Burnt cars, ransacked buildings, a controversial bill tabled in parliament, running battles between riot police and rock throwing protesters outside parliament building, ministers and MPs receiving threats on their phones, a government minister referring to those sending such messages as "terrorists", countless twitter messages, and finally...the government back-pedals and withdraws the controversial bill.
All of that happened in a day (23 June 2011) in the West African nation of Senegal.
(Picture credit: Bate Etah via yfrog)
President Abdoulaye Wade and his government had proposed a bill to amend certain aspects relating to the election to the position of President. It intended to reduce from 50 to 25 percent the minimum score that a candidate would need to win next year's election in the first round as well as the establishment of the position of vice-president.
The opposition and several civil society groups saw these changes as a ploy to give Wade an easy win but also enable him have his son Karim Wade as running-mate, thus making the young man his de facto successor. These groups called for protests against the planned constitutional changes.
By Wednesday night, it was easy to figure out that things would be rough on Thursday if the government tabled the bill in parliament as planned. There were dozens and dozens of riot policemen on the streets. Two days earlier, I had been stuck at the office for three hours as youths barricaded the road to my neighbourhood.
Indeed,Thursday was messy. I opted against using personal transport to work.
When the taxi I was using reached the Chiekh Anta Diop Boulevard, we were greeted by a thick cloud of teargas. A unit of riot police charged down the street while a few protesters pelted them with rocks.
Traffic was clogged for a few minutes. What is quite interesting, though, in riots or protests in Senegal (to my very Cameroonian eyes) is how life sails on amidst the confusion.
The "Car Rapids" (run-down commuter buses) go on with people jumping in and out; the women and men selling by the street get on with their business; beggars continue begging; private cars just veer off from the direction of the crisis and go on with their business.
People who are rioting concentrate on their stuff and those won't aren't, just mind their business. It can be amazingly surreal.
Normally, in such conditions I would step out to take a few pictures or videos. So, I asked the taxi-driver to go towards the demonstration.
"Pas aujourdhui Rek!," he said, in a mix of French and Wolof which would translate as: "definitely not today!"
From pictures of the day's events - it's clear to understand why the guy wasn't so keen about me using his car for riot filming projects.
The worry in the voices of a few MPs who were interviewed by State TV (RTS) during recess (which seems to be when they discovered the carnage going on outside their building) confirmed that things had evolved from the jolly-good, go-easy demos to something unpredictable.
The President finally asked for the bill to be dropped.
As I walked to the tune of vroooooms, brouuuu, claaaaaaakakakakakas spewed out by the big generators that mask the complete shortage of power in the buildings around where I work, I wondered if Thursday's events had opened a new page in the political life of Senegal.
Will the protesters stop now ?
Keep up the good work.
Posted by: Desiree | September 28, 2013 at 10:35 PM