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.

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.

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