Soul choice
It is said that there is always a reason for a soul to choose to incarnate in a given place during its lifetime on earth. The kingdom of childhood would contain all the answers. Today, when looking back, everything makes sense.
Everything starts with an inspiration
I was on the benches of Sciences Po when the idea of Une Proposition nommée Désir came to me. It was 2017. The course covered politicization and depoliticization. It also covered the policy and law cycle from agenda setting and problem identification, to the adoption of policies and laws, to their evaluations, and so on.
The idea of politicising and then depoliticising the subject of the restitution of works of art, starting with Mboro high school and its students, germinated in my mind. My first novel, Le silence du totem, set in the Musée du Quai Branly, Khalambass (my paternal village), UNESCO and a fictionalised version of ICOM, was soon to be published. I started to apply this idea during a course in political communication and political speech writing. For a semester I wrote a speech to UNESCO calling for the organised return of looted African piece of arts, as did Amadou Mahtar Mbow in 1978. I gave the speech in the Simone Veil amphitheatre at the end of the year.
Little by little, an arborescence began to take shape in my mind. The idea had to be extended to environmental degradation and the local economy, in addition to culture and heritage issues.
Mboro, my childhood kingdom
I lived in Mboro from kindergarten to high school. I was 3 years old when my family settled at the Cité ICS Mbaye-Mbaye. Before that, we lived in Lyndiane, on the banks of the Saloum River in the Kaolack region, where my parents worked at SONACOS, Senegal's first agri-food company. I am what one could call a daughter of the Chemical Industries of Senegal (ICS). My father directed the two Chemicals and Mining sites for almost his entire career. My mother, a chemist, still works there.
I played majorette during its official ceremonies, guided by tonton Fall Appro. I learned how to swim when I was 7 at the Mbaye-Mbaye swimming pool with my late tonton Tazou. Every year on December 4th, I celebrated Saint Barbara, patron of Mines. I have made 30 years old friendships. Let's not forget summer camps. They were wonderful moments of freedom and carefreeness for us, blooming young girls and boys.
Mboro was a place of first loves and an amazing hip-hop period. It was also unforgettable years at the Taïba ICS high school. Bonds with teachers and classmates still continue. Mboro is also my early days as a writer, when I embarked on writing my very first book about Aliou Cissé, who was then a player in the national team. I had met him at the Mbaye-Mbaye Club. He was invited by the ICS Management. This encounter and my admiration for Aliou Cissé, the letters I wrote to him, deserve a separate story.
My late little brother Mohamed, who departed from this world at the age of 3, rest in peace in Mboro.
From Mboro to Paris
I left Mboro in 2004 after my baccalaureate, for my studies in Paris. My connection with the ICS continued to grow, during their Board meetings. I I used to meet my father at the Méridien Étoile hotel, Porte-Maillot. He always stayed there with the other members of the Board of Directors. They were from Senegal, France, India, and other places. I particularly enjoyed visiting him, raiding the fridge-bar in his suite, dining with him for free, as I liked to say -free dinner. The student that I was always left with generous gifts from dad’s colleagues, including the CEO Mr. Alassane Diallo, of whom I have very special memories. One day, he took the time to stay with me in the hotel lobby to give me life advice and encourage me in my studies. It was 2009. That evening, I came to go to dinner with my father at the nearby restaurant La maison de Charly. It was the last time I went to the Méridien Etoile, because my father left the Board shortly after.
In 2009, I created the "Anciens de la communauté de Mbaye-Mbaye" group on Facebook, to keep the link alive. I was pleasantly surprised to see former residents who had lived in the ICS housing estate in the 1970s. They were French, Senegalese, and West Africans. They were sharing photos, memories, and anecdotes.
Today, the feeling of belonging to a community spread across the world is still alive.
The fire that burns, burns…
First, there was a sense of urgency to break my silence on the environmental degradation and negative impact of ICS in Mboro. Since childhood, I have always been sensitive to the environment. This intensified after COP21 and the 2015 Paris agreements.
I also desired to contribute to the human and economic development of the small town where I grew up.
I was called to act, but I was slowed down by a first uncomfortable feeling. I felt like I was "betraying" the ICS, my father, and my mother, who were at the heart of the system.
Then came another questioning: even if I had witnessed what the majority of Mborois continue to experience today, I hadn't lived through the same thing. I was socially privileged in Mboro, and I had been, in a way, on the side of the Management. In Mboro, they used the expression “that’s the Director’s daughter” to refer to me. I lived in ICS City, where houses had air conditioning. There was a swimming pool, a private primary school created by the French, tennis and basketball courts, and a supermarket selling Western products. Gardeners maintained the City’s abundant vegetation daily. I did not experience poverty, rather I lived in abundance. I did not experience power cuts, these were rare because we were directly supplied by the ICS power plants. When there were rare water cuts, tank trucks filled with water were quickly sent to the cities by the Directorate to supply homes.
