Minister discusses Senegal politics

The Minister of State of the Republic of Senegal Abdoulaye Wade interspersed English and French in a discussion of Senegal before a group of 30 Friday morning in the Lauder Auditorium. Wade is a leading politician in West Africa and is the author of The Destiny of Africa. He is currently one of the leading figures in the Pan-African movement and is an expert on its policies as they pertain to the integration of Africa's economies and currencies. Wade said he is following in the steps of University alumnus Kwame Ankrumah who was one of the key leaders in the Pan-African movement of the 1960's. Wade began his talk with a brief history of the state of Senegal. He spoke about the country's past as a colony of France and outlined how the country obtained its independence from France. He also explained Senegal's place in the French Parliament and the role of slavery in West Africa. He attributed Senegal's economic problems to over 300 years of slavery and 100 years of colonialism endured by the country and the African continent in previous years. Wade, who is presently in the running for the Nobel Peace Prize, blamed single-party politics for the dictatorships present in many of the 52 African countries. He said he believes that multi-party system and democracy are the answers to many of Africa's economic and political woes. Wade went on to say that Africa should use the developing European Community as a model for integration among currency and economics as a model. Because of the deprivation of Africa's economy, the help of Europe as well as the United States are critical elements in the first steps of the integration of the African continent, Wade said. He pointed out that the World Bank must support the movement more readily, adding that while the bank is currently supplying Eastern Europe with $12 billion, only $8 billion has been allocated for the entire African continent. While Wade supports the integration of the entire continent, he believes Senegal as well as a few other countries are great places to start the major facets of the process of renovation. Senegal's small size results in a need for integration. "It's not possible to set up a stable economy when we have only 200,000 consumers," Wade said. However, he added that is a great place to begin the integration process because of its current political stability. "We have peace and no more demonstrations in the street," Wade said. Wade ended his talk calling for the support of the United States and specifically asked for economic support and investment in Africa from African-Americans. A short question and answer session followed. Winston Nesfield, a first year graduate student, thought the lecture was positive and enlightening. "The more you hear about the development in Africa by Africans, the more rounded you become in your views," Nesfield said. "It gives you knew insight into how Africa is being developed." Papa Ndiaye, a graduate student in the Wharton School and the president of the Penn African Student Association, highlighted the fact that Wade is a popular figure in a very current, ever-active and important movement. "We had the opportunity to know more [about the current issues in the Pan-African movement] than even people in Africa know about the movement," Ndiaye said. "I believe that this kind of problem is not tackled by international levels . . . students at Penn and Wharton need to learn more about Africa so that they don't make the mistakes the World Bank has done in the past," Ndiaye said. Wade's talk was brought to the University by the Penn African Student Association and YEEWU-Africa at Wharton.

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