“Wade’s liberty yes; liberty for the Senegalese, certainly not”

Serigne Diagne works for an internet portal in Dakar.

I live in the Maristes district. It might be far from the statue, but you can see it for miles. What people find so outrageous about this statue is that it cost so much, while people are starving and lacking fresh water, and suffering serious flooding. The area where the statue is built, Ouakam, is incredibly poor. Women there sell themselves for two euros while a bunch of North Koreans are getting paid to build this statue. It's grim.

With the money they spent on this project we could have built social housing, installed flood damage and decontamination systems, constructed electricity pylons. Even worse; although Abdoulaye Wade is using public money to build the statue, he wants 35 percent of any profits it makes because he says he came up with the idea. [Senegalese sculptor] Ousmane Sow however says that is was his idea, so the latter probably isn't even true. Wade says his 35 percent will go towards his son Karim setting up a foundation, but nobody believes him. Plus, the architect being paid for the work is his friend Pierre Goudiaby Atepa, who acted as ‘special advisor' during the construction.

On top of all this, the statue is ugly. Although we're a secular country, the majority of the population is Muslim. And the area where it's built is particularly religious. Wade says the statue represents ‘African renaissance' but it's got nothing to do with Africa. It looks more communist. Wade compares it with the Statue of Liberty, but what liberty are we talking about? Wade's liberty yes; liberty for the Senegalese, certainly not."  

The computer generated statue

And the Web user-generated statue...

Web users have found something to laugh about at least - replacing the faces on the statue with those of others. In this picture: President Wade, his wife and his son Karim. This scenario is found particularly funny because it's largely agreed that Wade "carries" his son in his career (Karim Wade was named state minister of international cooperation, border development, aerial transport and infrastructure in May this year).

Wade responds to his critics

During a recent visit to the statue, President Wade answered to the criticisms: "This monument is not paid for by public money, but by the ground. [...The statue] "is an investment (...). Hundreds of thousands of tourists will come from all over the world to visit. The industry around it will bring a lot of money".