Wikipedia:WikiProject Library of Congress Country Studies/Senegal/Peace corps book

All of this content is from http://www.peacecorps.gov/welcomebooks/snwb685.pdf and is in the public domain (US govt work).

History

Many African empires gained prominence in the region, the most important of which was Tekrur, a powerful trading state along the Senegal River that flourished from the 10th through the 12th centuries. Islam first entered the region through these contacts. The groups residing in the region sent slaves and gold north across the desert in exchange for salt and weapons.

Europeans began to arrive in the mid-15th century, beginning with the Portuguese and followed later by the French, English, and Dutch. The Europeans competed intensely for Senegal’s lucrative slave trade, and by the end of the 17th century, the French had established forts at Dakar and throughout the Senegal River Valley, while the English had seized the mouth of The Gambia River.

Although they established a colony at this early date, the French needed an additional two centuries to extend their dominion beyond their forts and coastal cities. They faced stiff resistance from African leaders throughout the country, with Islam or traditional kingdoms often becoming a rallying point against French domination. By the end of the 19th century, France controlled most of Senegal north of The Gambia, but groups south of The Gambia continued to resist into the early years of the 20th century.

French colonial rule, as elsewhere in Africa, was primarily a system of political and economic exploitation. The French introduced the peanut to Senegal as a cash crop in the mid-19th century, and soon Senegal was France’s most profitable African colony. France ruled more or less peacefully in Senegal until African demands for independence became too strong to ignore in the years following World War II.

On April 4, 1959, Senegal and French Sudan (present-day Mali) combined to form the Mali Federation, which became fully independent in June 1960. April 4 remains the date that Senegal annually commemorates its independence. Because of internal political and economic differences, the federation was dissolved when Senegal seceded in August 1960, and Senegal and Mali became separate, independent nations.

Senegal’s first president, Léopold Sedar Senghor, was one of the leading figures of the independence movement. He was also a highly respected French-language poet and the only African ever elected to the prestigious and powerful Académie Française. His writings on negritude, a political philosophy that champions the strengths of African ideals, remain important in contemporary African political science. After a power struggle within the first government, Senghor ousted and imprisoned Prime Minister Mamadou Dia in 1962.

He passed a new Constitution in 1963 that organized the government as a representative republic with executive power vested in the president and legislative power vested in a National Assembly elected by universal suffrage. Senghor also instituted the beginnings of local democratic rule in 1972 by establishing a political governance system centered on groups of villages called “rural communities.” This remains the basis of modern Senegalese democracy. In 1976, the Constitution was amended to institutionalize four political parties across the spectrum from right to left. Senghor, the head of the Socialist Party, was reelected in 1978 as a moderate socialist, but he resigned on December 31, 1980, passing on the presidency to Prime Minister Abdou Diouf.

President Diouf removed all restrictions on opposition political parties. An overwhelming majority returned him and the Socialist Party to power in 1983 in the country’s first unrestricted multiparty elections. More than 50 parties are active in Senegal today, with the Socialist Party and the governing Democratic Socialist Party among the most prominent. As acting president of the Organization of African Unity in 1985 and 1986, Diouf led the international diplomatic battle against South Africa’s apartheid regime. Senegal accorded full diplomatic recognition to both Namibia’s South-West Africa People’s Organization (SWAPO) and South Africa’s African National Congress (ANC).

On November 14, 1981, Senegal and The Gambia signed an agreement proposing to unite the two countries as the Confederation of Senegambia. Various government officials had proposed such a union since the early days of independence. The Gambia, a former English colony, is nearly completely surrounded by Senegal, a former French colony. The two countries share the same ethnic groups and pre-colonial history; the main differences between them are their official languages and colonial traditions.

The agreement was precipitated by an attempted military coup in The Gambia in July 1981, while Gambian President Dawda Jawara was out of the country on a state visit. Fearing regional instability, the Senegalese Army entered the country and suppressed the rebellion. After this aborted coup, the two countries tried to implement a confederation. Political integration was going faster than economic integration when the two governments decided to dismantle the confederation in 1989. Between 1997 and 1999, Djibo Ka and Moustapha Niasse, both important figures in Diouf’s party and longtime government ministers, quit the government and created their own parties.

