By Charles Mgbolu
As the clock struck 11 pm on the night of September 26, 2002, a lone white ferry carrying 1,800-odd passengers off the Gambian coast sailed into the jaws of a deadly storm on the Atlantic.
Wind and rain pounded the vessel, and violent waves smashed the sides, rocking it into a dance of death and leaving terrified passengers screaming in horror.
The ferry was the Joola, a Senegalese-owned sea vessel that left the docks of Ziguinchor in the Casamance region of southern Senegal at 1:30 pm that fateful day for a 17-hour journey. The destination was the capital, Dakar, with a brief stopover at Carabane Island.
The Joola had sailed farther out to sea than it was licenced to go and stood no chance against a gale of such magnitude.
Five minutes after entering the eye of the storm, the ferry succumbed, tilting to its side and tumbling in the deathly embrace of giant waves.
Official records state 1,863 people drowned in the tragedy, with only 64 survivors.
It remains the worst maritime disaster in Senegal and is acknowledged as the third worst non-military disaster in naval history, surpassing the Titanic's death toll of more than 1,500 in 1912.
"I was supposed to be on the boat. I was supposed to join them, but I was playing football in Dakar," Wakhani Johnson Sambou, a Senegalese journalist who lost several family members and friends, tells TRT Afrika ahead of the 21st anniversary of the tragedy.
Among the scores of schoolchildren swallowed by the depths of the sea that night, many were members of a teenage football team headed to the national capital to participate in a tournament.
"So many schoolchildren died because it was the beginning of the school year; some of them were going to the capital, Dakar, for the start of a new academic session," recounts Wakhani.
"I lost one of my best friends. She was on the boat for the first time with her little sister. Their bodies were never found."
Negligence
Inquiries instituted by the Senegalese government largely attributed the tragedy to human error and negligence, but no one has been convicted yet.
The number of passengers was more than four times the ferry's carrying capacity, with many passengers on the deck.
With such huge numbers onboard, it was impossible for the captain, who also died in the tragedy, to keep the vessel afloat as it fought to ride out the gale.
Eyewitnesses say that after the ferry upturned, people trapped in air pockets under the vessel continued to scream for help until it eventually sank 20 metres to its watery grave about 16 hours later.
"The rescue efforts at the time weren't fast enough. When rescuers did get to the doomed ferry, they did not have sophisticated equipment to rescue so many people in a very short time," says Ibrahima Gassama, another Senegalese journalist who has extensively reported the Joola tragedy.
Monument for victims
A museum in honour of the victims of the tragedy is under construction in Ziguinchor, wedged between a busy street and the Casamance River. Contractors are racing to meet the year-end deadline to finish the project.
But Gassama says the victims' families want more than just a museum.
"They want the wreckage of the ferry to be pulled from the sea. This is the only way for many to find closure and heal. They want the ferry to be in the museum, so their departed loved ones can finally be given the last rites."
The government has said it has yet to be able to accomplish this due to technical challenges.
"There is also the concern from some Senegalese that pulling out the boat is going to be a second tragedy because it is going to open old wounds," says Wakhani.
So, has Senegal learnt its lessons from this horrible tragedy? Gassama doesn't think so.
"The day after the shipwreck, we, as Senegalese said, never again, and behaviours changed, but it only lasted a week. Senegalese have returned to their old habits," he tells TRT Afrika.
Disasters waiting to happen
This is particularly true as illegal migrant crossings across the Atlantic have gripped the West African nation like a fever.
Like the Joola, many young Senegalese continue to die in the sea after cramming into dingy, overloaded boats that often capsize mid-route to Western nations after sailing into a storm.
The most recent boat mishap happened in August this year when more than 60 Senegalese migrants drowned off the coast of Cape Verde as they attempted to reach Europe, according to the International Organisation for Migration.
In the days and months following the Joola tragedy, there were a lot of sensitisation campaigns around the danger of passenger overcrowding on vessels.
Gassama says it is incomprehensible that people fail to apply this to their everyday lives.
"In Senegal, the transport coaches are overloaded, and there are still many car accidents on the road, with many deaths resulting from breaking many transport rules. As Senegalese, how could we forget?" he says.
Fellow journalist Wakhani echoes him. "People should never take chances with life. Travelling by sea, road, or air is all very risky, and we must respect the rules."
Wakhani is happy that most survivors and the victims' families have managed to move on despite the pain that refuses to go away.
''The pain of their passing will never be forgotten because they did not deserve to die. But I am assured they are all at peace," he says.
As another anniversary of that tragic night is marked, those forced to live with memories of how the Joola sank would perhaps draw greater solace if they knew another tragedy like that would never happen again.
