Senegalese parliamentary elections: Mame Diarra Fam, the Gaïndé of Pikine

During the stormy debates that have peppered the agenda of the Senegalese National Assembly over the past five years, the interventions in the hemicycle of Mame Diarra Fam (wife Sarr), sometimes secretly broadcast on Facebook Live, have become mythical. A member of the Senegalese diaspora in Italy since 2017, she has enlivened sensitive debates with a verve and humour that have given Moustapha Niasse, the president of the National Assembly since 2012, who is preparing to retire, a hard time.

Mame Diarra Fam, a member of the Senegalese Democratic Party (PDS, opposition), is not the type of person to sit on the sidelines. Able to mix her speeches in the gallery in an atypical way - switching from French to Wolof and then from Wolof to Italian - this cosmopolitan Senegalese, who once shuttled between Dakar and Canada, where part of her family lives, before settling in Milan, is to Senegalese parliamentary life what chilli pepper is to local gastronomy. A condiment that sometimes sets the mouth on fire.

Behind bars

From 17 to 27 June, this dashing fifty-year-old, who has never been cold-hearted, spent ten days in police custody and then in pre-trial detention before being released without any charge being brought against her. Her crime? She went to the home of the mayor of Dakar, the opponent Barthélémy Dias, on a day when the opposition was preparing to demonstrate to protest against the invalidation of lists filed for the legislative elections without having received authorization.