IDEX Program Officers, Kat and Vini are in Africa visiting IDEX partners in South Africa. But they also spent one week in Senegal and met with a number of NGOs there to explore the possibility of IDEX expanding our work to Senegal. Vini recently sent us more details about Senegal and specifically Casamance.Very few people outside West Africa actually know about the painful Casamance conflict. Fewer still in the "international community" have done much to build peace in the region. It is the longest running armed struggle in West Africa with over 20 years of conflict. For more information read The Casamance Conflict: Out of Sight Out of Mind.
The 2 sides, the separatist group MFDC (Movement of Democratic Forces of the Casamance) and the Senegalese government, have been fighting over the question of independence for the Casamance region. In the process they have impacted the people of Senegal, Guinea-Bissau and the Gambia, the two neighboring states. Tens of thousands have been killed, almost 80,000 displaced as per numbers from Caritas and UNHCR. Before the separatist movement in Independent Senegal, the region was a colonial battlefield for the French and the Portuguese.
Landmines are still strewn all over the region including the once beautiful national parks. All sides heap blame on each other. Not until 2004 did relative calm begin to return to the region. The impetus for peace came from the people of Casamance. They wanted to bring home their relatives and rebuild the region.
It is in this context that we get to meet with USOFORAL, AJAC and AJAEDO, 3 distinct groups that work in Enampor and Oussaye areas of Casamance. Of the people we meet most are elders. They had returned home in the past decade, having longed to be reunited with their land for over 30 years. They now teach the younger women and men of the region forgotten sustainable agriculture practices, using land and cultivation as concrete peace building methods.
The drive from Ziguinchor to Oussaye is lush, past the Casamance River and through orchards of orange, mangoes, palm oil and papayas. It’s beauty disguising a bloody history.
Chartered airplanes from all over Europe fly into the beaches of Cap Skirring, just an hour's drive from this impoverished region where recently returned displaced people are slowly but certainly rebuilding their homes, communities and lives. Two separate worlds exist in Casamance - the gorgeous luxury resorts of Cap nestled amongst landlessness, broken and displaced families from 3 decades of war that the people of the region never want to encounter again.
Labels: AJAC, AJAEDO, Casamance, Senegal, USOFORAL
After leaving AJAC we met with another community-based organization in Ziguinchor. The Regional Committee of Solidarity for Women in Peace in Casamance, USOFORAL, is founded and led by women. The acronym USOFORAL, means "Let's join hands" or "mutual help", in the local Diola language.We traveled with USOFORAL's coordinator, Cisse, to a rural community called Enampor, 40km outside of Ziguinchor. Enampor is part of the rural district of Niassya, a subdivision of Ziguinchor. This is where USOFORAL has supported the construction of a building that has become the main women center for Enampor.
The president of each woman's group meets monthly and before this building, they didn't have a common place where they could meet. Now, at this center, Vini and I were invited to meet with the presidents of more than 20 groups in 14 villages for one of their monthly meetings.
After we introduced ourselves the women told us about their different activities. They are involved in several income-generating projects such as textile dyeing to produce clothes for the local ceremonies, rice farming in the mangrove swamps, civil rights awareness, and savings and credit groups. Most recently, they have created a community health insurance fund. All the presidents spoke highly of the support they've received through USOFORAL. They emphasized that because USOFORAL listens to their needs USOFORAL is able to provide them with relevant support and technical assistance.
It was a long meeting because of the multiple translations from English to French to Diola to French to English. Whew! At the end of the meeting the women did a rhythmical routine of rubbing their hands, saying in Diola "It's rumbling" 3 times and then they clapped loudly and announced "It's done." This reflects their work in the communities and the way change happens with a gradual rumbling. It was very empowering to see them do this united. After the meeting, several women got on their motorcycles to go home, while others took a ride with the USOFORAL van.
On the way back to the office Cisse told us how she got involved with USOFORAL. She's originally a teacher who came to Cap Skirring, a tourist beach town in Casamance, to promote education for children. She arrived in Casamance just before the conflict started. She and 3 peers (who later became the co-founders of USOFORAL) wondered about the role of women in the conflict and decided to organize a forum of women to discuss the issue.
This led to the initiation of USOFORAL. Gradually they became more involved in the Casamance peace process. They encouraged conflict-resolution together with income-generating activities as they recognized that these are important elements to building a peaceful society.
It was wonderful to meet many energized women and good to get to know Cisse. Cisse invited us to a conflict-resolution workshop where different community members give their perspective on the challenges and local conflicts they face in their communities. USOFORAL staff facilitates the workshop. We were excited to be invited but unfortunately had to decline due to our hectic schedule.
It's been exciting to learn so much about the organizations working Casamance, Senegal. Many villagers who left Casamance due to the conflict are now returning. All the organizations we've visited are helping people develop skills. This not only encourages other to return, but they provide people with the means to stay by securing a source of income. We've learned so much, yet there is so much more to learn. We’ve appreciated visiting each group and hope to visit them again.
Kat.