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ZimDakar - What are we up to, over there?
Trudy Stevenson, Ambassador
June 19, 2011

As taxpayers, you must sometimes wonder what your money is paying for, especially in our foreign missions, far away from the eyes even of civil society look-outs! This article is a first attempt to answer that question from your mission in Dakar, Senegal, in French-speaking West Africa.

This past year since our re-opening in late February 2010, we coordinated our President's visit for the Inauguration of the African Renaissance Monument on 3 April and Senegal's celebration of its 50th anniversary of independence on 4 April 2010.

We then held a series of meetings with Senegal government officials, civil society and international organisations to establish links and identify areas for future cooperation. We wrote to our various relevant ministries as well as to CZI and ZNCC, proposing various possibilities and giving our contact details to pass on to interested Zimbabwean exporters and business persons. We trust that you have received those details!

Stands at the FESMAN Festival

A major event in Senegal last year was the December "Festival Mondial des Arts Negres" (FESMAN - World Black Arts Festival) which lasted 3 weeks 7-31 December. We arranged, thanks to our ministry and the President's Office, for the transport of some 760 kg of stone sculptures and paintings to be sent from Zimbabwe for exhibition during the Festival. Anyone with any experience in transporting anything, let alone works of art, by air to other countries will understand what a major feat that was!

This year we hosted a very successful National Day reception on 18 April, which had good media coverage and thus went a long way to promoting the good image of our country.

We have facilitated the visit of numerous Zimbabweans to Senegal, and also for Senegalese and citizens from neighbouring countries to visit Zimbabwe, especially for various conferences and meetings. Our participants to the UN-IDEP workshops have been particularly frequent.

Part of the Zimbabwe exhibition in the "Goree: Regards sur Cours" exhibition. The pink painting at the front is Thakor Patel's "Black Form", next to that is Virginia Chihota's "Tikabatsirana Tagona", and in the far corner are two sculptures by Lazarus Takawira, "Humble Woman" and "Rabbit", plus "Horse" by Bester Gunja.

Most recently, last weekend we exhibited some of our artists' work in the Goree Island 'Regards sur Cours' exhibition (Lazarus Takawira, Thakor Patel, Lovemore Kambudzi, Portia Zvavahera, Virginia Chihota, Bester Gunja) and at the same time supported our joint equestrian sports team (Kenya, Zimbabwe, Mauritius) in the horse-jumping Africa Tour Dakar Grand Prix Indoor, in which our team came 3rd after Senegal 1 and 2 (riding their own horses), while our rider Charley Crockart came 6th out of some 38 riders, riding a young 6-year-old.

Senegal certainly now knows that Zimbabwe exists, and that our embassy "opposite Abdoulaye Wade's house" is a good place to visit.

We encourage those of you intending to visit Senegal to contact us at Rue de Louga/ Rue 31, Point E ("en face maison Abdoulaye Wade") or on zimdakar@yahoo.com tel. +221 33 825 41 31 so that we can help make your visit as smooth and fruitful as possible. Please also bear in mind that we offer excellent official translation/interpretation facilities in French-speaking Senegal and the region.

This is part of the Zimbabwe exhibition in the "Goree: Regards sur Cours" exhibition. The pink painting at the front is Thakor Patel's "Black Form", next to that is Virginia Chihota's "Tikabatsirana Tagona", and in the far corner are two sculptures by Lazarus Takawira, "Humble Woman" and "Rabbit", plus "Horse" by Bester Gunja.

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