Tuesday, November 17, 2009
National Renaissance Monument, Dakar, Senegal
By the time it is completed atop a hill in Senegal, the statue “African Renaissance” will have cost $27 million and stand taller than either the Statue of Liberty or the Eiffel Tower. But the investment is well worth it, argues the county’s president, Abdoulaye Wade, who says the immense work of art will represent a new generation for Africa and generate revenue for his country from tourism.
It will also generate money for Wade’s personal bank account, as the president intends to skim 35% of all profits from visitor fees.
Critics have blasted the statue—which depicts a man holding a woman behind him and a child aloft and pointing out to sea—citing the fact that it is being constructed by North Koreans, looks more like something out of the old Soviet Union, and lacks an African soul.
“I hear some people compare the Renaissance statue to the Eiffel Tower,” Amadou Camara, an economics teacher and director of the Commerce and Business Institute in Dakar, told the BBC. “But the French had first sorted out their food before they built the Eiffel Tower.”
-Noel Brinkerhoff
Senegal Colossus Proves Sore Point (by Tidiane Sy, BBC News)
Dakar’s “African Renaissance” Monument Project Has Detractors (by Brent Latham, Voice of America)
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