“Mor Lam’s Bone” is a theatrical play, a tale that is both tragic and comic by Birago Diop. This play tells the story of Mor Lam, a man who was buried alive because of his greed. One day, the village of Mor Lam, then in need of meat, receives a whole ox. The villagers slaughter it and share the meat. Mor Lam receives his share: a bone. While his wife Awa was cooking it, his friend, his more than brother, his Mbokki mbaar, Moussa visited him. Overwhelmed by the smell of the bone, Moussa then decided to stay.  He was counting on honour and hospitality to get himself invited. Not wanting to share his bone with his friend Moussa, Mor Lam asked his wife to announce his death. He thus believed that Moussa was going to leave, except that Moussa decided to stay at his friend’s funeral. Playing dead, Mor Lam was buried alive. His faithful friend Moussa married the widow and ate the bone. This tragicomedy was played out again, in 2023, in Senegal with this time Ousmane Sonko as the main actor, the leaders of the opposition of the time, of civil society and of the media playing the supporting roles, and the Senegalese people as deceived and cheated extras.

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However, it all began in March 2021 when a 20-year-old girl accused the leader of Pastef of repeated rape and death threats. The events took place in a brothel (Sweet Beauty) that was presented as a place of therapeutic care. After the twists and turns of the investigation (during which he refused the DNA test, mute as a carp in front of the complainant during the confrontation), it was time for the trial. The date chosen, in fact, is the Mor Lam of the present times who has tried all the languages ​​that a respectable politician should not use (Gatsa-Gatsa, dragging the President of the Republic like Samuel Doe, Thiooky fin…)

The factory of lies has been running at full speed.

Upon delivery of the verdict, Senegal experienced a wave of violence as destructive as his arrest in March 2021. Following his arrest for other acts (terrorism, attack on state security, criminal association in connection with terrorist organizations, etc.), Mor Lam, who is incarcerated in Sébikhotane prison, begins a hunger strike. In one of our chronicles on the channel « Cnm-Africa7 » on October 25, 2023, we were very skeptical about the information broadcast on the imaginary patient. We said in substance, pointing out the responsibility of the media in the great manipulation of Pastef: « A good part of the press took up the information on Sonko’s hunger strike without taking the most basic precautions of verification with the prison administration or the hospital. »

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Indeed, the lie factory was running at full speed. His lawyers, led by Ciré Clédor Ly, stirred up public opinion when Minister Ismaila Madior Fall informed that Sonko was “admitted to hospital following his request”. The lawyer even allowed himself to announce the worst: “Dehydration caused the onset of kidney failure and hypoglycaemia, due to his prolonged diet.”

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Human rights organizations and those who profit from the tension were involved. Alioune Tine, in a tweet, warns of the seriousness of Ousmane Sonko’s situation. « The information I am receiving from Sonko’s relatives, his lawyers and even doctors about Ousmane Sonko’s state of health is very worrying and could, if urgent decisions are not taken, endanger his life. Sonko and the political detainees must be released while there is still time, » he said. And his sidekick Seydi Gassama added: « The news we are receiving from lawyers and relatives of political prisoners on prolonged hunger strike is worrying. After the many deaths by gunfire during the demonstrations, the country could experience deaths of prisoners following hunger strikes, » he posted on his social network X (ex-Twitter).

Those who perpetuated this lie now owe the people an apology.

The political allies come into play, first with an open letter demanding an end to the imaginary hunger strike. Not without starting a tour of religious authorities to raise their awareness about the Sonko case. We remember their visit to the spiritual guide of the Mouride community, who even given Sonko dates and ordered him to stop his hunger strike. Back from the hospital, Aida Mbodj, in tears (crocodile tears?), warned: « We would have like to be turned away today as we were on Tuesday than to see him in this state. Ousmane Sonko can do nothing, recognizes no one. We could not even give him the dates of the Caliph General of the Mourides. We are calling on everyone. If I am told of his death, I would not be surprised. » Habib Sy added: « I would have liked not to see him. »

Sonko’s wives, under the leadership of Pape Alé Niang who acted more like a manipulator than a journalist, also played their part in this cinema. The Director General of RTS, in one of his publications this week on his Facebook page, reporting the words of Kaccor Bi Le Témoin, took a malicious pleasure in presenting himself as a professor of virtue in politics, after having been an associate professor in manipulation and propaganda. He calls for the restoration of public order after having been one of the great architects of chaos from 2021 to 2024. For Sonko, he relayed lies without shame and without scruples, publicly insulted our religious guides in these terms: « The religious authorities, supposed to guide and protect moral values, are complicit in a drift towards authoritarianism. » Pape Alé may be amnesiac, we are not!!

The association « Wa Sanar » which brings together former students of Gaston Berger University, even made an « appeal for the preservation of Ousmane Sonko’s life ». Unfortunately, it all turned out to be a sordid masquerade; the main actor having confessed. Without embarrassment, he admits to having orchestrated everything with the sole aim of evading justice.

This Sonko cinema is the cause of the death of more than 80 people (according to Pastef’s count), the mutilation of a huge number of people, the destruction of the University Library, the Faculty of Law, Cesti, a hundred public buildings, the destruction of many private properties, the unemployment of many workers, the degradation of Senegal’s image internationally… Political actors, members of civil society, academics, journalists, columnists who had maintained this lie, owe an apology to the Senegalese people today. Abdoulaye Wade has always said that he would not walk “on corpses to gain power”. Could Ousmane Sonko say so?

PS: Senegalese citizens have set up a platform called Responsibilities, Democracy and Freedom (2DL). Your servant is part of it, as is columnist Ameth Ndoye. The latter was arrested at the end of the press conference presenting the platform. He was immediately taken into custody. This is the place to give him our full support in the face of what seems to be an attempt to muzzle the opposition and press actors.

By Bachir FOFANA

  • Translation by Ndey T. SOSSEH / Serigne S. DIAGNE