VOCABULARY
Fabien Sagna
Dreaming Two Dreams and Then Choosing One
L
iving is dream-
ing, but dreaming
requires choos-
ing a future. And
to choose your
future, we must, at least, face
two things. Some people have
only one dream throughout
their lives. Others find the real
dream of their life while on the
way to achieving the first one.
The first ones follow their in-
stinct but the second ones make
new choices. Our dreams for
our future may come from a
movie, a parent’s job or an ex-
perience. In my case, it was the
latter. It was the experience of
having a special soccer coach
who was also a lawyer. This
experience made me to want
to become a lawyer myself.
Born into a family of three
elder brothers and two el-
der sisters, I was orphaned
in 1980. My father passed
away after spending just my
first three years with me. I
can’t even picture him. All
I know is that he was sick.
It was hard and difficult to live
without our father. In addi-
tion to this unhappy event, our
fields were confiscated by my
uncle, the eldest member of
my father’s family. It was a vi-
olation of our customary rules.
In fact, in my culture, Diola
Kasa, if the deceased father
has sons, it’s to them that the
lands come back. Only if there
are no sons do his lands go
back to the paternal lineage.
I was revolted by this injustice.
At that time, I followed one
34
of the traditional animistic re-
ligions of Senegal. Then, one
day, I went to the Catholic
Church with one of my friends
whose parents were Cath-
olic. My mother knew this,
but she didn’t say anything.
I was touched by the priest’s
sermons about justice and de-
cided to become a priest to
combat injustice and to defend
victims of it. After I confessed
my dream to my mother, and
explained my reasons, she en-
couraged me. In 1996, I took
and passed the test to go to the
Seminary. In October 1997,
I attended the Saint John’s
Pre-Seminary of Nyassia, the
chief town of our District, and
continued for two years; then,
the Saint Louis Seminary of
Ziguinchor, the chief town in