FACTBOX: Senegal’s powerful Mourides have global reach
December 29, 2007 | Leave a Comment
(Reuters) - Serigne Saliou Mbacke, caliph of Senegal’s Mouride Muslim brotherhood died on Friday aged 92, throwing one of West Africa’s most powerful religious movements into mourning.
Saliou was the last surviving son of the Mourides’ 19th century founder Cheikh Ahmadou Bamba, and had been caliph since 1990. Here are some facts about Islam and Mouridism in Senegal.
– Over 90 percent of Senegalese are Muslims. Most claim allegiance to one of four Sufi brotherhoods: half are Tidianes, a third Mourides and most others Qadriyya and Layennes.
– Although not the largest brotherhood, the Mourides wield most political, economic and religious influence.
– President Abdoulaye Wade, a member, regularly visits the Mouride holy city Touba, including after elections to thank the movement’s religious teachers, or marabouts, for their support.
– Since Bamba’s death in 1927, Mourides have followed his call for an annual pilgrimage to Touba, known as the Grand Magal, which marks Bamba’s exile to Gabon in 1895 by French colonial authorities who feared his growing influence.
– The Mourides’ vast contributions have paid to build an enormous marble-clad mosque whose 87-metre (287-foot) tower dominates the city’s skyline.
– As a holy city controlled by religious authorities where drinking and smoking are forbidden, Touba has special status as a semi-autonomous city within Senegal. Along with neighboring Mbacke it has grown into Senegal’s second biggest conurbation with a population of over 500,000.
– Bamba and El Hajj Malick Sy, leader of the Tidiane brotherhood, introduced today’s Sufism to Senegal in the late 19th century. It is a form of mystical Islam that hinges on the relationship between a disciple, or talibe, and his marabout.
– Bamba’s teachings promoting hard work as a route to paradise are summed up in the saying "Pray as if you will die tomorrow and work as if you will live forever".
– Despite open observance by both Muslims and Christians, Senegal is generally free from the sectarian conflict seen in some other West African countries such as Nigeria.
– The Baye Fall, recognizable by their dreadlocks and patchwork clothing, follow Bamba’s most famous disciple, Ibra Fall. Fall, a devoted Muslim but a poor Koranic scholar, was excused Islam’s five daily prayers by Bamba in return for hard work and strict devotion to the marabout.
– Originally a rural movement which controlled Senegal’s main cash-crop, peanuts, Mouridism changed forever when a prolonged drought afflicted West Africa in the 1970s, forcing its devotees to the cities. Many marabouts encouraged their followers to head overseas to seek their fortune from trade.
– In New York, the Mourides established their own community, Little Senegal, and July 28 has officially been designated Cheikh Ahmadou Bamba day. Their long robes and tasseled hats have become a familiar sight in Harlem.
(Compiled by Alistair Thomson)
In Senegal, Hip Hop Is About Social Change
December 19, 2007 | Leave a Comment
Many Americans view commercial hip hop as little more than a venue for scantily clad women and shallow lyrics about drugs, fast cars and fast cash. But on the West African stage, hip hop is proving to be a political weapon, capable of inciting rebellion and change.
“We don’t talk about the girls and the bling bling,” says Abdoulaye Aw, the founder of Propagand’Arts, a firm that introduces African artists to the American hip hop industry. “We use our music to educate the people and talk about the real issues.”
The artists say that their desire to educate is what sets Senegalese hip hop apart from its American counterpart. The musicians have a preference for substance over entertainment value.
“We are more focused on giving people information,” says Moussa Sall, a Senegalese rap artist who now lives in Washington D.C. “[In America] it’s all about clubbing and just doing party songs, but we are focused on the message.”
The message is that the country has not been doing so well under the current leadership of President Abdoulaye Wade, and that Senegal is in desperate need of a change.
“The hip hop movement is educating the people on the fact that we need to take this guy out!” says Aw. “The guy we put in power doesn’t really care about the people. He is there for his family and for himself. He is not really ruling the country right now.”
Abdulaye Wade is only the third president of Senegal. First elected in 2000, he won re-election in March of 2007, much to the dismay of many members of the hip-hop community.
Despite the ratification of a new constitution in 2001, and economic reforms that have resulted in a 5percent increase in GDP every year, the country is still highly dependent on outside donor support, and Wade has not been able to fight the high unemployment that ravages the country.
