Dakar Arrival

For those interested enough to be disappointed by this latest hiatus (I'm looking at you Birt C), thank you for your concern. Along with laziness and general fatigue, one of the major reasons that I have held off writing about my time in Dakar is that it has honestly taken me this long to wrap my mind around it (and yes, even though I am leaving in a couple of days, it is a work in progress). My writing is not nearly good enough, though even if it was, it would be very difficult to give you an accurate and complete picture of Dakar.

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Dakar is the dustiest place in my world (well, at this point, it is running a stiff competition against Bamako, Mali). Within my first couple of days in the city, I jokingly asked my god-brother, Sam , how they got all the sand here and he explained that this is how Dakar has been since he's known it. 'It starts with sand and ends with sand,' a reference he made to the fact that it didn't matter that certain parts of Dakar are paved, because it is only a matter of time before they become covered by the omnipresent sand and dust. For some background, Sam lives with his family in HLM Grand Yoff, which is one of several of Dakar's lower-income renting districts. This being my first stop in sub-Saharan Africa, my first few days I assumed that all of Dakar looked like Grand Yoff; it was only after my first week here that we made a trip downtown (where, among other landmarks, the President's mansion is located) and I saw that Dakar follows the 'normal' model of urban socio-economic stratisfication. More or less.

For better or worse, I have discovered over the past 5 1/2 months that I have a 'policy-oriented' mind which often sees a place from the perspective of what works and what doesn't. My time in Dakar has been no different. Spending the vast majority of my time in and around Grand Yoff (I've been renting an apartment not too far away from where Sam lives) I am struck by the stark contrast between the higher and lower income areas of Dakar. Now before you call me naive (I will admit that I am very much an idealist), let me explain. I have seen (both inside and outside of the U.S.) greater disparity between rich and poor than what seems to be present in Dakar, however, never have I seen a case that, in my opinion, could be so easily (relatively speaking) improved. The greatest noticeable difference that I see between Dakar's high and low ends is overall cleanliness. Many parts of Grand Yoff are littered/covered in trash while downtown is, for the most part, paved and pristine. On the surface, Dakar's major problem is its system of public waste management.

In my mind, the cleanliness of a particular environment has a major psychological impact on the people living in that area. A clean environment promotes cleanliness, upkeep and positive community development. On the flipside, a dirty, unkept environment is antithetical to those things (though that is not an absolute principle). In many parts of Grand Yoff, you will find yourself tripping over/shuffling through trash, amid the lingering and acrid aroma of burning trash (don't get me started on that). In my entire time here , I have seen a single garbage truck and perhaps a dozen trash collectors. By comparison, I have spent much less time in the downtown area, but have seen many more garbage trucks and have seen perhaps a handful of small piles of trash.

As I noted before, it is not so much the gravity of the problem (though I do believe strongly in cause and effect, especially when you are talking about a highly populated urban environment) as much as how easy I believe the solution to be which really frustrates me. Dakar has a SEVERE shortage of jobs (the subject of another post), from top to bottom. Why not create more jobs in the area of waste management from top (engineer) to bottom (garbage collector), placing an emphasis on improved/advanced methods of waste management and destruction and recycling.

Unfortunately, the x-factor (as always) is money and Dakar does not have a lot to spend. Thus there are the obvious questions of how these new workers will be paid and how this advanced system of waste management will be funded. These are valid points that I cannot (yet) counter, though trust, my mind, whether I like it or not, will be on it. To anyone who has some experience in urban planning and development (particularly in the area of waste management), I would love to hear your opinion.

But then again, who am I? Just a toubab passing through at the end of the day.

And afterall, there are more pressing issues, I'm sure.