Senegal Art / Culture Profile 2012

Artisans

Senegal is famous for its talented artisans who can be found in the major markets, creating and selling their wares.

Beautiful gold, silver, and bronze jewelry are exquisitely crafted. Antique beads and large amber necklaces, traditionally worn by the Fulani women, can be found in the markets and antique shops.

The Blacksmiths constitute the socio-professional group that made the tools, the jewelries, and other materials, using steel, iron, gold, and other metals. Had the Sénégalese society followed a normal path of socio-economic development, the Blacksmiths would perhaps be the metallurgical industrials of Sénégal today.

Baskets, pottery, hand-woven fabrics with incredibly intricate patterns are renowned great buys. Leather, iguana, crocodile and snake skins are used to create handbags, shoes, belts and other accessories. The Cobblers have been busy with transforming animal skins. They made shoes, harnesses and other materials from animal skins. They certainly would have been the large makers of a Sénégalese brand of Nike, Rebok, or Bata, today.

Senegal as well offers a colorful array of locally printed cotton fabrics. They are used for traditional and modern clothes, and for decoration of amount types of bags and carry-ons. A Senegalese tailor can make a suit in a day!

Glass painting is another Senegalese specialty. Painters depict the daily life of the people, with humor and talent, in vivid colors and a naive style. They as well paint historical scenes, birds, and animals. Those wonderful inexpensive paintings are a beautiful souvenir that will brighten your walls.

Wood carving, local and from other African nations, can be found in the Soumbedioune market and in the numerous antique shops of the rue Mohamed V in Dakar.

Each region has its own traditional crafts; and, the markets in St. Louis, Tambacounda, Ziguinchor and Kaolack are full of treasures that you may not find in Dakar.

Bon Appétit

My childhood was organized around meals, games and small chores, usually my family's errands. Rice with fish, sorghum porridge, or grits with milk constituted most of our midday meals. For dinner, I usually had stewed meat in a sauce over sorghum couscous, or fried fish. At breakfast, I usually had herbal tea, milk, and butter on French bread.

In the rural areas, breakfast still consists of leftovers from the previous night's dinner, or porridge (or grits) with milk. Villagers tend to eat additional locally grown cereals while city dwellers are accustomed to rice imported from Indochina. The majority common dish today in the cities, especially at lunchtime, is cooked rice accompanied by fish and vegetables stewed in a tomato sauce. It is considered to be a national dish, along with chicken marinated in lemon juice over steamed rice, and peanut butter sauce over steamed rice. Peanut and palm oils serve widely for the cooking.

fter meals, plain water is the major way to quench's thirst. But for visitors, there are always soft drinks made out of fruits such as mango, the fruit of a rubber tree, the fruit of the baobab tree, etc., or the industrially made pop drinks. The majority common local soft drink is extracted from red sorrel leaves: its appearance explains its nickname, 'Senegalese Red Vine'. After meals, the guests often share kola nuts. Imported from as far as Liberia or Ivory Coast, they have a digestive and stimulant action. Kolas as well have some sacred price, as they are usually shared to seal deals, to celebrate weddings or baptisms, to perform divinations, etc.

My preferred time used to be the tea session after most meals. Gathered around a small charcoal burner and a tea pot, the whole family and guests would spend an hour and half to hours, drinking slowly three small glasses of a sweet hot decoction of Chinese green tea and peppermint leaves, eating salted roasted peanuts, fresh bread, or dried meat. These were precious moments to discuss, to make decisions, to laugh, to share warmth .