(RE)read: Senegal: in Zinguinchor, streets with French names will be renamed
“Six decades following our independence (from France), the maintenance of certain names is an offense to our national dignity“, had justified the city council.
Most “the administrative chamber has canceled all the deliberations of the Ziguinchor municipal council of February 17, 2022”says the Supreme Court decision.
“The prefect had lodged an appeal to challenge the legality of our deliberations relating to the renaming of the streets. The Supreme Court ruled in his favor. But we will draw attention to the serious breaches from a procedural point of view”confirmed to AFP Abdou Sané, municipal councilor delegated to Ziguinchor, in charge in particular of urban planning.
By virtue of the renaming of names, the General de Gaulle Street was becoming “street of peace” while the“Avenue of Captain Javelier” was renamed “avenue of the African skirmisher“, in tribute to the African soldiers who fought for France during the World Wars.
The street “Thiaroye 44”named following a place near Dakar where the French army massacred in December 1944 “skirmishers” claiming the payment of balances, replaced the “Lieutenant Lemoine Street”.
The “rue du lieutenant Truch”, another French figure, changed to bear the name of Séléki, in memory of a battle won in 1886 over French colonial troops by resistance fighters in this village in the eponymous region of Ziguinchor, according to historians.
Ousmane Sonko, declared candidate for the 2024 presidential election, holds a discourse that is at once sovereignist, pan-Africanist and social. He often denounces the relations, according to him unequal, between French companies and France and its former African colonies.
As in other countries, the death in the United States of George Floyd and the demonstrations it provoked in 2020 around the world have revived in Senegal the debate on the persistence of references to the colonial era.
