Prosper in Senegal or emigrate: the face and the cross of the young people of a country on the boil

Senegal is experiencing its most difficult hours.

In the last three years of political and social instability marked by protests and cuts to freedoms, tens of thousands of young people have taken to the sea to reach the Canary Islands by canoe or have flown to Central America to try the American dream.

Many others, however, stay, fight for things to change or simply try to get ahead.

In the midst of enormous uncertainty about the future, studying or working has become a challenge.

The presence of young people is overwhelming: three out of every four Senegalese are under 35 years old.

They are increasingly connected to the world, with enormous expectations, but, at the same time, disappointed with their country.

“In search, guided by the survival instinct,” says Boubacar Seye, migration researcher and president of the NGO Horizontes sin Fronteras.

At the Cefer training center in Dakar, dozens of boys and girls in blue suits come down the stairs at the same time.

They have just finished classes and take the opportunity to eat a sandwich and check their messages on their cell phone.

The screens flicker in his hands.

Souleymane Wane, elegant and sober despite his 24 years, speaks with surprising maturity.

“My dream was Medicine, but I didn't get the grade and I ended up in Sciences and Techniques,” he explains.

As chance would have it, in his first year of his career, a cycle of unrest began in Dakar that continues to this day, caused by a struggle between the Government and the opposition ahead of this year's elections, and which led to the closure of the Cheikh Anta Diop University for nine months.

“One day the police came and we were locked in, they threw tear gas inside,” he remembers.

Souleymane Wane, 24 years old, born in a village of Fatick, at the door of the Cefer training center, in Dakar, during a break from the Engineering classes he follows at said academy.

He is one of the 100,000 students affected by the closure of Cheikh Anta Diop University due to political and social instability in Senegal.

“We have dreams, but how are we going to realize them here?

We need a new Senegal where we can succeed without having to leave,” she says. Marta Moreiras

He was unable to finish high school and turned, as he says, to agriculture and religion.

Born 26 years ago in a village in Mbour, Mamadou Faye works from dawn to dusk every day on a small plot of land in Lendeng, Rufisque.

The benefits are shared 50/50 with the owner of the field.

“The land gives me security, I can't imagine being in a boat at sea, that is very dangerous,” he says. Marta Moreiras

Three young fishermen from Kayar, a coastal town in the Thiès region, pull the nets of a fishing canoe that has just come ashore.

The crisis in artisanal fishing due to the activity of large foreign vessels impacts emigration.

Many of those who arrive in the Canary Islands in cayucos are fishermen from Mbour, Kayar or Saint Louis.Marta Moreiras

Mariama Diallo, a 27-year-old nurse from Kolda, on a street in the city of Dakar, where she currently resides.

Her dream is to raise enough money to be able to do a master's degree in Public Health, but it is difficult for her without a steady job that allows her to save enough.

She makes a living caring for the elderly or giving therapeutic massages.

“I want to continue my career, my studies.

“When you get married and have children, you can't move on,” she says, “all that can come later.” Marta Moreiras

Young Abdoulaye and Abdou prepare skewers every day in the Ouakam neighborhood of Dakar.

This type of informal activity dominates the country's economy and is key to the survival of millions of people.

The benefits are minimal, but they allow you to get ahead on a daily basis.

The problem is fragility.

It is a sector without any type of coverage.

Crises such as covid-19 or the rise in prices due to the war in Ukraine have had a strong impact on the informal economy.Marta Moreiras

Graduated in Accounting and Law, Ibrahima Kane, 30, does not have a stable job and dedicates himself to writing reports and articles.

After trying unsuccessfully to obtain a visa for Europe, he lived for several years in different countries in the Maghreb.

He jumped the Ceuta fence twice and entered Bulgaria via Turkey, but was expelled each time.

“The visa issue is scandalous.

The legal route is currently inaccessible for 99% of the population,” says this activist who defends the rights of migrants. Marta Moreiras

Fatiakh Diangar, 25 years old and from Diofior, in Sine Saloum, works as a babysitter in Dakar to pay for her studies, related to the Environment.

