anger in the faces of the demonstrators, I think the president will now understand that he is the most unpopular man in this country.’

The government initially unauthorised all protests, but backtracked less than 24 hours before the event.

Iranian arms in West Africa: Set-up or mess-up?

2010-12-24T17:00:00.000Z

RNW-Dec 2010- Late October, news came in that Nigerian police in Lagos had seized a ship carrying 13 containers with heavy arms and ammunition. Estimated price tag: some 20 million US dollars. Origin: Iran. Destination: the Gambian presidency. Now, two months later, relations between Senegal and Iran have reached breaking point.

By Bram Posthumus and Sheriff Bojang Jnr

Three questions. First, why would Iran send arms to West Africa? Second, does the Gambia, a small country along the river of the same name, need such a copious quantity of arms? Thus: third, who were they for?

Gambia's ambiguous role
Let us begin with that last question. Since 1982, there has been a low-intensity conflict going on in the southern Senegalese region of Casamance, which shares a border with the Gambia and another with Guinea Bissau. Northern Guinea Bissau was a rear-base for the Casamance rebels for years but recent incursions into Senegal from there have been rare. While still a nuisance, the rebel force itself is weak and splintered.

So what of the Gambia? Its role in the Casamance has been ambiguous. It has tried to facilitate peace talks but it has also been a shelter to the rebels and arms have reached Casamance through the Gambia before. So the news of this particular shipment caused consternation in Dakar, especially since the stated destination was the home village and permanent residence of Gambian president Yahya Jammeh, Kanilai – a few kilometres from the Casamance border.

Mutual suspicion
Gambian diplomats have denied that their country was the destination for the arms and the country has now also severed ties with Iran. But Senegal remains unimpressed and suspicious. That feeling, by the way, is mutual.

But even though the arms saga has further soured the mood between Dakar and Banjul, things still do not add up. As we said, the rebel movement in Casamance is hardly worthy of the name and such a quantity of arms and ammunition would be wasted on them. So: who were these arms for?

"We have looked at several possibilities," says Mark Schroeder, the Africa analyst at Stratfor, a global intelligence company. "Individual countries such as the Gambia don’t need so many arms. Another one, like Ivory Coast runs its own ports and can source weapons independently. So then we thought about various insurgent groups in the region, like MEND in Nigeria and the Casamance rebels. And we have certainly been thinking about AQMI (al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, a loosely organised series of groups that has been involved in kidnapping foreigners in among others Mauritania, Mali and Niger)."

Schroeder thinks that the weapons shipment could easily have had multiple destinations. "And I’m sure the US government would love to get proof if AQMI were to be one of the recipients of these arms. The US is concerned about AQMI and has worked with various countries in the region to keep it in check."

The Iran connection
The sender, Iran, does not have the habit of shipping arms directly to its clients, such as Hezbollah in Lebanon. One Iranian deputy has declared that it’s all a set-up by Western intelligence, designed to cause embarrassment between Africa and Iran. Stratfor’s Mark Schroeder does not rule that out. "This is not a high cost activity for Western intelligence," he says, "and the US is always trying to put pressure on Iran’s behaviour. Every little bit helps."

If so, they have succeeded and Senegal is a case in point. Iran was a welcome guest at the summit of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference that was hosted by Dakar in 2007. Two years later, Iranian president Ahmadinejad paid a high-profile visit to the same city. Iran runs development projects in Senegal, Iranian Khodro taxis (assembled locally) ply the streets of Dakar – and crucially, Senegal supports Iran’s quest to go nuclear.

Tehran maintains that the intercepted arms were part of a private business transaction. But Nigerian newspapers report that the two Iranian businessmen involved, Azim Aghajani and Sayed Akbar Tahmaesebi, were operatives of the Revolutionary Guard, Iran’s chief military force.

Two losers
That would confirm Senegal’s view that you do not organise a private arms shipment of this magnitude without the Iranian state knowing about it. Dakar recalled its ambassador to Teheran on December 14th “for consultations”. A break-up seems imminent.

So far, the fallout appears to affect mostly Iran and the Gambia. Both have dreadful reputations internationally, in part thanks to their human rights record. In addition, there is controversy over Iran’s nuclear plans, while the Gambia is mostly known as a regional hub for money laundering, drugs trafficking and now weapons smuggling. But it is even worse for Iran.

According to Mark Schroeder, it has just lost a valuable pipeline. "This is an old supply chain that Iran has used for channelling political interest and also drugs, weapons and money. Now it’s blocked. Things may still go through Lagos but they will have to find new ways."

Hero abroad, Criticism at home: The two tales of President Wade

2010-12-05T10:46:00.002Z

New African – Dec 2010 - Senegal’s 84-year-old president, Abdoulaye Wade is one of the African leaders championing the course of a United. But while he is busy solving problems across the continent, resentment and discontent over his government back home are growing.

By Sheriff Bojang Jnr.

Soon after the devastating earthquake struck Haiti killing up to 200,000 people in January, President Abdoulaye Wade surprised the world when he offered free land and repatriation to the Haitians.
He said ‘Haitians are sons and daughters of Africa and they have the right to return to Africa’. He offered them an estate ‘if they come in small numbers and a fertile region if they come en masse’.

Nine months after the offer, a group of 163 Haitian students arrived in Senegal to take up Senegalese government scholarship to condition their studies at various universities across the country.

Their arrival marked another phase of President Wade’s long quest for African renaissance. The students landed at the Leopold Sedar Senghor Airport to a thunderous welcome and jubilation by Senegalese students and traditional musicians who sang ‘Africa for Haiti, Senegal for Haiti’ and chanted ‘Welcome to the land of your ancestors’.

At a lavish welcome ceremony at the site of the African Renaissance Monument attended by the president of neighbouring Guinea Bissau, Prime Minister of Niger and dignitaries from at least six African countries, President Wade was hailed a hero and ‘true son of Africa’ by various speakers.

Early this year, the President launched the $27 million dollar bronze African Renaissance statue of three figures looming over the Atlantic to ‘give flesh to African renaissance’ and to serve as a symbol in ‘fight against racism.

Power broker

Since he came to power in 2000 after unsuccessfully vying for the Senegalese presidency for 22 years, President Wade has seen himself more than a leader of just Senegal.

From his role in the formation of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) to his regular advocacy for a United States of Africa, the 84-year-old leader has made a name for himself well beyond the boundaries of his tiny country of about 12 million people. He has become a regional and continental power broker.

In August, President Wade flew to neighbouring Guinea following political a deadlock over transition to civilian democracy. President Wade told the media his role was ‘to advise Guineans to understand the situation and to contribute in unblocking the situation’.

