Yewwu-Yewwi is a Senegalese feminist organization, "the first feminist movement in Senegal". [1] Liberal feminist in orientation, the group is led by educated Muslim Senegalese women. The name Yewwu-Yewwi is taken from a Wolof phrase meaning "raise consciousness for liberation". [2]
Yewwu-Yewwi was founded at a meeting on January 7, 1984 at the Chamber of Commerce in Dakar. Many members of Yewwu-Yewwi had been members of And-Jëf. Founders included Marie-Angélique Savané, who played an important role in the organization's leadership. [1]
Activities of Yewwu-Yewwi have included awareness-raising, mobilization, lobbying, publishing and fund-raising. It collaborated with other African women's associations. It awarded a public prize, the Aline Sitoe Diatta prize, to the president of Burkina Faso, Thomas Sankara, as a means of pressuring the Senegalese executive to prioritize attention to the status of women. [1]
Though never a popular organization with a broad base, Yewwu-Yewwi succeeded in influencing family law code reform in the late 1980s. Its emphasis on gender equality, violence against women and female circumcision helped set an agenda for later women's organizations in Senegal.
Senegal, officially the Republic of Senegal, is a country in West Africa. Senegal is bordered by Mauritania in the north, Mali to the east, Guinea to the southeast, and Guinea-Bissau to the southwest. Senegal nearly surrounds The Gambia, a country occupying a narrow sliver of land along the banks of the Gambia River, which separates Senegal's southern region of Casamance from the rest of the country. Senegal also shares a maritime border with Cape Verde. Senegal's economic and political capital is Dakar.
Mariama Bâ was a Senegalese author and feminist, whose two French-language novels were both translated into more than a dozen languages. Born in Dakar, she was raised a Muslim.
Macky Sall is a Senegalese politician who has been President of Senegal since April 2012. He was re-elected President in the first round voting in February 2019 Senegalese presidential election. Under President Abdoulaye Wade, Sall was Prime Minister of Senegal from July 2004 to June 2007 and President of the National Assembly from June 2007 to November 2008. He was the Mayor of Fatick from 2002 to 2008 and held that post again from 2009 to 2012.
Molly Melching is the founder and Creative Director of the Tostan Community Empowerment Program (CEP). Tostan is a non-governmental organization (NGO) headquartered in Dakar, Senegal whose mission is to empower African communities to bring about sustainable development and positive social transformation based on respect for human rights. Her website, Tostan.org, states "Tostan implements a holistic, three-year empowering education program in African national languages that has engaged over 3,500 rural communities in eight African countries on themes of democracy, human rights, health, literacy, and project management skills". These themes include the abandonment of female genital cutting, the abolishment of child/forced marriage, and female empowerment in leadership positions such as leadership positions in countries across West and East Africa.
Islam is the predominant religion in Senegal. 96 percent of the country's population is estimated to be Muslim. Islam has had a presence in Senegal since the 11th century. Sufi brotherhoods expanded with French colonization, as people turned to religious authority rather than the colonial administration. The main Sufi orders are the Tijaniyyah, the Muridiyyah or Mourides, and to a lesser extent, the pan-Islamic Qadiriyyah and the smaller Layene order. Approximately 1% are Shiites and <1% are Ahmadiyya Muslims.
Tostan is a US-registered 501(c)(3) international non-governmental organization headquartered in Dakar, Senegal. The organization's mission is "to empower communities to develop and achieve their vision for the future and inspire large-scale movements leading to dignity for all" in several West African countries, including Senegal, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, The Gambia, Mali, and Mauritania.
Diouf, or "Joof" is a Serer surname carried by several personalities :
Senegal is a source, transit, and destination country for children and women trafficked for the purposes of forced labor and commercial sexual exploitation. Trafficking within the country is more prevalent than trans-border trafficking and the majority of victims are children. Within Senegal some boys called "talibes" are victims of trafficking, by promising to educate them, but subjecting them instead to forced begging and physical abuse. A 2007 study done by UNICEF, the ILO, and the World Bank found that 6,480 talibe were forced to beg in Dakar alone. Women and girls are trafficked for domestic servitude and sexual exploitation, including for sex tourism, within Senegal. Transnationally, boys are trafficked to Senegal from The Gambia, Mali, Guinea-Bissau, and Guinea for forced begging by religious teachers. Senegalese women and girls are trafficked to neighboring countries, the Middle East, and Europe for domestic servitude and possibly for sexual exploitation. Women and girls from other West African countries, particularly Liberia, Ghana, Sierra Leone, and Nigeria may be trafficked to Senegal for sexual exploitation, including for sex tourism.
