SET SETAL: I'm back in Dakar and loving it, in spite of the heat and the power cuts. If I saw you over the summer, then you probably have already heard about the Set Setal that we did in my quartier (neighborhood). Either way, here is the story in full...

Set Setal
Last year my fabulous fellow Barnard alum and roommate at the time, Nomaduma Masilela (the notorious 'Duma' I've referred to in past posts), received a fortuitous grant to research what is called Set Setal in Dakar. Set Setal was a Senegalese youth movement in the late 80s that was born out of a widespread discontent with poor or nonexistent public services (such as garbage collection) and dirty politics, among many other factors. Young people took to the streets, not with sticks or guns or banners, but with brooms. They held what are essentially block parties to clean up entire neighborhoods. Local artists and arts associations emerged from the woodwork and painted elaborate murals featuring everything from the statue of liberty, to Disney characters, to public health guidelines. The movement went beyond the physical realm; it was also about cleansing leadership and cleansing self. One can still see remnants of the movement today on the fading public art throughout the city. Unfortunately, it is less common to see Set Setals organized today, though the poor public services and political corruption have not really changed.

Ouakam
Our Dakar neighborhood is called Ouakam. Supposedly it used to be a Baobab forest with lush gardens rich with all kinds of fruit during the rainy season. My little corner of Ouakam, Cité Assemblée, is nestled between the airport wall (far away from plane traffic to avoid the noise but close enough to the towers to always have the light) and les Mammelles (Dakar's only two hills that resemble breasts jutting out of the coastal landscape). On one hill sits a quaint lighthouse, which is still functioning. On the other, President Wade is building a hideous statue that is supposed to represent 'The African Renaissance' (more on hideous statue in a future blog). Apparently our cité was named after the National Assembly because this plot of land was supposed to be dedicated to housing assembly members. However, according to my expert on Ouakam history, friend and neighbor Papis Diouf, you could not pay some people to live here at that time (late 80s). Ouakam was said to be home to all kinds of evil spirits - I'm not sure if this was because of the Baobab forest (Baobabs are often spirit-inhabited) or just the fact that it was somewhat virgin territory compared to the southern parts of the city 'developed' during colonial times. Now it seems that Ouakam has been declared 'spirit free' because it is the coolest place to live.

ASC Doomu Penc Mi
Association Sportif and Culturel (ASC) is a community youth organization dedicated to hosting social/cultural events, organizing elaborate sports competitions, and encouraging community service. Every neighborhood has at least one. Ours is called Doomu Penc Mi, which literally translates from Wolof to Children of the Assembly. Our local ASC currently has a budget of $20.

The Idea
Rewind to mid-June. We were doing some final end-of-year reporting in the office before closing shop for the summer. Duma was completing her research. ASC, which we didn't know much about at the time, had just done a blood drive after a series of postponed, canceled, and other wise deferred projects. Duma and I had long been toying with the idea of doing something small in the neighborhood - something resembling a Set Setal, but not quite one. We were thinking that we could perhaps buy some paint and do a mural ourselves on the wall adjacent to our apartment. While we were at it we could clean up the trash that had been accumulating there and maybe rearrange the pile of random rocks that lay against the wall into a cute design. It was kind of silly of us. We thought keeping it small and limited to the confines of our doorstep would prevent us from being labeled as presumptuous outsiders who sweep into a neighborhood just for the sake of a project. We underestimated our own ability to become part of the community. I went to talk to Oumy, my downstairs neighbor and sister to my absentee landlord. Oumy is like a cool aunt in this home away from home. I went to make sure that our plans were okay, that we weren't going to be reprimanded for painting a private wall. I left with a much bigger vision - why not clean up something more substantial, paint something bigger? In front of the airport wall there is a canal that has become the neighborhood garbage dump. It smells, it’s unsanitary and is a blight on our public space. If we’re going big, why not that big?

Community Organizers

First we met with M. Pape Ndiaye, a very well respected community organizer in Cité Assemblée. He invited us to attend a neighborhood council meeting and present our idea to the leaders of the community. They were very receptive. Then Oumy sent three very entrepreneurial and dedicated ASC members to help us: Papis, Mustafa and Malang. Just to give you a sense of what I mean by entrepreneurial, every fall these three (ages ranging from 23-32) pool their savings, seek investors and spend about $2,000 travelling to the interior of the country and buying sheep. They buy a herd at a minimal wholesale price, pay for a truck to bring them back to Ouakam, pay for fodder, and set up shop around the corner from my apartment just in time for pre-Tabaski season. One need only spend a few days in Dakar during pre-Tabaski season to know that the mouton industry is quite lucrative. Anyway, Papis, Malang and Mustafa were invaluable additions to the Set Setal posse (as we later termed ourselves). They know pretty much every single person in the neighborhood and used that to take Duma and me door to door with our little Set Setal flyers to raise awareness about the big event. We asked families to come with brooms and to help provide water for those who would work during the day. We went downtown and bought paints and rollers. We visited the two Chefs de Quartier (community representatives) to get their blessings. Pape Ndiaye interfaced with the Ouakam Mayor’s office and got permission to use wheelbarrows, shovels, gloves and brooms that they had in stock. We rented a tent for the older people to sit in the shade and still feel a part of the action. We hired a neighborhood DJ. It became official.

The Big Day

June 28, 2009 - 8:00am: We met Oumy, Mustafa, Papis and Malang on the street and carted the materials over to the site in wheelbarrows from Mustafa’s house, where they had been stored overnight. The guys went to get the tent and set it up. Oumy and I made several attempts to wake up the DJ. We put on our gloves and got to work, a little worried that no one else would show up. An hour or so later the airport wall was bustling with activity. Women showed up and jumped into the canal with us, brooms in hand. The elders sat with the young children under the tent and watched approvingly. The men catapulted heaps of trash from out of the canal into a giant heap to be collected later. Girls walked around with thermoses of ice-cold water to offer folks who were working. Local artists whom we had invited got to work on the wall with the paint we had purchased. I’d say close to one hundred people were out there throughout the day. At around 11am the DJ finally arrived (it took about 20 minutes for some kids to cart his speakers over from down the street). We had planned to work until 2pm, the hottest part of the day, but people stayed beyond that point to see that the job was done. The end product is phenomenal. The canal is absolutely emptied of trash – kids were running through it. We cleaned the other side of the canal and painted a series of colorful murals. The two Chefs de Quartier came to show their support and, near the end of all of the work, the Mayor of Ouakam showed up! It was a good opportunity for community activists to propose long-term goals and show how this day of work was but a short-term ‘band-aid’ on a larger public services problem. Everyone was game. Band-aid or not, it was a beautiful day.

For images of the Set Setal click here.