In April, President Wade was invited by stakeholders to mediate in the political crisis in Cote d’Ivoire. Two months earlier, the regional economic bloc, ECOWAS had appointed Wade as mediator in Niger’s political crisis following military overthrow there. Thanks to the mediation of people like him, Niger is still calm despite the fact that the ousted president is still in military captivity.

After a similar coup d’état in neighbouring Mauritania in 2008, President Wade quickly took it upon himself to mediate between the coup leaders and the political elite. There is now a civilian government in Mauritania thanks to mediation like his.

Wade was also involved in political mediation in Chad, Sudan, Zimbabwe and Madagascar. Outside the frontiers of the continent, President Wade even offered to negotiate in the Middle East crisis and has invited Israeli and Palestinian leaders to talks in Senegal.

In 2005, UNESCO awarded the Felix Houphouet-Boigny Peace Prize to Wade for ‘his contribution to democracy in Senegal and for his role in mediating political disputes in the region.’
Criticism at home

However, as he mediates crises across the continent, the conflict over secession in the Southern Senegalese region of Casamance is today one of Africa’s oldest wars, starting in 1981. Rebel attacks in the region have resulted in the death of at least a dozen soldiers and the displacement of thousands in recent years.

When Wade came to power in 2000, he promised to resolve the conflict in 100 days time. But more than 10 years into his presidency, the Casamance rebels are still fighting. Thus, Wade has been under intense criticism from his people for ‘failing to initiate a serious plan for the crisis.’

On the economic front, his people his people do not have high mark for him. The high unemployment rate in the country has forced thousands of Senegalese youngsters to emigrate to Europe.
The high unemployment rate has forced thousands of Senegalese youth embark on clandestine migration to Europe through the Atlantic by death-trap boats.

While Wade was applauded and hailed as a great leader for giving the 163 Haitian students an academic opportunity of a lifetime, education continues to be a luxury for most Senegalese. The main Cheikh Anta Diop University in Dakar has become synonymous with protests. Students regularly protest against bad conditions on the campus. Armed police men are now permanently based outside the campus to control any protests by students.

‘It's a good thing to help Haiti considering what it went through. But I don't think giving scholarship to over 160 Haitian students to study in Senegal is the best thing. Students here are facing so many difficulties and the government should have helped them instead’, said an unimpressed female student of the University of Dakar.

Regular power cuts across the country have been met with mass street protests mainly by opposition supporters and the consumers association.

There is also discontent over Wade’s attempt to grooming his son to succeed him as president. Karim Wade is currently the state Minister of Energy, International Cooperation, Territorial Management, Aviation, Air Transport and Infrastructure. Many Senegalese see him as an outsider. His first official entry into politics was in March 2009 when local government elections were held and overwhelmingly won by the opposition.

President Wade’s supporters say he is still the right man for the job, making reference to the tarred roads he constructed mainly across Dakar and other infrastructures.

Senegal takes in Haitian student refugees

2010-10-15T09:30:00.005+01:00

Fears country cannot afford generous gesture to earthquake victims as 163 chosen from 2,000 scholarship applicants

By Sheriff Bojang Jr.
Guardian.co.uk

Guardian, London- It is one of Africa's poorest countries, with simmering discontent over power cuts and unemployment with nearly half the population living in poverty. But Senegal has made good on a promise to give free homes and education to a group of Haitian students who lost everything in January's devastating earthquake.

President Abdoulaye Wade poses with Haitian students

Traditional dancers and singers – and the leaders of three African countries – turned out to greet 163 Haitians who arrived in Dakar on Wednesday night. The students stepped off a chartered plane to a rapturous welcome from hundreds of people chanting: "Senegal for Haiti, Africa for Haiti."

Senegal's octogenarian president, Abdoulaye Wade, the president of neighbouring Guinea-Bissau and the prime minister of Niger were also at the welcoming ceremony.

Adonis Verad, a 24-year-old medical student from Port-au-Prince who lost his entire family in the earthquake, was overcome with emotion. Punching his fist in the air, he said: "I have heard people saying that Haitians are originally from Senegal and right now I'm feeling that this is my root. I can smile now after many months of tears and trauma."

Outside, dozens of Senegalese students held up signs reading: "Welcome to the home of your ancestors."

But the scheme has been criticised as a grandiose gesture which the country can ill afford. Nearly half the population is out of work and the average wage is just $130 (£81) a month.

The Haitian students were driven in a motorcade to a reception hosted by Wade, and then taken to the westernmost point of Africa, where a 49-metre bronze statue of a family rising triumphantly from the ground looms over the Atlantic.

"Your ancestors left here by physical force," Wade told the students. "You have returned through moral force … When the slaves embarked on the ships, this is the last piece of African earth they saw … Dear students, it is on this point of land that sticks out farthest into the Atlantic that we have chosen to receive you," he said. "You are neither strangers nor refugees. You are members of our family."

The enormous monument, built by North Korean engineers, was unveiled this year, and is supposed to symbolise Africa's renaissance. But, like the relocation of the Haitians, it has received mixed reviews locally and has come to represent government profligacy.

The Haitian students were selected from more than 2,000 applicants in what officials described as a "very tough" selection process. They will benefit from a scholarship and free housing from the Senegalese government.

Nelsen Menendez said he planned to study statistics. "All our universities in Haiti are in ruins and we have spent months wondering how we were going to get back to school. But then came President Wade's offer and we are very grateful to him and the people of Senegal for standing by us," he said.

Wade has said that Senegal will pay for the students to complete their studies, but the country's universities have become the focus for discontent and are frequently paralysed by protests over the non-payment of scholarships.

Armed police have been posted at the main university, while many Dakar schools have been closed by flooding. Thousands of families displaced by floods are also sheltering in schools across the country.

Aissatou Thioune, a third-year law student at the university, said: "It's a good thing to help Haiti considering what it went through. But I don't think giving scholarship to over 160 Haitian students to study in Senegal is the best thing. Students here are facing so many difficulties and the government should have helped them instead."

Every year, thousands of Senegalese brave the Atlantic to reach Europe in flimsy wooden boats – just as many Haitians risk their lives trying to reach Florida.

"We are giving the rest of the world a lesson in humanity. Senegal has shown that it's in the hearts of the poor that you can find the gift of generosity," historian Iba Der Thiam, vice-president of Senegal's national assembly, told the Associated Press. "A country that is neither rich nor developed has agreed to share the little it has with its brothers."

