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FACETIME
Lewis Lukens ’82:
Former Ambassador to Senegal and Guinea-Bissau
Appointed in 2011 by President Barack
Obama, Lewis Lukens ’82 served as am-
bassador to Senegal and Guinea-Bissau
from the summer of 2011 until the sum-
mer of 2014. There, he was responsible
for bilateral relations with the two West
African nations and worked to promote
democracy and economic development
in the region. Though the most recent
Ebola outbreak intensified after Lukens’s
departure, the spread of the deadly virus
was a growing concern for the SPS alum-
nus and his colleagues during his tenure.
Lukens, who currently serves as a diplomat
in residence for the U.S. Department of
State based out of San Francisco, spoke
with
Alumni Horae
Editor Jana Brown
about his time in West Africa.
That region is very large and very
diverse.
West Africa itself is huge and filled
with many diverse cultures, descending
through different colonial paths. Each of
the colonial powers – French, British, Portu-
guese – brought its own governing style.
For hundreds of years, the cultures
were focused on the village level and
remained very local.
It wasn’t until 1960
that most of the countries became indepen-
dent. Development of individual nations
in the last 50 years has depended a lot on
whether a country has natural resources
or not, and on the nature of its colonial
history.
When I left Senegal in June, there had
been a rise in cases of Ebola and people
were starting to focus on it.
We didn’t
know the crisis was going to get as big as
it became. We eventually saw one case in
Senegal, and it was very much a regional
issue. By the spring, our embassy in Guinea
was very focused on Ebola and we were
starting to work with our international
partners on a response.
Part of the reason Ebola spread in West
Africa is that, once you get out of the
capital cities, much of the region in-
cludes remote areas
,
where there isn’t
a functioning healthcare infrastructure.
Particularly in Guinea, there are many
mountainous regions, where there are
no healthcare facilities. And, at first,
people didn’t know it was Ebola they were
dealing with.
The international community response
expanded significantly in the months
after I departed.
I know that once the
scope of the Ebola outbreak became wider
known, and how extensive and dangerous
it potentially was, the international com-
munity immediately offered assistance.
A lot of aid went through Senegal, and
our embassy in Dakar has been involved
in coordinating and facilitating the move-
ment of assistance to Sierra Leone, Liberia,
and Guinea. USAID has been involved in
Senegal for over 50 years in support of
the Senegalese healthcare system. We
sent U.S. troops to Liberia to set up field
hospitals.
There is a misconception in the U.S
about West Africa.
People are surprised
when they come to Dakar and see how
developed and sophisticated it is. But just
outside of the city, you find poverty and
very little access to healthcare.
Many people also don’t understand
just how big Africa is.
During the most
recent Ebola crisis, a U.S. head of a school
had been in Zambia [in Southern Africa]
and the parents wanted to boycott the
school. They don’t understand that the
distance between Zambia and Liberia is
greater than the distance from where
Ebola is in West Africa to the U.S. I hope
the outbreak has helped educate Ameri-
cans a bit as to the diversity and size of
the African continent.
Lukens (l.) with President George W. Bush
and shaking hands with President Obama.
Photos courtesy Lewis Lukens ’82
