Catch a cab in Dakar, Senegal, and you might think you’ve taken a wrong turn and ended up in Paris, thanks to the street names like Avenue Georges-Pompidou, Rue Félix-Faure and Rue Jules-Ferry, among others.
Things are changing, however, under President Bassirou Diomaye Faye and Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko, who rode an anti-colonial wave into power in March 2024. The duo appear to be on a mission to bolster Senegalese identity and cut ties with France despite worries that they had backed away from their anti-colonial campaign promises.
Seven months into his presidency, Faye called for French troops to pack their bags and leave Senegal, marking a significant pivot in the West African state’s foreign policy. This move is another blow at Françafrique, or the lingering sphere of French influence in West Africa. Senegal is now in league with other states in Africa’s Sahel region, Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, and Chad, all of whom are busy dialling down their French connections, both cultural and military.
Faye tapped Sonko to head the National Council for Memory and Management of Historical Heritage, a new government agency tasked with renaming streets. The Dakar-based Front for Anti-imperialist, Popular and Pan-African Revolution (FRAPP) is leading the charge for a more Senegalese flavour in the capital’s nomenclature. FRAPP members argue that so many French colonial street names keep painful colonial memories alive.
One particularly bitter memory is the massacre of ‘tirailleurs senegalais’ (Senegalese troops serving the French colonial army) on 1 December 1944. When they protested for better pay, French colonial soldiers opened fire, k*lling as many as 400, according to scholars. Then, in 2012, then-French President François Hollande admitted France’s role in the massacre. He promised to hand over French archives on the incident on its 70th anniversary, but that never happened.
However, on the 80th anniversary, Faye rewrote Senegal’s story with physical markers to ensure the Senegalese never forget their heroes.
Sources:
https://archive.ph/tgfsq