Senegalese literature is written or literary work which has been produced by writers born in the West African state. Senegalese literary works are mostly written in French, the language of the colonial administration. However, there are many instances of works being written in Arabic and the native languages of Wolof, Pulaar, Mandinka, Diola, Soninke and Serer. Oral traditions, in the form of Griot storytellers, constitute a historical element of the Senegalese canon and have persisted as cultural custodians throughout the nation’s history. A form of proto-Senegalese literature arose during the mid 19th century with the works of David Abbé Boilat, who produced written ethnographic literature which supported French Colonial rule. This genre of Senegalese literature continued to expand during the 1920s with the works of Bakary Diallo and Ahmadou Mapaté Diagne. Earlier literary examples exist in the form of Qur’anic texts which led to the growth of a form African linguistic expressionism using the Arabic alphabet, known as Ajami. Poets of this genre include Ahmad Ayan Sih and Dhu al-nun.
Senegalese Americans are an ethnic group of Americans of Senegalese descent. In the surveys of 2019, 18,091 people claimed to be of Senegalese origin or descent in the United States. However, many West Africans trafficked by enslavers to the United States were also of Senegalese origin. Thus many African Americans may also have some ancestors of this country.
Religion and beliefs occupy an important place in the daily life of the nation of Senegal. Many denominations of the religion of Islam are represented. Christians represent 5%. Traditional beliefs are officially practiced by 1% of the population, particularly Serer, but members of other religions also often partake in traditional practices.
Sidiki Kaba, is the keeper of the seals and the Minister of Justice of Senegal since 2013. On 8 December 2014, he was elected as President of the Assembly of States Parties to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court as consensus candidate from the African States Parties and endorsed by the Bureau of the Assembly. He will serve as President of the Assembly, which operates from New York and The Hague, while also continuing his functions as Minister of Justice from Dakar.
Aïssata Touré Kane was a Mauritanian politician who was the country's first female government minister. After holding leadership positions in the youth wing and women's section of the Mauritanian People's Party, she served in the cabinet of President Moktar Ould Daddah from 1975 to 1978. Her time as a minister ended when Daddah's government was overthrown by a military coup.
Fatou Kiné Camara is a Senegalese lawyer and women's rights campaigner. The daughter of a magistrate and government minister, Camara has a doctorate in law and works as a lecturer and researcher. She has supported campaigns for reform in many areas of the law and is particularly involved in attempting to increase the availability of abortions and free legal advice.
Marie "Mame" Bassine Niang was a Senegalese lawyer.
Senegal's typically patriarchal society dictates that women traditionally take care of the household duties such as cooking, cleaning, gathering water and firewood, and caring for children. and that men are in charge of the house. In Senegal, women have the same legal rights as men. However, it is still the case today that women are disadvantaged in many respects.
Ndèye Fatou Kane is a Senegalese novelist and feminist.
Fatou Sow is a Senegalese feminist sociologist specialising in sociology of gender.
Aminata Diaw Cissé was an Senegalese lecturer and political philosopher who taught at the Cheikh Anta Diop University (UCAD). Influenced by Jean-Jacques Rousseau and her academia background, she wrote about citizenship, civil society, democracy, development, ethnicity, gender, globalisation, human rights, identity, nationality and the state in an African and Senegalese context by using a political insight. Diaw worked for the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA), Bellagio Study and Conference Center of the Rockfeller Foundation, National UNESCO Sub-Commission on Social Sciences and Humanities, West African Research Association, the National UNESCO Sub-Commission on Social Sciences and Humanities and the Philosophical and Epistemological Research Center of the Doctoral School Studies.
Senegalese nationality law is regulated by the Constitution of Senegal, as amended; the Nationality Law, and its revisions; and various international agreements to which the country is a signatory. These laws determine who is, or is eligible to be, a national of Senegal. The legal means to acquire nationality, formal legal membership in a nation, differ from the domestic relationship of rights and obligations between a national and the nation, known as citizenship. Nationality describes the relationship of an individual to the state under international law, whereas citizenship is the domestic relationship of an individual within the nation. Senegalese nationality is typically obtained under the principal of jus sanguinis, i.e. by birth in Senegal or abroad to parents with Senegalese nationality. It can be granted to persons with an affiliation to the country, or to a permanent resident who has lived in the country for a given period of time through naturalization.