According to a 2001 estimate in the CIA World Fact Book, Senegal had an unemployment rate of 48 percent, with 40 percent being urban youth. A 2004 profile by the Institute for Security Studies, places the unemployment rate in Senegal’s urban sector at 23 percent. And 54 percent of the country’s population lives below the poverty line.
Many citizens choose to flee Senegal and immigrate to Europe or America in search of more job opportunities.
“It’s hard down there in [Senegal],” says Moussa Sall. “We don’t have many opportunities. They are pushing us to leave our country and go somewhere else.”
For the Senegalese, rhyming on the microphone over a hot beat is the only way to push back.
“It’s increasingly obvious that [hip hop] is an important political tool there,” says Magee McIlvaine, the co-director and co-producer of the independent documentary film, “Africa Underground: Democracy in Dakar.” McIlvane adds, “In Senegalese mainstream hip hop, the people appreciate positivity and political consciousness.”
The film, which won honors at the Bronx film festival and the Vibe Magazine Urban World Film Festival, documents the period up to and just after the recent 2007 election. It was that election that the hip hop community hoped would bring about change.
“When we got there for the 2007 elections, there was a lot of tension,” McIlvaine says. “We decided to go in and film the elections from the rapper’s perspective.”
2007 wasn’t the first time that rap would have had an effect on the outcome of a political election.
Ben Herson, the founder and director of Nomadic Wax, a record label that seeks to bring more west African hip hop to the American market, says that in 2000, rap music was a key factor in motivating the regime change. As a result, current president Abdoulye Wade took the place of former president Abdou Diouf.
“In 2000, it’s like hip hop really changed the power.” Says Sall. “We were telling the people what they need to know about politics.”
Senegalese artists were first inspired by the politically conscious American hip-hop of the 1980’s.
“The first real hip hop artist that inspired them to do anything was Chuck D., with ‘Fight the Power’,” McIlvaine says. “It had a political consciousness that really appealed to the way Senegalese people were living.”
The art form may have taken such a strong hold in Senegal because in some form, it existed in Africa before it was discovered in America.
“Senegal has a lot of cultural and musical traditions that are very similar to hip hop,” Herson says. “The traditions go back 5000 years. They just evolved and continued. But more importantly, it’s a medium that is a separate social space that the youth can latch onto and convey their own struggles.”
In fact, youth makes up a large part the Senegalese populace. 70% of the population is under 30 years of age. The average age is only 18.7 years, compared to the U.S., where the average age is 36.6 years.
“It just comes naturally as a way to reach the young people,” Moussa Sall says. “In Senegal, we listen to more hip hop than any other music.
Since gaining its independence from France in 1960, Senegal has been one of the few African countries that has not had a coupe d’etat. But so far, the Senegalese democracy has been unable to produce a leader that can solve the country’s problems.
Under the increased threat of political upheaval, the current regime has kept a tight grip on the rights given to its people by the new constitution.
“I know that some people were exiled,” Aw says. “I know a few people died as well. The climate is not like it used to be, a lot of people are wondering what’s going to happen.”
According to Aw, the government uses violence, exile, and the threat of tax increases to deter young Senegalese artists from speaking out against the regime.
But in the eyes of many that are involved with the Senegalese hip-hop industry, the need to speak out against corruption in government has never been stronger.
“Hip-hop is a form of Fighting,” Aw says. “It came from the ghetto and it gave young African Americas a way to raise their voice. It’s the same in Africa.”
The next step is to bring their fight to the world stage.
“It’s time for Senegalese hip hop to extend itself,” Sall explains. “We need to focus on it, and push it more for people to really listen to what we have to say.”
“I think Senegalese hip hop is going to become more popular,” Abdoulye says, “We are going to get more and more artists holding the government accountable.”
Reggae star says ‘no regrets’ after being barred from Senegal
December 16, 2007 | Leave a Comment
ABIDJAN (AFP) — Reggae star Tiken Jah Fakoly said Saturday he had "no regrets" after being barred from entering Senegal following criticism of President Abdoulaye Wade.
"I gave my opinion as an African citizen," the Ivorian singer told AFP. "I have always said what I think about the news and I told myself that I can do the same thing in Senegal."
He criticised Wade during a press conference in Dakar and afterward at a concert on Wednesday, inviting the president to leave office for the good of his country.
Senegal’s interior ministry said Thursday evening that he was "persona non grata in Senegal" for his "insolent and discourteous" remarks and would be barred from entering the country.