Dakar: Senegal's booming sex capital

2010-08-02T16:41:00.002+01:00

RNW - Every day at 7pm, 23-year-old Rama carefully packs her cosmetics in a lady bag and heads for a popular bar nearby. The bar is a regular for rich Senegalese men and expatriates with posh cars and big bank accounts.

By Sheriff Bojang Jnr.

"You have sex with some men and they give you a fortune. It's a real business. No one loses." Rama is one of thousands of young sex workers flourishing in the streets, bars and nightclubs of Dakar. Most of them say they are driven into prostitution by poverty, unemployment and lack of opportunities.

Busy night for sex workers in a Dakar pub

Bilkisu is a 31-year-old Nigerian who moved to Dakar in 2008 after her friends told her about the booming sex trade in Dakar. "I was reluctant to come to Dakar because I did not speak French. But once I discovered the amount of money my friends were making and what kind of houses they live in, I packed my bags and moved. Today I say Senegal is my home, because I have better opportunities here. Men are interested in prostitutes and they mostly pay you what you ask for - I'm home!"

In Senegal, prostitution has been legalised for decades. The official reason for this is to keep track of the health status of the prostitutes. But others say legalising prostitution is just a way of attracting tourists.

Police registry
Any woman over 21 can become a prostitute as long as she is registered with the police, has regular health checks, carries a valid sanitary card and is discrete. But many of the prostitutes on Dakar's streets do not meet these requirements.

Rama, for example, thinks registering with the police is a waste of time: ""Why should I register with the police when I know that it will put me in funny situations? Lots of my friends who registered were discriminated against. The police would harass them, call them names and treat them like trash."

When Bilkisu arrived in Dakar, she was also advised by her room-mate and co-sex worker to register. It turned out to be a nightmare: "I was arrested. The police had a go at me for leaving my country. They said I was bringing disease and immoral behaviour to Senegal."

Rama's scar

Rights groups and NGO's have raised concerns over exploitation of sex workers. One group says sex workers are frequently victims of physical violence.

Rama once was a victim of an attack. She shows her scar in the back of her neck: "I was hit with a torch by a customer who refused to pay after sleeping with me. And sometimes customers deliberately break the condom because they don't like the idea it. They put both of us at risk."

For Bilkisu, however, customers aren't the biggest problem - it's the police. "They often pick you up from the street and trick you into bribing them. If you are unlucky, they take all you earned that night and warn you not to tell anyone."

Although Dakar is reportedly one of the biggest commercial sex capitals of Africa, it is unknown how many unregistered prostitutes work on the streets. So far the Senegalese government has no plans to outlaw prostitution.

So, as long as men are willing to flash their cash, no amount of risk or exploitation will keep Rama, Bilkisu and many of their colleagues from going onto the streets.

Octopus Paul final prediction puts off Senegalese football fans

2010-07-13T15:59:00.001+01:00

By Sheriff Bojang Jnr.

At 6pm Sunday, 24-year-old Bachir Diallo hopelessly stood in front of his popular game shop in the Senegalese capital, Dakar, where just about ten football fans turned up to watch the world cup final clash between Spain and the Netherlands.

At the beginning of the world cup in June, at least 50 fans paid money on a daily basis to watch games on one of the three 55-inch screens in the shop. Watching the games at the overcrowded shop give fans an opportunity to shout and yell at each other and according to Bachir, "sometimes exchange blows out of love for their teams. Everybody loves it."

But more and more fans stayed away from watching games at the shop since the German-based octopus Paul started predicting the results successfully.

“A world cup final is the biggest football match in the world and it is every football fan’s dream to watch it. I was expecting my business to boom come this final but look at the shop… only a handful of people. Everybody’s telling me that they wouldn’t pay to watch a game which is already predicted by that so-called seer Octopus”, says Bachir.

About 100 meters away from Bachir’s shop is a sandy and dirty empty land where dozens of boys were busy playing football while the Spain-Netherlands game was about to start.

Serigne, one of the lads playing football there said "everybody said that octopus never predicted wrong. And now it predicted Spain would win. So why should we bother watching the game when we already know the winner? There’s no point. That’s why we decided to play our own game here. We’ll watch the Spanish victory celebration later”.

Many households in Dakar watched a Latin American soap opera on TV instead of the world cup final.

While the Spanish team was lifting the trophy, thousands of Senegalese football fans were at various beaches enjoying music with their loved ones.

And for Bachir Diallo, “congratulations to the octopus, but it has spoiled my business and it has spoiled the world cup for thousands of fans. Now that the world cup is over, someone should just fry this sea food with pasta or something and eat it once and for all”.

Deported from own country for being black

2010-07-11T15:54:00.003+01:00

"They invited me for interrogation about my nationality. The next day I was arrested, put on a military plane and deported to Senegal just because I am black", says a victim of Mauritania's repression against black citizens.

By Sheriff Bojang Jnr.

RNW - Racial tension and animosity continues in Mauritania after violence erupted recently on a university campus in the capital Nouakchott. Students of African descent and those of Arabic origin recently clashed on the use of Arabic and French as common languages.

The racial tension is a result of Prime Minister Moulaye Ould Mohammed Lagdaff governments intension to introduce compulsory Arabic as the only official language in the country. Black students interpret this as an insult to their identity. Students of Arabic descent, on the other hand, hailed the Prime Minister's declaration as a wake-up call to their supremacy over blacks.

Racial repression effectively started in Mauritania in 1989 following a border dispute with Senegal. The government of President Maaouiya Ould Sid' Ahmed Taya used the opportunity to expel its black citizens to Senegal, accusing them of being Senegalese. According to Human Rights Watch, hundreds were killed or tortured, while those who remained in Mauritania were subjected to gross rights violations.

Sissoko's ordeal
Aldiouma Sissoko is one of the victims of racial repression. He was born in Senegal in 1951 to Mauritanian parents, who migrated to Senegal in 1946 for work. Sissoko moved to Senegal as maritime expert in 1973 after his father encouraged him to contribute to the development of Mauritania.

From Mauritania Sissoko was sent to Canada, USA, Portugal, France and Morocco as a maritime officer. He was later appointed to be in charge of all the fishing operations in Mauritania.

Deportation
On May 7 1989, Sissoko was interrogated for over seven hours before being arrested. "They asked for my national documents and when I handed them over they confiscated them because I was black and therefore not Mauritanian".

Within few minutes, the authorities put Sissoko on a military plane and deported him to Senegal. "It was the worst day of my life and I will never forget it. They sent me to Senegal with nothing but the clothes I was wearing. I was wise enough not to resist because they would have killed me as they did with others".

The memory will haunt him forever.

