{"id":4880,"date":"2020-10-26T12:35:43","date_gmt":"2020-10-26T10:35:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/prod-2018.frictions.co\/?p=4880"},"modified":"2021-02-26T11:20:42","modified_gmt":"2021-02-26T10:20:42","slug":"heritages-de-la-colonisation-black-lives-matter-ravive-la-controverse-a-saint-louis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/prod-2018.frictions.co\/english\/after-the-revolution-now-what\/legacy-of-colonization-black-lives-matter-revives-the-controversy-in-saint-louis\/","title":{"rendered":"The Legacy of Colonization: Black Lives Matter revives the controversy in Saint-Louis, Senegal"},"content":{"rendered":"
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On Friday, September 25th, at an hour when some prefer to gather in order to turn towards the Kaaba, a woman and a man are crossing the Faidherbe bridge, walking past the administration to end up in the middle of a huge construction site.

\n\"It\u2019s here,\" says the thin-voiced young woman, pointing.

\nThis is Faidherbe Square, at the heart of the dispute according to Ndeye Coumba Kane, a 25-year-old lawyer, activist and citizen, and Thierno Dicko, a 33-year-old computer scientist, activist and founding member of the bloggers network of Saint-Louis, which includes the Faidherbe Must Fall movement.

\nUnder the watchful eye of a few workers, their supervisor and the engineer \u2013 a woman with the silhouette and the stride of a model, her protective shoes being the only clue that she isn\u2019t walking down the catwalk of a fashion show \u2013 the small group is authorized to enter into the square under construction, once suspicion has been removed and with the backing of a person in charge reached on the phone from Dakar. But not without surveillance. With her frail shoulders, the engineer remains firm.

\n\"You are not allowed to take photos of the site,\" she warns them.

\nIt doesn\u2019t take long to understand why: everything inside is being rebuilt. Most importantly, everything is considerably delayed. For twenty months, beginning in September 2019, there hasn\u2019t been a whole lot of progress. We walk between concrete blocks and gaping holes, and thread our way through machines and cranes, to end up in front of a stone pedestal missing its ornamental piece. Henceforth, the statue of Faidherbe no longer looks down upon the inhabitants.<\/p>

Epitaph of Dignity
<\/strong>After multiple degradations and acts of vandalism by other activists, as in November 2017, the statue has officially been moved for \"work to be completed\".
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\n\"It\u2019s at the Senegal Centre for Research and Documentation,\" later added Fatima Fall Niang, Director and Curator of the organisation (CRDS).
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\nOn one side of the stele: \"Born in Lille on the June 3, 1818, graduate of the Polytechnic University, Engineering Officer, Governor of Senegal from December 16, 1854, to December 4, 1861 and from July 14, 1863, to July 12, 1865 [\u2026].\" On the other side: \"To its Governor Faidherbe, the Senegal grateful \u2013 1886.\"
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\n\"It\u2019s an epitaph of dignity. We should identify ourselves with role models and not with those who represent the dark side of our history. This coloniser is the perpetrator of mass killings. I don\u2019t support the idea of celebrating that,\" regrets Nd\u00e8ye Coumba Kane, the jurist and militant.
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\nOne side of the street, noisy, does not hear these patronyms relating to colonization. Burning or boiling, the other side has had enough of these sounds from a bygone age. <\/p>

Hostage Earthenware<\/strong>
Just like its name, Saint-Louis or Ndar, the city that was once the capital of West French Africa, a federation of eight French colonies, from 1895 to 1958, presents two aspects related to history and memory. Here, geographers and urbanists could focus on the phenomenon of \"the conurbation of markets\". They juxtapose to form one market over nearly one kilometer. Going past the Faidherbe Bridge, on the mainland side, clandestine stalls are lined up. Puddles of water mixed with bitumen, cooked in the fiery sunlight, scrape the bottom of the olfactory tract: in need of air, in need of water.
\n
\nFar in the distance, is a worn out building whose architecture stands out from the everyday surroundings. Faience: a decorative object that marks the mid-nineteenth century as a historical caesura. For more than half a century, these famous ornaments characterized the Ecole des Otages (School of Hostages), created in 1855 by Faidherbe, Governor of what was the Senegal colony. It welcomed, by force, the sons of chiefs and local dignitaries in order to watch and train them to become auxiliaries of the colonial power. Among them are two marked opposition histories.
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\nThe opposition was between Yoro Diaw Booli Mbodj, who would later become a cantonal chief, and Sidya Diop, Prince of Waalo, a kingdom located in what is now North Senegal. He was the son of Queen Ndatt\u00e9 Yalla, a pioneer of the resistance against colonization and a reference point for generations of local feminists. The two graduates had different visions of colonization. Yoro Diaw Booli Mbodj was a zealous agent of the colonial administration which actively took part in the repression of the armed resistance of the Waalo Prince, Sidya Diop, in 1876.<\/p>

