DAKAR  –  On a weekday at Dakar’s open-air Fass Market, traders call out in a rhythmic buzz as some buyers approach from a nearby major highway: Boulevard du General de Gaulle, a road named after a former French president and a man not everyone here knows.

It irks meat seller Matar Seck that street names like these – remnants of a painful colonial past – exist at all. Standing in front of his stall where he patiently waited for a customer, Seck questioned the point of having an Avenue Faidherbe, named after a brutal colonial governor, or a Rue de Jules Ferry, after a French politician who once claimed colonialism was necessary. Like many Senegalese, Seck said he wants change.

“I’ve lived in Europe. I’ve been to Barcelona, Rome and Milan, but I’ve never seen white people give the names of their most prestigious historical monuments and buildings to a Senegalese,” he said. “We have no shortage of people to name our most important streets [after]. I want to see a Youssou Ndour Street for example,” Seck added, referring to the beloved Senegalese crooner.

Indeed, streets in the capital city and across Senegal were originally named by the French colonial government and honoured officials or royals of the French empire. Decades after independence, they’ve largely stayed that way, a legacy of 300 years of conquest, slavery and colonialism.

But that might soon change: President Bassirou Diomaye Faye in December announced plans for a new government agency to rename streets and public squares to honour Senegalese.

It’s a notable step for Senegal, which has historically maintained close ties with Paris. In November, Faye asked Paris to remove about 350 French soldiers stationed there, in effect ending a decades-long defense pact and continuing a trend in West Africa, where nations are downgrading once-strong ties with France.

After a fraught election campaign last year that followed weeks of protests against former President Macky Sall, Faye came to power in April, promising to strengthen Senegalese identity and shrink ties with France – even replace French as the country’s official language. Under Sall, critics saw Senegal as a puppet that put France’s needs above all. Faye promised to be different. Now, not only will the new agency rename streets, but it will also rewrite Senegal’s textbooks.

Dakar-based urban planner Rakhiat Diallo Fall told Al Jazeera those efforts are necessary to do away with the sour taste of the past – from Senegal’s role as a major slave port to its centuries of colonial rule.

“Memory also passes through toponymy,” Diallo said, referring to the study of place names. “Seeing streets named after people we don’t know, people who have mistreated us, is a disgrace.” (Al Jazeera)

Photo: A street vendor walks around Place de l’Independence in Dakar. (Getty Images)