Senegal takes in Haitian student refugees

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

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

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

 "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

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

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

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.”