The municipal council of Saint-Louis, in northern Senegal, has decided to rename the place Faidherbe, a figure of the French colonial enterprise in West Africa, and to give it a name in Wolof, the most widely spoken language. of the country, AFP learned Tuesday (September 29) from local authorities.
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The square, in the heart of the former capital of French West Africa and then of Senegal, will henceforth bear the name of "
Baya Ndar
", indicated Rahma Sy, the chief of staff of the mayor of Saint-Louis, Mansour Faye.
Baya is derived from the Wolof word "
bayaal
", which means "
public square, crossroads
".
Ndar is the local name for Saint-Louis, which was the first settlement founded south of the Sahara by France in the 17th century.
Honoré in France
Louis Léon César Faidherbe is honored in France as a military figure who preserved the north of the country from the Prussian invasion during the war of 1870-1871.
In Senegal, he is known as the one who led the French colonial enterprise as governor in the 1850s and 1860s. The debate over the persistence of references to the colonial era has been revived in Senegal, as in other countries. , by the death of African-American George Floyd and the protests it provoked around the world.
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“
The renaming of Place Faidherbe
” will have “
historical significance
”, said the mayor of Saint-Louis on Saturday, a city classified as a World Heritage Site by Unesco.
The name of "
Baya Ndar
" came naturally to the work of a commission which also examined the possibility of giving instead the name of a person or a historical event, Faye said. comments posted on the internet.
“
Our grandfathers, our grandmothers, used to say: 'We are going to Baya Square',
” he said.
The fate of the statue of General Faidherbe, erected in 1891 and moved in early January to renovate the square, will be discussed "
later
", said the mayor.
Faidherbe's detractors denounce him as a colonial conqueror, responsible for abuses against civilian populations.
If, after consultation, “
the council decides to move this statue, we will do it.
If the people decide that the statue is going to stay, naturally, it will stay,
”he said.
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