"There are no regrets," the singer said. "I don’t regret it at all because I said what all Senegalese say every day. Opposition members say it every day, young rappers say it, everybody says it."
The Senegalese government faced what was seen as the country’s most violent protests since the late 1980s last month.
Local media said the unrest was an expression of disillusionment by the majority of Senegalese hard pressed for the most basic needs, while the country invests in new highways and five-star hotels ahead of a major summit of Islamic nations it is set to host in March.
Senegal’s interior minister sought to justify the decision taken by the government.
"Someone cannot come to a country and give orders to a president," Ousmane Ngom said, cited by Senegal’s APS news agency.
"We could have taken draconian measures, but we did not do that," he added.
The singer said he learned from the radio about the Senegalese government’s decision to bar him, adding that he was both "surprised" and "disappointed" at the move.
"I think that President Wade is maybe not necessarily up to date on it and that the interior minister took the decision," he said.
He said that in Africa, "there are many ministers who seek to please the president".
"I hope that President Wade will again show proof of wisdom so that the interior minister reverses the decision," the singer said.
Wade had been "an example" for young Africans in the past for "freedom of expression and multi-party systems", said Fakoly.
In 2000, Wade, then an opposition figure for two decades in Senegal, swept to power in elections, the first time power slipped from the Socialist Party’s 40-year rule.
Senegal Bars a Singer
December 15, 2007 | Leave a Comment
By THE NEW YORK TIMES
Senegal has barred the reggae star Tiken Jah Fakoly from entering the country after he criticized President Abdoulaye Wade, Agence France-Presse reported. The singer, who is from the Ivory Coast, criticized Mr. Wade during a news conference and afterward at a concert on Wednesday, urging the president to leave office for the good of his country. Senegal’s interior ministry said Thursday evening that Mr. Fakoly was “persona non grata in Senegal” for his “insolent and discourteous” remarks and would be barred from entering the country. The singer had been in Senegal for the International Hip-Hop Awards in Dakar. The independent Senegalese newspaper Sud Quotidien said he was a “victim of state xenophobia.” Last month the Senegalese government faced protests that were seen as the country’s most violent since the late 1980s.
Reggae star Fakoly tells Senegal’s Wade “leave power”
December 13, 2007 | Leave a Comment
By Daniel Flynn
DAKAR (Reuters) - African reggae star Tiken Jah Fakoly, famed for his bitter criticism of the continent’s corrupt leaders, has turned his attention to Senegalese leader Abdoulaye Wade, calling on him bluntly to “leave power”.
Fakoly, one of Africa’s best-loved muscians and a campaigner for peace in his native Ivory Coast, added his voice to rights groups who have accused the octogenarian Wade of being increasingly authoritarian.
Political posturing aimed at positioning his son to succeed him, the detention without trial of critical journalists and the diminishing power of parliament have all tarnished Senegal’s once-bright democratic credentials, Wade’s critics say.
“Mr President, if you love Senegal, leave power!” Fakoly said during a concert in the capital Dakar late on Wednesday, to rapturous cheers and applause from hundreds of Senegalese, before singing his anthem for corrupt politicians “Quittes le pouvoir” — “Leave Power”.
Wade, a long-time opposition leader elected in 2000, easily won re-election in February but has since angered many ordinary Senegalese by focusing on preparations for an Islamic conference next year, while ignoring pressing social problems.
The worst riots in decades erupted in Dakar last month when Wade ordered the removal of thousands of street sellers from the downtown area to ease traffic congestion. He has sheltered his son Karim, who is managing the infrastructure projects for the Islamic conference, from testifying before parliament.
“If you don’t want your son to be questioned by parliamentarians, you should not have involved him in running the country,” said Fakoly, dressed in a long white robe emblazened with maps of Africa.
Despite Senegal’s relatively small economy and population, Wade has tried to compete with South African President Thabo Mbeki for leadership on African issues.
Last month Wade launched an impassioned defence of President Robert Mugabe during a trip to Harare aimed at defusing Western criticism of human rights abuses in Zimbabwe.
More than 140 African immigrants feared dead: officials
December 11, 2007 | Leave a Comment
ANKARA (AFP) — At least 51 people would be immigrants drowned off the Turkish coast in one of three incidents that left at least 90 other Africans trying to get to Europe missing, officials said Monday.
