Week 4 was spent in Dakar, Senegal at the western most point of the continent of Africa. This week combined business and pleasure. Business included meetings with Institut Pan Africain de Strategies (IPS) and on the fun side was spending time with my husband who is working with a Senegalese company to set up a flight charter business. It was a pleasure interrupting his work routines and even doing a little sight-seeing.
I met with two representatives of the Institut Pan Africain de Strategies (IPS) which describes itself as an “Independent Panafrican Institute and think-tank for strategic thinking, training, research, actions and initiative for African Renaissance.” The Department for Strategic Thinking had interest in the SRI “five Disciplines of Innovation” programs. Some English was spoken by the representatives of the Institut but having a translator with us made the meeting more comfortable for us all. Developing a business relationship will be a long slow process. Working against us is that Senegal is an early stage emerging country, it’s a poor country, a cash society and the University system is also still developing. The innovation concepts of SRI would need to be adjusted to fit the country’s current stage of economic development. What could work for SRI innovation programs is that the African nations are working together to strengthen their economies and the continent.
According to the World Economic Forum Senegal is an emerging country (in prior times referred to as “third world”). Travels brought me to the capital city of Dakar which is on the western most point of the country and the continent. The country has 12 million people with 40% of them residing in Dakar & Grand Dakar (~5 million). Education is compulsory to age 16 but illiteracy remains very high because the schools can only handle about 70% of the population. Illiteracy is especially high among women. After secondary school only the brightest young girls get to proceed to middle school & high school. They have several colleges & universities in the country, most of them are relatively new (less than 10 years old). Their top University ranks ~2000 in world & #14 in Africa.
The primary language is French, coexisting with 15 tribal languages. Very little English is spoken. Senegal is in the equatorial band at the southern edge of the Sahara Desert. My visit was during the cool & dry season; temperatures were very pleasant 65-80 degrees. The other season is hot & rainy. The area is very flat. It is desert and quite a departure from last week’s lush tropical Malaysia.
Senegal is a country of contrasts. It is on the ocean with the smell of salt sea air and yet it is desert such that by midafternoon when the ocean breeze picks up the air is brown with swirling sand and dirt. The beaches are inhabited by surfers and sunbathers next to traditional huts which are home many consider home. The sun is a great tranquilizer and things just don’t move very fast here. What would take hours to do in the US takes days here. The French influence is the result of years of recent occupation and has left a legacy of language, wonderful bakeries, cheese and wine readily available but store shelves are often bare of other items, waiting for the next shipment to arrive.
There are interesting contrasts in the economy. You can be a millionaire here, 1 million Senegal Francs = $2,000 USD. There were no brand name stores in the city at all. Most business is small local sole proprietors with a specialty service – laundry, dressmaker, fresh fruits, butcher, motor bikes, etc. It is a cash economy, few places accept credit cards. It seems there is a well-established ritual of respectable cheating … your change is not quite right, prices vary based upon perceived ability to pay, you buy one thing but receive something else, screw the government (few pay taxes), and the like. The city comes alive on Saturday and there are more small independent vendors out than we ever saw during the week.
It’s a city of contrasts and contradictions … The Dakar skyline is mostly 2-4 story buildings with a few up to 10 stories in the downtown. Everywhere you look new buildings are under construction but most of the buildings seem to be only 30% complete and there is little to no worker activity. The construction sites look more like bombed out buildings than construction sites as we know them. The main thoroughfares are paved but all the side streets are dirt. There are no pollution controls on cars and most vehicles are diesel or seem to have blown engines so by midday the pollution adds to the haze in the air. At night the city is mostly dark, not a lot of lights. The power also goes out regularly; about every 2-3 days for a few hours was my experience.
The country is beautiful but looks better in pictures. You don’t see the pollution in the air, the litter on the streets and the half-finished nature of everything. But, I do have to say that the place did grow on me during the week that I was there.