The Facebook posts and the various interventions of Mborois about the air pollution and environmental degradation, fatalities, and sulfur spills from ICS trucks on public roads plunged me into great turmoil.
I participated in the One Planet Summit in December 2017. It was like an inner detonator. I saw world leaders and major activists discussing the climate threat facing the planet. Short films showed environmental disaster victims in climatically fragile areas. This moved me deeply.
My interactions with the Senegalese Minister for Water and Sanitation at the time, and mayor of the city of Saint-Louis, Mr. Mansour Faye, and a mayor of a city in Côte d'Ivoire were enlightening. I asked them during their panel what they were doing to raise awareness of environmental issues at a personal level. Their answers were correct. However, my own question raised several other questions about responsibility and the notion of "doing one's bit".
What about my people ?
This tension was accentuated when I joined the OECD's Environment Directorate in 2018. I worked on climate change and well-being metrics. After 7 years' experience in social protection risk management, I decided to steer my career towards public policy, sustainable development, and international cooperation. I wanted to serve and to work for common good. For the record, my first application to the OECD was rejected in 2014, after a pre-selection and written test. The reason was that I didn't have a degree in public policy. Armed with unfailing determination, I decided in 2017, during maternity leave, to quit my job to do a master's at Sciences Po Paris. I shared the benches of young students during an intense year at rue Saint-Guillaume. Then I applied again, passed the tests, and here I am at the OECD, working on climate change. I kept silent about what was happening in Mboro, and at the same time I participated in marches against climate change in Paris. What a paradox.
I felt torn apart. Then memories came back to me. First of all, I shared the same daily life as all the high school students in Mboro. Our high school lacked basic infrastructure: water, electricity, and classrooms without equipment. I refrained from going to the school toilets from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m., and from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. because they were not really functional. Fortunately, the teachers' housing estate was next door. I had many friends living there.
Second, having grown up in abundance should not be a shame. It should be a source of inspiration because I think abundance is a human right. My parents put me in excellent conditions and I am grateful to them.
My vocation: Service and Transmission
In 2021, I decided to answer my soul's call. My environmental sensitivity was not selective. Mboro is my childhood kingdom. My body was sending me signals: I couldn't just stand there and do nothing. Pregnant with my third child and a little bored during my maternity break, I took action. My pregnancies are often moments of creation: I wrote my first novel Le silence du totem while I was pregnant too. Drawing on my various areas of expertise, I decided to pass on my knowledge to contribute improving the situation in Mboro. The study La Vie et le Temps was born. The public consultation phase was launched on social networks with the help of friends. When I told Ndiaga and Babacar Kébé about the project, they immediately supported me in spreading the word about the consultation. The project was extremely well received by the mayor of Mboro and his team, the ICS, the activists and environmentalists, and the entire population. Not to forget my parents, who were quick to support me.
What about of the restitution of piece of arts in Mboro High School? I evoke it in the section dedicated to the Art Exhibition of a New Kind.
Over time, my sense of guilt has completely disappeared. I know Mboro, and Mboro knows me. This project and all the people I've met have brought me so much.
During the summer 2023, I returned to my High School for the first event of Une Proposition nommée Désir. High school fellows came from Dakar to see me. I saw Ndiaga, Anthia, Malick, Babacar, Bara, Myriam, Marame. I saw Mr Niang who contributes to the project, Mr Ndiaye PC, Mr Top, Mr Fall SVT, Mr Sall. My Latin teacher, Magistra Diallo, also made the trip from Dakar. My friend Malick Diarra from the French Pen Club’s Francophonie came to the event.
It was so moving to return to the kingdom of childhood, which has changed enormously. I'll be writing about it.
Gradual raising of awareness. Taking the time to breath, and see. Spiritual transmission.
Perfectly guided by the Universe, la Proposition nommée Désir was, on a personal level, a catalyst for a profound self-examination and self-inquiry. I myself have evolved, grown and become more aware. I've become a new person, and I see life in a new light.
I haven't forgotten what my family always instilled in me: to adopt and maintain high standards, in all areas and at all times. And to maintain my integrity. Which means saying and and doing the right thing, contributing, being useful.
La Proposition nommée Désir is more than a project focused on development, environment, urbanism, public policy and culture. My mission is also to pass on knowledge acquired along my spiritual journey.
During my interactions with friends living in Mboro and with the local population, my interviews with the Sustainable Development Unit of ICS, and when analysing data from the study La Vie et le Temps, I realised that over Mboro hovers a complicated spectrum made of love for the town, the need to repair environmental degradation and injustice, historical resentment towards the ICS, and a sense of powerlessness.