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SENEGAL
FROM SURVIVAL... TO THE SOCIAL ALTERNATIVE

During the Freinet congress which took place in Lyons from the 22nd to the 24th August we met up with Moussa Diop on behalf of Le Monde Libertaire. Moussa Diop is a street activist in the poor quarters of Dakar in Senegal. He is also active in various district associations especially in Tivaouane (a town in the region of Thiès, 92km from Dakar) in Senegal within the framework of AUPEJ (Useful Action for Children and Youth). These associations concentrate on the social alternative and popular education. In addition he is active within the trade unions. Fresh from these various activities he speaks to us about living conditions in the region, the struggles which are taking place but above all of the numerous initiatives centred around the notion of self-management which have appeared in response to the poverty and degradation both material and cultural in that country.

LML: Can you tell us something about your activities?

MD: To begin with, I work as a street educator among those young people who one might call the excluded, the marginalised both in urban and in rural areas. But I am mainly active in the poor quarters of Dakar such as Arafat, Guèbaye and also Parcelles Assainies. In these districts, uncontrolled urbanisation has spread widely and we find a significant section of the population which is forced to face up to basic questions of survival. So I organise activities in order to allow for economic survival which come under the umbrella of small jobs ranging from small scale trading to rubbish collection and recycling and including such things as car washing and domestic work. In the district where I work the only young people who have any work are employed on a daily basis by industrial companies and they have to leave their homes very early in the day. This brings with it its own problems because they are forced to abandon their children all day. They in turn find themselves alone and are often found on the wrong side of the law. This is why we find so many children in the special education centres or in detention of some kind. In the poor quarters there is a real problem relating to behaviour and schooling.

With this as the background, and because there has been a veritable disengagement by the state in the education sector, both at the level of initiatives and organisation, we have turned to setting up popular education initiatives. My aim is to get in among the people in the poorer districts in order to develop activities which answer needs and thus allow for survival. I try to encourage the people to organise themselves or rather manage themselves so that they can gain control of the activities they initiate. The initiatives we have started go from schooling to professional training and include taking responsibility for health problems. We are trying to organise a real social, alternative education based around centres which are managed collectively at the heart of the poor districts.

ML: How did the state's disengagement in all this come about?

MD: Whereas in France it is the state which is at the heart of projects such as this, with the structural adjustment policies dictated by the IMF and the World Bank the state disengaged from all those services which one might consider to be social. Education and health budgets were drastically reduced. This process has been happening slowly since 1979 which was when the Senegalese state declared itself bankrupt. With this bankruptcy we have seen a process of loss in every sector... no more social security, no more guaranteed jobs at the end of professional training, no rights to a health service... everything has become very expensive. Then the state put forward the idea of privatising all these sectors. From that point onwards there arose a veritable movement at the level of unions, political parties and associations to oppose this move towards privatisation and to launch other initiatives. We, the workers in the education sector, went to the people in these poor districts, we spoke to them, shared our thoughts, listed all the needs of the district and we decided to maintain the structure in another form as a district centre whilst taking advantage of the existing buildings and resources. When I say 'in another form' I am referring to what I was talking about earlier that is a collective form of self-management. Each inhabitant who joins the centre brings his or her own talents. We have set up workshops for mechanics, carpentry and also electricity in order to address the needs of the people. From the off, it was those who were using the workshops who were taking charge of the professional training of children in these fields. Our objective is to launch a process so that local inhabitants gain real control over their lives so they are no longer simply the objects of an economic and political programme but rather citizens of their town. We are working for a situation where the people manage their districts by taking responsibility for all the social questions which arise in them.

ML: Can you tell us something of the 'Women's Bank'?

MD: The 'Women's Bank' was launched in Dakar around the traditional principle of the tontine. The project took two years to get off the ground but today there are 40 counters throughout the country with its headquarters in Dakar. All the women in the poor districts of Senegal who start such initiatives, in the form of savings or credit, federate together into this Bank. It has become a tool for all other initiatives. Moreover with the Bank in the background people are trying to inject a little dynamism into the area. People are setting up what they call Local Development Committees (LDC) which we are seeking to network to each other. We now realise that we need a power base which favours the people.

Also we would like to see, along with the setting up of forms of self-finance, the reinforcement of the people's ability to analyse and criticise, to raise a level of consciousness. By experiences such as the 'Women's Bank' people realise that problems linked to poverty and indeed poverty itself are not unavoidable but arise from policies that have been implemented. It is the government which has been in power in Senegal for 50 years which is responsible. Things progress slowly because not everyone is at the same level of consciousness in the movement and people don't always see eye to eye. We need therefore a long-term strategy.

To come back to the experience of the 'Women's Bank'. The beginning came with the whole thing concerning representation at the heart of society. These credit banks were first set up to finance things like traditional and religious fetes. Since then they have gone on to take responsibility for a far wider range of activities especially everyday matters. In addition to the banks we have now seen the setting up of commercial co-operatives to allow people access to commodities, especially those which are not readily available because of speculation. Often, on the markets, in order to put pressure on prices, traders store commodities. This is why the co-operative has bought back essential goods in bulk in order to avoid speculation. In addition to this, it has freed women from the all too many sharks who prey on the markets during the day with loans at a high rate of interest. The credit counters also serve to finance projects which have been instigated by the women. And, what is of great importance, if a woman sees her project fail and the management committee (that is the collective management which runs the counter) verifies that this failure is not the individual in questions responsibility but is because of the economic situation there is no debt vis-à-vis the Bank. The financial loss is borne by the collective. There is real self-discipline. In a similar vein we have also set up a mutual health system based on this model. With a membership subscription of 100 CFA per month (approx. 7USD) women obtain the right to health care for themselves and their children in the medical centres with whom we have formed agreements.

ML: How do these credit counters work?

MD: Only women get involved in the management of the credit counters. Women chosen by other women. One must bear in mind that in Senegal, it is mainly women who ensure that the wherewithal for daily survival is in place. This is why it is so important to finances what they are planning to do. Thanks to these credit counters we have gone, in two years, from initiatives for economic survival to real economic initiatives. This is why financial aid is of such importance to projects like the district centres. When a leather or sewing workshop in a district centre makes products, within the framework of professional training for children, these are put up for sale in all the co-operatives supported by the counter. In this way we can set up popular chains of distribution for leather and wooden goods for example. Its a real political event. The setting up of these credit counters is in a way a response to the globalisation of the rich and the bourgeoisie offering a globalisation of the people. It is important for us to make these districts into viable economic spaces and not areas of marginalisation and conflict.

Le Monde Libertaire - Sept 1998
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SENEGAL FROM SURVIVAL... TO THE SOCIAL ALTERNATIVE

SENEGAL
FROM SURVIVAL... TO THE SOCIAL ALTERNATIVE