If you haven’t been to Senegal, stop reading this post immediately, and book your flights (direct on South African Airways from New York [JFK] and Washington DC [IAD], approximately $1,250 USD roundtrip). Seriously, go and book this trip.Now.
We wake up every morning to venders screaming outside the windows. On this particular day it was “poisson, poisson, and poisson!”
It was a Satruday morning and although we certainly can’t afford the 400 dollars a night it takes to stay at the Radisson Blu in Dakar (they have the largest pool in the city overlooking the Atlantic Ocean), we did the next best thing. We arrived with suntan lotion and bathing suits in hand, walked into the hotel with confidence, took a few chairs with towels in a private bungalow, and pretended to be guests. It worked, and we spent the entire morning reading magazines under the sun, swimming laps in the pool, and enjoying the amazing sounds of the ocean. The hotel had no idea, but they got their revenge when we found out that each beer (local) costs a hefty eight dollars a bottle. Every night at the Radisson guests also can enjoy live swing music along the water, who knew the lives of the rich and powerful can be so much fun!
We know you’ll in love with Dakar, a vibrant — and safe — city filled with friendly people decked-out in incredible fabrics. Make your first stop at the L’Institut Français where you’ll also find the incredible Beedow restaurant, which offers great vegetarian options and tons of amazing ways to interact with both Senegelese and French culture. In one week at the Institute we were able to catch an African modern dance troup, a photography exhibition, and a local music trio.
In terms of nightlife, you will find few places rockin’ with more intensity than Dakar. The most famous spot is Youssou N’Dour’s nightclub, Thiossane, but the city is filled with tons of places to go dancing. Make sure you nap before heading out; most clubs open their doors around 2:00 am, and people only start arriving after 2:30. Dakar’s nightclub goers are all dressed to impress; lucky for me, we were still warmly welcomed despite my sneakers and wrinkled clothes from the road.
Make sure to visit Ile de Gorée, an incredible island with cobblestone roads lined by colonial buildings and the island is only a short 20 minute ferry from Dakar ($10 dollars roundtrip). Ile de Gorée has a neat (albeit expensive) crafts market that offers tons of incredible souvenirs, such as sculptures, musical instruments, beads, and jewelry. We also visited “The House of the Slaves,” another important reminder of how millions of Western Africans were forced to leave behind their homes, families and freedom to become slaves in the United States and Europe against their will. We spent the afternoon reflecting on the past as we gazed out at the Atlantic Ocean wondering how such a dark part of our history could have happened.
In Senegal, decreased consumption of locally produced foods has led to a weakened local economy, as well as rising poverty levels and health problems. You will notice right away the amazing growth in “fast food” signs and an increasing number of chain restaurants offering unhealthy choices. Worse yet, as more people flock to cities, there is a growing loss of cultural knowledge and agricultural biodiversity. So we visited with “Mangeons Locale,” an organization bringing knowledge about how to grow, cook, and prepare local foods to classrooms across central Dakar. The classroom lessons they offer are focused on introducing the children to local breeds and varieties, culinary traditions, and the food communities in the region and are followed by cooking sessions.
Afterwards we headed to Saint Louis (a six hour drive from Dakar) to meet with the Africa Rice Center. They explained how farmers and consumers in Senegal are coming to rely on more local varieties of rice, instead of importing it from other countries. Because many Senegalese consider local rice as inferior (lower grade, containing stones, etc), they usually buy imported European brands—which can sometimes cost them up to four times as much. The Africa Rice Center is working closely with farmers across Senegal, improving not only the processing and quality of the rice, but also marketing and helping improve incomes of rice farmers.
Saint-Louis is a fun stop (and with newly paved roads from Dakar, a pleasant one). You can smell the seafood a few kilometers away, and the fish market is a sight that should not to be missed. We stayed at a terrific budget hotel, La Louisianne, with an amazing view of the Saint-Louis river.
The next day we paid a visit to ActionAid Senegal, meeting their country representative Moussa Faye. Faye spoke passionately about their work supporting groundnut farmers, who often get paid peanuts (pun intended) because of profits largely benefiting middlemen, processors, manufacturers, and distributors. ActionAid is helping farmers access markets, and even helping them process the groundnuts into paste andpeanut oil. We’ll be joining them next week for site visits to meet with farmers and processing facilities over the next couple of days.
Before leaving, we met with the International Federation of Journalists. While we’ve been able to place writing about projects we’ve visited in mainstream American and international press, we’ve faced difficulty penetrating local African press. One important factor is that most of the coverage we see about agriculture in Africa, comes from wire stories from Associated Press and Reuters. In general, journalism is often not a profession learned in schools and the low-pay, minimal benefit, short-staffed jobs lend themselves to people taking bribes for stories. Everywhere we travel we try to meet with journalist unions and associations to get advice on how best to interact and build relationships with the African press.
Since we are running out of words, we’ll pick up this series next week from Mali…
Original at borderjumpers1.blogspot.com
Bernard Pollack, an expert on local labor movements and communications, is currently traveling across the continent of Africa with his partner Danielle Nierenberg BorderJumpers.org, meeting with farmers, community organizers, labor activists/leaders, non-governmental organization (NGOs), the funding and donor communities, and others.
His travel writing from Africa has recently been featured in the Montreal Gazette, the NC News Observer, the Omaha World-Herald, and the Des Moines Register.
He holds an M.A. in Political Management from The George Washington University School of Political Management and a B.A. from the Elliot School of International Affairs at George Washington University.
