After the last elections in March 2024, all eyes are on the new context both in the Casamance region in particular and for Senegal in general. In recent years, and following the long protests against the arrest of the leader Ousman Sonko, the ideas of the winning party in the Senegalese elections have made a strong impression on a large part of the Casamance population, especially among the youth, awakening new hopes in the region, where the initiatives (economic, social, artistic…) of the local communities are inexhaustible: from the project for the recognition of the Maad appellation of origin presented at WIPO to the international meetings of the Arts of Ziguinchor, through the various ecotourism initiatives, to name a few. In parallel, the region has been accumulating complex situations for years: the trafficking of hardwoods in border areas (Ba et al. 2021), the struggle of several collectives to prevent the exploitation of zircon in Kabadjo and Niafourang (in the northwest of Bignona) (Descroix and Marut, 2019; Diatta, 2020), the depletion of fish stocks due to overexploitation by large European companies, the progressive salinization of rice fields due to rising sea levels (Marut, 2015)…. All this without forgetting the initiatives of several young people to go into the ocean and try to find a better life in Europe… And without forgetting either the unresolved tensions between the government and the association of victims of the shipwreck of Le Joola, more than twenty years later. At the political level, the MFDC and the Senegalese government signed a new peace agreement in August 2022 that allowed the consolidation of a certain calm in several corners of Casamance. However, definitive peace has not arrived in the area – as has historically happened in other peace agreements – and in some places armed clashes continue, not to mention the effect of landmine explosions that continue to cause casualties among both civilians and the military (without going any further, one exploded at the end of 2023 not far from Sindian, north of Bignona, causing the death of 4 soldiers) (Diédhiou, 2021; Gomes, 2021; Serna, 2021; Mendy et al, 2021; Thior et al. 2021; Garcia Moral, 2022). In addition, the repression and imprisonment of several people accused without evidence of belonging to the MFDC has continued in recent years (Diatta, 2020; Tomàs). All this continues to recurrently cause the exile of numerous people to the neighboring countries of The Gambia and Guinea Bissau (Zanker, 2018; Gomes, 2019). This evolution of the conflict is accompanied by the emergence, during the last few years, of studies on the memory of the early times of conflict, which the younger generations did not know (Bassène, 2015; García Bosque, 2023). In this context, indigenous associations, especially women’s associations, traditional authorities, religious leaders, non-governmental organizations, etc., continue to work in various ways for a definitive installation of peace, always facing very complex challenges (Niang, 2021; Rudolf, 2021; Tomàs, 2021). All this, in addition, accompanied by new events in the border context. For example, in the Joola lands of Guinea Bissau, the new king of Kerouhey (or Caroai) was presented a few months ago, which opens the possibility of a consolidation of peace in the border area near Oussouye – where King Sibilumbay, as well as Queen Alise Oumoy, continue to work actively for peace in contact with other traditional authorities. In short, this panel, in the line of meetings on Casamance in other academic events (such as the one that took place, for example at the Iscte-IUL in Lisbon, in February 2019), aims to bring together the different research recently completed and ongoing as well as proposals for future research projects in relation to the socio-political situation of Casamance with the idea of presenting a multidisciplinary state of the art on the area in the Iberian world (from anthropology, history, geography, international relations, economics, etc.).
55. Casamance: memories, powers, tensions and local initiatives in the new Senegalese context.
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