Amy Niang

After months of tension, fuelled by ex-President Abdoulaye Wade’s obstinate bid for a third term, there is a great sigh of relief that Senegal has managed peacefully to elect a new president.

As thousands of NATO bombs and a NATO-aided ‘rebel’ insurgency have got the better of Muammar al-Qaddafi’s regime, French Prime Minister Nicholas Sarkozy, US President Barack Obama and British Prime Minster David Cameron can exult.

The picture of Karim Wade being introduced to US President Obama during the last G8 Summit in Deauville by Nicolas Sarkozy was at once a banal case of society events and a scandalous gesture of powerful symbolism that reeks of conspiracy, arrogance, neocolonialism and the sort of all too common w

As a good number of African countries commemorate the 50th anniversary of their independence this year, the celebratory mode is – quite appropriately – a minority reaction.

Senegal’s Mr Wade claims to be the African president awarded the most academic degrees. The well-rounded professor’s favourite sport is, unsurprisingly, the production of bright project ideas.

Politics in Senegal under President Abdoulaye Wade has always been something of a passionate wrestling of rancid tales and counter-tales.