Although the ruling party minimized the event’s significance, most observers saw it as the beginning of the end of the Socialist Party. On March 19, 2000, President Diouf lost to an opposition coalition led by his longtime rival Abdoulaye Wade in the presidential election. This was a first in Senegal, as the Socialist Party had won all presidential elections for more than 40 years.

Wade benefited from the support of around 20 parties grouped within the Coalition for an Alternation of Power. Although the election was not trouble-free, most national and international observers considered it fair and democratic. Senegal’s political stability has in many ways been a shining light in what has otherwise been a difficult post-independence struggle for most of sub-Saharan Africa. The March 2000 election was a model for all young democracies. What had been expected to be an election surrounded by civil unrest with contested results fortunately turned out to be a transparent and peaceful transfer of power from a long-governing political party to another, restoring hope among the majority of Senegalese, especially the young. Senegal entered a new phase full of hope as well as uncertainty.

On December 30, 2004, the president announced that he would sign a peace treaty with two separatist factions of the Movement of Democratic Forces of Casamance (MFDC) in the Casamance region, initiating an end to West Africa's longest-running civil conflict. As of late 2006, it seemed the peace treaty was holding, as both factions and the Senegalese military appeared to honor the treaty. With recognized prospects for peace, refugees began returning home from neighboring Gambia and Guinea-Bissau. However, at the beginning of 2007, a new outbreak of violence between the separatists and the government reignited amidst concerns that peace would not soon be restored to the Casamance.

In February 2007, near the end of President Wade's first term of office, 15 candidates including President Wade, were vying to become the next democratically elected leader of Senegal. Given the number of political parties and the range of interests that each represents, Senegal's democracy is still considered to be peaceful and vibrant. Incumbent President Wade was re-elected for another term.

Government

The Senegalese government is a republic under multiparty democratic rule. There is universal suffrage, with citizens, including the police and the military, eligible to vote at age 18.

The president heads the executive branch and appoints a prime minister as the head of government. Members of the Council of Ministers, or cabinet, are appointed by the prime minister in consultation with the president. The most recent government reorganization occurred in November 2006.

The legislative branch consists of a 150-seat unicameral National Assembly (Assemblée Nationale) whose members are elected by direct popular vote for five-year terms. In January 2007, a 100-member Senate also was introduced. For only the second time in its history, Senegal will experience a bicameral legislative system.

The legal system is based on French civil law. Following a 1992 reform, the judicial branch is composed of a Constitutional Court, Council of State, Financial Review Court (Cour des Comptes), Court of Final Appeals (Cour de Cassation), and Court of Appeals. The Constitutional Court reviews legislative acts, and the Council of State audits the government’s accounting office.

The country is divided into 11 administrative regions: Dakar (the capital), Diourbel, Fatick, Kaolack, Kolda, Louga, Matam, Saint-Louis, Tambacounda, Thiès, and Ziguinchor. These regions are further divided into prefectures, subprefectures, and rural communities

Economy

Although Senegal has a diversified economy by West African standards, it barely escapes being classified by the World Bank as one of the poorest of the world’s nations. A major problem over the past 40 years has been recurrent drought, which has effectively thwarted plans to expand industrialization and increase agricultural production. The Senegalese government exerts a great degree of control over the peanut oil and phosphate industries, but in most other sectors, foreign ownership (mostly French and Lebanese) is dominant. The nation’s primary sources of income are phosphate mining, fishing, light manufacturing, agricultural processing, and tourism. Of these, only tourism has been growing. Manufacturing suffers from limited demand and low competitiveness, while phosphate mining suffers from world oversupply. Fishing has declined in importance as fisheries have been depleted by overproduction.

Peanut cultivation and refining have seen a tremendous decline over the past two decades. Once the country’s leading foreign currency earner, the peanut industry now accounts for only 25 percent of exports. This loss is the result of overcultivation in traditional peanut-growing regions, drought, and the diversion of peanuts from Senegal into neighboring countries for export via the black market. The Senegalese government has taken a number of steps to restructure production and marketing systems and to increase domestic prices for farmers, but the effects of these steps have yet to be evaluated. In the 1980s, poor economic performance placed Senegal under sometimes severe economic structural adjustment measures. These included drastic reduction of government expenditures for social services and led the way to some of the more difficult problems that Senegal is now experiencing.

