She is hailed in the present day as a figurehead of Senegal’s battle for independence from France – however making an attempt to grab the elusive substance of her life is nearly like making an attempt to seize a ghost.
Aline Sitoe Diatta is lauded in the West African nation as the embodiment of the anti-colonial battle, which culminated with independence in 1960, 16 years after her dying.
Among the honours bestowed on her are the title of the ferry between the capital Dakar and her native area of Casamance, in addition to sports activities stadiums, faculties and a college residence for ladies in Dakar.
Schoolchildren in Casamance, a southern area ensconced between The Gambia to the north and Guinea-Bissau, are immersed in her story.
They be taught that Diatta, dubbed the “Queen of Kabrousse” after the village the place she was born in 1920, was suspected by the French of fomenting an anti-colonial revolt.
At the age of 24, the French deported her to Timbuktu, greater than 2,300km away, in what’s now the deserts of Mali. She died there in 1944 of scurvy.
Yet no bodily hint of Diatta stays in Senegal – not her home, her physique, not even an object.
“The colonists took every little thing. But we have now stored her reminiscence and the religion she handed on to us,” stated Mathurin Senghor Diatta, one of her nephews.
A girl stands in entrance of the ferry between Dakar and Ziguinchor in Ziguinchor.
History ‘rewritten’
Even Diatta’s picture is unsure. In 2020, French writer Karine Silla wrote a fictional work on Diatta, with the entrance cowl displaying {a photograph} of a pipe-smoking younger girl proudly posing for the digital camera along with her breasts bared and arms crossed.
But in her village and in universities, nobody can say for positive whether or not the image is de facto of her.
And her true half in the anti-colonial battle appears to have been filtered and altered by way of the prism of historical past.
Kabrousse’s village chief, Matar Sambaisseu Diatta, stated Diatta was a spiritualist, and the common model of her story performs down her ethnic and animist roots.
“She by no means opposed colonial interference,” he stated.
“At the time, heaps of folks got here to see her for (non secular) session, and the colonisers believed she was a hazard to them. Her story was later rewritten.”
This view is supported by Jean Diedhiou, a researcher in anthropology at the University of Ziguinchor, the capital of Casamance.
Diatta, he stated, is the sufferer of “commemorative inversion… a rewriting of historical past for political ends”.
“Diatta was a priestess, of which there have been others in Casamance”, the place there’s a deep custom of village religions, he stated.
She by no means referred to as for an rebellion, however did encourage civil disobedience in opposition to the requisition of rice, which at the time was required by the ruling French, he stated.
“Where she is in the present day stems from the indisputable fact that she was arrested and exiled, and the standing that the colonisers gave her. It’s what I name the post-colonisation paradox – issues that the colonisers did are remodeled into legacy.”
Nineteen Seventies push
Diatta’s place in Senegal’s collective reminiscence dates again to the early many years of the fledgling republic.
In the Nineteen Seventies, she featured in radio broadcasts by Augustin Diamacoune Senghor, a Catholic priest and campaigner for Casamance’s independence.
She was then taken up and delivered to a wider public by left-wing teams on the lookout for heroes who symbolised the battle in opposition to colonisation.
“For individuals who had been younger and have become politically conscious in the Nineteen Seventies, Aline Sitoe Diatta was a reference level,” stated journalist Fatoumata Sow, a founder member of the feminist motion Yewwu-Yewwi.
“We arrange a prize in her title to reward individuals who fought for the emancipation of girls,” she stated.
“She personified the values of resistance, equality between the sexes and the social development of girls.”
Diatta’s ethnicity was additionally helpful for cementing nationwide unity, stated Alioune Tine, a civil society chief.
She was a member of the Diola ethnic group in Casamance – a former Portuguese colony that has a particular tradition from the relaxation of Senegal and hosts one of the world’s longest-running separatist revolts.
‘Role mannequin’
In the close by resort of Cap Skirring, French vacationer Kani Ba, whose household originated from Senegal, stated she had come to see “the place (Diatta) got here from, to really feel her vitality”.
“In France, girls are put ahead as position fashions, however it’s uncommon to see girls of African heritage. It’s essential to have heroines of African background, as a result of it helps us to progress,” stated Ba, who’s in her 40s.
“Life is less complicated while you settle for your individual identification.”
Back in the village of Kabrousse, darkish clouds penetrated by rays of sunshine have brewed, and a delicate breeze rustles by way of the bushes. Dogs bark and youngsters squabble.
In just a few hours, native animists will collect to hope for the rain that may make the rice develop – a “fetish”, or magic ritual, that they are saying was taught by Diatta herself. – AFP
