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In the week leading to the historic trip to Senegal, Dakar for the world social forum, between the intense logistical planning of the event for the CCS team and myself, I read through a number of things ranging from the history of the world social forum concept, the various social forums already attended and their outcomes as well as available critique of the concept and how it had unfolded since Porto Allegre in 2001. I also revisited my reading of the West African economic history in which slave trade, the spread of Islam and the evolution of French colonialism in Senegal in particular. More recently, Senegal had come into our critique of what was wrong with the newly formed Africa Union dominated by among others Thabo Mbeki’s renaissance plan and Abdulla Wade’s Omega Plan which came to form the New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD). So, like my first Conference of Parties (COP) in Cancun, this trip was taken with excitement and with lots of anxieties too. As with COP16, I can only summarise the experience as heart-racking and eye-opening. This is why!
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