Recently, I
embarked on a new life project. At any
given moment, I am probably involved in 1-2 life projects. Previous ones have included trying to learn
how to do the splits, baking, understanding the anthropological history of the
African continent, memorizing rap lyrics, and Oprah magazines. I think it’s important to have hobbies.
Anyway, one
of my current life projects is “DISCOVERING SENEGALESE CULTURE.” I hit a point in my service when I realized
I’d lost sight of one of my biggest reasons for joining the Peace Corps. Little known fact, most Peace Corps
volunteers are hardly martyrs, myself included.
I had all sorts of reasons for coming to Senegal. For instance: I wanted to challenge
myself. I wanted work experience. I wanted the chance to work on something
important and interesting. I wanted the
time to figure out what I would find important and interesting. And probably most of all, I wanted to fully
live in a different place.
I know
realize that ‘fully live’ means more than just adapting myself to Senegal; it
includes living my life, here, and
doing things that I’ve always done.
Music. Theater. Dancing.
Art. Guacamole. When I leave, I want to feel like I, Lisa the
person, lived here, and that means finding ways to do things that I’ve always
loved. Some crazy stuff can be found
here; other things need to be improvised.
But I know that eventually I’ll go home and find a job and probably work
until I’m old and decrepit, but never again will I be in this place with its
music, dancing, and art... so I better go and find it.
 |
| We stumbled across this magical flute playing man recently. CULTURE! |
That was my
commitment. Then, I stumbled into a few
lucky breaks right away. The result was
a strangely fruitful and cultural few days, and what I hope will only be the
beginning of DISCOVERING SENEGALESE CULTURE.
Let’s review...
Youssou N’Dour’s Guitarist, Palais des Arts
(So, full disclosure: I failed to
catch this guy’s name, which is embarrassing, especially because they sang
Happy Birthday to him and his name was written on a cake. Fail.
But in my defense, I was offered no cake.)
Palais des Arts is a venue built in Thies
specifically because someone realized, “Hey, Thies is a huge, educated city
right outside Dakar, but artists have nowhere to play when they go there. Let’s build something worthy!” It’s decorated in a mild circus motif, but
every time I’ve gone, the music and atmosphere have been spectacular. Sadly, I’d only gone twice, despite LIVING IN
THIS CITY, mostly because shows tend to start at 2am and I have the habits of
an 85-year-old woman. But when I finally
showed up for attempt #3 with some friends the other night, we were
disheartened to find a pricey cover charge (in hindsight, $6 is nothing for a
show). However, we soon we discovered why
the Palais was making us pay: Youssou N’Dour’s guitarist was in the house.
Youssou
N’Dour is Senegal’s most famous musician and the current Minister of Culture
and Tourism, so hosting his guitarist was truly an elite event. I ended up throwing down some money to check
it out, which turned out to be an excellent decision. Mbalax, traditional Senegalese music, has a tendency to grate on
me since I’ve heard it every hour of the day for the past two years, but this
guy’s version of it was pretty nice. He diffused
it in chill rock n’roll, giving it heavier guitars and bass than typical mbalax, plus his drummer
acted like Ginger Baker with dreads. At
on point, the house band’s singer, whom I adore, made a cameo appearance and
brought it all down. Mostly though, I
enjoyed just mixing in with the other Senegalese spectators on the dance floor
until the 5am call to prayer.
Moliere, Centre
Culturel Entre Deux Baobabs
My
friend Joyce discovered a new cultural center right in our neighborhood, a
joint affair run by a French woman and a Senegalese man. This pairing seems to have made something
wonderful: Senegalese-style events in Western-style classes and programming...
I love it! Every 1-2 weeks, the center
presents a different show, usually theater, dance, or music, and the first one
I heard about was a Moliere show (I think it was The Invisible Invalid, but I'm not sure...). All
I remembered about Moliere from college was that his plays are usually dirty,
which comforted me when I considered my ability to follow a play in French:
farts and sex jokes, at least, wouldn’t go over my head. While I did have difficulty dissecting all of
the dialogue (I can understand words, but wordplay is still a little rough...),
I loved just seeing how a Senegalese dramatic production worked. Senegalese people all have a flair for drama,
which lends itself easily to angry scenes.
Their brand of comedy, on the other hand, is crazy physical and over the
top. I had also worried that the show would
follow Senegal’s tendency to use 50 words when two could suffice, but the quick
pace of the show pleasantly surprised me.
