As fireworks barbeques and cakes
resembling American flags sit fresh in everyone’s minds I thought a relevant
topic might be the Senegalese forms of nationalism that I observe as an expat.
The interesting twist on nationalism in Senegal is that the borders of this
country were sketched out by the European powers arbitrarily with respect to
the different ethnic groups living within the area. Senegal is about 40% Wolof
who inhabit the capital and coastal interior of the country. The next largest
ethnic group is the Fula, approximately 30% of the population. After this we
have many smaller groups; Seerer, Mandinka, Diola(pronounced Jola), Lebou,
Soninke, Bassari, and many others. Each group has it’s own language and
cultural norms and tend to be familiar with some of the basics to whatever
other groups tend to live nearby. One of the most observable cultural
influences in Senegal is Islam. Approximately 90% of the population identifies
as Muslim with a small amount of Catholicism and small pockets of Animism(what
you would think of as mysticism, spirits and smoke and odd medicinal
techniques).
I remember arriving in Senegal and being given lessons on Islam and frankly being surprised at how little I’d known prior. In order to identify oneself as Muslim one must follow the 5 pillars of Islam. The first pillar is that there is only one God and Muhammad is His messenger. The second is prayer, not necessarily mandatory but one is expected to pray five times a day. Once at approximately 5am, once at sunrise around 7am, again after lunch around 2 to 4pm, a sundown prayer around 7pm, and the final prayer of the day around 8pm. Not everyone prays every day at every time and strict adherence seems mostly an individual choice of devotion and time availability. Anyone staying in a part of the world with a large Muslim population becomes rapidly familiar with the 5am call to prayer over loudspeakers in most cities and towns(I feel a little lucky that my tiny village doesn’t have electricity and am not exposed to this daily.) Prayer is emphasized on Fridays, people gather at mosques for the afternoon prayer. The Friday afternoon prayer would be the equivalent of heading to church on Sunday for a Catholic or Christian. I see people praying occasionally in my village but not all that frequently. The next pillar of Islam is almsgiving. Alms can be given in the form of money or food. I remember that while training in a bigger city we would see young boys outside the family compound to ask for food at meal times. The young boys are training with a religious leader and living away from home, learning humility through begging. The interesting part about this is Islamic societies do not stigmatize begging like in the U.S. The fourth pillar is fasting during the month long observation of Ramadan. It would be most comparable to the concept of Lent for Christianity. During Ramadan one awakes at 5am and eats and drinks prior to the first prayer then refrains from drinking water or eating until the last prayer of the day at about 8pm. Children and pregnant or nursing women are excused from the fast. Ramadan started about one week ago and I have been fasting in solidarity with my host family, waking at 5am and eating and drinking then breaking the fast with them at sunset with coffee and bread. Fasting is not entirely food though, from first to final prayer each day one is supposed to refrain from impure thoughts and actions such as anything sexual or immoral. Interestingly Islam uses a lunar calendar so Ramadan occurs every nine months and not on a 12 month interval. It’s rainy season this year and I’m worried about what will happen when it falls on the hot dry season next time around. The final pillar of Islam is a pilgrimage to Mecca. Anyone with the time and the means is expected to make a trip to Mecca, a city overlooking the Red Sea from the country of Saudi Arabia. Anyone lacking the means to make the pilgrimage is expected to contribute to the trip of another person.
Traveling around Senegal will yield one with many sights of mosques and people praying while waiting for a bus at the garage, and the sound of calls to prayer over the loudspeakers daily. When in training my supervisor was on his trip to Mecca and my training family has made the pilgrimage as well. The pilgrimage is referred to as the hajj and anyone completing the journey can add el hajj to their name for easy identification. Muslims in general never drink or smoke either, though I’ve seen many smoking here. As many people know the pig is thought to be very unclean and is never eaten or kept as livestock either. When exploring Senegal and presented with the sight of a pig ask yourself “which of these houses is Catholic?” The village next to mine is of the ethnic group Balante and they are primarily non-Muslim and I always see pigs there.
I was going to continue talking about tea and the concept of being on time but I’m quite certain I’ve covered both in previous posts… neither was even a means of expressing nationalism, but simply nationwide actions.
So maybe we can discuss some of the fun illnesses I’ve been collecting? Few months back I vomited for the first time in five years. Followed by a night of the same and all around having an emergency evacuation of all my internal organs. Laid me out for a day and kept me weak for a full week before I came searching for a medication. Apparently a little parasite called giardia had decided to try and inhabit me. Side effects of which are vomiting, diarrhea, and a sulfurous gaseousness. Not entirely sure if I’m rid of it, I haven’t felt like I’ve been at 100% since then, although eating rice every day for every meal with leaf sauce and fish once a week for protein could also be the cause of this. Several days ago also I had something get on my chin, which itched, and then raised out, became white and started leaking, and the leaking caused more boils and stuff. This led me to believe I’d been hit by the unique chemical produced by a blister beetle, although people in my village told me it was some sort of caterpillar. It’s cleared up and pealed out in the past few days although the skin is still raised, red and a bit crackly. I’ll put up some fun pics of that next time I get the opportunity. I had to shave a weird part of my beard to allow for tape to be stuck to my face while I slept, because as one boil spills open it causes more. So for a few days I had a chunk missing from my beard and eventually just shaved it off.
