In September 2017, the statue of Louis Faidherbe, erected since 1886 in the square of the same name in Saint-Louis (Senegal), fell to the ground. This symbolic fall sparked a national debate about this increasingly contested monument. Interview with Khadim Ndiaye, philosopher and historian, member of the Senegalese Collective against the celebration of Faidherbe.
What does Louis Faidherbe represent today in Senegal? What types of buildings bear his name?
A number of buildings bear the name of Faidherbe. This is particularly the case in Saint-Louis where there is a statue of him as well as a square and a bridge named after him. All these places were “honoured” by Emmanuel Macron during his visit to Senegal in February 2018.
There is also an Avenue Faidherbe in Dakar and, I believe, streets named after him in cities such as Kaolack and Thiès. In Dakar, there are a hotel and a pharmacy named after the former governor. It is also worth noting that there used to be a Faidherbe brass band and a Lycée Faidherbe in Saint-Louis. The latter became the Cheikh Omar Foutiyou Tall high school in 1984.
All these buildings reflect the “Faidherbe myth” that ran for a long time in Senegal. Until recently, Faidherbe was treated as a sort of ancestor (“Maam Faidherbe”, as he was called) or even as a protector who had to be “greeted” at each entrance or exit of the city of Saint-Louis.
But this myth has now been shattered. Thanks to excellent awareness-raising work on social networks, young people are aware of the negative impact of his actions. And they are always shocked whenever they find out that his hands are stained with the blood of their ancestors.
The awareness-raising work as well as the strong mobilisation against his statue have greatly damaged his image. The proof: his statue, which was toppled last September and was then put back on its feet by the mayor of Saint-Louis, has been sprayed with paint and continues to be denounced.
I can cite other instances of this ‘divorce’ of the Senegalese from Faidherbe. For example, the case of a friend who sought to organise a cultural event on the Island of Gorée: he encountered strong opposition when people found out that participants would be hosted at the Faidherbe Hotel. Some people refused to participate in the event because of the name of the hotel; others argued that attending the event would be an opportunity to push the manager to change the name.
I also have a friend from Dakar who recently visited Saint-Louis. She took photos all over the island, except near the statue of Faidherbe. She told me that there was no way she was going to be photographed on the Faidherbe Square.
All these examples are very revealing of the current climate. Of course, there are still some nostalgic people from the colonial era, but the reality is that Faidherbe is now contested in Senegal.
When did the first individual or collective mobilisations against Faidherbe take place in Senegal? What were the main actions?
As early as 1978, the well-known Senegalese writer and filmmaker Sembene Ousmane deplored the presence of the statue of Faidherbe in a letter addressed to President Léopold Sédar Senghor. He saw it as a provocation and an attack on the moral dignity of Senegal’s national history. “Is it not a provocation, an offence, an attack on the moral dignity of our national history to sing the Lat Joor anthem under Faidherbe statue? Why is it that, for all the time we have been independent in Saint-Louis, Kaolack, Thiès, Ziguinchor, Rufisque, Dakar, etc., our streets, roads, boulevards, avenues or squares are still bearing the names of old and new colonialists? Has our country not produced women and men who deserve the honour of having secondary schools, theatres, universities, streets and avenues named after them?”
In 2014, a blogger from Dakar who was visiting Saint-Louis found the inscription on the statue scandalous: “To its governor L. Faidherbe, Senegal grateful.” He had launched an online campaign to demand the removal of the statue. Since then, many Facebook pages have been created that denounce the statue. There is the page “Let’s toppled down this shameful statue” (“Déboulonnons cette statue honteuse”) for example.
A collective (Collectif sénégalais contre la célébration de Faidherbe) of which I am a member was created to campaign against the statue and the names of streets and buildings given to Faidherbe. An open letter was sent to the mayor of Saint-Louis du Sénégal to list and denounce Faidherbe’s many crimes.
As you mentioned, the Lycée Faidherbe in Saint-Louis was renamed in 1984. Why was this? Why was this not the case for the other buildings?
