2007年VOA标准英语-Dakar Marks 150 Year Anniversary, Struggles to
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By Selah HennessyDakar
25 May 2007
Friday marks 150 years since French colonists1 first established a port in what is now the Senegalese capital of Dakar. Originally a small fishing village, Dakar has become the political, economic, and cultural center of the country. But with a population of over two million, the city is facing serious infrastructure2 problems and is struggling to maintain basic sanitation3 and transportation for its ever increasing population. For VOA, Selah Hennessy reports from Dakar.
Traffic hawkers in the streets of Dakar, Senegal
In his makeshift studio in a garden in the impoverished4 Dakar suburb of Pikine, artist Birame Ndiaye is painting a city scene with heavy brown and gray hues5.
Ndiaye says his art is inspired by the many decaying walls of Dakar; the deteriorated6 remnants of grand colonial buildings.
For him, the history of the walls, which are now crumbling7 and covered with flyers and graffiti, reflect the history and deterioration8 of Dakar.
He says it is through the walls that he understands the life of the city.
In his studio he is surrounded by dozens of paintings, all in the same heavy colors, depicting10 gray ghetto11 scenes and indistinct figures.
He says the figures depict9 the faceless, anonymous12 poor who struggle everyday in the ghettos of Dakar.
The population of Dakar is now over two million, having more than doubled in the last three decades.
Ndiaye says that as the population of Dakar has ballooned and the city has rapidly expanded, the poor have been pushed to the outskirts13 and forgotten.
Ibrahima Aidara, of Oxfam America, says Dakar is struggling to keep pace with the mass influx14 of people.
"You can see a lot of tension on land. Land is a big issue, because Dakar is a quiet island and it is very small comparatively to the population living within the city," he said.
He adds that Dakar does not have a sufficient infrastructure to provide health care, education, and water and sanitation facilities to the impoverished city suburbs.
"You can see in a lot of suburb areas in Dakar where people are getting, its unbelievable but true, people are getting water from wells, which is to me not acceptable," he said.
The economist15 Moubarak Lo says Dakar is now entering a new phase of its history, one in which the government is re-emerging and playing an active role in improving the city. He uses as an example the expansion of the corniche, a main road that runs the length of Dakar, along the coast.
"The government wants to promote development of hotels and conference facilities all along the corniche. And you have also extension of the roads, not new roads, but just there used to be say two lines, making them four, building many bridges, and also lighting16 more the city to make it in the standard of the big metropolises17 in the world."
| A scavenger at Dakar's dump collects trash to sell |
"You can build a new building, nice building, but if the jobs and other advancements19 do not follow, you will have a third world in a first world city," he said.
The artist Ndiaye says that though the suburbs of Dakar are marked by poverty, they are also filled with color and creativity, and may bring new life to Dakar.
