Not So Silent Night

If any of you have heard the BBC or other news coverage of my central city-point, Kedougou-- don’t panic..

The truth is, the day I left for vacation, things did get a little hairy. Mostly youth rioted over the fact that with all Kedougou’s mining business boom, it’s unfair that they’re not seeing a penny (or CFA) of it. True. The government down here is some mixture of disorganization, apathy, and corruption in getting Kedougou’s residents the working papers required to become a mining employee. Instead, the already-wealthier Dakar-people or even Guineans and Malians get the jobs. This is unfair, but unfortunately the resistance resorted to pointless and cruel violence. With gasoline, they burned down every government building, the police families’ living quarters; they threatened the doctor’s family and threw bolders in the hospital walls; they burned buildings and threatened Wolofs in general. (Wolofs as an ethnic group are wealthier than the Pulaars who originate in this, the poorest part of the country.) Police reactiojn to this was forceful, with gunfire, Martial’s law, a curfew, extra forces flown in, tank patrol… There were two official deaths, 4 estimated ones. The organizers fled, but several participants have received harsh prison sentences—some even sent to Goree Island.

The other volunteers I left here had to stay in the Peace Corps hoise throughout the gunfire, reviewing escape-by-river strategies. The next day they were ordered to evacuate and have a merry evacuee Christmas.

Now, although no one’s problems are solved, all is quiet again.