"I get very angry and bitter every time I think about it. They took away everything I worked so hard, my livelihood, everything. But the most important thing I lost is my nationality."

No to Senegalese citizenship
Despite being born in Senegal, Sissoko never took Senegalese citizenship. Since his deportation, he was approached several times by the Senegalese authorities to take citizenship and move on with life. But for him it is not as simple as that. “My father told me before he died that I must remain a Mauritanian and nothing else. It is a struggle for justice and dignity. It's a mental obligation to me and my father. I will die struggling to reclaim my Mauritanian citizenship and to go home to Mauritania.”

Sissoko is jobless and often struggles to provide food for his family.

“I shed tears sometimes when my children ask me why we are facing such hardships. But I always tell them the truth. When they grow up they can choose what nationality they want but for now, they must remain Mauritanians and nothing else.'

Hero
Mauritanians in Senegal look up to Sissoko as their hero. For Madame Ba, Sissoko gives hope and strength to all of us battling for justice. “He is well educated and he has a choice of taking Senegalese citizenship and acquiring a lucrative job in Senegal but he chose to stay in the struggle no matter what”.

As a jobless man in the streets of Dakar, Sissoko's day-to-day activities include helping other Mauritanian refugees with various paper works, solving disputes between them and taking up their cases at especially the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) on their behalf.

"Sissoko represents all the Mauritanian refugees here. I don't know what life would have been for us without him. He is our hero", another Mauritanian refugee says.

Gambia: The nightmare of Femi Peters' son

2010-07-11T15:48:00.000+01:00

On 30 March, Olufemi Peters Jr rang his father, Femi Peters, from the UK where he is studying. It was just two days before his father's trial at a magistrate’s court outside the Gambian capital Banjul. Femi Peters, 64-year-old campaign manager for the United Democratic Party (UDP), had been arrested for holding an illegal political rally.

by Sheriff Bojang Jr

"He was confident on the phone that he would win the case, and so was I, because we knew that the state didn't have a genuine case against him".

But in the late hours of 1 April, Femi Peters was convicted and sentenced to a one-year jail term 'for holding a public rally and using a loudspeaker.'

The verdict bewildered his son: "The judgment has traumatised my whole family. I have always looked up to the man who gave me all his names and life and the last place I ever thought he would be is jail."

Outspoken
Opponents of Gambian president Yahya Jammeh have been the victim of arbitrary arrests, torture and incarceration ever since Jammeh came to power in a military coup in July 1994. Even though he is now an elected head of state, opposition politicians still have a hard time under his rule.

This was also the experience of Femi Peters, whose UDP is a very popular opposition party in Gambia. Since 1996, it has been contesting elections to 'bring back democracy, human rights and the rule of law to the Gambia'. Femi Peters was an outspoken critic of the policies and programmes of the government.

To his son Olufemi, his father's jail sentence was 'a political orchestration from the outset. If his political affiliation had been somewhat different, he wouldn't be languishing in jail right now. Let's face it... who else would go to jail for merely organising a legitimate political rally and using a loudspeaker to address a crowd?'

Travesty of justice
Human rights groups and the international community have criticised the Gambian government and the judiciary for the way it handled Femi Peters' case.

Ousainou Darboe, UDP leader and lawyer for Femi Peters, has called the judgment 'a travesty of justice'.

Since Femi Peters was sent to jail, concerns have been raised about his health and the bad prison conditions. Medical reports confirm that he is a diabetic and this deeply troubles his son:

"My dad's poor health is giving me nightmares. He is a diabetic and he had malaria the last time my family visited him in prison. I know he won't have the best medical care in there. I am very worried because in a nutshell, these guys are trying to kill my dad!"

Tough
Despite the imprisonment and the health fears, Olufemi is convinced that his father will not give in to pressure to change his position on issues of democracy and human rights:

'My dad is made of tougher stuff than that. He will not quit. That is not the man who sired me. He is very determined to see a free and democratic Gambia where we can all contribute, irrespective of our political affiliation and not get jailed, tortured or killed for it. And he will fight for that to the very end.'

Femi Peters' family and lawyer have appealed against his sentence, though there is no hope among UDP party members that the appeal will make any difference.

UNHCR to meet Senegal refugees

2010-07-11T15:45:00.000+01:00

By Sheriff Bojang Jnr

RFI - Africans who have sought shelter in Senegal are today meeting officials of the UN High Commission for Refugees in Dakar to discuss their plight. It is estimated that thousands of refugees, mainly Mauritanians, are living in Senegal. The meeting is expected to focus on refugee grievances.

Senegal plays host to thousands of refugees from different African countries, partly because of its political stability. Most of these arrived in Senegal expecting personal security and better living conditions.

But many refugees say Senegal has failed them. They complain about neglect and discrimination by both UNHCR and the Senegalese government.

They report that locals sometimes call them "nyags", which means "little rats".

"People beat our kids; do many many things. I'm just fed up really," said one Sierra Leonean refugee.
Another said they were not treated like humans.

"No support, no nothing, no shelter, no supply for food, no help for our children," she said. "We are suffering in this country."

UNHCR Representative for West Africa Elike Segbor said assistance to some refugees had been stopped.
"We have stopped assistance to a lot of them because they have been refugees for the past ten years or so," he said. "We felt that the country has reached a certain stage where they can go back home. We initiated the repatriation. A lot of them went home. Those who decided to stay, we warned them that if you stay you stay on your own."

For John, a Sierra Leonean refugee who arrived in Senegal 1989, going home is not an option.

"Over our dead body we are returning home," he said. "If I am dying here I die, but the UNHCR is supposed to rectify our problems."

Today’s meeting will at least bring the angry refugees face to face with the authorities they blame for their sufferings.

Tired of deportation, Senegal’s youth turns to fishing

2010-07-11T15:38:00.001+01:00

RNW - In December 2008, Mamadou Gaye and dozens of other youth from the northern Senegalese fishing village of Kayar set for a ‘do or die’ boat trip to the Spanish Canary Island.

By Sheriff Bojang Jnr

It was Gaye’s third unsuccessful trip and it took his family six months to raise the boat fare of nearly US$1500 which they borrowed from relatives and local fishermen. They’ve agreed to pay the debts within six months as they were hopeful that Gaye would make it to the Spain, start work and make enough money for that.

False hope
But like in many other cases, Gaye and his family’s project was based on false hope. After ‘very difficult’ weeks in the dark, cold and quiet ocean, Gaye and his fellows made it to the Canary Island. But only three weeks later, he was sent back to Senegal by the Spanish immigration authorities.

