SENEGAL IS PART OF ME
I was born on the 2nd of October 1970 in Dakar, Senegal. After having completed my high school studies I migrated to Italy, a wonderful country that welcomed me and gave me the opportunity to face the realities of the workplace through various, more or less gratifying, work experiences. I spent hours and hours bowed under the scorching sun harvesting tomatoes. I worked as a porter. I came to know the harsh reality of factory work. I switched many jobs, until, in 2005, I was hired by a golf club, where I worked for the following 16 years. My passion for this sport, my perseverance and my desire to give new life to the place where I matured as golfer, prompted me to attend the National School of Golf in Sutri that belongs to the Italian Federation. Thus, I became the golf club's director from 2017 until 2020.
Having the chance to reach my goals, while injecting new life in such a wonderful place during rough years, has been a great satisfaction. However, throughout the time I spent at the golf club, I always felt the need to keep the connection with my land and my people, while remembering the sentiment of altruism taught me by my defunct father: to him, Peace and Salvation. Thus, I created a company through which I was able to help my fellow citizens and, especially, to offer them the regular work they needed to keep and obtain the residency permit, an essential step to stay in Italy. I am extremely proud of my story: it has been studded by experiences and people that enriched me and made me grow as a person. And today, with this precious baggage full of life experiences, I want to get involved for the future of Senegal, my beloved country.
ONE PEOPLE, ONE GOAL, ONE FAITH
Senegal is a part of me. I spent my childhood in Dakar's working-class neighborhood of Grand Yoff.
Living in such a peripheral and difficult place marks, inevitably, the course of your existence. I had the great fortune of having on my side two parents who taught me the important values of honesty, sincerity, respect, gratitude, solidarity and justice.
My mother has been a precious master for me: she taught me how to face any adversity with a great deal of determination.
My father has been my greatest example of altruism. I often repeat to myself his words: "Every time you can help someone, never back down. Help who is having a difficult time because he needs you".
This is exactly what I tried to do throughout my whole life and it is what I want to keep doing for the greater good of my nation.
Senegal is the magic experience of an astonishing beauty.
It is the land of hospitality and peaceful cohabitation.
"Un peuple, un but, une foi" is the principle that inspires our people, united while given its many differences. Its model of cohabitation is unique in the world: each religion, race, ethnicity and tribe are respected. And these are the values of my people in which I feel reflected the most.
A BETTER FUTURE
Senegal is our brightest future.
Our nation possesses important riches that, until now, have been largely unexploited.
Its soil is a precious reserve of minerals, metals, ornamental stones. Its strategic geographic location and its hospitality can surely prompt our country to a decisive growth of our economy and the tourism sector.
Moreover, its wonderful people constitute a motivated and capable workforce.
Ours is a country gifted with considerable resources and that deserves much more than what it nowadays has.
I lived on my skin, as many other fellow Senegalese, what migrating to another continent means.
The twenty years that I spent in Italy helped me grow as a person, but, at the same time, they made me realize that our youngsters must have the right to stay and work in their native country.
We are united.
Together we are a force to be reckoned with and we possess the strength and the attitude to make our country great.
And I want to dedicate myself to guiding this change.