But
most of all, I really enjoyed seeing the director’s dramatic liberties. In the schools, I see a serious lack of
creativity: essay formats are literally memorized and words substituted based
on thematic assignments, skits are always the same story about getting malaria
or AIDS, and art tends to repeatedly show the same women fetching water. But in this play, the director used film
interludes to show scenes in other rooms and characters’ inner thoughts and
memories, which was cool. Even moreso,
he switched the setting to present day Senegal and substituted a corrupt,
unholy marabout (religious leader) for the original version’s quack
doctor. This made the play a refreshing
critique of Senegal’s occasional blind trust in their religious leaders at the
mercy of common sense. In the play, a
father decides to marry his daughter off to a marabout, probably as like his
fourth wife and probably hoping that it will give the family good fortune or
holiness (my French couldn’t catch the details, bear with me). The daughter is in love with someone else,
but she can’t fight her dad. The only
person with any sense at all is the maid, which was also a refreshing twist,
since the girls who do the housework are one of the lowest and most forgotten classes
in Senegal. Anyway, eventually the women
in the house execute a plan that exposes the ridiculous marabout as a
womanizing crackpot, and everyone ends up happy. Yay!
Art!
Daara J Family, Phenix Nightclub
 |
| View from the VIP area. Where the bouncer is standing against the speaker is where I ended up. |
Normally,
I pay no attention to the banners in Thies advertising huge concerts. These
mega concerts are usually held in our outdoor plaza, the site of riots,
strikes, and, in the words of my middle schoolers, “where people buy hard
drugs,” which I’m pretty sure means one person was once seen smoking pot
there. But when I saw a banner
announcing a Daara J show, I did a double take because 1) Daara J is a rap
supergroup here, and 2) the show was being held at a nightclub behind my
house. Up to this point, I have avoided
The Phenix Nightclub because I think it’d be weird for me to party in my own
neighborhood and also, it’s spelled wrong.
But my family has been very supportive of my new cultural hobbies, and
besides, it was Christmastime! So I
rounded up a motley crew of fellow volunteers and ex-pats, and together, we
bought ourselves a VIP table.
None
of us were sure what to expect at the show, except for maybe the couchsurfing
French cyclist, who had seen them once in France. Sure, Daara J is probably the biggest group
in Senegal, but then again, I didn’t know how often they passed through Thies,
or how many people would be discouraged by the random location in my
neighborhood and the $6 ticket price. But
by the time the show started, we had all learned a lot. For example, even if nine people tell you the
show starts at 10:30pm, everything in Senegal always starts at 2am. Or
later. Always. And also, the concert was not packed. In fact, I managed to go dance in the front
row, pounding my hands rhythmically in the air to the rap rhythms, and high
five Daara J. I also got elbowed by a
lot of entirely rily fans who were having Pentecostal-type religious
experiences through the music, but that’ll happen. Daara J themselves are a duo – one dreaded
and Rasta-y, the other more dapper in a full suit, and they’re backed by what
my insider friend told me was a “group of adolescent Cote d’Ivorians who
somehow complete their sound perfectly.”
It was fun to be at a show where everyone knew the words to every song,
and every once in a while, a French, Wolof, or English word would repeat over
and over in the refrain and I could catch on and sing along too.
Alibeta and the Nomads, all over
Dakar and on my TV
I
must give credit where credit is due.
One of the biggest sparks for my recent treks into artistic adventures
was definitely Alibeta and the Nomads, a Dakar group that includes one of my
good friends and an old PCV here, David Lothamer (he’s not old, he just used to
be a Peace Corps volunteer, but then decided to become a nomad and stay and
play beautiful music forever in Senegal).
I went to a few of their shows in Dakar, one of which included a
theatre/dance performance, and I love them every time I see them. Recently, another film-savvy PCV, Andrew
Oberstadt, collaborated with them on their first music video... and the other
night, as I sat watching TV with my family, it appeared on-screen! According to David, I was the first PCV to
see it on TV, or at least the first one who saw it and felt compelled to call
him, exclaiming with pride and joy. So
they’re blowing up! A primetime showing
on one of the biggest networks in Senegal, WalfTV means that certainly the
video will be in heavy rotation for at least the next month. You can check it out here:
I’m
excited to see them more in the coming months, if at that point I can still
manage to get into their shows.
So
there you have it, the beginning of my cultural revolution. We’ll see if it
lasts. I’m not sure I can keep hacking
these 2am shows, despite my enthusiasm.
But hopefully, I can find a way to at least see some dancing in the near
future. At the very least, I want to try
and go to Akon’s club before I come home, which is actually not cultural at all
but would somehow be the ultimate life experience.
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