As many as 85 people may have been aboard a 15-metre (45-foot) boat that capsized on Saturday in the Aegean Sea off the western Turkish town of Seferihisar, near Izmir, the Turkish coastguard said in a statement.
"We have so far found 51 bodies, among them two women," said Orhan Sefik Guldibi, the top administrative official in Seferihisar, who put the number on board at between 60 and 70.
Footage broadcast on the NTV news channel showed at least 15 bodies laid out on the shore in black bags.
Only six people, among them two Palestinians, were know to have survived the accident, Guldibi told AFP, adding that they had been hospitalized with shock.
The nationalities of the migrants were not immediately clear, but Guldibi said the majority were believed to be Palestinians, Somalis and Iraqis.
In a separate incident, some 40 Africans died in the Atlantic off Senegal as they were trying to reach the Spanish Canary Islands, police quoted survivors as saying.
They were aboard a boat that set off at the end of November from Diogue Island in southern Senegal with 130 people aboard. Only 90 were left when it ran aground north of Dakar on Saturday.
Police spokesman Colonel Alioune Ndiaye told AFP that survivors had spoken of 40 people who "died at sea and were thrown overboard" during the voyage.
"During seven days we did not eat or drink. Everyday people died. They were dying one after the other," said survivor Aliou, a Gambian.
In a third incident, at least 50 people were missing after another immigrant boat, also heading for the Canaries, sank.
Officials in the town of Dakhla, on the Western Sahara coast, said the boat had set out from Mauritania and sank on Saturday 28 nautical miles offshore.
Alerted by a Moroccan fishing boat, the Moroccan navy rescued six survivors, the officials said, adding that the search was continuing for more.
In October, an Italian-based monitoring group said nearly 1,100 migrants had lost their lives trying to reach the European Union so far this year. The group put the death toll since 1988 at 10,335.
A European Union border agency patrolling west African coasts since last year alongside several west African countries, has managed in 2007 to cut by more than 60 percent the number of migrants arriving in the Canaries.
"Many people died on the boat but I will go again," says Cheikh, a survivor of the boat that arrived in Senegal.
"African men are ready to die to go to Europe. We need money, there’s no money in Africa," said the 17 year-old Gambian, dressed in T-shirt of US rapper 50 Cent.
Greek authorities meanwhile said Monday they had arrested 113 migrants, all male and all claiming to be Afghans, on the south-eastern Aegean island of Pserimos near the Turkish coast.
The 113 came ashore at dawn after abandoning their Turkish-flagged 12-metre wooden vessel and after escaping from two Greek patrol boats, authorities said.
40 immigrants die in boat off Senegal: police
December 10, 2007 | Leave a Comment
DAKAR (AFP) — Some 40 Africans died at sea off Senegal as they were trying to reach the Canary Islands, police said Monday, quoting survivors.
They said the boat had set off at the end of November from Diogue Island in southern Senegal, with 130 people aboard, but only 90 were left when it ran aground north of Dakar on Saturday.
Some 70 survivors, including the vessel’s captain, had fled before police arrived.
Police spokesman Colonel Alioune Ndiaye told AFP that some remaining survivors had spoken of 40 people who "died at sea and were thrown overboard" during the voyage.
Leaders Declare New Era of Euro-African Relations
December 9, 2007 | Leave a Comment
By Scott Bobb
Lisbon
09 December 2007
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Leaders of Africa and the European Union have ended their summit in Portugal by declaring a new era in relations aimed at confronting new global challenges. But they could not avoid sparring over some older issues involving human rights and conflict on the continent. VOA’s Scott Bobb reports from Lisbon.
Portugal’s PM Jose Socrates (back-R) and Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi (back-L) watch Portugal FM Luis Amado (R) and his Libyan counterpart Abderrahmane Chalgham (L) exchanging documents after they signed an economic agreement, 09 Dec 2007
The president of the European Union, Portugal’s Prime Minister Jose Socrates, Sunday closed the summit, saying African and European leaders have turned a new page in history.
He says the leaders have adopted an agenda to confront serious challenges of security, governance, migration and climate change.
Nevertheless, long-standing disagreements re-emerged during the two-day meeting.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, in her speech on governance and human rights, accused Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe of harming Africa’s image by quashing political freedom and human rights in his country.
Mr. Mugabe was invited to the summit despite being banned from Europe five years ago because of rigged elections in his country. His attendance prompted a boycott by the prime minister of Britain, the former colonial power in Zimbabwe.
