Development of Maga

Maga’s artificial lake was constructed in 1979. This was part of an extensive development plan by SEMRY, an organisation which was formed to develop the Logone plain with international financial backing. Canals were built from the lake to provide irrigation for the cultivation of rice and other crops. The new town of Maga grew up close by and a lot of people moved from Gurvidig and Pouss into it. SEMRY built a village with good facilities and a hotel, Safari Danay which still operates to a surprisingly high standard (e.g. an Irish country house from the Blue Guide or a good Logis de France). As part of the plan some factories were built, for example a rice packaging factory. A fish processing factory was also built separately by the Japanese. These are either closed or greatly run down at this stage. Unfortunately SEMRY was state-owned and its senior management were political appointees, which resulted in bad management. Global economic problems and SAPs hit very hard in the 1990s. Regulations have not been enforced, e.g. there has been serious over-fishing. SEMRY is now bankrupt and most of the extensive infrastructure that it put in place is in disrepair. This is a scenario which I need to investigate further to see what lessons can be learnt from it and what things can be salvaged.

Last year SEMRY failed to pay its employees for many months. However its Chief Executive continued to build a luxurious house for himself at its expense. When a staff delegation took this up with him he hurled abuse at them. What followed is referred to locally as a “peasant revolt”. The Chief Executive escaped and has not been seen since but his house was razed and in the resulting unrest two people died, one of them a policeman. A staff committee currently runs what is left of SEMRY.