13 - Between Ethnic Memories & Colonial History in Senegal: The MFDC & the Struggle for Independence in Casamance

Summary

For the past twenty years, Senegal has faced an armed struggle for independence in the southern region of the Casamance, a struggle led by the local Joola (or Diola) ethnic group. Leaders of the Joola, and of some other local ethnic groups, claim to be ignored or oppressed by the central government, which is dominated by the northern Wolof group. Since the outbreak of the rebellion in 1982 and the reactivation of the Democratic Forces Movement of Casamance (MFDC), these new divisions and designations reflect a constant concern of the Senegalese government: to avert ‘war’ and to accord this major crisis the status of a ‘problem', a crisis manageable at the regional level, and of no consequence at the national level. Treating the worst crisis that Senegal has known since independence as a regional and not a national crisis seems to be an approach broadly shared by the political actors, public opinion, and the Senegalese media. This contains the Casamance crisis in an isolated region, little known by the 'nordistes’ (northerners, in particular the Wolof and the Haalpular). It also avoids its being exploited politically by the opposition or their trying to find solutions in a zone where persistent defiance is manifested by votes against the party in power. The opposite camp favours mobilizing the Casamance ‘elites’ to intervene from the clientelistic networks of the regime, in favor of the ruling party.

The presidential election campaigns of 1993 and February-March 2000 best illustrate the discourse about the Casamance in the Senegalese political arena. President Abdou Diouf began his re-election campaign in Ziguinchor in 1993, at a time when the insecurity had reached an intolerable threshold for the population, who were victims of a war waged with determination, constancy, and violence by the rebels and the army. The president-candidate's presence in the Casamance bore witness both to the state's consummate understanding of the situation, and to a reaffirmation of the authorities’ firm commitment to guarantee peace and the territorial integrity of the Senegalese nation. All of the other candidates passed through Casamance to put forward their solutions, highlight their contacts with some presumably influential members of the rebellion, and accuse the Senegalese government of being unable to find a political solution to the crisis. Abdoulaye Wade, in particular, played this card insistently.