Senegal: Pressure, fear and uncertainty ahead of polls

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.

Worldwide Focus on Family Planning Begins at West African Forum

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.

Senegal: Beach parties and death traps

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.

Scant recognition for ex-soldiers in Senegal

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.

These are no Laambs!

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.

Your hands off our fish

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.

Senegal’s lifesaving board game

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.”

Mobile technology saves pregnant women in Senegal

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.”

Senegal: Dakar’s classic thieves

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.

Maxima the grassroots princess visits Senegal

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.

Forgotten by Senegal, honoured by the US

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.

Senegal united by anger

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.