She has looked at the possibility of going to France or Canada because public education in Senegal is full of difficulties, she says.

“There I can finish the race faster and with a better level, in Senegal everything is problems and delays,” says Marta Moreiras.

Young people from a Fatick village hang out under a tree.

Rural exodus has been a constant in Senegal practically since its independence.

Thousands of people come to Dakar and its suburbs every year from the interior in search of a better life.

Thus, new urban agglomerations have emerged such as Pikine, Guediawaye, Mbao or Keur Massar, cities where poverty and poor living conditions are more visible.Marta Moreiras

Young people from Pikine, a city located on the outskirts of Dakar, are trained as entrepreneurs in agriculture in a training provided within the framework of a project of the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

Thousands of young people seek in these courses the possibility of having a job or creating a small business, which fits with the objectives of this organization to combat irregular emigration.Marta Moreiras

Female day laborers work in the fields of Lendeng, in Rufisque.

Women from the most humble families in the rural world have more difficult access to education and for many of them working in the countryside is practically the only option.Marta Moreiras

In order not to waste the year, Wane enrolled in Engineering at Cefer, one of the many private centers that proliferate in Senegal to make up for the shortcomings and constant problems of public education.

But of course, that costs money.

To pay the 1,300 euros per year, she received help from the Dakar Mayor's Office, although her family still had to assume half of it.

Many Senegalese cannot afford it.

“We students are in a very difficult situation,” comments the young man born in a town in Fatick, who, like many of his classmates, is a fervent follower of the imprisoned opposition leader Ousmane Sonko, who has managed to seduce a youth eager for change. .

“If you gave visas to all these people right now,” he points out to the rest of the students, “they would all leave.”

“Of course we have dreams, but how are we going to realize them here?

We need a new Senegal where we can succeed without having to leave,” he adds.

In the last three years, young people have occupied a central position in the aforementioned protests and many have paid a high price.

About 50 people have died as a result of the police response, the last four this February from gunshot wounds.

Hundreds have been arrested and held for eight months or even longer in pre-trial detention without being tried.

The riots began in 2021 after Sonko's first judicial indictment, which his followers have always described as “political persecution”, and continue to this day with the delay of the elections decreed by President Macky Sall on February 3.

He is the most combative and rebellious face of a youth who wants to promote a change of cycle in their country, who wants to vote, who needs answers to their frustration and concerns.

Mariama Diallo, a 27-year-old nurse from Kolda, on a street in the city of Dakar.Marta Moreiras

Mariama Diallo is 27 years old and is a nurse.

After completing her internship, today she works caring for the elderly: for a 10-hour day she earns 7.5 euros.

To supplement her meager income, she gives therapeutic massages at home for about 23 euros.

“There is no suitable job, I presented my

resume

in many places and nothing,” she explains.

A few decades ago, many young women were pushed into marriage from the time they were little more than adolescence, but Senegalese society has changed.

“I want to continue my career, my studies, do a master's degree in Public Health.

When you get married and have children, you can't move on,” she says.

“All that can come later.”

More information

The school that transformed an entire town in Senegal

The possibility of seeking other horizons has crossed his mind.

Some of her colleagues have emigrated to Canada and today earn up to 35 euros per hour, an astronomical amount compared to the reduced income to which Diallo is eligible in Senegal.

“Life is difficult here, nothing guarantees that you will have a decent job, under normal conditions,” she adds.

At the moment she lives with a friend in Dakar, one of the most expensive cities in West Africa, comparable to many European urban agglomerations, where the average monthly income of tens of thousands of people who work informally is around 108 euros.

Survival is an obstacle course.

“It is not a question of poverty, but of expectations,” says researcher Boubacar Seye.

“There are many people who pay 4,000 euros to go to Nicaragua and from there to the United States.

We have an international, connected youth with great personal and social aspirations.

But what they experience on a daily basis is food insecurity, health hardships, and lack of work.

Development policies have failed miserably, there is a fear of tomorrow,” adds the expert.

Meanwhile, on the other side, "Europe stands as a fortress where it is impossible to access legally, the borders become cemeteries and the money they send to African countries for supposed migration management disappears who knows where," says Seye. .