"I was so proud to have made it to Spain but considering the huge amount of money that was borrowed for my trip, I thought I was a liability to my family. They thought I was a loser. They preferred I die trying to succeed than to be sent back home empty-handed."

Besides the fact that dozens of youth from the small village of Kayar embarks on the boat trip to Europe each year, the sea at the village is a popular starting point for hundreds or even thousands of youth from all over the sub-region bound for Europe.

In December 2009, a boat with nearly hundred young people left Kayar for Spain. Everybody on the boat, except three who died on the way, were sent back home by the Spanish authorities.

Why not stay?
After that trip, the youth of Kayar started a project to campaign against clandestine boat migration to Europe. Under the project, they decided to dedicate their time and energy to fishing and environmental protection.
“We wasted our times and created problems for our families. So why can’t we stay here and make the best use of our sea, fish and environment rather than going to Europe only to be sent back?” Gaye said.

Recently, Diana Mrazikova, an award-winning Slovakian photojournalist organised an international outdoor photo exhibition in Kayar to promote the village for tourism.

‘Turning Oppression into Opportunity’, was the theme and Diana installed images on the same pirogues used a few years ago as means to get to Europe.

"It was a way of showing the local people that the white girl who was taking pictures in their village was not shooting postcards as they thought. On the contrary, she wants to promote their extraordinary village around the world."

And for Gaye, “the clandestine migration mentality is quickly fading away and we are hopeful that we can make a difference without risking our lives to go to Europe. Our fish will see us through.”

Senegal targets children in the fight against malaria

2010-07-11T15:33:00.001+01:00

RNW – 22 June, 2010 - Pupils at the Garage Beintegnier Basic School in the outskirts of the Senegalese capital, Dakar stands in front of visiting USAID Administrator and staff, shoulder-to-shoulder, and sang an emotional song to their parents.

By Sheriff Bojang Jnr.

“Dear Mama, my room is a haven for mosquitoes. Dear Papa, my bed is without a mosquito net. I need protection from malaria in order to go to school or to reach my full potential...”

The song was written by 12-year-old Salieu and his 13-year-old classmate and best friend, Amadou.
With a population of about 2000, Garage Beintegnier is one of the suburbs of Dakar with a high annual malaria rate. It has just one tiny health center with hardly any drugs.

According to Salieu, “everyday a classmate or friend is absent from school or misses an exam because of malaria. Everyday a friend or a neighbour is rushed to a hospital in Dakar to be admitted for malaria. It frightened and worried me and so I decided to write a song with my friend about our fears.”

The song inspired Salieu and Amadou’s school teachers and health staff in the community to start a special project in which they give daily after-school lectures to children about malaria and mosquitoes. The idea is for the children to transmit the message to their parents, most of who are illiterates and are reluctant to apply any malaria precaution.

Magamou Gueye is a community health officer and one of the coordinators of the project. For him, “this is like a training of trainers project. We are preparing them to go out there and sensitize their parents about the consequences of malaria and how to avoid it.”

Gueye said the children are targeted ‘because in this community, parents are so poor. They can hardly afford one meal a day. But their children are their pride. They love them, they believe in their future and they listen to them.”

For Amadou, the project has made a big difference in his household and the rest of the community.

“I tell my parents everyday that mosquito is a threat to our survival and happiness. Thanks to the project and my advice, using mosquito nets and cleaning the house have become everyday routines in my household and we don’t have malaria anymore.”

As a result of his song, Salieu is treated by fellow pupils as a little celebrity. But Salieu, wearing an orange t-shirt underneath his blue uniform top, is more proud of the message he sends than his new-found popularity.
“My parents initially thought malaria is unavoidable and that when you have malaria you shouldn’t do anything about it. But after I sensitized them, they are now as conscious of it as anybody else. It makes me cry seeing them tying the mosquito nets, cleaning the backyard or advising their friends about malaria.It feels so good to sit quietly and watch them do all these things.”

The worst period of the year in Senegal for malaria is from July to September (rainy season) and it is Gueye’s hope that ‘children nationwide are used to spread the message’.

And for Amadou, ‘this should go beyond Garage Beintegnier. Children all over the country should be involved in fighting malaria because our parents are both the problem and the solution and we are their best friends. Every parent listens to his or her child.”

Hopes fading and time ticking in Senegal’s southern region

2010-07-11T15:25:00.003+01:00

RNW - Karamo Souane is a middle-aged mechanic from the southern Senegalese region of Casamance. He has always lived in Casamance where he is the breadwinner of his large family. Last week, he filled his bag with as much belongings as he could and embarked on an approximately 10-hour journey to Thies, in the outskirts of the Senegalese capital, Dakar.

By Sheriff Bojang Jnr, Senegal

Souane decided to flee, leaving his old parents and family behind following weeks of sporadic gun battle between Senegalese troops and rebels from the secessionist Movement of Democratic Forces in the Casamance (MFDC).

“Since in the 1980s, me and my entire family have always stayed put even when things were hot. But personally, I don’t feel safe anymore. We could not sleep for days, weeks because of gun sounds and we don’t know how long we are going to survive this madness. We are tired of being afraid and that’s why I decided to flee.’

Guerilla warfare

Souane is one of the thousands of people who are reported to have fled the troubled Casamance region over the past two weeks. They complained of being attacked by both the state troops and the rebels.

The MFDC has been waging guerilla warfare against the Senegalese government over autonomy of Casamance since 1982, becoming one of Africa’s oldest armed struggles. Over the past ten years, the intensity of the Casamance war dwindled, resulting to increasing optimism that the rebels have lost ground.

But the conflict flared up when the state troops were ambushed by the rebels three weeks ago, killing two soldiers and injuring at least a dozen. The troops reacted with the fiercest attack on suspected rebel bases in a decade. Over the past weeks, they have been attacking suspected MFDC positions with shells and bombs.

Possible humanitarian crisis

A local humanitarian agent told RNW that ‘what’s happening in Casamance right now is not a humanitarian crisis but there is a possibility that we will have humanitarian crisis in our hands if the problem is not addressed quickly’.

The agent confirmed that most of those evacuating are women and children and there is not much in place to cater for their daily basic needs.

The MFDC officials earlier this week sent out a statement calling for negations over Casamance independence to be opened. Senegalese Foreign Minister, Madicke Niang retorts that ‘when they want to talk about an autonomous Casamance, an independent Casamance, I replied to them, looking straight into their eyes, that Casamance is part of Senegal, and until the sun is extinguished, Casamance will be part of Senegal.”

It is feared that Niang’s reaction will further wound the MFDC rebels who seem determined to fight for the autonomy of Casamance all the way.

