Dependency and delusions

I should preface that the following excerpts are just recent examples amongst a multitude of similar conversations I've had while in Senegal... so, I've met my limit and am now very direct with people. I realize I simplify things in my answers but often times I don't have much choice. I just don't have hours to spend with every person that comes up to me, which is several times a day, full of misconceptions.

And since, I recently took a long walk along the Corniche (West coast of of Dakar), I also take this moment to share with you the gorgeous views.
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Young Gambian, 27, enters the closet size take-out joint where I am waiting for my Senegalese version of a burger.

“Good evening beautiful lady!”
“hello.”
“Are you French?”
“No.”
“English?”
“No, I am American.”
“Ahhh… American. That is very nice, very nice.” 15 second pause.
“I love you. Will you want to love me too?”
“What? No. I don’t know you and I have a fiancé.”
“So, you are not officially married. Well, give me your phone number. I want to be your friend.”
“No can do.”
“You don’t want to be my friend? I am here, I like to meet people. I like to talk with people. You see… we can talk, here is my number.”
“I don’t want your number.” Another 15 second pause.
“O.k. I want to give you my picture. Will you take it? When you go back to the United States, you can show the picture and get me a wife.”
“Woah, listen, let me tell you right now if you don’t already know, American women and Western women in general don’t work that way. We are educated, we have jobs and when we marry, we take the time to get to know the person. Marriage isn’t, as it is so often times here, a question of utility. We look at the man’s personality, his goals, his interests, his values...”
“Ah. No problem! I will also give you my biography! I will write everything about me… I will even write all about my family.”
“No, no. It isn’t that easy. It is upon meeting someone, exchanging with them that people start relationships. Friendship and love grows out of time spent together.”
“Ah. You Western women are way too complicated. Life is so much more simple than that! And, I am living with an American, a black American, and he tells me that I am a good looking guy, I should have no problem!”
“Well then, let him go look for a wife for you.”
Lady hands me my burger.
“Have a good night!”
“Wait, my picture!!!”




Abdoulaye Basse, 35, entrepreneur in audio industry. Collects African poetry, oral histories, sermons given by famous marabous, speeches of African leaders and records them on cds in French and local languages.

After a tour of the Institut Fondamentale de l’Afrique Noire, we sit in a café for a drink. During our conversation, I ask:

“are you married?”
“no, not yet. I am waiting. smiling I am going to find me a white woman.”
“a white woman?”
“yes, and then I’ll get out of here”.

I feel my blood rise, my heart start to pound. I hear this discourse over and over again. But no, not this one; smart, educated, active in his community.

“Listen, Abdoulaye, what do you think you are going to find over there? Success? The easy life? Wrong! It is a struggle man. A struggle. And your brothers, sisters and cousins who manage to make it to Europe or America, they aren’t gong to tell you how hard it is. They can’t bear to break the illusion, the hope people cling on to here. They feel responsible for keeping the lie alive that if you make it out, you automatically become more respectable because you will be able to send money home. I worked at an association in France where everyday I met ‘sanspapiers’ and legalized immigrants. I can not even begin to describe the misery. People stuffed in small one room apartments in massive cement towers found in polluted industrial zones. Huge communes of shabby apartment towers with no outlet for productive human activity. People living off of tiny welfare allocations in a place where everything is expensive. You think you are going to find a job there with a 35% unemployment rate amongst foreigners and where discrimination runs rampant? Do you know how long it takes to find affordable housing? On average, 7 years! 7 years! Or would you rather go to the US? Leave all your family behind… all that you know, for what? To become a taxi driver? A dishwasher or cook? You can make it out there, sure… but at what price? Listen, I am not necessarily saying this to you, maybe you would be part of the very small percentage that actually finds a decent life… I’m saying this to the millions of people here who just don’t get it. Your family members over there send you money, at the expense of themselves not eating or not being able to use that money and invest in something. They just struggle, struggle to survive in a country that is not their own, far from their family and friends.”

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Café owner, 55, spent 10 years working at a hotel in New York City. Upon hearing our conversation, he interjects:

Looking at Abdoulaye, “she is right”, then turns towards me, “but until you give us jobs here, we will continue to want to leave, it is as simple as that.”
“Until WE give you jobs? What about YOU creating your own businesses, investing in education, holding corrupt leaders responsible?”
“US? We have nothing. We have nothing with which to create. It is the Western countries that took everything from us. They have all the money. They have to give us the jobs. Even when they say they are helping, they hoard the money. They come and build schools, roads, hydraulic systems, industries, but the money circulates only in their hands. Western aid organizations partnering with Western companies… the only income it helps generate here is the crumbs they give for manual labor. All we are left with is quickly degrading infrastructure and debt.”
“Well, maybe it is your fatalistic mentality that is the problem, as if things can not improve here… you are victimized and so you are going to sit on your ass until someone comes and fixes everything. That day isn’t going to come!”
“What do you want us to do?” He pauses, looks at me with forceful eyes. “We are UNDER-DEVELOPED!”
“You are under-developed? As if you had a medical condition making you exempt from effort! Bullshit! Look at other supposed underdeveloped countries, for example in Asia, who started with little but were able to harness their man power into productive activity.”
“Ahhh… but they have science and technology!”
“Do you think it just dropped down from the sky? No, they worked for that, they made it a priority.”
I look at my watch and realize I am going to be late for a meeting so we say goodbye.
The café owner stretches his arms out, “Please, come back, come back and talk… I would like to continue our conversation!”

