Published on :
Designers and board game enthusiasts are in the spotlight this weekend in Dakar with the first edition of the Dakar Games Festival. If the sector is trendy, distribution is still difficult on the continent. Meeting with Yambaye Marième Seck, Senegalese game designer.
With our correspondent in Dakar, Juliet Dubois
Around a table, players exchange cards and colored pawns. They play Waalo, a board game developed by Yambaye Marième Seck. It has 15th century Senegal as its backdrop. ” There are six characters in the gameexplains the designer. They are kings, queens, a ship captain and also a liberator. Each has a completely different mission from the other. The mission is always to seek from others something that they have and that we did not have at the beginning ».
Waalo is a competitive game that also develops an educational aim. Marième Seck presented it in CM2 classes. ” In the Senegalese program, in CM2, we learn a lot regarding the kings, the queens of Senegal, she explains. It’s a way of (making more concrete) that period. ».
Distribution difficile
Marième does not live from the creation of games, she is responsible for a leisure center and developed Waalo on her own funds, as often in the Senegal. Designed and illustrated locally, the game was printed abroad, for lack of machines.
Today, Marième is struggling to distribute it. “I went to mass distribution, to French brands too, but they didn’t agree to take the game and put it on their shelves, regret the young woman. Perhaps because the theme of slavery seemed delicate to them. There are even brands specializing in board games that will prefer games that come from the West, rather than games that come from here. ».
Waalo and a hundred games from around the world are presented and sold during this first edition of the Dakar Games Festival, which is being held this weekend at the Maison de la Culture Douta Seck. A permanent toy library is also planned.
► Also read: Senegal: “Afriqu’challenges”, a board game to understand Africa