Many natives of Casamance are backing the MFDC because they have always felt that the region is neglected by the government despite the fact that it produces most of the local food consumed in mainland Senegal.

West Africa, drug lords’ new El Dorado

2010-06-11T14:58:00.003+01:00

It has mainly been Guinea Bissau all along in the sub-region. Now a poor, tiny West African state of The Gambia is also making international headlines for illicit drugs.

On Tuesday, the National Drugs Enforcement Agency in Banjul discovered over 2 tonnes of cocaine with a street value of over US$1 Billion. This is the biggest drugs scandal in West Africa and twelve suspects, including three Dutch nationals have since been charged with various drugs offences.

The scandal in Banjul is another manifestation that drug trafficking is becoming more and more a huge problem in West Africa. Until less than a decade ago, the region’s major problems were internal political instability and corrupt leadership. But the emergence of Latin American drug kingpins at the West African ports and borders has opened up another challenge for a region already battling with poverty, diseases and violence.

Corrupt officials
The International Police (Interpol) estimated that two-thirds of drugs sold in Europe from Latin America in 2009 were trafficked through West Africa. Various studies by various international organisations revealed that while the drug lords target West Africa due to poverty, senior West African officials, including politicians, lawmakers and security personnel benefits directly from the drugs trade in the countries.

Recently, Ousman Conte, an influential son of late Guinean president, Lansana Conte was arrested for alleged drug dealings. In April, former Guinea Bissau Navy chief, Rear Admiral Bubo Na Tchuto and the current chief of the air force, were listed by the US Treasury Department as drug kingpins. In March, Gambian authorities arrested Police Inspector General as well as the Head of the National Drugs Enforcement Agency for alleged drug trafficking.

In countries like Guinea Bissau, one of the poorest and underdeveloped countries in the world, top officials drive big American trucks such as Hummer on a daily basis when their annual legitimate income is half the price of a used Hummer.

Latin American drug lords come to West Africa with lot of money and with it, it is obvious that they bribe their ways in and out of the porous West African ports and borders.

Insecurity and escalating crime rate
One of the major concerns about drug trafficking in West Africa is the threat that it poses to the region. Drugs use and trafficking are singled out by experts as being responsible for West Africa’s escalating crime rate and political instability.

In Guinea Bissau for example, the numerous assassinations of army chiefs and eventually the president, Joao Bernardo Vieira are blamed on booming drugs trafficking in the country.

According to Gambia’s Drugs Enforcement Agency chief, ‘the successful operation in Banjul will serve as a new warning to Latin American drug dealers that West Africa is ready for them’.

But West Africa is the El Dorado for those drug lords and certainly, it will take a lot of efforts and fight to put them off the region.

Stature of controversy

2010-05-13T12:51:00.002+01:00

New African - May 2010 - Is Senegal brand-new ‘African Renaissance Monument’ a triumph of African liberation or a monumental gaffe? Critics have condemned it but its supporters have praised the man behind it, President Abdoulaye Wade. Sheriff Bojang Jnr reports from Dakar.

At the top of a 300-foot-high hill along the western coast near the Senegalese capital, Dakar, now stands a gigantic bronze statue called the ‘African Renaissance Monument’. The 164-high statue, a few feet taller than the Statue of Liberty in New York, USA depicts a muscular man, a fatherly figure triumphantly holding a woman with his right hand and with his left hoisting a child aloft, who is eagerly pointing to the sea.

The $27 million monument was built by a North Korean firm based on the ideas of Senegalese president, Abdoulaye Wade to mark Senegal’s 50th independence anniversary. The president wanted the monument to ‘symbolise the fight against racism’.

After much controversy over the merits and demerits of the monument, it was finally inaugurated at a lavish ceremony on 3 April, attended by 19 African heads of state, a group of 100 African-Americans led by famous civil rights activist, Rev Jesse Jackson and hundreds of other dignitaries from other parts of the world.

President Wade told his guests and jubilant supporters that ‘there is a Statue of Liberty in the United States, an Eiffel Tower in Paris. I wanted to give flesh to African Renaissance so that people know that we came through nearly six centuries of darkness, and we are going towards the light’.

He said the monument symbolised the triumph of African liberation from centuries of ignorance, intolerance and racism. And he hopes ‘the statue will rival the Statue of Liberty and the Eiffel Tower as a tourist destination’.

Echoing the sentiments, the Chairman of the African Union and Malawian president, Bingu Wa Mutharika, said the monument was a symbol of hope for the African child. To the former Nigerian president, Olusegun Obasanjo, ‘the stature is a message to the world that Africans were born free’. For Jesse Jackson, his hope is that the monument ‘will attract tourists from all over the world’.

But critics of the monument have accused President Wade of excessive spending on ‘prestige projects’ while ignoring urgent economic issues. Senegal is one of the countries hit hard by the global financial crisis and rising food prices. Unemployment is high, the health and education sectors are in crisis, and the economy is declining.

Sokhna Fatou Thiam, a middle-aged jewellery seller in Dakar and an ardent critic of the monument says: ‘This statue is an example of our president’s disconnection from the common people, the people who stood by him through thick and thin during the years of his struggle as an opposition leader, the people who voted him into power. Give me $27 million and I will spend it on upgrading hospitals and schools, and providing water and food for the needy rather than building a statue.’

Many Senegalese feel the same way as Thiam. While President Wade’s supporters see the statue as an investment that will generate income for the country, many others see it as a misplaced priority. The high cost of living, frequent power cuts and the high unemployment rate have resulted in regular street protests across Dakar and in the suburbs over the past two years. Besides, thousands of Senegalese youth take to the sea each year in a ‘do or die’ trip to Europe by flimsy boats. Most do so because of the lack of economic opportunities at home.

Abdoulaye Bathily, opposition leader and university professor, has accused Wade of spending ‘millions and millions’ on prestige projects while his people are struggling to eat one meal a day. Bathily has vowed to defeat Wade in the next elections in 2012 after which ‘we will dismantle this statue the same way Saddam Hussein statue was dismantled in Baghdad.’

According to the local Le Quotidien newspaper, the cost of the monument is equivalent to the debts of all the public hospitals in Dakar, where many sick people are sent away daily because of lack of enough beds to accommodate them.

But the monument has its own supporters too. Mame Mbacke Saine, an independent architectural consultant (who once served as an unofficial consultant for the monument), says the statue will bring long time benefits. ‘When the media tries to make a fuss out of the controversy surrounding this project, it baffles me. Come on, where in the world is there a national statue without problems and controversies? This statue represents hope and optimism, love and affection for our women, and a sign of positive change for our politicians.’

