So you lost a wallet or a phone — or a horse. Senegal has a Facebook page for that

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A sheep for sale in a market in Dakar, Senegal. Sometimes sheep are stolen. The owner might post a photo on a «found and lost Facebook page in hope of recovering the ruminant.

Seyllou /AFP via Getty Images

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Seyllou /AFP via Getty Images

Moustapha Sané lost his wallet in the bustling city of Dakar. What if there were a website to help people found lost objects, he wondered. And so he created the Facebook page «Trouvés ou Perdus — French for «found or lost.

Nick Roll for NPR

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Nick Roll for NPR

The stolen sheep would eventually join the ranks of countless wallets, IDs and even long-lost family members as beneficiaries of Sané’s Facebook page, Trouvés ou Perdus. (That’s French for «Found or Lost.)

With members numbering in the hundreds of thousands, the page and an accompanying Facebook group of the same name operate like a lost and found but for an entire city – and beyond. Posts have been known to resonate across the country and sometimes across West Africa.

«There are a lot – a lot – of sheep that are found via the page, says Sané, an accountant. He created the page in 2018 and now runs it with a team of admins on a volunteer basis.

The post noting the missing Eid sheep was accompanied with a witty message from the owner stating, «Women, if your husband brings you this sheep, know that he stole it. Laughing reactions rolled in, but so did likes and shares. Within hours, someone spotted the sheep and alerted the owner, who arrived with the police and retrieved the stolen animal.

But don’t a lot of sheep look … alike? «There are spots. When you look at the spots — there are black spots, brown spots, et cetera, Sané says matter-of- factly. «It’s easy to recognize.

It all began with a lost wallet

A sheep is one thing. A wallet is another. Anyone who’s lost a wallet in a big city like Dakar might be resigned to never finding it again. In fact, that’s what happened to Sané once, before the page existed.

To someone searching for such a small and valuable possession, the city might seem to just swallow it up. It is a pretty overwhelming metropolis. Motorcycles zip past taxis stalled in crowded traffic. Horse carts and cattle compete for road space with an intricate system of city buses and their informal car rapide counterparts.

After failing to find his wallet, Sané created Trouvés ou Perdus. Since then, it’s taken off, becoming a form of Senegalese teranga, or hospitality, on steroids: Descriptions of lost items are posted on Facebook – either on the Trouvés ou Perdus page, which boasts more than 130,000 likes, or the group, with about 60,000 members.

«It’s the members who are spurring the growth of the page – and its success – Sané says. «It’s the members who say, for example, ‘I say to my friend, I lost my son. And my friend says, automatically, go to the Facebook page.'

Then the comments, likes, prayers, and shares roll in.

And there’s an impressive reach. The number of eyeballs who see a post can reach into the millions in this country with a population of about 17 million.

‘We’re asked to help our neighbors’

It’s not just sheer numbers that lead to lost things being found. Users of the page say that there are also cultural reasons it succeeds so well.

«In Senegal, there’s a certain spirit of solidarity, says Mamadou Dia. Dia started volunteering as an admin after the page helped locate his stolen car. «Your reflex is to help.

In his case, someone saw the car, matched the license plate to the post and called him.

«In our religion, we’re asked to help our neighbors, says Abdourahmane Deme, another admin, who, like most of the country, is Muslim.

Baye Omar Niasse, whose brother found a locked smartphone in the back of his taxi last month, posted a photo of the phone on the Trouvés ou Perdus page because «I’ve lost my phone before, he says.

«I have important things in my phone, and surely so does whoever owns this one, he adds. He’s still waiting for the owner to find him.

Then there’s the story of the lost-and-found horse.

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Bassirou Ndao’s horse ran away. He needed the animal for his farmwork and couldn’t afford a replacement. Posting a photo on the Trouvés ou Perdus Facebook page led to an equine reunion.

Bassirou Ndao

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Bassirou Ndao

Aissatou Traoré hadn’t heard from her dad in 23 years. She turned to Trouvés ou Perdus to see if she could discover where he was — and if he was even still alive.

Aissatou Traoré

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Aissatou Traoré

«When we’re children, we don’t understand. Sometimes, when you see people surrounded by two parents, you ask yourself, why aren’t they both here? she says. Nearly 23 years later, she was still upset.

Traoré yearned both to know her father and also her extended family on his side, whom she had never met. Now a parent herself, she also wanted her son to know her father and his family.

On a Friday in early August, Traoré posted on Trouvés ou Perdus, including a photo of herself and the few personal details she knew about her father. She went to bed, thinking it wouldn’t work.

The next day she had a lead from someone in Bakel, a city in eastern Senegal near the Malian border. Her father, she learned, had lived there after leaving Dakar.

Eventually she found out that her dad had died in 2018 — but the chain of contacts connecting her to her paternal family had already started.

«I met four members of my family — two brothers and two sisters, Traoré says. «The first time, it was so moving. They had been living less than 2 miles away, in a Dakar neighborhood not far from her own. Now they stay in contact by phone, which is how she’s connected with other family members in Mali.

Not all the posts have happy endings. Many wallets, sheep, and people are never found. But for those who have seen Trouvés ou Perdus work, it’s magical.

«I didn’t believe the post would work, says Traoré. «I had the chance to meet my paternal brothers and sisters. It was everything I wanted.

Nick Roll is a freelance journalist based in Dakar.