Penda Kede’s Dispair

You may have been one of the 150,000 + people who have watched the video on You Tube. Well you won’t see it here. To embed that image in this blog would be gratuitous. I would rather try and find out why she was driven to burn herself in Rome last week.

I have held off on posting about this until I had more information. Today a sister in Italy told me this in the Black Women in Europe social network discussion on the topic:

I’ve been trying to see if I can get news on the condition of the Senegalese lady,but I can’t.The reason she did that was because she,the grand daughter of the senegalese president,helped him so much during the electoral campaign in February.She expected some sort of consideration or sign of appreciation from him,seeing that she had helped him here in Italy,by letting the Senegalese community vote for him.But he didn’t give a damn about her after the elections.She did all to contact him in-vain.When he came to Rome,she left Brescia for Rome to see him,but she was sent away by his guards.She first wanted to protest by throwing herselfdown some stairs,but was stopped by passerbys.She then had the idea of settingherself on fire,maybe after reading about the other lady in Belgium who did same.Since the 7th of December,nothing has been said about her. The news said she should be the grand daughter or niece to the president,but they doubt if it’s true as they say the african family is sooooooo extended and people from thesame clan consider themselves cousins,nephews,nieces or grandchildren. I just reported what they said in the news.

By now you probably know that the sister in Belgium who died after setting herself alight in Luxembourg in 2001 was Maggy Delvaux-Mufu. I’ve been hard pressed to find out what her motivation was except. Reports have said racism. Did she leave a note, complain to friends or family that the racism she faced put her over the edge? The facts that have come to light is that she and her husband were financially strapped for cash, she worked three jobs, and he, a Belgian, was in the process of opening an auto garage, but faced many road blocks.