Among the many reactions to the earthquake in Haiti has been the fascinating offer on the part of the President of Senegal to welcome any Haitians who wished to return to Africa, which he referred to as their “terre natale,” or homeland. He said that if a few came, he would offer them land and a house. If many were to come, he would offer them an entire region of the country. Click here to read more about this.
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I was in Senegal for four months last year and given that country’s widespread poverty and the rampant corruption of Wade’s administration, I’m deeply skeptical about his claim that his country could (and would) support an influx of Haitian refugees. Wade has been president for almost a decade now, and in that time he’s developed a reputation for this kind of bold (and often extremely expensive) move designed to draw momentary global attention to Senegal, all the while neglecting the needs of the Senegalese people. For instance in the capital city of Dakar, where many roads are still unpaved, he built a multi-million dollar highway for a international Islamic conference in 2007. Now, in a country where half the population is out of work, he’s building (or rather, having a North Korean company build) a $27 million bronze statue called “the African Renaissance.” NPR ran a great story on that monument last week, which you can read or listen to here:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=122220923&sc=emaf
I’m linking that kind of article because I think it gives a good sense of the personality of a ruler who would call for displaced Haitians to come and claim a region of his country (on a related note, where exactly will the people who are living there now go?) when his own people are living in deep poverty. Check it out. He’s really a fascinating guy.