On Goree Island, Bush visit sparks anger
Reuters: Clar Ni Chonghaile: ‘President Bush made an eloquent speech [at Goree Island, Senegal] but did not win many friends during his brief visit to Goree Island off Senegal on Tuesday.' [→ READ ]
N’diaye and other residents of Goree, site of a famous slave trading station, said they had been taken to a football ground on the other side of the quaint island at 6 a.m. and told to wait there until Bush had departed, around midday. …
Normally, the island teems with tourists, Senegal’s ubiquitous traders, hawkers of cheap African art, photographers offering to take pictures and all the expected trappings of a tourist hot-spot in one of the world’s poorest countries.
On Tuesday, shutters on the yellow and red colonial-style houses remained shut. The cafes were closed and the narrow pier deserted, apart from security agents manning a metal detector, near the sandy beach. A gunship patrolled offshore. …
Many residents compared Bush’s hour-long visit unfavorably to the island tour by former President Bill Clinton in 1998.
“When Clinton came, he shook hands, people danced,” said former Mayor Urbain Alexandre Diagne.
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