His views are echoed by Ouleye Sidibe, a high school teacher in the suburbs of Dakar. According to her, ‘there is nothing sexist about this statue. The fact that there is a woman present is enough proof that women are a priority of this government. The problem in Senegal is not what is done right or wrong by the government. It is that a lot of people hate President Wade for nothing, and no matter what he does, they will always have something horrible to say about it

My idea, my share

President Wade shocked the nation when he announced that he would personally take 35 percent of all tourist revenue from the monument. He claimed intellectual property rights as he said the project was his own idea. The remaining 65 percent share of the revenue, Wade said, would go to the state.

His announcement caused furore and anger among many Senegalese who felt strongly that he should not be entitled to any share. But experts in intellectual property rights had mixed opinions. While some said the president was entitled to the share as a man who conceived the idea, others argued that as a sitting Head of State, he cannot claim intellectual property rights for the project.

‘By claiming intellectual property rights, President Wade is acting more like a businessman than a leader elected by his people’, said one property rights analyst.

The monument has also been criticised by local feminists for what they see as ‘an attack on the fight for gender equality in Senegal.’ They don’t agree with President Wade that, put together, the three figures of the statue represent ‘victory and renaissance’. Whose victory and whose renaissance?’ the women ask.

Fatou Kine Camara, a Senegalese law professor, feminist and visual artist does not think that the statue represents any kind of victory for women. According to her, the statue is ‘an insult to all women, and men who are respectful of women in this country because what it symbolises is the triumph of patriarchal values in our society’.

According to the critics, the monument portrays a child in the arms of his father while his mother is swept along by the father.

Prof. Camara said ‘when there’s a sculpture of a couple and a child, that child is always with the mother, usually at her mother’s breast… to show that she’s the giver of life, she’s the nurturer’. What baffles Prof. Camara is that the father has the child on his muscular arm ‘as if the child will be fed by physical strength… no, he should know about love, mother’s love and tenderness, human values’.

Aissatou Laye, a newspaper columnist wrote that the statue ‘represents a singular idea and specious renaissance that places man at the heart of the problem and reduces woman to a subordinate status that can be crushed or raised depending on the mood of the man’.

The portrayal of the woman with bare thighs has also come under criticism from women’s rights activists and Muslims. The architect of the statue has hinted that the woman’s body might be covered to appease women who feel insulted by the bare thighs.

Some critics have claimed that the woman is naked from neck to waist, but an objective look reveals a torso wrapped in a light apparel or ‘sea-though’ material. She is, therefore, not naked.

Other art lovers in Senegal have rejected President Wade’s claim that the monument represent African victory. Many of them say the statue has no African appeal.

When Imams and other Muslim leaders in Senegal called for the statue to be knocked down because it was ‘idolatrous’, President Wade accused them of hypocrisy and ignorance.

He told a public gathering that ‘in churches, Christians pray to Jesus and he’s not a God. Everybody knows this, but nobody has ever said we have to knock down churches. Nobody has ever objected or cared what the people do there’.

The Catholic community in Dakar took umbrage and called a rally in which the Archbishop of Dakar, Adrianne Theodore Sarr said the Christians were ‘insulted and humiliated’ by the president’s comment.

Violence erupted between hundreds of young Christians and the Senegalese police when the Christians took to the streets to express their disgust at the president’s comparison of the statue to Jesus.

On the eve of the inauguration of the statue, a group of Muslim clerics issued a fatwa against the project and prayed that ‘God should punish anyone who attended the inauguration’. A fatwa is a ruling on a point of Islamic law given by a recognized authority. It is popularly associated with negative things, such as a death sentence on a person or a severe punishment.

But despite all the criticisms, the African Renaissance Statue is open for business. So far, the critics have failed to look at its long-term benefits, and how the monument will pay for itself over time. They have not asked themselves how much revenue the Eiffel Tower or the Statue of Liberty or the London Eye accrue each year, or have accrued over the decades since they were built.

‘One hundred years from now, when President Abdoulaye Wade will be no more, this monument will still be earning money for Senegal to be put into poverty-eradicating projects’, said a supporter of the monument.

That notwithstanding, the monument might well mark a turning point in Senegal’s 2012 elections.

Ten long years

2010-03-20T10:27:00.010Z

Yesterday marked the tenth anniversary of a popular election that brought incumbent Senegalese president, Abdoulaye Wade, to power.

By Sheriff Bojang Jnr.

On March 19 2000, Wade defeated Abdou Diouf in the second rounds of the ballot, ending 40 years of socialist rule in the former French colony. He won the race with the help of other major opposition parties that went into alliance with him under the banner of Sopi (change) 2000. He finally won the race after trying in vain four times starting from 1978. Wade defeated Diouf on a promise of sound and effective policies and programmes in the areas of economy, education, infrastructure, democracy and the rule of law. There was an optimism that the new president would live by his promises and keep the hopes of the nation alive.

No single failure

Marking the tenth anniversary of his leadership, President Wade told RFI yesterday that he could not recollect a 'single failure' during his decade in power. He boasted of good roads, high education spending, agricultural 'revolution' etc.

"My predecessors built bad roads and we had to do them again every year... but now we have roads just like the ones in Europe", President Wade said.

Wade also admitted that Senegal's 70% farmers were not 'particularly content' with his programmes but were better off as a result of his decade in power.

'Prestigious' projects

Over the last decade of Wade's presidency, Senegal has seen more infrastructural developments than ever in its history. Tarred roads, big bridges, pedestrian paths... you name them. Wade's critics might not agree but just a few years ago (before he kicked off the road construction project), travelling within the capital, Dakar, was as annoying as driving in Lagos or Abuja. The Roads were so bad and insufficient that a 20km journey would take you at least four hours to complete.

Thanks partly to the 11th Summit of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (hosted by Senegal in 2008), the Wade administration succeeded in changing the shape of Dakar and other major cities to a great extent. It won't be difficult for someone who last visited Dakar five or six years ago to fall in love with today's Dakar.

While Wade's road projects have eased traffic congestion in Dakar, his opponents often described the projects as 'prestigious' and said they are misplaced priorities.

Investment in education

One of Wade's top priorities since he came to power has been investment in education. He built schools across the country and made education a bit more accessible and affordable, though there is still room for improvement. He promoted gender parity in primary education, and thanks to his government's 'Education for All' campaign, there's the same number of girls as boys in primary schools in most of urban Senegal.

