It's about time, a month from my departure date, for me to talk a little more about Senegalese culture. There's two phenomena I wanted to talk about today: the joking relationship, and wrestling.
The joking relationship is referred to as "cousinage" or dendirado in Fulani. Senegalese culture is known as being full of laughs. It seems like most television programs are comedies, Senegalese people are constantly making fun of each other, and I have probably seen more deep, hearty laughs here than I've seen in the Western world in the past few years. The cousinage is part of that.
Essentially, you're allowed to make fun of people according to both your ethnic group and your family/last name. For example, my last name here is Diack, which is a last name that has a joking relationship with the last names Ndiaye, Diop, and Sy. The Fulani ethnic group, which most of the people here I know belong to, also having a joking relationship with the Serrer ethnic group.
So anytime I see a Diop, an Ndiaye, a Sy, or a Serrer, I can point at them and yell, laughing, "You’re a bean eater!" A lot of the joking insults revolve around beans, because not only are they really cheap, indicating a low social status, but they also make you fart a lot. There's some other insults, including "Slave!," which I haven't been able to bring myself to say….
Ok, so on with wrestling. This is by far the most popular sport in Senegal. Football (soccer) is a close second, and soccer jerseys are pretty much the clothes of choice. But wrestling is out of control. Taxi and minibus drivers who don't have that much money in the first place buy little laminated cards of their favorite wrestlers to tack up in their vehicles. People go to wrestling matches, waiting for hours before the first match to start, and sometimes getting in huge fights in support of their wrestler/neighborhood.
The wrestling is hard to describe. There's more preparation as there is wrestling, as each fighter has a specific set of rituals, and a dance routine to drums. The step through spiritual ropes several times, pour milk over their heads, and strut around the ring, provoking the crowd for at least an hour before their fight starts.
Traditional fighting doesn't include hitting, but today's more violent version includes lots of punching. Two guys face each other, hitting if they can before getting close enough to lock up, standing, and slowly attempt to wrestle or throw the other person to the ground. The first person who is thrown to the ground or has his shoulder touched, loses. Fights last no more than 6 minutes, which is a very long match, and some are finished in a matter of seconds.
Here's an example of a lamba, aka wrestling match:
No comments:
Post a Comment