The Two Alternations: What We Refuse to See

I take up my pen again today with a strange feeling. A mix of déjà vu and vertigo. As if history were repeating itself, but we still refuse to recognize it.

In 2012, Senegal breathed. I remember the streets, the cries, the hopes. I remember that youth who refused, who contested, who dreamed. I remember that promise. A simple promise: never again.

In 2021, I wrote an open letter to President Macky Sall. The words burned my fingers. I reminded him that he was president in part thanks to the commitment of Y en a Marre, thanks to the young Senegalese men and women who had taken to the streets to say stop and that some of them had died so that he could accede to the highest office. I reminded him that Jeune Afrique headlined on June 24, 2011: “Senegal: the riots in Dakar left 102 injured, including 13 police officers” and on February 3, 2012: “Senegal: Podor mourns its dead after the repression of an M23 demonstration.” I told him: “Today, you are following in the footsteps of your predecessor.” I thought I was writing about the end of a cycle. I had not yet understood that I was writing about a mechanism. Today, a new alternation has taken place. A new promise. A new breath. And yet.