President Wade's biggest achievement is the investment of 40% of the budget in education. But what baffled me was his failure to admit that under his ten-year rule, the Senegalese economy has consistently declined, while the cost of living is skyrocketing. Yes, President Wade might have inherited a declining economy, but I've always argued that over the last ten years of his reign, he has taken some gambles with the economy that yielded nothing but suffering to his already suffering people. He embarked on some unnecessary and expensive projects like the African Renaissance Statue at a time of economic hardship.

We cannot talk about Senegal's economy without mentioning what is now called 'Seguragate'. While the Senegalese people often took to the streets to protest against high cost of living and rising food prices, President Wade had the guts to give 100,000 Euros and US$50,000 to Alex Segura, the outgoing IMF Senegal representative, as a 'farewell gift' in November last year. Wade and his cronies later came up with every dumb reason to justify his action.

First, they said the gift was made as part of an African tradition... that when your guest is leaving, you give him a gift to say thank you for everything. This is absurd and ridiculous! First, Alex Segura was very critical of Senegal's economic policies and Dakar had nothing thank him for. Second, Yes, in Africa we always leave our guests with gift. But as traditional and cultural as Senegal is, a simple souvenir or a big traditional gown would have been a perfect gift for Segura. And any of those would have cost not more than US$100.

After failing to sell the so-called African tradition reason, President Wade's officials went on TV to question why people were making a big fuss out of a gift of 100,000 Euros and US$50,000. They said these were not big amounts to deserve such debates and publicity. Wade and those officials are obviously very rich, but what about the poor electorate, those women who frequent the streets of Dakar begging for food and pennies... what about the unemployed youth? What about everybody else?

No matter what side the dice is thrown, Seguragate is seen as the biggest presidential scandal in Senegal's political history and it discredited most of what Wade claimed to have stood for.

Feet in Water

The biggest contradiction of President Wade's anniversary statement came when he admitted that the residents of the suburbs of Dakar had a right to be discontented because of recurrent flooding, and went on to say that he could not think of any day on which he failed.

First, hundreds of thousands of your poor people went through (and are still affected by) a severe flood, making them homeless and hungry, while you stayed in a posh Swiss hotel with your family. They turned to the government for help, a help that never came. If you didn't fail them, then what's your definition of failure? Typical African Head of State!

I must say that my opinion does not matter a bit. But the Senegalese are going to the polls again in 2012 to decide whether or not Wade deserves to stay on their leader. Their votes matter!

Gambia's secret torture chambers

2010-03-17T14:50:00.007Z

“My hands were tied together, my head covered with a black plastic bag… they poured cold water on me and the four men from the State Guard started beating me… until I became unconscious”, says ex-Gambian parliamentarian.

By Sheriff Bojang Jnr.

The Gambia is one of West Africa’s major tourist destinations. Every winter season, thousands of tourists from mainly Britain, The Netherlands and Scandinavia visit the country to escape the freezing weather in Europe.

For the holiday makers it is a paradise, one of the most peaceful and relaxing countries on the African continent. But there is another side of The Gambia that is worlds apart from the one presented to the tourists and the one they fall in love with.

Enemies of the state

Less than 15km away from the Tourism Development Area, a vast area where most of the hotels are located, are the headquarters of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) and the Mile 2 Central Prison. These are The Gambia’s two most notorious and hostile detention centres where the authorities illegally detain and torture people they perceive as enemies of the state.

Demba Dem was a National Assembly member who won his parliamentary seat under the ticket of the President Yahya Jammeh’s ruling party. Unlike his peers on the ruling bench, Dem was renowned for challenging and voting against controversial pro-government bills. This had put him on a collision course with his peers and top government officials who confronted and threatened him on various occasions.

Demba Dem

In March 2006, the authorities used a foiled coup to finally get their perceived enemy. Dem was sitting in his office in parliament when he was paid an unusual visit.

“It was around 1am… they came and told me that I was wanted at the NIA headquarters. That’s how they took me in. When we arrived at the gate, they drove me to Mile 2 Central Prison”.

"The Green Boys"

After being detained at Mile 2 for three hours, Dem was taken back to the NIA where he appeared before a security panel of 35 members. “They told me that they were there to investigate me because according to them, I played a role in the foiled coup. They started asking me so many questions and I refused to talk. That was the time the head of the panel told me that by the time the ‘green boys’ were through with me, I would want to talk and then their doors would be closed”.

Torture marks on Gambian journalist Musa Saidykhan

The ‘green boys’ are masked armed men from the president’s most loyal guards, the State Guards. The doors actually closed in on Dem when they visited his cell at the NIA that night.

“My hands were tied, my head covered with a black plastic bag… they poured cold water on me and the four men from the State Guard started beating me. They beat me until I became unconscious. They lifted me up and took me out to face the panel again.”

When Dem refused to talk to the panel for the second time, he was taken back to his cell where the State Guards visited him again. “The same beating continued until they realised that they would kill me but I wouldn’t talk. They took me to Mile 2 where they kept me for four months before charging me with treason and conspiracy to commit treason.”

"A crocodile’s pond"

Demba was acquitted and discharged by the Gambian Supreme Court a year later and he now lives in Europe with his family. But the thought of his prison cell still haunts him.

Demba was detained and tortured in the Gambia’s most notorious prison cell called ‘Bambadinka’ which literarily means ‘a crocodile’s pond’. It is an underground cell inside the NIA headquarters where President Jammeh’s political opponents, journalists and alleged coup plotters are tortured.

Dem describes Bambadinka as a "very dangerous cell, a tiny and filthy place where you sleep on the floor. You are provided with half a loaf of bread and less than a litre of water the whole day. It’s everyday darkness inside there and it’s full of mosquitoes".

Yahya Bajinka was an intelligence officer at the NIA. When his brother, a Major in the national army and President Jammeh’s close protection officer for five years, fled the country after being implicated in a foiled coup, Bajinka and eight members of his family were arrested by his colleagues at the NIA.

“They arrested us to know the whereabouts of my brother which we didn’t know. While at the NIA, we were subjected to all sorts of maltreatment. My brother was slapped right in front of me… slapped so hard that I could see blood coming out of his nose. They would open your mouth, put an AK-27 inside and threaten to blow your head off. They would put electric shocks on your body”.

While Bajinka was detained at a light detention cell, his family members were detained and tortured at Bambadinka. “Bambadinka is a hellish cell. It’s a very dirty cell… health-wise. It’s full of mosquitoes and it’s always dark you cannot even see your palm. It’s not meant for human beings.”

A recent report released by Amnesty International and Women Advocates Research and Documentation Centre (WARDC) accused the Gambian government of locking up prisoners in extra secured prison cells without trial. The rights groups have also disclosed that among other Africans, some Nigerians are in a similar situation in The Gambia.