Saturday, January 2, 2010

New Years Senegal Style



I love learning about how different people in different places celebrate the New Year. A few days before January 1st, it was a different new year in Senegal for the Islamic calendar. This is a time when children dress in clothes of the opposite gender and walk the streets collecting money from everyone they meet. It is like Halloween in the U.S. I love this New Years tradition and I wish I could bring it to America!


I celebrated the new year in Kaolack, Senegal. Early in the morning on New Years Eve my friends got to work making “new years cake.” To make this cake they brought out of the biggest bowl I have ever seen and filled it with the fixins. The cake was flavored with nutmeg, orange rind, raisins, and coconut. The bread maker was not home so the cake became donuts instead. The neighbors all came over to help fry so many donuts and then tied them in little bags and distributed them to all the friends and family. Of course, I was given my own bag!




While we were making cake, another friend of the family brought over a fifteen-year-old from Los Angeles who currently lives in Kaolack with his family. He took two years off from school to study the Koran with a famous Marabout, Sheikh Mouhamadou Mahy Cisse, who has followers from all over the world. Young children who study the Koran in Senegal are called “talibes.”


This young American talibe studies the Koran 16 hours a day. In his free time he chats with his friends back home or listens to Fifty Cent on his iPod. He likes Senegal and although he has learned no French he speaks fluent Wolof, which he told me his friends back home think is “pretty cool.” He stayed at my friend’s house for lunch and dinner and then we all went to the Medina Baay mosque together.






We waited to meet the Marabout in small room overflowing with men praying and counting their prayer beads. After a few minutes we were instructed to enter a small room with two beds in it. Sheikh Mouhamadou Mahy Cisse was seated on one of the beds. We all sat on the floor with our legs crossed. My friends introduced ourselves and asked for blessings. 




The Marabout greeted me in perfect English and asked me questions about where I live in the U.S. and how I am enjoying my stay in Senegal. Then he gave his blessings for a healthy and peaceful 2010. He handed me his business card and thanked me for coming to visit him.


For dinner I ate black-eyed peas, a tradition from New Orleans I was happy to continue in Senegal. This time they were served in a peppery tomato sauce. We watched Senegalese music videos on TV and counted down to 12:00. After midnight we all ate donuts and drank tea. I am grateful to be able to spend holidays with such loving and welcoming friends, even when I am far away from home. I wish everyone a peaceful new year filled with love, adventure, happiness, and health!


1 comment:

  1. Happy New Year to you as well Mademoiselle! I love the addition of photos to your blog entries. It really adds a whole new view into your world.

    What is the significane/origin of the children dressing up in clothes of the opposite gender and collecting money?

    ReplyDelete