On March 24, Bassirou Diomaye Faye knelt before his father before slipping his vote into the ballot box. It was a historic Sunday. "He asked me to pray for him, that the election would go well," said the old man in the white boubou, sitting on the stoop of the family home, a building recognizable by its pink walls. He will never forget that spring evening when his son was elected president. Just like he won't forget the village of Ndiaganiao, the stronghold of this farming family from central-western Senegal. This modest village with its dwellings on either side of a single tarmac road was the scene of a memorable event. There were so many visitors in the courtyard of the pink house that the children had to be locked in a room "to avoid being hurt or crushed by the crowd," said Ibrahima Faye, one of the new president's brothers.

Under the tent set up during the election period, this crowd followed the announcement of the results on the radio and social media. As the night wore on and the estimates became clearer, the whole of Ndiaganiao began to dance and sing. Bassirou Diomaye Faye ended up being elected with 54.28% of the vote. "In the first round! Our country has never seen anything like it!" said Samba Faye, filled with "great pride" for his "calm, intelligent and hard-working" son, always ready, in the past, to help his mother with household chores, to get busy in the fields or with the animals. Since then, the former socialist activist who contributed in his youth to the regional establishment of the party of Senegal's father of independence, Léopold Sédar Senghor, has been praying that his Bassirou will not disappoint his compatriots. "Expectations are immense," he said.

The journey of the youngest president in the country's history – 44 years old – has all the makings of a meteoric rise. In 10 days, from March 14 to 24, the man with a reputation for discretion was propelled from the obscurity of a prison cell to the bright lights of the presidential palace. After years spent in the shadow of his mentor, the thundering Ousmane Sonko, he has revolutionized the political arena on one promise: to overthrow a system deemed cronyist and incapable of improving the living conditions of most of the population. "I am aware that the results of the ballot box express a profound desire for systemic change. Through my election, the Senegalese people have committed themselves to building a sovereign, just and prosperous Senegal," he said, on Tuesday, April 2, at his inauguration, on the stage of the Diamniadio exhibition center on the outskirts of Dakar. His friend Sonko was seated in the second row, behind the eight African heads of state in attendance. He subsequently appointed him prime minister.

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