y
THE PRIZE WAS a seven
day, all expense paid trip for the
seven writers-with one guest
each-to the West African nation
of Senegal.
. Holding the beautiful baby girl
wrapped in foul' layers of elabo-
TRADE AND CO R E
is vel)' much part of their liv
inside and outside ofth village.
Clusters of people line the
newly-paved highway north to
Dakar. Many are selling and/or
buying mangoes, oranges, ba
nanas and coconuts, among other
produce. This makes for a busy,
colorful and noisy marketplace
that stretches for miles.
Dakar is a city in constant rno-
OU E on
Go Island' one of the m
widely visited of about 50 la
ho , or fo , till tanding in
West Africa. It has long n a
"must" for visiting Black Ameri
cans.
Few persons are not affected
by the physical reminders of the
imprisonment, the break-up of
families th pain and th suffer
ing that began for many in these
waterfron prisons.
I saw th mall pa where
my an to had been packed in
large groups for months at a time.
I saw where they had been
crammed into cells eight and a
half feet wide with light and air
slits too narrow for my fingers to
pass through .
I saw a room with plenty of
Younou s N'Gouf, center, u her young married ,Christopher and Adrianne George-Bourn ,
Into the naming ceremony for hi one-week old granddaughter, Anta, whom Mrs.
George-Bourne hold in her arms. The couple, from Springfield, Va., were among a group of
African-American univer ity stud nt who recently won the national e ay conte t.
rately-woven cloth, and sleeping
peacefully throughout most of her
official introduction to the world,
I 'was led by Mr. N'Gouf to the
front of the f tive crowd during
my first evening in Senegal.
We felt at home with the Wolof
tion. Speeding Peugeots and
Renaults slow down to make
room for small herds of cattle,
goats and heep, further illustrat
ingthecontrastbetw n the mod
.em "Paris of Africa" and. its far
larger rural surroundings.
light where slaves could be in
spected-head, body, arms,
Ie like horses or cattle. They
had been inspected by slave-buy
ers who could, if they wanted,
hide behind curtains so they
would not be observed purchasing
Election analysis shows that Blacks and
Puerto Ricans gave Dinkins his only solid
backing while only 25 percent of whites cast
ballots for the one-term Black mayor.
T HEAD 0 the city's Community
Service Society, David R. Jones, put the gen
eral views of Blacks this way: "Anyone who
denies there was a strong racial component
(to 'the Dinkins' defeat) is living in a dream
world. In order to gain the statusofa political
party, the Rainbow Coalition would have to
collect 15,000 signatur ,run a candidate for
governor and then have that candidate re
ceive at least 50,000 votes.
ew
NEW YORK, NY-Black political leaders in
New York have begun exploring the possi
bility of forming a new political party in the
wake of the rent el tion defeat of New
York City's first Black mayor, David Dinkins.
Theefforti ingpushed by political activist
Rev. AI Sharpton and state senator' David
Paterson.
Reportedly, the new party would be
formed und r the banner of Rev. J J ack
son's Rainbow Coalition. City Blacks are
charging racism in the I of D mocratic
incum nt inkins to publican Rudolph
Giuliani in a city where D mocrats outnum
ber Republicans by 5-to-l.
Th even wlnn r of the es y writing conte t pau e t the main patio of th lave hou eon
Sen gal' Goree I land. Accompanying the wlnn r on the one-week. all exp nse -paid trip,
are their gu sts, Pepsi-Cola officials and local guide . The winners were all African-American
university students.
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