Historical Continuity<\/strong>
The opposition between the two is emblematic of what is actually happening in Saint-Louis.
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\n\"It\u2019s a continuation,\" says Fatima Fall Niang, Director and Curator of the CRDS which took the name of Yoro Diaw Boly Mbodji, colonization\u2019s collaborator.
\n
\nHas official history chosen its side? The turmoil which followed the death of African-American George Floyd and the revival of the Black Lives Matter movement reinforced the rivalry.
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\n\"This revived debates about colonial symbols, even though our fight has been going on since 2011,\" said Thierno Dicko.
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\n\"In order to denounce Floyd\u2019s death, racism, and colonial symbols, we had planned a sit-in on June 9 on the southern tip of the Isle,\" explained Nd\u00e8ye Coumba Kane. \"It was dispersed by the police who forbade gatherings, using the measures already in place to fight Covid-19.\" <\/p>

Collaborationists
<\/strong>Not far from here, at Bacre Waly Gu\u00e8ye quay, named after Lamine Gueye\u2019s father, one of the founders of independence who was once called Roume, we have an appointment with a symbol of the city.
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\n\"The Saint-Louisans are not collaborationists,\" says Louis Camara by way of introduction. A firm stance which contrasts with his characteristics of subtlety, elegance of mind and a sense of restraint.
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\nIn the idyllic setting offered by a restaurant on the river bank, the moon reflects on the Senegal River, illuminating the skiffs in national colors, as well as the couples quietly gathered on the restaurant\u2019s pontoon.
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\nBetween a four-cheese pizza and a local cocktail, the fragrance of his pleas for \u2018his\u2019 Saint-Louis are escaping. Still no agitation. A velvet voice, always calm. The seeming mildness of the night has no hold over Louis Camara\u2019s opinion. Master of clocks, but mostly of words, the 1996 Grand Prize of the Head of State for Literature for his novel The Choice of the Ori speaks for itself.
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\n\"The Faidherbe statue doesn\u2019t bother me,\" he says euphemistically. \"The street names are condensed into what makes Saint-Louis. Replacing settlers\u2019 names by locals\u2019 names with no consensus carries a troubled history. I wonder if it\u2019s a real enlightenment of the debate or a balanced solution to identity problems. We need introspection to decide what we want to keep from our past.\u201d
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\n\"'Assimilation and openness,' Senghor would say,\" Louis Camara reminds us in a tirade at the end of the night.<\/p>

Genocidal <\/strong>
The next day, the Saint-Louis Isle reveals a city like a museum that\u2019s not looked after, not to say in ruins. The city shows her true colors. No make-up. No artifice.
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\n\"That\u2019s not kind,\" whispers Louis Camara when I point that out to him. \"She\u2019s too old now,\" he continues.
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\nSo there.
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\nSaint-Louis is for modernity what charisma is to beauty. Young or wrinkled, the sun shines on its face. Which doesn\u2019t stop the militants of the Faidherbe Must Fall movement continuing with their activism, going along with the wave of international protest about streets, avenues, squares, and boulevards named after colonials and genocidal individuals.
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\n\"Iba Der Thiam (Senegalese historian, editor\u2019s note) states that Faidherbe is said to have killed more than 20,000 Senegalese within eight months, during the conquest of Waalo,\" relates Thierno Dicko, the 33 year old young man.
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\n\"He was a genocidal person who doesn\u2019t deserve to have our streets and squares dedicated to him,\" says the jurist Ndeye Coumba, irritated. And a recent event proves her right.  <\/p>

