“Macky Sall prided himself on having “reduced the opposition to its simplest expression”, as for you, Ousmane Sonko, you managed to “reduce the opposition to the simplest balcony”.
These words, coming from the mouth of a comedian on November 13, on the occasion of the Pastef meeting at the Amadou Barry Stadium in Guédiawaye (a suburb of Dakar), are the fruit of an inspiration bearing the signature of the Muses. He thus managed to get a smile from the master of the place and that of his comrades and allies.
The point is, perhaps, light and caricatured, since the mark of humor is lightness, but it does not lack depth. The comedian does not have time to dwell on the substance, since the apparent objective is to make people laugh, even if he happens to say a lot or enough.
The comedian from Stade Amadou Barry slipped into the shoes of the historian of the present. Contextualizing his story gave more flavor to his story. Numerous videos have shown, the head of the coalition list Sam Sa Kaddu, in the legislative elections of November 17, 2024, also current mayor of Dakar, confined to the balcony, looking nervous, walking back and forth. The one who said, to anyone who would listen, that he was the “Borom Ndakaru” (owner of Dakar), had just lived the unfortunate experience of a neighborhood (Baobab) “reduced” to No Man’s Land by the leader of Pastef who took up residence there for a show of force.
Call for air and desire for protection
The perhaps unconscious choice of the mayor of Dakar to abandon the living room to go to the balcony could mean many things. Faced with probable fury from young patriots, there is this need to take shelter. The balcony, in this case, could reflect the desire for security and protection. Plus, the vest he was wearing reinforced that idea. The false bravery he seemed to display had difficulty dispelling the fear and the absence of serenity.
The balcony could also suggest a sort of air intake in the face of stress and anxiety. Doctors know: overactivation of the adrenals leads to secretion of cortisol which will activate the cardiovascular system and promote the appearance of hot flashes.
Faced with the threat, the head of the list of Sam Sa Kaddu is, perhaps, inhabited by the desire to escape. This space which opens before him symbolizes the unknown. A sort of binary representation which parallels the fear of being taken advantage of and the desire to reach a more lenient elsewhere. The balcony, like the window, is an invitation to travel. It is not Aimé Césaire, whose inspiration to write his poem: Notebook of a Return to the Native Country, came from this gaze projected from a window of his vacation home, in Yugoslavia (he sees an island on the horizon, Martinska), which will contradict us.
Opposition to the balcony and the desire for suicide
The balcony can evoke tragedy for an opposition whose characters will have to taste the flavor of death to better appreciate the full significance of the resurrection of the Phoenix. It is a call for a new adventure which will no longer make politics a profession, a livelihood, but a priesthood and a gift of self for the homeland and in the unique service of the populations.
The balcony means invention of the future. All these young people who have suckled the “System” are forced to wean. Their survival will depend on the ability to care for themselves, be resilient, work hard and be generous to their people. Those who had retreated into their own little world learned the hard way that easy money only builds fortresses on shifting sand. The greed, insolence and carelessness which characterized this way of life (earning one’s living without the slightest effort), constitute anti-values that the hammer of the “Antisystem” must crush. Inventing a political future amounts to questioning the meaning of its existence: Why are we here? What should we do? And what can we hope for?
BACARY DOMINGO MANE