The head of the African Union, Ghana’s President John Kufuor, responded to Ms. Merkel’s remarks by noting that South African President Thabo Mbeki is mediating talks between Zimbabwe’s ruling party and the opposition in an effort to bring free and fair elections next year.
"It is not for anybody to just move in there and impose a solution," he said. "We want to encourage a home-grown solution so there will be a restoration of normalcy and good governance for the people of Zimbabwe."
Several European leaders met with Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir and strongly urged him to allow the deployment of U.N. and A.U. troops to end bloodshed and suffering in its Darfur region. Sudan has accepted this hybrid force, but has rejected troops from non-African countries.
Mr. Kufuor said Africa has taken the initiative on the issue, though he acknowledged it has taken some time to assemble the hybrid force.
"I believe with good will all around the hybrid force will be put together so at least humanitarian actions can be brought to the people of Darfur," added Mr. Kufuor.
African leaders also objected to the E.U. efforts to forge temporary trade agreements with developing nations, which they say will unleash excessive competition on their emerging economies. The European Union says these are needed because existing accords are due to expire at the end of this month.
E.U. Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso noted that these are temporary agreements that are meant to maintain tariff exemptions for African exports to the European Union.
"Once we have settled this transitional phase, we [will] have the time and the spirit to address development issues and important concerns that were raised also from the African Union side," said Barroso.
He said he believes that all but a few African governments will sign the interim accords by the end of the year.
The leaders agreed to hold their next summit in a couple of years on African soil.
Senegal woman sets herself on fire in Rome protest
December 8, 2007 | Leave a Comment
ROME, Dec 7 (Reuters) - A Senegalese woman set herself on fire at Rome’s city hall on Friday in an apparent protest over a visit to Italy by Senegal’s President Abdoulaye Wade.
The woman, identified by city officials as Kebe Peinda Gotha, was in critical condition after dousing herself in flammable liquid and setting herself ablaze.
Police who were on patrol in the square outside the city hall quickly put out the flames.
Dramatic images of the suicide attempt were captured on a closed-circuit security video and broadcast on Italian state television RAI’s evening news.
"She wanted to kill herself at all costs," a police officer told RAI, adding the woman also wanted at one point to throw herself off a ledge.
Senegalese officials, asking not to be identified, said she had wanted to meet the president. Italian media reports described the woman, who lives in northern Italy, as an activist for the rights of Senegalese immigrants. (Writing by Phil Stewart; Editing by Giles Elgood)
© Reuters 2007. All Rights Reserved.
Senegal cuts cabinet by a quarter to save money
December 6, 2007 | Leave a Comment
By Nick Tattersall
DAKAR, Dec 4 (Reuters) - Senegal’s President Abdoulaye Wade cut the number of ministers in his government by more than a quarter on Tuesday in a belt-tightening show of solidarity with citizens hit by rising fuel and food prices.
Wade reduced the number of cabinet posts to 28 from 38, with the ministers of livestock farming, public hygiene and competitiveness among the casualties. The savings would be put into a "national solidarity fund", officials said.
"The aim is to make the state live more modestly and make significant savings on the budget," presidential adviser Hassan Ba told Reuters.
Octogenarian Wade pledged a month ago to trim his cabinet and cut ministerial salaries in a bid to "lessen the suffering" of the country’s poor, who have seen the price of basic goods like rice and bread rise sharply in recent months.
Riots swept the normally tranquil capital Dakar two weeks ago, with stone-throwing protesters complaining about widespread unemployment and rising prices at a time when the government is building luxury hotels and four-lane highways.
The unrest, which locals said was among the worst in recent years, was triggered when police tried to evict street vendors — most of them young men with no other way of making a living — from the pot-holed city centre.
The former French colony was one of the first countries in Africa to espouse multi-party politics in the 1970s and has long been regarded as a haven of stability in turbulent West Africa.
But diplomats, economists and rights groups are growing concerned about the increasingly intolerant style of Wade’s administration and about the transparency of public spending.
BLOATED BUREAUCRACY
Wade’s critics said the austerity measures, which include using energy-saving lightbulbs and internet telephony to halve the estimated 14 billion CFA francs ($30 million) spent by civil servants on phone calls each year, did not go far enough.
"The number of ministers we have is still well above the number in developed countries which are much larger in size and a lot more important than Senegal," Habib Sy, director of Senegalese anti-graft group Aid Transparency, t
© Reuters 2007. All Rights Reserved. |