We need a new Senegal where we can succeed without having to leave

Souleymane Wane, Engineering student in Senegal

A kind of couch, a two-seater mattress, a table with a sound system and a chair.

This is the modest furniture in the room in Tivaouane Peulh, on the outskirts of Dakar, which he shares with his friend Ibrahima Kane, 30, waiting to move into a proper apartment.

Graduated in Accounting and Law, he is unemployed and survives by writing reports for others.

When he was younger, he applied for up to three visas to study in Europe: in France, Germany and Spain.

He even had pre-registration at two universities and accommodation paid for.

But he was not successful.

Obsessed with the idea of ​​leaving, at less than 20 years old he left Senegal and was in Morocco, Algeria, Libya, Tunisia and Egypt.

He jumped over the Ceuta fence twice and once managed to reach Bulgaria across the Turkish border, but was expelled again and again.

“The visa issue is scandalous.

The consulates have outsourced the granting of appointments to private companies and an entire business has emerged.

You try to access the service through your computer and in a few minutes all the appointments for the month are blocked.

Then someone from the company itself calls you to offer it to you, but in exchange for paying 500 or 600 euros.

Everything is a mafia,” says Kane, who with all the accumulated experience has become an activist in defense of the rights of migrants.

In his opinion, the fact that this occurs with the knowledge of the consulates is part of the same process of externalizing borders to limit the right to human mobility.

“The legal route is currently inaccessible for 99% of the population,” he explains.

Mamadou Faye, 26, works from dawn to dusk every day on a small plot of land in Lendeng, Rufisque.Marta Moreiras

But not everyone wants to leave.

A soft haze extends across the farm fields of Lendeng, in Rufisque, about 25 kilometers from the Senegalese capital.

A few meters from a toll highway, a farmers' cooperative makes a miracle possible: producing lettuce, parsley, turnips or beets wherever the city ends.

Mamadou Faye, 26, gets up early every morning to attend to the needs of his small plot.

“There is always something to do, planting, weeding, watering.

I don't have a single day of rest,” he says.

He lives with three other boys, a carter and two farmers like him, in a modest room for which they pay about 40 euros a month.

“I share the benefits of the land with the boss, he takes half and I take the other half,” he adds.

The visa issue is scandalous.

The consulates have outsourced the granting of appointments to private companies and a whole business has emerged there

Faye, a native of a village in Mbour, could not finish high school, but still speaks more than acceptable French.

She doesn't complain, she smiles, she doesn't think about changing her life.

“I'm happy, I have a job and I can take care of my parents by sending them something.

The land gives me security, I can't imagine being in a boat at sea.

It's very dangerous.

When I see all those young people leaving I think that I have a lot here, for me the most important thing is my religion and my work,” she comments.

Have a family, children?

Of course, “that will come,” she responds with a perennial smile.

Fatiakh Diangar, 25 years old and from the island of Diofior, works as a babysitter in Dakar to pay for her studies, related to the Environment.Marta Moreiras

Young Fatiakh Diangar, 25, also loves nature.

Perhaps because she was born in Diofior, a small town in Sine Saloum, she decided to study Environment and Sustainable Development and wrote her final year report on the threats that weigh on mangroves.

Like so many other students, after three years of university in Kaolack she made the leap to Dakar to do training in sustainable ecosystem management, which costs her about 1,000 euros a year.

To finance it, she found a job as a babysitter.

“My family doesn't have the means and I really like little ones, so it's a good solution,” she explains.

She lives with her older sister and she can't shake the idea of ​​returning to the town one day.

“Dakar is noise, pollution, everything is uncomfortable.

In Diofior you live in a peace and tranquility that you don't have here,” she says.

Even so, he dreams of finishing his training in Europe or America.

“I have tried through Campus France and in Canada, but it is very complicated.

There I can finish the race faster and with a better level, in Senegal everything is problems and delays.”

His idea would be to be able to work later in an environmental organization or in a development project, but in his native region.

Go away yes, but also return one day.

That is the dream of many.

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