« On change le pays ou on change de pays ». Alors que le président Abdoulaye Wade vient d’être largement réélu, la formule imaginée par le rappeur vedette Xuman a des allures de slogan politique. Au Sénégal où le chômage touche 40 % des moins de 35 ans, la situation des jeunes a rarement été aussi préoccupante. Plusieurs milliers d’entre eux ont fui le pays en pirogue depuis janvier 2006. Rien ne semble décourager ces candidats à l’émigration clandestine : ni le froid, ni le renforcement des patrouilles policières, ni même la perspective de mourir en route. Seule mesure d’envergure proposée par Wade : le plan de retour vers l’agriculture, destiné en priorité aux rapatriés d’Espagne, soit près de 5000 personnes. Le gouvernement a-t-il les moyens d’empêcher de nouveaux départs ? Quelles sont les attentes des jeunes ? Croient-ils encore en leur avenir au Sénégal ? De Dakar à N’Dioum, des quartiers de pêcheurs aux régions agricoles, enquête sur une jeunesse à la dérive.
Six o'clock in the morning in Yarakh. A night crew comes back to port after 12 hours of deep-sea fishing. Among the fishermen, several young people tried to reach Europe by canoe this autumn. After being repatriated by force, they have gone back to work but have only one obsession: to leave again.
DUW0085314x © William Dupuy
Returning from fishing in the port of Yarakh. In this area of Dakar, the fishermen, mostly aged in their thirties, earn on average the equivalent of four euros per day.
DUW0085316x © William Dupuy
On the beach of Thiaroye-sur-mer, in the suburbs of Dakar, young people kill time by drinking tea and chatting. Their main subjects of conversation are based on the difficulties of their daily lives, and what life abroad is like.
DUW0085317x © William Dupuy
An ordinary afternoon in the popular area of Dakar. Sixty percent of Senegalese students drop out before the age of 11. Rejected by the education system, most share their time between odd jobs and idleness.
DUW0085319x © William Dupuy
Waiting at the Dakar office of the Agence Nationale pour l’Emploi des Jeunes (National Youth Employment Agency). Created in 2001, the ANEJ is the principal instument in the fight against unemployment, but remains largely unknown to the wider public.
DUW0085320x © William Dupuy
The Bopp Centre is also one of the country's best basketball schools. The young recrutes, who come from the poorer areas of the capital, hope to one day joing the national team or a prestigious foreign club.
DUW0085326x © William Dupuy
The Bopp Centre is also one of the country's best basketball schools. During their training, the young people from poor areas come to admire the future stars of Senegal.
DUW0085330x © William Dupuy
The Bopp Centre is also one of the country's best basketball schools. During their training, the young people from poor areas come to admire the future stars of Senegal.
DUW0085328x © William Dupuy
Martial Arts room in the Bopp Centre. Four days away from an international competition, the Senegalese kick-boxing team readies itself, while lacking in means and motivation. Ibrahima, Ousseïnou and Sana have no trainer and still don't know who their rivals will be.
DUW0085325x © William Dupuy
In the Bopp Centre, Master Latif offers training in 'fast careers' such as bodyguarding, in order to dissuade young people from leaving.
DUW0085324x © William Dupuy
Three young people, during a bodyguard training lesson. According to the teacher, Abdoulatif Mbaye, this is a profitable career for the electoral campaign period.
DUW0085323x © William Dupuy
A sewing class at the Bopp Centre, the oldest NGO in Dakar. In the heart of the poor suburb of Biscuiterie, the Bopp Centre offers several professional training programs which are accessible to the poor. In Senegal, 80 % of unemployed people have no qualifications.
DUW0085322x © William Dupuy
Several months away from their final high school exams, Mohamed and his friends help each other to catch up on missed classes. Due to a long teachers' strike in Rufisque, they haven't had a single complete semester in two years. Mohamed has already tried to get away, and hopes to try again as soon as possible.
DUW0085321x © William Dupuy
N’Dianakhar, near Saint-Louis, was one of the first poles of the 'Retour Vers l'Agriculture' (Return to Agriculture, or REVA) program. Two young men try to repair a thresher in the middle of a wheat harvest.
DUW0085334x © William Dupuy
Gorgui's feet in front of the pisciculture pond. He is a former clandestine migrant.
DUW0085335x © William Dupuy
A former clandestine migrant, Gorgui, 28, feeds the fish in the pond. The coordinator of the REVA program named him head of the pisciculture in the hopes of convincing him to stay.
DUW0085337x © William Dupuy
In the north of Senegal, the young people of the village of Guédé-Chantier weed the fields before the coming agricultural season. Out of 5000 inhabitants, Guédé-Chantier has only 4000 young people. Due to lack of funds (for gasoline, seeds and fertilizers), many of them had a failed winter season for the production of tomatoes.
DUW0085340x © William Dupuy
The beach of Thiaroye Azur, in the suburbs of Dakar. For most young people, sport remains the best remedy against apathy and fears for the future.
DUW0085342x © William Dupuy