Author Archives: Sapphire Terrell White

There has been recently reported news that Senegal is now Ebola free!

 As of late October Senegal has gone 42 days without any new cases of Ebola, which now declares them Ebola free. They have proven once again that Ebola is an disease that can be contained with patience and as a country they have figure it out. They tested their theory by having a man from Senegal travel by road from Guinea and Dakar after he came in contact with a Ebola patient. Shortly after, the Senegalese government watched 74 people that the man came in contact with while in Dakar. As they watched them over a course of days none of the people he was in contact with showed any signs of being infected with the Ebola virus.

With Senegal being one o f the richer countries in Africa it has helped them being able to beat and contain the outbreak. They spend only a total of $111 on health care per person on an average. Even though it may seem like so little compared to the United States, it allows them to still deal with problems such as Ebola.

The one case that was found in Senegal was taken very serious when found a while back. The one case of Ebola made 67 contacts that were identified that were interacted with the patient. Of those 67 contacts, 34 were people they lived with or around and 33 of those contacts were health care workers. During the time of the quarantine, Red Cross volunteers saw them all two times a day. At each check-in each patient got their temperature checked and any symptoms were recorded shortly after. At times some of the healthcare workers would resist the monitoring by the Red Cross volunteers because they didn’t trust them. They have to result in alternative solutions, like asking the local hospital to monitor the healthcare workers to create fewer problems. This made it a lot easier for everyone to get on board with being check on in a timely manner. At the end, all of the 67 people that were within contact of the case completed the 21-day check-in results. As for the patient that was originally infected, they were also ok and survived the virus.

A while before they first case was found, the Senegal Ministry of Health had prepared by training the health care staff on different elements for the virus. They trained them on infection control, lab testing, case investigation, and contact tracing. This really helped them when the first case was found because they were able to attack it and keep it under control with no problems. If they did not prepare for the outbreak like they did, that one case that was found could have turned into many more and the people that were in contact with them would have also been infected and the course of the case would have resulted very differently.

From following Senegal through the semester, my view has really changed and it has become one place that I defiantly plan to visit in the near future. It seems like such a beautiful country with some much going for its self. I believe that it can really expand and became very well developed in time and remain a place that still keeps tradition and culture. To see that they beat their one case of Ebola and was declared Ebola free also gives me hope for other African countries that are not doing as well. I think that if more African countries to reach out to each other’s government and stand together, Africa will have a very bright future.

Senegal has had many influential people in it country that has taken it to where it is today. Although Senegal is not in the best shape, they are a country that is progressing to greater things for the future. They have had a lot of people who became influential including the politician Léopold Sédar Senghor and Grammy winner Youssou N’Dour.

Léopold Sédar Senghor

       Léopold Sédar Senghor was an extremely influential person in Senegal who is thought to be one of the most important African intellectuals of the 20^th century. He was Senegalese poet, politician, and a cultural theorist who also became the first president of Senegal in 1960. Senghor was the president of Senegal for 2 decades and did his very best to give his country as much as he could. When he began his involvement in politics, Senegal was no yet an impendent country and they were still fighting for independence and he then founded the Senegalese Democratic Bloc political party. He was an activist and supported federalism for all of the newly independent African states. Many African countries did not like the idea of federalism so he chose to form and was the president of the Federal Assembly until it eventually failed in 1960 when Senegal gained independence.  While he was the president of Senegal he created the national anthem and took on many presidential duties. The current prime minster of that time, Mamadou Dia, was his right hand man in executing Senghors plan for Senegal’s long-term development, but they both did not agree on things. Dia was then arrested fot twelve years for suspicion of fomenting a coup d’etat.  Senghor survived many issues including an assassination attempt in 1967. He then resigned in 1980 with many accomplishment under his presidency including adopting a multi-party system, and a performing education system.

                Senghor died on December 20, 2001 in Verson where he spent the last years of his life with his wife. He left behind his legacy and contributes to Senegal including his contributing factor to Senegal’s political stability. It now remains one of the few African nations never to have a coup, and always had a humble transfer of power.

Youssou N’Dour

  Youssou N’Dour has many talents that he has put forth thought his entire life. He is a singer, percussionist, songwriter, composer, actor, business man, and Politian. He began performing when he was only 12 years old with a group that separated sometime during the 70s. His mother, Wolof, and father, Sever, opened him up to two different cultures that inspired him to identify himself as a modern griot. He formed his own group in 1979 by the name of Étoile de Dakar. They became popular all over Africa with their own developed and unique style in the 80s. By 1991 N’Dour opened his own recording studio and then his own recording label by 1995. Over the next 10 years he really marketed himself and his brand and became one of the most amazing singers to come from Africa. In 2005, he won his First American Grammy Award for best contemporary world music album for is album Egypt. By 2011 he was awarded an honorary doctoral degree in music from Yale University, which was a huge accomplishment for him and his country. He has recently won a share of the Sweden’s Polar music prize of $150, 000 for simply promoting and understanding of what he believes in and his faiths for his music as well. He is presently still making albums and being influential thought the many things he accomplishes in life. He has so many more things to do and accomplish in the years to come.