Keur Massar is a developing suburb just a few miles outside of Dakar which, much like many other places in and around Dakar, was nothing but a small desert settlement just five years ago, but is now a sprawling forest of concrete houses. It was exciting to see the rapid development taking place in the town, especially as we had more of a personal connection to it as it is the site of Nafi's future home. Her home will be one of many that are rapidly being erected around the town, and will cater to her and her family's needs, giving them a more secure place to live than Goree as they are free from eviction at the whim of the government.
Sacre Coeur is a district in Dakar a veritable stone's throw away from the airport in which we landed and first set foot in the country (for many of us, the continent). This district is home to Fallou, a former adviser to the former Prime Minister of Senegal and current professor. His home, on the contrary to Nafi's, is already fully built and developed and the district in which it was built is already built up and inhabited, though still developing. Sacre Coeur is similar though to Keur Massar in its swiftness of development, having once been a thinly-populated desert region (Fallou's home being one of the only developments on the land) and now a sprawling mass of wall-sharing houses.
From our own observations and from what we've gathered from the information we received from Nafi and Fallou, we gained some valuable insight into the development of Dakar and Senegal at large. A cursory glance at both Keur Massar and Sacre Coeur, along with a knowledge of the differential trends in the development of the two areas, would show that the areas in and around Dakar are developing very rapidly, where the geography, society, and economy of certain areas come about one-hundred-eighty degrees in degrees in about a decade; entire neighborhoods exist, families make livings, and cultures develop in areas where not but a few years ago, there was only a few homes, some isolated families, and miles of desert land. However, this development seems to be moving much too rapidly and unsustainably. It seems that the goal for many of these areas is mainly to throw as many houses up as possible in as short of a time as possible. In Keur Massar, one can see this by the sheer number of houses that seemingly span miles of open land. In Sacre Coeur, this is evidenced by the loopholes that are exploited in HLM and SECAP policies, where the government loans a house to low income people, who then pay off the loan quickly in order to knock down the loaned house and build their own. People seem to just want to build houses and don't have much regard for the long-term consequences. In Keur Massar, standards and regulations are very loose, as the houses don't have any zoning regulations in place, and don't even have plans for waste water management. In Sacre Coeur, the government buildings are essentially being wasted as people never actually live in them and only knock them down to build new ones.
These problems can be stemmed to the government, which needs tighter standards and regulations and enforcement thereof. We'll talk about it in class because I'm being kicked out of the wifi room right now.
Monday, March 9, 2015
Sunday, March 8, 2015
Going to Gorée Island
Today was our group’s trip to Gorée
Island. It was a really beautiful island with much history behind it. This
island is now a national landmark that is governed by the Senegalese
government. The government redistributed the land to the natives of this land
and is now a place for tourism and a home for artists.
Throughout Goree Island, we were
able to explore the different ways people use their homes. This place is unique
in that it shows what happens when society adapts to buildings rather than the
other way around. This happened because the Senegalese government does not
allow new permanent buildings to be built but in exchange everyone there has a
100 year lease for free homes. The inhabitants are usually artists that make
their living through their creations and I learned first hand how persuasive
people can be and ended up buying many souvenirs.
The inside structure of homes is
straight to the point with few renovations. Since the inhabitants have adapted
to their surroundings, although not the most practical way to make use of
space, the necessities can be found within their homes. There is not much
walking space inside the homes and many spots within the homes are
multi-functional. The couches for example are also used as beds while bedrooms
and living rooms can be in the same room. Window use for air circulation is
scarcely found but on the day we visited, I did not find the room's air to be
stale due to the windy environment. The exterior view of homes is the
transition point between the outside world and inside atmosphere where shoes
are taken off and doors are left open at times. I thought mosquitos would be a
big problem because of this but I was actually surprised there were not as many
bugs out. I did see the dust to be a problem though because it was around the
middle of the day and one women already had a pile of sand in her home. The
exterior of homes can also have additions to the side that are temporary
because of the rules on the island. These additions are really needed but
unfortunately are unstable shacks that take away from the overall beauty of the
island. Improvements I see that can be made would be to continue with the use
of multifunctional furniture as it works well in China and in situations of
limited space. There is a big difference between some of the buildings on the
island as different ethnicities have their own style of architecture. One of
the buildings we visited was The House of Slaves. This is one of the oldest
houses on the island with the objective to show the terrors of the slave trade.
This building had two main sets of stairs with the right side being the way to
go up and the left set of stairs from the point of view when you come in was
used to go down. From this point, the slave owners picked out the slaves they
wanted. Afterwards, the slaves were led through the “Door of no return.”
The problem of connecting to the
city of Dakar is a major problem that needs to be addressed because
transportation is not too cheap and when the children have to go to school,
their only option is to head on to Dakar as the Island does not have the
schools that they need. The island has much more potential as a place of
tourism due to the history on the island although it has been improving over
the years according to Professor Kart. As of now, the island’s inhabitants could
be kicked off at any moment but for the time being, is a way of free housing for
the residents and a way to let culture thrive.
Talia's views on the Goree:
Some of the ways that we saw people trying to keep mosquitoes
out of their houses today included large curtains that covered all the
openings, such as doors and windows, and big screen doors. As Zeke pointed out
to us, you have to open and shut the doors quickly to make sure that no
mosquitos follow you into a home. This is clearly a modification to the
buildings that is to make them more comfortable (and safe) for the residents.
It was really interesting to see how the people on the
island adjusted to the existing structures. Seeing the wooden lofts and the
windows in the repurposed homes was really interesting. Also, I think it is
inefficient that the residents of the island are not allowed to build permanent
structures on the island. If they were able to build permanent structures,
there would be a lot less wooden buildings falling apart around the island and
it would be better to support the family compound living social structure if
they could build. That’s just my opinion though.
Thursday, March 5, 2015
Tuesday, March 3, 2015
Na nga def? Salaam alaikum! Bonjour!
Welcome to Senegal and to our research log. We will be posting photos, data, and research notes here for our Spring Break research trip in Dakar and Keur Momar Sarr, Senegal.
For more information, you can link to our group facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/LehighinSenegal2015/timeline?ref=page_internal
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