African Renaissance Monument

One of the sights we visited on our tour of Dakar was the African Renaissance Monument. This huge monument is very controversial because of the money spent on it. The president, without the support of the people, ordered it built at the price of about $25 million dollars (billions in CFA). In a country with so much poverty, you can understand why there are questions surrounding this use of money. To compound matters, the work of building and maintaining the monument was not given to Senegalese people. Instead of creating jobs for its own citizens, the work was hired out to the North Koreans.

Lei (our tour guide):  “Africa is not a poor continent. We just have poor leaders.”

Mama Aida:  An eye roll and “It’s for the tourists.”

The monument itself is meant to represent the African man, woman, and child. The child is pointing to the West (to America) and is said to be pointing towards the “future.” Westernization has become synonymous with progress. Yet are we really the model the world should follow? True that a democratic model allows for freedom of speech and religion, two things I value highly. True that even poor Americans have a greater quality of life than many in third world countries. But as far as developed countries go, we are far from the top. Our health care system is ranked 37^th in the world, despite being #1 in health care spending per capita. Our school system is the same way. Money doesn’t seem to be our problem. Even when we don’t have the money, we continue to dump it into programs that aren’t working. Westernization can bring with it many great things, particularly for women – the end of female genital cutting, birth control, education, business opportunity, equality, choice. This monument, however, while pointing towards the “future” of Africa, still does not put women on par with men. Not only is the man much larger than the woman, her body language suggests utter devotion and commitment to him. While the man and the boy child gaze towards the West, the woman is gazing at the man, suggesting that she does not look to the future, but will simply follow his lead. So what? She will gain opportunity as he allows her to? She will be educated as he gives his permission?

Ultimately, I find this statue a bit ridiculous. Westernization is not necessarily something to be worshiped. Letting the men lead and discounting the women won’t get a country very far. And there are (as usual) far better uses for that kind of money. Hard to argue with the view though.