In Ndiaganiao, a remote village in an agricultural region of west-central Senegal, men flock from all corners of the country to congratulate the father of the next president, Bassirou Diomaye Faye, in the hall of the pastel-colored family home. Dressed in a silky blue boubou, Mr. Samba Faye, 84, who moves with difficulty using a cane, says he is “happy and proud” of his son who was “born in this house” located at the end of a bumpy and sandy road. He told AFP that he told his son that “a great responsibility now rests on his shoulders”. “I asked him to do everything to satisfy the Senegalese”, who “place great hopes” in him.
Ten days after her release from prison, anti-system candidate Bassirou Diomaye Faye won Sunday’s presidential election in the first round, winning 54.28% of the vote with the promise of radical change.
“I’m happy and proud. This consecration proves that we have not missed our son’s education. We could never have imagined that he would one day be President of the Republic, even if we prayed that he would go as far as possible in his career. Bassirou has always been a serious and ambitious boy,” he says. “He came to see me before the election, prostrated himself at my feet and asked me to pray for his success” in the vote, he adds, as men come to greet him. Others stick cell phones to his face so he can answer calls, in a courtyard where birdsong echoes.
Women stay away from the assembly of men. He won 80.6% of the vote in the village. His name and that of Ousmane Sonko, his mentor, are written everywhere in white paint on the walls and decrepit facades.
“A president connected” to realities
The uncle of the new president, a namesake, Diomaye Faye says that the “advice we can give him is to remain himself, to be humble and to keep his ability to listen.” “He will be a president connected” to realities, continues his uncle, a professor of political science in the United States who says he spent two years, from 1985 to 1987, with the pan-Africanist leader Thomas Sankara, assassinated in Burkina Faso.
Outside the house, little girls play barefoot in the dusty paths in front of buildings from another age where old wooden doors and others in rusty metal hold on as best they can. Sometimes goats venture there. Residents move on foot, others aboard horse-drawn carts or rare cars that raise clouds of orange dust as they pass.
At the local headquarters of the Pastef party, that of Mr. Faye, decorated with a few posters representing him, Mr. Mor Sarr, who presents himself as one of his best friends, confides that he monitored the conduct of the vote to avoid any electoral fraud . “We met at college at the age of 11, then I shared his room from 2001 until 2004 at the university” in Dakar, he explains.
He says he remembers his “friend Diomaye with whom he played football on sandy fields demarcated simply by stones”, but also having shared with him until the last peanut when they were students without real financial resources.
“A little shepherd.”
Admirer of American President Barack Obama but also of South African Nelson Mandela and fervent reader of works devoted to psychology, “Diomaye was always very close to his mother, Khady Diouf, whom he helped with household chores” after school, testifies this person in charge of Pastef. He adds that the new Senegalese president is a fan of reggae.
“Diomaye was also a little shepherd who watched his goats” in the fields, he remembers, but also a sportsman, “a big fan of Real Madrid and Zidane. He did martial arts, kung fu, which he stopped to devote himself to another martial art, viet vo dao, but with all his new functions, he only does swimming.
Outside the Pastef premises, traders installed under trees placed some fruits and vegetables on carts while waiting for customers. The village has no infrastructure worthy of the name: no stadium, no dispensary, no paved road.
“We expect him to make changes. For example, the village needs a hospital. He must also invest in education to offer our children more chances of success,” says a trader, Fabienne Dione, who says she is “very proud” of the new president’s victory.