On a weekday in Dakar, Senegal, traders scream in a rhythmic rumble as some buyers cross Boulevard du General de Gaulle, a road whose name affixed a figure unknown to the country, from a major highway in the area.
Matar Seck, a seller of meat, is irritated that these street names, which are remnants of a painful colonial past, are even possible. Seck questioned the merits of having a Rue de Jules Ferry named after a brutal colonial governor or a Rue Faidherbe named after a French politician who once claimed colonialism was necessary while standing in front of his stall where he patiently waited for a customer. Like many Senegalese, Seck said he wants change.
“I’ve lived in Europe. I’ve been to Barcelona, Rome and Milan, but I’ve never seen white people give the names of their most prestigious historical monuments and buildings to a Senegalese”, he said. “We have no shortage of people to name our most important streets]after]. I want to see a Youssou Ndour Street for example”, Seck added, referring to the beloved Senegalese crooner.
Indeed, Senegal’s capital city and neighboring Senegal were given original names and tributes to officials or royals of the French empire. Decades after independence, they’ve largely stayed that way, a legacy of 300 years of conquest, slavery and colonialism.
However, that may change as Senegalese are formally honored by President Bassirou Diomaye Faye’s announcement in December.
It’s a notable step for Senegal, which has historically maintained close ties with Paris. In November, Faye asked Paris to remove about 350 French soldiers stationed there, in effect ending a decades-long defence pact and continuing a trend in West Africa, where nations are downgrading once-strong ties with France.
Faye assumed control of Senegalese politics in April, promising to bolster the country’s identity and stifle ties with France by replacing French as the country’s official language following a tumultuous election campaign last year. Under Sall, critics saw Senegal as a puppet that put France’s needs above all. Faye promised to be different. Now, not only will the new agency rename streets, but it will also rewrite Senegal’s textbooks.
Rakhiat Diallo Fall, a city planner based in Dakar, claimed that efforts are required to end Senegal’s legacy of its centuries-long colonial rule, which includes its role as a major slave port.
“Memory also passes through toponymy”, Diallo said, referring to the study of place names. “Seeing streets named after people we don’t know, people who have mistreated us, is a disgrace”.
Shrinking Francafrique
Across Francafrique, or former French West Africa, countries are sharply turning against France – militarily and culturally.
Many governments and citizens, especially in the military-led countries of the Sahel, detest France’s real and perceived political interference in their countries. Because of its significant involvement in their economies, including those of mining and petroleum, they view France as paternalistic. French multinationals like Total, which owns a lot of oil, are deeply connected to the business environment.
The common CFA franc currency, used by former French colonies in West and Central Africa, has been a big point of controversy. The currency, created in colonial times, is pegged to the French-used euro, and critics said it continues to hinder the development of African nations.
Despite the presence of thousands of French soldiers in the area, Paris has also been criticized for failing to stop the spread of armed groups in the Sahel.
The first official name to be given to Avenue de Gaulle in the capital, Niamey, was Niger, where the military government expelled French forces in 2024. The famous anti-colonial activist who became Niamey’s first indigenous mayor became Avenue Djibo Bakary in December.
In honor of Captain Sekou Traore, an officer who refused to surrender in 2012 during an ambush by secessionist fighters of the Azawad movement, the military government of Bamako, Mali’s capital, also changed Ruault Avenue. Traore was eventually captured and executed.
Senegal’s ties to France are particularly strong. Before colonists spread across West Africa, the area was the first to be annihilated. Saint Louis, or Ndar in the predominant Wolof language, was the country’s capital until 1902 and was known for its pastel-colored colonial homes. There too, street names, squares, bridges and plaques honour mid-1800s French Governor Louis Faidherbe to the ire of many locals. Residents of many other countries awoke in 2020 to discover a statue of Faidherbe strewn and painted with paint during the Black Lives Matter protests that swept the country and sparked demonstrations across the country. The statue has now been removed.
According to Krzysztof Gorny, an urban planning researcher with the University of Poland who has researched and written a book on Senegal’s street names, the colonial government had a purpose for naming places and streets in Dakar, where the capital was relocated to in 1902, in order to honor the country’s citizens.
“Generally, the idea was for the new city to remind everyone that it was in French possession”, he said. “These names were prevalent, primarily in the areas where French settlers were first discovered. In the district designated for Africans, where the streets were narrower and the buildings denser, a numerical naming system was introduced”.
Those numbers are still present today, like on Rue 34 or Rue ME 30. Past governments had begun street-renaming projects, but none had announced a dedicated government agency like Faye’s administration.
Souleymane Gueye, a member of Sall’s administration’s Front for Anti-Imperialist, Popular and Pan-African Revolution (FRAPP), claimed Sall’s administration had tried to politicize the process.
“In 2022, when we went to submit a letter of complaint to the Dakar Plateau mayor’s office to rename Avenue Faidherbe, our representative was assaulted, his clothes torn and his dreadlocks cut off”, he said.
In July 2023, the same road was renamed Avenue Macky Sall.
Simply put, it was a political choice made with partisan interests in mind. Gueye argued that it would have been more fair to impose names on Senegalese citizens than to ask them to do so.
Weighing priorities
Since he took office alongside Faye, Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko, a fierce critic of France, has focused on the sore topic of the 1944 mass murders of West African soldiers, including Senegalese, by the French colonial army.
On the morning of December 1, 1944, soldiers of the Tirailleurs Senegalais, an army unit that fought in France’s war against Nazi Germany, had been protesting against delays in salaries and poor living conditions. In response, colonial soldiers fired on them, killing an undetermined number. Authorities in France at the time alleged 35 murders and attempted to bury the evidence. However, scholars estimated about 400 people died.
Although the wound remained fresh in independent Senegal, officials kept quiet about the killings until 2012 when then-French President Francois Hollande admitted France’s culpability. In December, when Senegal commemorated the 80th anniversary of the murders, Faye invited several African leaders to the mournful ceremony. The street-renaming project is expected to prominently feature the Tirailleurs.
However, some Senegalese say that while they appreciate this remembrance of history, the project could also be a distraction. Faye and Sonko not only promised a stronger Senegalese identity, but they also pledged to improve and boost the economy, which has been hit by a combination of COVID-19 aftershocks, supply bottlenecks in the wake of Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine and the global economic downturn.
In recent years, thousands of young people have abandoned the declining fishing industry in search of a better life in Europe. In the deadly crossing of the Atlantic to the Spanish Canary Islands, hundreds of people have died.
“For me, changing street names is not a priority at all”, Mouhamadou, a young Senegalese in Dakar who said he has unsuccessfully attempted the Atlantic crossing, told Al Jazeera.
“Reducing the cost of living should be the top priority.” We’re tired. Rice and cooking oil are both priced at an increase. Within three months of their taking office, Yet Sonko promised to alter our circumstances. It has now been over 10 months since their arrival. I don’t see any real change”, he said.
Faye’s Senegal 2050 strategy emphasizes local production and energy-related investments, while aiming to increase average wages by 50% over the course of five years. In the months since he took office, the economy has rebounded somewhat. Senegal’s economy expanded by 7% in 2024, according to the International Monetary Fund, and by 10% in 2025. Sall’s new oil drilling projects, which were renegotiated and started under Faye’s leadership, are a major part of that expansion.
However, for many Senegalese like Mouhamadou, those proceeds have yet to translate into real job opportunities or physical money. The young job seeker said he is on the verge of giving up and that the administration should place economic performance first.
Source: Aljazeera
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