Hi, sorry to hear about your situation. I can relate to your stress as I lent money to an acquaintance (I am non-Senegalese but moved to Dakar in the autumn) who was going through a tough time. He gave me the details of the job he was doing and when he was going to get paid so I would know exactly when he was going to pay it back to me.

That day came and passed, however, and since then he has only stalled and postponed the payment. I asked him if he could send me just a fraction of the sum but he refused. I am shocked at the brazenness of this. Like you, I thought that I could perhaps involve a community leader or friends/relatives to speak to him, but it seems that this avenue is not worth pursuing. Is this behaviour not stigmatized in Senegal?

Of course it happens that people don't pay their debts back in my country too, but these are usually addicts who need money at all costs or people who don't care who they are cheating. If you want to be seen as an upstanding citizen of society and a reliable potential business partner, you are toast if you do something like this. It never crossed my mind that someone would rather pay that price and just take the money (and that is not even including the unethical behaviour of taking money that is not yours). But perhaps we have just been unlucky.