Youth hero or macho misogynist? Senegalese political opponent Ousmane Sonko is holed up at his home in Dakar, waiting for the police to dare to come looking for him after a conviction in a rape case.
Senegal is in the throes of serious political clashes. A top opponent of President Macky Sall, Sonko was sentenced last week to two years in prison for “youth corruption”.
This condemnation threw his supporters into the streets of Dakar. Demonstrations, violent repressions, a ransacked district. At least 16 people lost their lives in clashes with security forces.
Ousmane Sonko was found guilty of a minor offence, with a reduced sentence. But even this sentence creates scandal, because it could lead to his political disqualification.
His accuser, Adji Sarr, is dragged through the mud on social networks. Massage therapist – over there, we say “masseuse” –, she had Sonko as a client, who went to see her regularly for “back pain” (in his own words). She claims that he repeatedly raped her.
Senegal likes to brag about its stability and its democracy – rather threatened in this region of the world, with repeated putsches: Mali, Burkina Faso, Guinea. This country also likes to highlight its modernity, of which Dakar is the showcase, and an economic liberalism embodied by President Macky Sall.
The country is now experiencing its “Me Too” episode… but, in this case, those we hear the most from are not the complainant’s supporters, but those of the accused.
Several opponents of the regime of Macky Sall, in power since 2012, have had to deal with justice that has disqualified them. Karim Wade, son of former President Abdoulaye Wade, was convicted in 2015 of illicit enrichment, which killed his political ambitions. Ditto for the ex-mayor of Dakar, under similar accusations.
Politicized justice? Well-founded convictions? In any case, the accuser, Mr.me Sarr, seems credible. She said she had DNA-type evidence against Sonko, who — unlike Bill Clinton in the Lewinsky case in 1998 — refused any blood samples and did not show up for his trial.
Like a Trump, he plays the street against court judgments. With this violent result.
The accuser claims to be a victim of the macho culture of her country. In this whole affair, she obtains less support than the accused. The world writes that “since the outbreak of this politico-judicial affair, the public debate has been saturated with sexist remarks”. Sarr says she is no longer safe and receives regular threats.
The case comes in a tense political context. President Sall wants to obtain a third term in a row in 2024. He was first elected in 2012. But the Constitution was conveniently changed in 2016, and now states: “five-year term; a maximum of two consecutive terms”. His supporters claim the counters were ‘reset’ in 2019 so he can run again.
This maneuver is an old trick: we saw it in the Ivory Coast, in Burundi and in Putin’s Russia. The irony is that Sall himself, in 2012, had railed against the “scandal” of a third term for his predecessor (who had never obtained it).
Sonko would be, under other skies, the ugly one who federates against him a majority feminist and media outcry… but, in Senegal, he is a political idol and a martyr.
A former tax inspector who uncovered scandals, he presents himself as a herald of anti-corruption. Very anti-French discourse, similar to that – amplified by Russian mercenaries – of Mali and Burkina Faso. And then he is a militant Muslim: some of his opponents accuse him of being the friend and the screen of the Salafists.
So an Islamist, with an “anti-system” profile, against the “corrupt elites” and the “evil West”. Carrier speech, which makes forget his alleged behavior towards women.
François Brousseau is an international affairs columnist at Ici Radio-Canada. [email protected]