back from the village

19-07-06


I seemed to have set down pen and paper, so to speak, and left both blog and journal by the wayside. I can’t claim that it is for a lack of time, as I have been spending the past week in the village. No, being the 21st century American that I am, it was for far more practical reasons. In the village there is too much dust, too little privacy, and no electricity to speak of. While you might begin to wonder how I have been getting by all year, I can promise that life in Africa has been quite comfortable with regards to issues of electricity. The few times where I have had to go without have been my tourist adventures into the bush, and my brief excursion with the Tanzanian semi-nomadic people, the wataturu. I have been visiting Jenna Dillon, a close friend from Willamette working in the peace corps in northern Senegal. It has been an interesting opportunity to view from the ground life in Senegal. This is not necessarily an opportunity afforded often by my own research direction, as it typically takes me to the homes of those educated far beyond the national standard, and certainly living above the poverty line, though still living in poverty in the religious sense (a paradox that many religious have to confront). As the chief of the village repeatedly told me, this village is (in my own words) a microcosm for the rest of Senegal. In this small village in northern Senegal, every language is represented, most of the ethnic groups are represented, and there is both a catholic church and a mosque, the two main religions of the country. This is certainly not typical of most Senegalese villages, and, on account for its diversity, this village is quite the anomaly. History intercedes, and you realize once more that you can’t merely apply ideas of your typical African village across the board, ignoring the action and influence of individual volition throughout its own history. The village of kassak sud was founded in 1966 as a place for Senegalese war veterans. Senegal from the late 1800s up until the mid 1960’s was a colony of france. As such, it was subject to the draft and other military obligations up until its independence. As abu sow, a rice cultivator, described to me, the colonial govt would come and if you had two sons they would take one, if you had three, they would take two. Most of these soldiers, he retorted, didn’t come home.
In 1966 this village was created by Leopold Senghor, first president of Senegal and great literary figure. He offered land to all the Senegalese veterans from the French. From all over the country the former “volunteers” came, representing the diverse religions and the diverse ethnic groups. Being a created village, there is not a unifying history or tradition for this village, though many of them do hail from a peul speaking heritage, the dominant ethnic group in the northern futa region. The village is a village of cultivators. From the small local river, they pump water to irrigation ditches leading to the rice fields. Men are paid 1000 cfa (about 2 dollars) a day to stand out at the fields and scare away the birds. Not my ideal line of work. More to come when I can find a chance to sit down and type.