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prologue 1 Throughout the day, public transport drivers who were unwillingtoventureontotheunpavedstreetsofKharYallacontributedto the congestion at the roundabout. It was at one time patriotically painted red, yellow, and green by youth reclaiming and cleaning up their streets during the set setal (renewal) movement of the early 1990s. By 2000, it was blackened with exhaust and peeling paint. The density of the traffic in this quartier populaire1 was matched by the density of its population, which led some Dakaroise to refer to this neighborhood on the periphery of the nation’s capital as a bidonville.2 Its early residents were evicted from the self-built structures, or shantytowns, of central Dakar. Many residents were rural exiles who had escaped declining agricultural output, and they had named their new settlement Khar Yalla, meaning “waiting for God.” It was a bustling neighborhood marked by the constant movement of people striving to earn a living. There were people who were working, retired, and unemployed, and there were rural and urban exiles. Over the years, Khar Yalla has welcomed refugees from zones of conflict in West Africa, including Guinea-Bissau, the Ivory Coast, Liberia, Sierra Leone, and the drawn-out secessionist struggle in Casamance, a region in southern Senegal. It has been home to many ethnic groups from Senegal, Mali, and Mauritania, including the Wolof, Serer, Manjack, Pulaar, Diola, Brama, and Bambara. Residents often complained about the car rapide, the urban van transport , which jammed the roundabout with noxious billowing exhaust. The vans’ apprenti3 called out the destinations of “Ndakaru, Ndakaru” or “Pikine, Pikine,” coaxing aboard riders who were headed to work as traders , tailors, office workers, or teachers; to a family celebration; or to one of the major markets. If taxi drivers were not washing the dusty residue from their cars as they waited for fares, they could be found gathered under the shade of the thatched structure erected near the entrance to this urban neighborhood, where they gambled on a game called mankala, rolled out mats to pray, brewed attaya (mint tea), or ordered a sweet, milky café Tuba from one of the nearby rice shops, which were run by women. Overnight, i n t r o d u c t i o n p r o l o g u e Welcome to Khar Yalla 2 muslim families in global senegal many of the taxi men who inhabited Khar Yalla parked their cars at its entrance. As many residents slept, minibuses lay in wait for passengers seeking to make a nocturnal journey home to the Casamance region of southern Senegal. Khar Yalla was one of the last neighborhoods to be settled in the larger area known as the Grand Yoff region of Dakar and came into being as a result of colonial and postcolonial attempts to control space in the capital city. As Dakar prepared to become the colonial capital in 1956, many urban residents were designated as squatters and lost their right to land. They were removed from the city center and reassigned to semi-urban locations, including Grand Yoff. The same process was repeated in the 1970s when 90,000 persons were evicted from the center of Dakar (Davis 2006:98,102).Thesecityimprovementoperationswereperformedunder the pretense of ameliorating health and sanitation conditions that were associated with high population density and makeshift homes. These operations built upon decades of colonial urban policy (dating back to 1915) that sought to separate the African population from the French population and government workers from manual laborers, traders, and craftspeople (Sow 1983:47). As the urban poor were removed and the temporary structures that had formed their neighborhoods were razed, they were replaced by smart modernist homes, paved streets, and sidewalks. These homes were constructed by SICAP (Société Immobilière du Cap Vert) and OHLM (Office des Habitations à Loyer Modéré) for salaried workers who, after World War II, were employed largely in the service of the colonial administration. The modern suburbs of Scandinavia inspired the French architects who designed the SICAP homes, and thus they were partially modeled on the residence patterns of Western nuclear families (Bugnicourt 1983:32). They were tidy one-story homes for the most part, fully enclosed, with indoor hallways and bathrooms, and they often lacked the open central courtyard that defines Senegalese family life. From the street one could only see the outer wall, which might have orange and pink bougainvillea spilling over it, and the garage gate. GrandYoffhasbeencharacterizedas“anisolatedanddisdainedsuburb . . . in the process of becoming a working class neighborhood” (Ndione and...

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