Letter to Hamidou Anne, captain of courage!
by 0 
These last words of Hamidou Anne, read at the beginning of the week, in the columns of the Quotidien have brought out in me a lot of sadness, but also a lot of pride. Hamidou Anne is this Senegalese intellectual of a courage of gods who, in the face of adversity and criticism, has never retreated. For the Republic, for justice, for the good of his People, he has always dipped his pen in order to exorcise our evils, to profess lucidity and restraint, to call for dialogue with others. In an era where insults, threats and mockery have taken precedence over sensible ideas and arguments in public debate, he has been able to stand as a champion of free speech and an adversary of all the intellectual terrorism enterprises that abound everywhere, but with a terrible voracity in our country.
Read the column – Souleymane Bachir Diagne is to be celebrated
« Your insults are our medals », these strong words from Hamidou Anne, many people who can express opinions in the public space have been able to appropriate it to make it a shield, even a shell against all the barbaric and below-the-belt attacks that we have seen emerge in our country since the crazy sequence of March 2021. When everyone was howling with the hyenas to refuse to face the truth, Hamidou Anne knew how to stand up with his ideas and go against the rules to give resonance to the true word and especially to the contrary word. It is in this beautiful land of democracy, in this country that has explored over the decades the model of a republican state in its finest and serving all, that a horde of fascists will impose a dictatorship of ideas and censorship of questions. This, until a few intellectuals who dare to get in the way of this wheel or have the courage to break it. With the total absence of many of our intellectuals from the public debate, despite all the manoeuvres that are detrimental to public freedoms and democracy that the new regime is relentlessly carrying out. We can say that time will have proven Hamidou Anne right for having called out all the impostures that have continued to bombard the previous supporters of our State in recent years with joint platforms, pamphlets and petitions. Today, their silence teaches us that blind partisanship, by entering our universities, our administrations and the world of the media, will end up causing the downfall of this country.
Read the column – Let’s toast to the ruin of a country
From Hamidou Anne, we will also remember that these chronicles have always been an intimate journey where he has given to everyone, a part of himself with a disconcerting sincerity. I have often read it by telling myself that he is too transparent, sincere and true for an audience that is often quite tortuous and ready to give our writings, the interpretation that best suits their emotions and affiliations of the moment. In « Traverses », Hamidou will have spoken for the little people, for the average Senegalese and any person with a humanist compassion on the fate of our peoples, on the organization of our living together and on the confrontation of our public authorities with their responsibilities in the noble mission of serving. He will have been able to build bridges and footbridges, contributing to a consolidation of the Senegalese secular model by not failing to compare it to the errors elsewhere.
This child of Pikine, proud son of the Senegalese Railways, will have made us travel for four years in these columns. He has shown us the extent of the possibilities for any citizen of the world. He has pleaded for the women, the oppressed, defended the widow and the orphan. He will have warned against the diabolical temptation of populism; criticized the excesses of all our modern Leviathans presiding over our common destinies, reminded the servants of our administration and the people of our professions of arms, the obligation of restraint and the imperative to put Senegal’s interests above all else. His voice will also have resonated internationally to give a certain idea of Senegal, both in ideas, discursive elegance and intellectual rigor which, in the current way of things, will end up being lost.
To Hamidou Anne, my sincere encouragement and thanks for helping to raise the debate of ideas so high in these columns, in all freedom and independence. Faced with the immensity of failure and the collapse of an entire Nation as he says so well, it is good that strong and courageous men get involved. The survival of the Republic, the preservation of freedoms and the perpetual plea for a frank and sincere humanism are worth all the sacrifices. Fair winds dear Hamidou, may you remain the exemplary helmsman in your new initiatives, in order to steer your boat to safety. You know the general interest, no need to tell you that your boat will be ours and that of many people nourished by the same values.
By Serigne Saliou DIAGNE / saliou.diagne@lequotidien.sn
- Translation by Ndey T. SOSSEH