Indeed, a few hours later, the municipality decides to rename Faidherbe Square, the heart of the city. It becomes Baya Ndar.
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\n\"One less,\" smiles Thierno Dicko, militant and coordinator of the Faidherbe Must Fall collective.
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\n\"Baya Ndar has been the square\u2019s name for generations. We are only going back to the original name,\" explains Fatima Fall, curator of the CRDS. <\/p>

Yet this announcement is the subject of an explosion within the small cosmos of activists who prefer \"domou<\/em> Ndar\"<\/em> (son of Ndar) to Saint-Louisans, as the name of the inhabitants of the city. \"It\u2019s a big surprise\" for Thierno Dicko. He makes a connection with the global protest movement against racism following George Floyd\u2019s death and also with the fall of statues reminding people of colonization and slavery. With his acolyte, Coumba, the young man analyzes how \"this victory\" happened while considering what comes next. \"It shows that the government is finally paying attention to the demands of half of Ndar\u2019s population. It\u2019s a good start, but we would like the square to take the name of a heroic Senegalese figure to prevent the original statue from ever returning. If we name it after a Senegalese personality, it will stop all ideas of putting the statue back,\" he maintains.<\/p>

Sovereignty
<\/strong>The tone of the discussions rises like mercury, especially after the announcement of the decision to change Faidherbe Square into Baya Ndar. \"This leaves me a bit doubtful about how street names are being changed. We don\u2019t take the public\u2019s opinion into sufficient account. The people of Saint-Louis must have their say,\" protests Louis Camara, meeting us at the entrance of the former De Gaulle High School, which has been called Oumar Foutouyou Tall since 1983. \nBaya Ndar? That doesn\u2019t mean anything. I would have gone for 'Mom sa rew'<\/em> (Wolof for Sovereignty). The political movement of the African Independence Party (Parti Africain de l\u2019Ind\u00e9pendance, PAI) whose slogan was 'Mom sa rew'<\/em> has played a part in Senegalese history. This movement was born in Saint-Louis. Do we remove the name of Faidherbe Square? That I agree with. Saint-Louis is no longer a French city so it\u2019s alright to change the name. But to change for the sake of changing, that I am against. This is about history; the specialists must decide on Faidherbe. Saint-Louis must look forward,\" continues the writer.<\/p>

However, the tour of the island sends us back to a frozen time with traces of colonization on several streets and buildings of which Faidherbe is a symbol. A bridge, a square and a statue were named after him until the first renaming.
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\n\"A process of renaming streets began several years ago,\" says Fatima Fall Niang, also a member of the commission in charge of the study for the establishment of street names.<\/p>

Interbreeding and meetings
<\/strong>Thierno Dicko, known for his opposition to the recently deceased Golbert Diagne, journalist, actor, press baron and ardent defender of the presence of the Faidherbe statue and the colonial legacy, (\u201cIt earned me death threats.\u201d), wants the city\u2019s references to colonization to disappear. An idea which is not really shared by all those who see Saint-Louis as a city of convergence, with a mosque close to a minaret and a belltower.
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\nA plaque outside the place of worship states: Marked out by El Hadji Omar since 1825, the Great Mosque was built, by the colonial administration, around one of the few wells of the island. This may explain the unusual presence of a belltower which became the remaining minaret.<\/p>

 \"We are intermingling, and the city is a meeting place. Here, black and white Africa, as well as all the ethnic groups of Senegal, intersect. This interweaving became stronger with colonization. It is an outpost of Islam with the Almoravid Dynasty. There is also a Christian presence as the first cathedral of Senegal was built in Saint-Louis in the last half of the nineteenth century. Thus, one cannot speak of Saint-Louis without mentioning its past. It\u2019s like talking about Venice without evoking the doges, or the water of that city.\"<\/p>

Having begun over thirty years ago \u2014 for example the De Gaulle High School was renamed Oumar Foutouyou Tall in 1983 \u2014, the changes of the patronyms chosen to name streets and buildings in the old city seem to have accelerated. And the Black Lives Matter protests are certainly not unrelated to this.<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

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Don't miss the next stories ...!<\/p><\/div><\/div>

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