-

While walking down the road to catch a carrapid, I continue my conversation with Abdoulaye.

“Abdoulaye, why do you want a white woman? I don’t understand. I think the Sahélienne women are quite possibly the most beautiful on earth!”
“It’s a question of taste. White women… we see them in all the movies, you know. They are more laid-back. And they have their own money so there is less pressure on the man.”
“But, movies are fictional! They far from represent the average ‘white women’. Movies are made to sell… pumped up with sex and pretty things. A guy in St.Louis told me that men here believe Western women have voracious sexual appetites… that we are all sex fiends. Is that true?”
Abdoulaye looking embarrassed, “Lots of people believe that.”
“Well, I guess I can understand false perceptions if people only know shows like Desperate housewives, Baywatch… not to mention our huge pornographic industry, and smutty music videos... but, I assure you, it is far from reality. It is a show, a façade, to make money.”
“But, it is also reinforced by Western women tourists, who come here knowing that with just a little money and the fact that they represent a ticket out of here, they can find a man, often times half their age, who will ‘satisfy their needs’. They come here, exploit our desperation, for sex.”

Before hopping on board my rickety ride, I thank Abdoulaye for accompanying me to the Institute. I tell him I think it is wonderful that he is working towards something… that he has goals. But, I remind him that his country desperately needs people like him to stay and work and build things. And, if he makes a list of all his productions, I will take it with me and give it to the Language department, the African studies department and anyone else who might be interested in his work. That way, though I can not make any promises, he might be able to make a little money, without having to leave.

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Malcolm Versel, 50s, National Director of the U.S. Peacecorps. In charge of the 150 odd peacecorps volunteers in Senegal. Served himself as volunteer between the years of 72-75. I was accorded a couple hours to discuss with him the principal objectives of the Peace corps and their approach to development work.

“You know Liliane, I am not sure I am the guy you want to talk to because I have a very cynical slant on ‘development’. Development work never seems to have been about helping people, it is an industry. ”
“no, on the contrary, if that’s the case, I think we will get along just fine.”
“And it is funny, right before you came in here, I had a meeting with a group of people in several different domains discussing work to do, and I told these guys, I am so frustrated. Money gets pumped in, and things are only getting worse. Do you know what hard-slate it?”
“No”
“It is what happens here when dirt doesn’t get turned and worked. It becomes like clay. Then, when it gets hot, it bakes in the sun and turns hard as concrete. When it rains, water just shoots right off the surface. Hard-slate is becoming a big problem. Nothing can be grown in it. When I think back to 72’ when I was a volunteer, we were still trying to teach rural villagers the concept of animal traction (using animals for farming), but man, they were so much better off than they are today. It is so disheartening to see people suffering.” Pause. “And, I assure you, you can choose any school you like, you’ll never find in one establishment the 3 following ingredients reunited:
-an actual building and material
-a qualified teacher
-a teacher who has actually gotten paid
I don’t know why… The State has just dropped education as a priority. It’s like they’ve just given up on public works because there is just too much to do”.
“Granted, development has failed. Westerners came in with their Western priorities and Western solutions… forgetting that ultimately it is the people who use what they build and install that decide on its efficacy. And how silly to put in some expensive machinery in that is meant to make people’s lives easier but that local people have neither the technology nor money to keep operational… And of course, there is the fact that Western nations have never been too judicious about whose hands the money touches… in countries known for outright corruption. But what about the thing we don’t talk enough of… the cultural factors that block progress. For example, Senegalese live and breathe Islam… they are taught to value charity. Begging is an honorable activity… thousands of children run around, spending their entire youths asking for money for their marabous. It is a cult of dependency. And what do you do when something needs to get done? ...if someone falls ill or if there an emergency requiring serious action… INSHALLAH!, ‘if God wills it.’ They always have their inshallah to fall back on… removing the responsibility off of themselves.”
“Woah, I see the direction you are going… but be careful what you wish for!!! Can you imagine what this country would be like without the inshallah? It is the people’s resounding faith that keeps this place from being another Iraq or Kosovo. It is their belief in God that allows them to endure their hardship without resorting to violence and chaos. It is a religion of peace.”
“I am not saying that they should rid themselves of religion, I am only saying that we have to recognize it’s place when attempting to do anything for these people… and the people here have to come to express themselves their needs and see that there is a better way.”

…. Just a part of a long discussion. Looking forward to hearing your thoughts too.