[2] Originally scheduled for completion in December 2009, delays stretched into early 2010, and the formal dedication occurred on 4 April 2010, Senegal's "National Day", commemorating the 50th anniversary of the country's independence from France.

It shows a family drawn up towards the sky, the man carrying his child on his biceps and holding his wife by the waist, "an Africa emerging from the bowels of the earth, leaving obscurantism to go towards the light".

[citation needed] The project of the monument was entrusted to the Senegalese architect Pierre Goudiaby Atepa, author "in particular" of the Door of the Third Millennium, which overhangs the road of the Corniche.

"[6] Thousands of people protested against "all the failures of President Wade's regime, the least of which is this horrible statue" on the city's streets beforehand, with riot police deployed to maintain control.

[12] The project has also attracted controversy due to Wade's claim to the intellectual property rights of the statue, and insisting that he is entitled to 35 percent of the profits raised.