Senegal: Elements of History and Culture, and Research on Sustainable Development

Research by Rachel Signer from summer 2010

Elements of Senegalese History

• Some background:• Senegal was the center of the West African

slave trade• Dakar, the capital city, was the capital of

French West Africa (the colonial territory)• Dakar is now a bustling city and center of

international black and African culture, arts, politics, education

Food

• Meals served family-style, sitting on the floor, eaten with hands, mother breaks up fish or meat and distributes according to hierarchy

Religion

• Mystical Islam, or Sufism, is the main religion in Senegal, with a small Christian minority

Religion, cont.

• Koranic education typical for many Senegalese • Islamic culture gives power to men• Prayer 5 times per day• Fasting during month of Ramadan• Beliefs about how to be a good person (ethics)• Sufism characterized by tolerance, openness

toward other belief systems

Religion, cont.

• Religion creates important social ties; society is divided into Sufi Brotherhoods

Religion, cont.

• Senegalese rastafarians: the Baye-Falls, practice a more flexible version of Islam

Kinship

• Family is cornerstone of society; mothers govern the home and fathers are responsible for working to support family

Kinship, cont.

• Children are often cared for by multiple relatives, not necessarily just parents

• Respect for elders

•Young girls help out with housework from early age; shows strong character

Kinship, cont.

• Marriage is often arranged; usually people marry within their “caste”; a person from a griot family would marry another griot; with modernity this is changing

• Homosexuality is virtually “nonexistent”• A girl over the age of 18 is considered to be

getting too old to be single; this too is changing as more women pursue education

Development issues in Senegal

• Rural-urban divide; urban capital very developed while rural areas have little

• Lack of trustworthy infrastructure (electrical outages on regular basis, water shortages)

• Serious agricultural problems as small farmers cannot produce enough to support themselves and large farms don’t really exist; thus a poor, rural country must import food

• Malaria is prevalent• High youth unemployment• Corruption and debt problems in national government

Research in northern Senegalese village

• Needs-assessment: What does this community need in order to improve their collective quality of life?

• Divided up into research teams, focusing on specific topics: agriculture, fishing, herding, environment, gender, social/cultural, etc.

Research, cont.• Sustainable

development: defined as the ability of a community to maintain its own long-term progress, according to its needs and wishes (can outsiders really do this?)

• Methods: interviews, participant-observation

Research, cont.

• My group focused on the sociocultural needs: religion, social equality, leadership, music/arts, traditional culture

Results of research

• Community would benefit from strong youth leadership (but this might be antithetical to culture that reveres elders)

• Franco-Islamic education model would be best due to importance of religion alongside need for Western (“formal”) education

• Traditional recipes and agriculture should be revitalized to promote health

• Cultural Center should exist to help community preserve artistic traditions and create new ones

That’s it!

• The End!

• Go to Africa, it’s amazing. =)