About 70 percent of Senegal’s population is engaged in agriculture, but the performance of the agricultural sector has been steadily worsening, and it now contributes less than 25 percent of gross domestic product. Sugar production and diversification into non-traditional and vegetable crops have been promoted in recent years, but there has been limited success. Rice production in the north and south is hampered by both growing and marketing conditions. With the population increasing at a nearly 3 percent annual rate and cereal production declining in many areas, Senegal is finding it more and more difficult to attain self-sufficiency in rice, although millet and corn production tend to be adequate to meet the country's overall needs. Senegal has relied increasingly on imports and transfers of money from Senegalese living abroad to satisfy its growing demand for rice and wheat.

There is an important herding tradition among some groups in Senegal. Cattle, sheep, and goats are found throughout much of the country. Chickens and other fowl are also prevalent. In Catholic and animist areas of the country, pigs are raised in limited numbers. Camel production also may be observed in northern parts of the country.

Senegal’s New Agricultural Policy (Nouvelle Politique Agricole) and its follow-up, the Cereal Plan (Plan Céréalier), were the centerpiece of government policy in this sector. The major objectives were the complete phase out of state-run regional development agencies, privatization of the agricultural sector, and progress toward food security. These policies did not achieve the desired results and the government is still seeking a way to address its agricultural needs.

Continuous cycles of drought and soil depletion problems have been exacerbated by sporadic locust infestations, underlining the precariousness of farming in Senegal. Depleted soils and lack of timely, affordable inputs and other constraints have seriously Impacted crop production in most areas of the peanut basin and yields nationwide have been consistently low.

Pricing policies are a complicated issue, but major production increases in food crops are probably unattainable within the existing price structure. Farmers find it extremely difficult to make a profit growing food grains while paying for the inputs necessary (i.e., seeds, irrigation, fertilizer, mechanization) and therefore are unable to increase production.

People and Culture

While some African countries have hundreds of distinct ethnic groups, in Senegal there are only a few principal ethnicities. The Wolof, the largest group, constitutes 36 percent of the population. They live predominantly in the western and central regions north of The Gambia and in urban centers. They have traditionally been Senegal’s leading peanut cultivators.

The Pulaar-speaking people (also known as the Pulafuta) make up 26.5 percent of the population. Found throughout West and Central Africa owing to their nomadic past, in Senegal they can be divided into two distinct groups. The Pulafuta (17.5 percent) are shepherds or farmers who live all over the country except in the coastal areas. The Toucouleur (9 percent) have traditionally farmed along the banks of the Senegal River, but in recent years many have migrated to urban centers.

The Sereer, who constitute 16.5 percent of the population, live primarily in the western Thiès and Fatick regions. The Diola (9 percent) include a number of distinct linguistic groups with similar cultural traditions and live primarily in the Ziguinchor region, south of The Gambia. The Mandinka (6.5 percent) are scattered throughout the Kolda and Tambacounda regions; they are Mandé, culturally and linguistically related to the Bambara of Mali, the Dioula of Côte d’Ivoire, and the Malinké of Guinea. All these groups are primarily sedentary farmers, although people settled on the coast actively fish.

Smaller ethnic groups include the Bainouk, Balante, Bambara, Bassari, Bédik, Diakhanké, Dialonké, Mandjak-Mankagn, and Soninké. Large groups of foreigners, principally French, Lebanese, and Cape Verde Islanders, reside in urban centers, especially in Dakar.

While the predominant religion in Senegal is Islam, the Senegalese take great pride in their country’s climate of religious tolerance. In fact, the government officially celebrates both Muslim and Roman Catholic holidays, even though more than 90 percent of the people are Muslim. Sufism, the type of Islam practiced in Senegal, is based on the teachings of an ancient form of Islamic mysticism. Sufism follows the basic tenets of Islam but does not follow all of the practices of Sunnite or Shiite Muslims. Some indigenous ethnic groups have been Muslim for more than 600 years, while others did not convert until the end of the 19th century. Five percent of Senegalese are Christian, primarily adherents of Roman Catholicism, which was brought to the country by Portuguese and French colonialists in the 15th through the 20th centuries. A small percentage are animists, following traditional beliefs centered on the power of supernatural spirits. Animism also profoundly influences the practice of Islam and Christianity in Senegal.

