On the morning of 5 September 2017, the inhabitants of Saint-Louis, a regional capital on Senegal’s northwest coast, woke to a strange scene. The statue of Louis Faidherbe that had formed the focal point of the Square Faidherbe since 1887 had fallen.
The effigy of the 19th-century French general and colonial administrator lay next to its pedestal, its face buried in the sand of the public garden that it had decorated. This followed the call for its removal that had been heard for years.
