Occupy Wall Street Hits Senegal? Printemps Arabe En Afrique?

A few years ago, Roland and I carefully planned out a trip to Mali-- Bamako, Ségou, Djenne, Mopti, Bandiagara, Dogon Country, and Timbuktu. We missed most of the country of course; we only had a month. But we saw a lot of Mali and a lot of variation. On the way there I stopped in Dakar for a week. I loved it and Roland decided to stop there on the way back. Were we in Senegal? Of course. Dakar is the capital and largest city (population of the metro area is almost 2.5 million). But there are over 13,000,000 people there and cosmopolitan, connected Dakar has little to do with the interior. When you've been to Kédougou, Matam, Tambacounda, Saint-Louis and Ziguinchor you can say you've seen Senegal.

So today I said to Roland, "let's forget going to Russia this summer and just hop on a plane and head for Senegal next week for a few weeks instead. There's an election coming up and I'd like to blog about it." Roland's up for anything. Lately he's been pushing Ethiopia, Namibia, a return trip to Myanmar and Laos. When I mention Paris, Tuscany, Amsterdam or anyplace where normal people want to go, he always counters with something like Tashkent or Mozambique. But he follows the news of the countries we've been to pretty closely and he was well aware that the elections I wanted to cover in Senegal were as likely as not to lead to a civil war or, at least, widespread violence. In fact, it's starting already, with rioting in the capital. Things got off to a bad start when Aboulaye Wade, the unpopular ancient despot-- age unclear-- decided he was taking the unprecedented step of running for a third term-- barring the country's most famous person, international music star Youssou N'dour, from running and barring demonstrations of an Occupy Dakar movement (Y'en a Marre, roughly, "We're Fed Up"). Friday fighting in Dakar intensified.

Senegalese police engaged in running battles with protesters firing tear gas and rubber bullets in central Dakar Friday to head off a planned protest against President Abdoulaye Wade's third-term bid.

Burning tyres, debris and rocks littered the streets around Independence Square, which police had sealed off to prevent the rally.

Riot police on trucks and foot chased protesters to prevent them from converging there, firing rubber bullets, water cannon and volleys of tear gas throughout the afternoon.

Cat-and-mouse battles continued into the night in the seaside capital, leaving several people including a western photographer and local journalist injured, AFP reporters witnessed.

A policeman was seen firing his gun during a scuffle at the Sandaga market, and an AFP journalist found a spent 9mm bullet casing in the street after protesters lobbed rocks at the police during the ongoing battles.

One police officer fell off a truck after being hit by a rock.

It was the fourth day the opposition had called for mass protests in the capital and a fresh rally has been called for Saturday.

The chaos at the market was sparked by the arrival of music superstar Youssou N'dour.

N'dour has been blocked from running in the election himself but has attended most protests and is fiercely critical of 85-year-old Wade.

Police fired tear gas at least twice at the car carrying N'dour as he was surrounded by fans and dozens of journalists.

When at one point he made as if to get out of his car a police officer in a nearby pick-up shouted at him "Get out of here" as his men launched tear gas.

Police briefly detained opposition presidential candidate Cheikh Bamba Dieye as he attempted to join the protest.

Normally bustling, central Dakar cleared out ahead of the protest Friday afternoon, with shopowners closing up and curious residents and office workers looking on from buildings lining the teargas-filled streets.

With N'dour blocked from running, the 13 opposition parties haven't settled on a consensus candidate to take on Wade, who probably has little chance to win in Dakar but can make enough promises to win in the rural hinterlands, that parts of Senegal few of us ever see. Oh, yeah, Roland said no.