Environment

Approximately 40 years of drought in the Sahel has severely impacted natural resources in Senegal. Dramatic reductions in plant cover, biological diversity, and land productivity have occurred in much of Senegal north of The Gambia. Current tree-planting efforts in the sub-Sahara are estimated to be only about 10 percent to 15 percent of the level required to balance losses of woody vegetation from activities such as land clearing, charcoal production, fuel collection, and brush fires. As recent patterns of below-normal precipitation continue, a permanent reduction in the carrying capacities of affected lands seems inevitable. A new balance must be achieved between a relatively drier environment and the ability of the natural resource base to support agricultural and pastoral systems.

Efforts by donor groups such as USAID, the World Bank, and the United Nations initially focused on an industrial plantation approach to remedy deforestation and desertification problems in Africa. Project successes were the exception rather than the rule. In a revamped approach, village-level woodlots were promoted as the panacea to Africa’s energy crisis, but this approach yielded few success stories after considerable donor spending as well. A third approach is now focusing on a variety of interventions (i.e., agroforestry, protection of natural regeneration, and land management) at the village and farm levels. These efforts in Senegal are being coordinated by the Waters and Forests Agency within the Ministry of Environment and Protection of Nature.

Another result of the prolonged drought is the reduction of Senegal’s already limited groundwater and surface water resources, which has severely affected agricultural production and threatened the health of rural inhabitants. Water tables have dropped an average of 20 inches (50 centimeters) per year in many regions of the country, while traditional flood plains and marsh areas have remained dry. Salinization has become a serious problem in some areas. A large portion of the government’s water budget goes to the country’s rapidly expanding urban centers, and the technology for tapping deep aquifers or for diverting river water remains prohibitively expensive for most rural communities.

Senegal has undertaken a number of initiatives to satisfy the water needs of the rural population and to develop and manage existing water resources rationally. With donor assistance, the government, has promoted construction of deep bore-hole wells in selected rural communities that can provide more reliable and safer water for human consumption and promote agricultural and livestock production. The government also provides technical advice and equipment to communities to assist them in digging and repairing traditional cement-tube wells.

Despite recognition of sufficient rural water supplies as a pressing national priority, inadequate water supply continues to be a major problem around which the cycle of poverty and poor health revolves. The government is not equipped to solve the problem alone, and an infusion of outside funding in this sector remains necessary.

Geography and Climate

Senegal, a semiarid country with a population of more than 10 million, is one of America’s most important partners in sub-Saharan Africa. Occupying an area approximately the size of South Dakota, it shares borders with Mauritania, Mali, The Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, and the Atlantic Ocean, and it is the westernmost country on the African continent. Because of its geographic location and deep-water port, Dakar, the capital, serves as the western gateway to the African continent.

The landscape consists of monotonous flat plains in the middle of the arid, sandy Sahel. The only significant elevations are in the far southeast along the Guinea border, the northern tip of the Fouta Djalon plateau, and farther east along the Malian border. The Senegal River originates in the Fouta Djalon and forms the border with Mauritania. Saint-Louis, an old colonial city, is at the river’s mouth. The wide flood plains, cultivated with peanuts and millet, are among the country’s most productive areas.

Senegal is very important to migrating birds, particularly waterfowl, which return in large numbers each winter from Europe. Djoudj Park, one of the most important bird reserves in the world, is to the north of Saint-Louis. Senegal is biologically diverse, with more than 550 animal species. Certain species of wildlife, however, such as giraffes, have disappeared altogether. The increasing desertification of the northern part of the country and the salt intrusion in coastal zones have created concern about the viability of much of the wildlife found there.

Culture

Social activities vary from region to region. Baptisms and weddings are big events in all areas. Some of West Africa's best-known musicians are from Senegal, including Youssou Ndour and Baaba Maal. Soccer, called football in Senegal, is a major preoccupation of boys throughout the country. Traditional wrestling tournaments and the ceremonies surrounding them are important sources of entertainment throughout the country.

LGBT issues

Throughout Senegal, most of the population can be characterized as predominantly religious and conservative. Homosexual acts are illegal and there is no tolerance for public displays of gay or lesbian behavior in Senegal. Those who openly exhibit these behaviors risk being attacked.