So thinking about stuff to write about has been a little bit of a challenge and I haven’t written in a while because I feel on some hard times. I’m getting back into it now though and have had a request for an outline of the Senegalese family and schooling and so forth. So look forward to that and please request something if you’d like to help me come up with a topic. Thanks for reading!
I remember arriving in Senegal and being given lessons on Islam and frankly being surprised at how little I’d known prior. In order to identify oneself as Muslim one must follow the 5 pillars of Islam. The first pillar is that there is only one God and Muhammad is His messenger. The second is prayer, not necessarily mandatory but one is expected to pray five times a day. Once at approximately 5am, once at sunrise around 7am, again after lunch around 2 to 4pm, a sundown prayer around 7pm, and the final prayer of the day around 8pm. Not everyone prays every day at every time and strict adherence seems mostly an individual choice of devotion and time availability. Anyone staying in a part of the world with a large Muslim population becomes rapidly familiar with the 5am call to prayer over loudspeakers in most cities and towns(I feel a little lucky that my tiny village doesn’t have electricity and am not exposed to this daily.) Prayer is emphasized on Fridays, people gather at mosques for the afternoon prayer. The Friday afternoon prayer would be the equivalent of heading to church on Sunday for a Catholic or Christian. I see people praying occasionally in my village but not all that frequently. The next pillar of Islam is almsgiving. Alms can be given in the form of money or food. I remember that while training in a bigger city we would see young boys outside the family compound to ask for food at meal times. The young boys are training with a religious leader and living away from home, learning humility through begging. The interesting part about this is Islamic societies do not stigmatize begging like in the U.S. The fourth pillar is fasting during the month long observation of Ramadan. It would be most comparable to the concept of Lent for Christianity. During Ramadan one awakes at 5am and eats and drinks prior to the first prayer then refrains from drinking water or eating until the last prayer of the day at about 8pm. Children and pregnant or nursing women are excused from the fast. Ramadan started about one week ago and I have been fasting in solidarity with my host family, waking at 5am and eating and drinking then breaking the fast with them at sunset with coffee and bread. Fasting is not entirely food though, from first to final prayer each day one is supposed to refrain from impure thoughts and actions such as anything sexual or immoral. Interestingly Islam uses a lunar calendar so Ramadan occurs every nine months and not on a 12 month interval. It’s rainy season this year and I’m worried about what will happen when it falls on the hot dry season next time around. The final pillar of Islam is a pilgrimage to Mecca. Anyone with the time and the means is expected to make a trip to Mecca, a city overlooking the Red Sea from the country of Saudi Arabia. Anyone lacking the means to make the pilgrimage is expected to contribute to the trip of another person.
Traveling around Senegal will yield one with many sights of mosques and people praying while waiting for a bus at the garage, and the sound of calls to prayer over the loudspeakers daily. When in training my supervisor was on his trip to Mecca and my training family has made the pilgrimage as well. The pilgrimage is referred to as the hajj and anyone completing the journey can add el hajj to their name for easy identification. Muslims in general never drink or smoke either, though I’ve seen many smoking here. As many people know the pig is thought to be very unclean and is never eaten or kept as livestock either. When exploring Senegal and presented with the sight of a pig ask yourself “which of these houses is Catholic?” The village next to mine is of the ethnic group Balante and they are primarily non-Muslim and I always see pigs there.
I was going to continue talking about tea and the concept of being on time but I’m quite certain I’ve covered both in previous posts… neither was even a means of expressing nationalism, but simply nationwide actions.
So maybe we can discuss some of the fun illnesses I’ve been collecting? Few months back I vomited for the first time in five years. Followed by a night of the same and all around having an emergency evacuation of all my internal organs. Laid me out for a day and kept me weak for a full week before I came searching for a medication. Apparently a little parasite called giardia had decided to try and inhabit me. Side effects of which are vomiting, diarrhea, and a sulfurous gaseousness. Not entirely sure if I’m rid of it, I haven’t felt like I’ve been at 100% since then, although eating rice every day for every meal with leaf sauce and fish once a week for protein could also be the cause of this. Several days ago also I had something get on my chin, which itched, and then raised out, became white and started leaking, and the leaking caused more boils and stuff. This led me to believe I’d been hit by the unique chemical produced by a blister beetle, although people in my village told me it was some sort of caterpillar. It’s cleared up and pealed out in the past few days although the skin is still raised, red and a bit crackly. I’ll put up some fun pics of that next time I get the opportunity. I had to shave a weird part of my beard to allow for tape to be stuck to my face while I slept, because as one boil spills open it causes more. So for a few days I had a chunk missing from my beard and eventually just shaved it off.
So thinking about stuff to write about has been a little bit of a challenge and I haven’t written in a while because I feel on some hard times. I’m getting back into it now though and have had a request for an outline of the Senegalese family and schooling and so forth. So look forward to that and please request something if you’d like to help me come up with a topic. Thanks for reading!
