We’re all up for some self promotion here, one way another, you can get your message across. It doesn’t necessarily mean it will be well received though, as the Senegalese people will tell you.
Senegal has inaugurated a new monument, higher than the Statue of Liberty, costing a bargain £18m. The 49m (160ft) Monument of African Renaissance has been unveiled in Dakar as the highlight of the nation’s 50th anniversary of independence, but has drawn huge criticism over its cost and symbolism.
The Soviet-style bronze statue, built by North Korean workers, is the idea of President Abdoulaye Wade, who not one to miss an opportunity, said he should take 35% of the revenue generated by the monument because it was his idea.
Nineteen heads of state, including Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe and Ivory Coast’s Laurent Gbagbo, attended the statue’s inauguration, which coincided with the country celebrating 50 years of independence from France.
Deputy opposition leader Ndeye Fatou Toure said the statue was an “economic monster and a financial scandal in the context of the current [economic] crisis,” AFP news agency reported. Not only that, but now most of the Muslim community has got the hump, as scholars have labelled its scantily clad figures un-Islamic, while others said it was a waste of money and ‘idolatrous’.
On the eve of the celebrations, the Reuters news agency quoted a leading imam, Massamba Diop, as telling worshippers at a mosque in the capital: “We have issued a fatwa urging Senegal’s imams this Friday to read the holy Koran in the mosques simply to ask Allah to preserve us from the punishment this monument of shame risks bringing on Senegal.”
Apart from that, the ceremony went down very well. If you have a budget of £18m, or even less, talk to the promotion experts at Gift Selection who will share their expert advice.
