Senegal’s fishermen pin hopes on new president to help them fill their nets

As foreign boats and illegal trawlers lower fish stocks, local fishers want Diomaye Faye’s government to bring change.

Dakar, Senegal – For the traditional, small-scale fishermen of Ouakam Beach in Senegal’s capital Dakar, inequality is just a glance away.

Adama Gueye, a 58-year-old canoe captain, points towards the coast, where imposing villas of the upper-class, including politicians, sit tall and mighty a stone’s throw away from where he fishes.

“We can see the inequalities with our own eyes,” the fisherman told Al Jazeera.

For him, the injustice is compounded by decreasing fish stocks in the West African nation, where the centuries-old tradition of artisanal fishing is menaced by foreign industrial boats that export the fish away from Senegal.

But hope is on the horizon and it lies in his country’s new president: Bassirou Diomaye Faye.