This “Faidherbe” high school was renamed Cheikh Omar Foutiyou Tall in the mid-1980s. This was a strong symbolic act, because this school was the first created by France in Africa! But at the time there was no strong campaign against Faidherbe. The changes of street names in Saint-Louis were part of the ordinary council’s work. The mayor used this authority with no other motives. Hence the changes of street and building names were not underpinned by any self-affirming or anti-colonial politics. This has changed with the multiple requests from citizens that we see today.
Can you tell us what happened around the statue of Louis Faidherbe in Saint-Louis in 2017?
The statue of Faidherbe fell in September 2017 following, apparently, heavy rains that fell on the city. The people who had been demanding the removal of the statue for several years celebrated the victory even though they would have liked to remove it themselves.
The jubilation could be felt on social networks. The fall of the statue meant the recovery of a lost imagination and the end of the colonial hegemony that still existed through the presence of certain symbols. Many said they wanted to reconnect with their history by celebrating their worthy and valiant forgotten heroes. A torturer could not be a hero in their eyes.
On the other side, there were some nostalgic people who argued that “taking down a statue is erasing history” and that “Faidherbe is part of the history of Saint-Louis”. Mr Abdou Aziz Guissé, the head of the cultural heritage, argued that the statue, whether positively or negatively charged, is part of the architectural and historical heritage and, as such, should be maintained not to celebrate colonisation but as a duty of memory.
It is on this basis that the mayor of Saint-Louis, Mansour Faye, without consultation, took the decision to put the statue back in its place, thus generating a strong outcry.
See: Open letter from Khadim Ndiaye to the mayor of Saint-Louis (7 September 2017)
Oddly enough, the statue of Faidherbe was put back up under heavy police escort. This in itself is a contradiction. In what country in the world is a statue of a hero installed or reinstalled under police escort? In principle, the hero should bring joy, we may hold a party to celebrate him or her. Isn’t this police escort a good illustration of the disavowal of the statue?
What do you think of the fact that there are streets, subways, schools and statues in France that pay tribute to Faidherbe?
This brings us face to face with an interesting paradox: the executioner of entire populations in Africa is celebrated as a hero in France. Transforming Blaise Pascal’s quote, one could say: “Hero below the Pyrenees, torturer beyond. Faidherbe certainly fought the Prussians for the benefit of France, but in France we seem to forget that General Faidherbe was the great actor in a colonial enterprise that was conspicuous for its horrors.
I think that the French, as the writer Léonora Miano so aptly put it, must accept that certain references of the Republic are torturers. Faidherbe not only sent soldiers to massacre populations, he himself participated in the murder of hundreds of people and the burning of several villages in Senegal. These documented facts are available to any French person who wants to learn about the general’s bloody exploits in Senegal. This will allow them to put into perspective the vision they still have of Faidherbe.
Do you think these symbols should be removed or do you see another solution?
In Senegal, some people have proposed to put the statue of Faidherbe in a museum dedicated to colonial objects. This museum could be visited by teachers and their students as part of courses on colonial history. This solution could also be a way of satisfying those nostalgic for colonisation. There are indeed some who still glorify the colonial past.
Beyond Faidherbe, in this interconnected world, the question arises as to who really deserves to be celebrated. Can one be half a hero? Should an individual considered a torturer by people in other countries be glorified within a country? Shouldn’t the wounded memory of this being-other who does not live with us be taken into account? This is a question that the world must answer.
Today, there is a debate running through many countries about statues of controversial figures. This debate has become more acute since the Charlottesville protests in the United States against the removal of the statue of Confederate General Robert Lee. There have been protests and petitions around the world against figures and symbols of racism or colonisation. Statues of Gandhi, the apostle of non-violence, Cecil Rhodes, Leopold II, Horatio Nelson, among others, are strongly contested. Just recently, in Barcelona, the statue of Antonio López, a businessman who got rich from the slave trade, was removed.
We are witnessing a paradigm shift. In 2015, in the UK, students demanded and obtained a decolonisation of university education in order to give the perspective of the colonised. I personally believe that the time has come to listen to the voices of those organisations and citizens’ movements around the world that are challenging a certain conception of history that gives pride of place to torturers, racists, and the actors of colonisation, and that engraves controversial historical figures in stone or bronze.