Senegalese people exhumed a body, burned it and sang and danced around the pyre. The images are unbearable, and I think I have rarely seen anything so awful. Under the pretext that the deceased was a homosexual, onlookers set themselves up as virtue policemen to decide who has the right to be buried or not in a cemetery which, as a reminder, falls under the jurisdiction of the municipality. The words of the Kaolack prosecutor are true: this act is pure and simple “barbarity”.  The opening of a judicial investigation is beneficial to track down the perpetrators and their alleged accomplices and present them before a judge. In 2023, in Senegal, a country of great intellectuals, artists, jurists, this act of such cruelty, which recalls the dark hours of the Middle Ages, has just been committed by people who, aware that nothing will happen to them, filmed their sinister crime. Senegalese Justice is often criticized, in a well-founded or unfounded manner, but it will be expected again on this matter for which it will have to go to the end, at the risk of further undermining its credibility and giving priority to the most barbaric actions.

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Cheikh Fall was a man. He had a first name, a last name and a family. He has a mother whose suffering I cannot imagine. It was not just an alleged sexual orientation as relayed by the media, desecrating the memory of a deceased person who cannot be removed from the immensity of divine mercy. How can simple sinners arrogate to themselves unlimited rights over men, sinners like them? These people have not read much of the Holy Scriptures to desecrate the body of a man who has barely returned to his Creator. “Surely We have honored the sons of Adam. We transported them on land and sea, provided them with good things as food, and We clearly preferred them to many of Our creatures.” (17:70)

I must confess that if Léona Niassene’s act shocks me, it does not surprise me in the least. For decades, an obscurantist groundswell has run through our country amid general indifference, notably that of the State of Senegal which does nothing to preserve and strengthen republican secularism in the face of its adversaries who swarm in all segments of society. The State is not taking any radical measures to fight against two great scourges which threaten our living together: populism and Islamism.

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Dangerous associations like Jamra and And Samm Jikko Yi have repeatedly attacked fundamental freedoms and threatened the dignity of citizens, intellectuals and artists without the State stopping them. These fundamentalist movements and their allies, irreducible opponents of secularism, pushed the government back during the 2016 referendum, which wanted to include secularism in the eternity clauses. Faced with pressure from the Islamists, the Executive unfortunately backed down. However, with each step backwards of Democrats and Republicans concerned about freedom, the obscurantist camp advances and nibbles away at our freedoms. Their pharmacies have fertilized young people nursed in Islamism who also, in a recent press release made public, wish to govern the clothing of female students at the University of Saint-Louis. What was the reaction of the Rectorate and the Ministry to this new self-proclaimed morality police? There have been none to my knowledge.

The horror at Léona Niassene is not an isolated act, it is the extension of a culture of intolerance and disorder and a feeling of power of fundamentalist lobbies in the face of the weakness of the State of Senegal on questions relating to freedom of conscience and secularism. It has a deep foundation that we find in serious acts in recent years, which provide information not only about social disintegration, but also about the indifference of the State and the emerging strength of the Senegalese conservative movement.

It also says something about the cowardice of the elites who no longer defend principled questions, except in electoral matters. The Left is divided and a section of it has rallied the fundamentalists and obscurantisms, our oldest and most virulent adversaries.

Academics prefer to talk about “inclusive elections” and the adventures of politicians with the General Directorate of Elections rather than defending the rights of ordinary citizens who have neither party nor political agenda.

Body Exhumed and Burned: Outrage of Léona Niassene

Political organizations and intellectuals are silent, or even supportive, when Jamra and And Samm Jikko Yi have been trying for a decade to govern the Senegalese Penal Code and to falsely impose the existence of an LGBT agenda at the heart of the apparatus of state.

Coalitions including Yewwi askan wi, signed on the eve of the 2022 legislative elections, a memorandum which calls into question the secular nature of the State of Senegal. Fanatical deputies attacked their colleague in the Hemicycle, on the grounds that she was discourteous towards their religious guide. They were supported by their parliamentary colleagues, particularly on the left.

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Students with their accomplices burned parts of the University of Dakar and danced around the flames. Academics, journalists and intellectuals, who nevertheless compete with petitions and forums on electoral matters, have remained silent, thus implicitly giving carte blanche to this horror. Amnesty Senegal, Raddho, etc. reacted to the horror of Léona Niassene. They, with their allies, so quick to denounce the “dictatorship” in Senegal, have had complacent acquaintances with populists and Islamists in recent years. Basically, apart from press releases to put on a good face, we should not expect anything from these hemiplegics of thought, followers of the political lottery rather than the defense of the simple exercise of humanity. They have long since sacrificed humanist principles and causes in favour of permanent agitation and petty politics and thus live on its income.

But for the tragedy of Léona Niassene, responsibility falls squarely on the State of Senegal, which violated its promise to defend secularism, freedom and living together. For 25 years, governments have made the political choice of infrastructural catch-up. Roads and other interchanges are certainly necessary, but civil peace, republican consciousness and the exercise of civic citizenship that we acquire through school are superior to them. And these are abstract values which alone can preserve our society in the face of fanatical attacks and Islamist and populist threats.

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The State of Senegal has chosen irresponsibility by choosing not to raise the consciousness of its citizens and not to encourage their rise in humanity.

A man was burned to death. His house was burned. His family was harassed in violation of the laws of the Republic and in contempt of all humanity.

It is with sadness and gravity that I resolve to pass this judgment on my country.

The whole world must know that in my country, Senegal, which calls itself a democratic and social model, corpses are burned alive in front of an excited crowd.

In my country, Senegal, even the dead are refused rest for their souls.

In my country, in Senegal, when a university is burned, the intellectuals and academics remain silent, but when a politician is judged, there is an inflation of forums and petitions.

They burned books, we said nothing or very little. They burned a corpse. If we do nothing, tomorrow they will burn alive people whose ideas they do not share.

In my country, Senegal, humanity has disappeared.

By Hamidou ANNE / hamidou.anne@lequotidien.sn

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