Senegal reflections

We're back from our family trip to Senegal over the Christmas break.  We left December 26 and returned January 8.  It was an absolutely amazing trip, and I've wanted to write here about it if only to have the opportunity for my own sense of focused reflection.  But doing it has seemed beyond my capacity until today when I think for the first time I've found my equilibrium.  The five hour time difference didn't seem to get me going to Senegal but on the way back, wow, I've felt yucky. 

These couple of points barely begin to capture all that we experienced--it was so rich.  Perhaps I'll expand on some of these in future posts, but for now I just want to capture some reactions. 

Kindness.  People were welcoming everywhere we went.  The culture of welcome and hospitality varies, of course, depending on particulars--urban vs. rural, differences of education, tribe, etc.  The kindness is partly rooted in a ritual of social connection, so the greeting often helps know who the person is (tribe, language, etc.).  We so often experienced long greetings, asking about families, wishes of peace, and so on.  One such greeting, between a farm manager and a shepherd, lasted for minutes.  Just the greeting.  It took so long I took a picture. 

 

Faith.  You might imagine that I'd be curious about faith in Senegal.  The nation 90% Muslim, the rest Christian (mostly Catholic, with less than 1% Protestant).  As in most of Africa, traditional religion is quite close to the surface in both cases.  Some thoughts.  It was my first time in a muslim country.  The call to prayer broadcast over the loud speakers from every mosque.  I captured an example from the five o'clock call to prayer at the Mosque of the Divinity which according to legend either fell from heaven directly, or the plans for the Mosque did, one or the other.  It is a gorgeous example.  I took the video as people were going to prayer--it was 5:00 p.m. on Sunday.  In this sect, the Layen, wear all white to prayer and welcome both women and men.  They are the smallest of the four main groups of Muslims in Senegal.  The largest, the Mouride, founded a hundred years ago by a Sufi mystic named  Amadou Bamba (d. 1927).  Based in Touba, a city to the northeast of Dakar, the leader (called the Grand Marabout) is always a direct descendant of Bamba.  Partly due to their strong work ethic, they have become very large, wealthy, and powerful.  When the  Grand  Marabout died, millions traveled to Touba to pay respects during the national three-day period of mourning.  The Grand Mosque itself is one of the most amazing buildings I've seen, and we didn't even get to go inside (although pictures are available here).

We visited one Lutheran church and three Roman Catholic churches.  The Lutheran and Catholic services were fairly standard versions of the mass but with various languages depending (French, of course, but also Serere and Wolof).  In every case the music included drums, which are a mainstay of Senegalese music.  At the Lutheran service, a young college student played the electric guitar in a style I associate with West Africa as in the way Tinariwen plays.  The Catholic churches were amazing examples of inculturation, especially in music and art.  In the Egliese des Martyrs De L'Ouganda, the walls were all either murals (including pictures of the martyers, three of whom are visible to the right of the picture) or stunning stained glass. We also visited the Benedictine Monastery about an hour outside of Dakar.  They have done a marvelous job with inculturation, taking a plainchant tradition and grounding it in the arts of West Africa.  They have incorporated the Kora, a cross between a harp and guitar, as a basic instrument of worship, and have even taken on building them  to see to the instrument's development in the culture.  They use various traditional drums, and I have a short video that shows three young monks playing the recessional on a traditional West African Balafon, an instrument very like a xylophone.  The video also shows the beautiful sanctuary of the Keur Moussa (House of Moses) Monastary including the fantastic African-influenced biblical scenes and the lovely wrought-iron door with the image of a gecko, a common animal in the area. The video also shows two Kora, as well as some drums, unfortunately not in use in this case.  You can order a CD of these monks singing and playing here. 

[more to come, on poverty esp.]

Comments

[Will Scharen]

Very cool. I look forward to hearing more about the trip.

[katie]

I lived in Senegal for a year and have written and spoken about my experience quite a bit. Your snippet about the greetings was spot on! I learned Wolof and it was easy to master the greetings because you repeated them so many times each day and they lasted so long!

Great blog - a friend clued me in because of the Senegal connection, but I've enjoyed your other writings too.

If you are interested in reading a story of mine about Senegal, you can find it here on my blog: http://katiekrueger.com/blog/clips/clip2/

Looking forward to reading more!