A trip to Goree - Thoughts on Slavery

Yesterday we took the ferry to Goree island, once a holding place for slaves before they were sent across the Atlantic ocean. It is now a big tourist attraction, which feels a little strange given its history. The island itself, and the Mediterranean architecture of the buildings, were beautiful.  

 Me with my very own Baobab tree! A young and small one at about 70 years old. They can live to be about 1000. 

 These sand artists create these amazing pictures using sand from different parts of Senegal. Each color comes from a different location, and the black sand is volcanic. 

 My roommate Beth and I

Eventually, we visited the only remaining slave house on the island. The other houses have been converted to private residences. I’m not sure if I could live in a building once designed for such purposes, but I suppose it is the people, not the walls themselves, that create such evil. It is said that from 1536-1848, 15 to 20 million Africans left Goree island as slaves. The house had several rooms for men, a room for women, a room for young women, and a room for children.

”Often times in this very house, one could find a whole family:  father, mother, child separated. Their departure to the Americas depended on potential purchasers, the father would be going to Louisiana, the mother to Brazil or Cuba, and the child to Haiti or the West Indies.”

Imagine your own family, ripped away from you. Spending day after day in a suffocating hot room, chained to a wall, waiting only to be placed on a ship bound for a far worse fate. Imagine that room of children. No parents, no love, no compassion. Who could treat other human beings this way? As animals, who were literally bred to create offspring that would grow to be the strongest slaves. Yet the blame does not lie entirely with any one group of people. The demand was with the Americans, the trade with the Europeans, and the supply with the Africans. One of the most prominent features of the slave house, and an image I have become familiar with due to its popular appearance in Senegalese movies, is a door in the middle of the slave house that opens up to the ocean. This was the "door of no return", the door that slaves walked through only after they had been sold and were being boarded onto a ship. Slaves sometimes preferred death to this fate, and  would jump to their suicide rather than walk forward into such permanent loss of freedom. As our tour guide said, “Once you walked through that door, you lost your African name.”

It was an emotional place to stand, but we must be able to tell our own history. It is the history of Africa, of America, of the world. “Could America be American without the black people? America, after all, owes a good deal of its economic power and its present day standard of living to the oil of these blacks, so called ‘slaves.’” I think we often forget how significant African-Americans have been, at great personal cost, to the growth of our country. I don’t mean to suggest that this was a sacrificial act, but we need to appreciate the great contributions Africans have made to our country, our society, our culture. “The most obnoxious, effect of slavery is perhaps the persistence of the myth of the superiority or inferiority linked to the colour of one’s skin.” I do not believe that the color of a person’s skin has the power to dictate a single facet of their life. In fact, I find skin color to be a rather ridiculous notion in itself. Skin color varies so much - who decides what "category" you fall in?

I can't end this without at least making sure all of my readers know how prevalent slavery still is today. Modern day slavery is a greater industry than it ever has been, with an estimated 70 million slaves in existence around the world. Sex trafficking is one particularly disgusting form of this and an issue I am extremely passionate about. If you would like to learn more about this, I suggest www.love146.org, a very informative and all-around awesome website. "I can do no harm, nor allow harm to be done to another human being." You can't change the world, but you can lessen your personal impact. At least be aware.

All quotes (except that last one) from a brochure I bought on the island called "The Slave House of Goree-Island" by Joseph Boubacar Ndiaye. All pictures taken by me, except the one of the Door of No Return, taken from Wikipedia because I couldn't get a clear picture of it. 

Host family

We have officially moved in with our host family, which turns out to only be our “Mama Aida” and her youngest son, Alison (no idea how it is spelled, but that is how it is pronounced), the only child who still lives with her. She is friendly, if a little bit distant (there were no hugs when we met her, as we witnessed some of the other host mothers doing when they met their new guests). She is a mother though, and this morning at breakfast simply told us “If you knew the city, you could go out, but you don’t, so you can’t.” She promises to take us to the market tomorrow. The house we are staying in is absolutely beautiful. It is so open and light and airy – perfectly suited for life in Senegal where it is always hot and the power is constantly going out. There is a small courtyard in one corner of, and every room has a window that opens not to the outside, but simply into the rest of the house. Thus it never feels like you are completely inside, which is perfectly suited to me J

Mama Aida speaks Wolof and French, so I am unable to really communicate with her. My roommate Beth majors in both French and Chinese (with a minor in Spanish – how incredible is she!) and translates for me. I can understand a few words here and there, which makes me tremendously happy. Hopefully I’ll add to my vocabulary over the next few weeks.

Beth and I share a room on the 2^nd floor. Last night, Mama Aida called us to walk further up the stairs to what I thought was the 3^rd floor. Instead, we walked out to a rooftop terrace. At the moment we walked out, dusk was setting in and the final call to prayer (8 PM) was playing. We could see a large group of people gathered in a neighbor’s house, and Aida informed us it was an Islamic ceremony to celebrate the birth of a child. What an incredible moment of recognition. I am beyond myself, surrounded by habit and ritual I do not know. Yet I am comfortable, and a yearning in my soul to see, to touch, to experience has been simultaneously tamed and awakened within me. Today is a day to relax:  to catch up on sleep, to eat good food, to read and journal, and to watch the sunset from the rooftop this evening.

Tour of Dakar

We spent our day on a bus tour of Dakar. So many great sights and a very informative tour guide made for an interesting day.

 Senegal's version of the "White House." The President has served 7 terms (starting in 2000 I believe), and although he is 85, wants to run again. Although our tour guide said he has done a lot of good, most believe it is time for him to step down.

Views of the beach, from yesterday and today. Can't wait to get in the ocean!

 The only police man we have seen in Senegal so far. He wasn't doing much of anything (it's amusing actually how little work seems to get done here).

A trip to the fish market concluded our day. Fishing is the number one industry in Senegal. The smell here was overpowering, and the people weren't too friendly (except for the ones trying to sell us stuff), but it made for some great pictures.

I would like to do a separate post on the African Renaissance Monument we also visited, but that will have to wait until I have more time. I really like my roommate Beth, and tomorrow we move in with our host family :)

Stupid Assumption #1

I’m titling this post “#1” because I’m sure I’ll make many more. Stupid assumptions are kind of my specialty, but it’s a bit worse when traveling because they become stupid American assumptions J  

My professors had been mentioning quite a bit that the easiest way to get money out is just by using your debit card at an ATM, but there would be a transaction fee charged per international withdrawal. Somewhere in my mind, I never understood that the money would come out of the ATM in CFA’s (the currency used here). I assumed that the ATM would give me American dollars, which now seems somewhat of an arrogant assumption. Why would this Senegalese ATM have American dollars inside to give me? The point of using a debit card then, was that the ATM would automatically exchange the money for you. The withdrawal fee would be a better value than the time spent finding a person to exchange the money for you and the lower exchange rate you would be given. I was able to finally exchange some of the cash I bought with me today at a good rate so hopefully it will last me a while.

Also, it’s always an adjustment to a non-American culture’s sense of speed and urgency. We move at a very fast pace and expect things to be done in a timely manner. Things move much more slowly here. I consider myself a fairly patient person, but if things aren’t being done in my timeframe, I tend to take over. So taking a step back and just trusting the experience – that I will receive what I need, when I need it – will be a time of growth for me. 

Picture from our walk to the ocean yesterday

Arrival!

We arrived at 5 AM Senegalese time this morning (about 1 AM back home). We got through customs easily, retrieved our luggage, and just had a lovely breakfast of croissants and instant coffee at our "university" (the West African Research Center) while we wait to check into our hotel at noon. I am insanely tired, but so happy to be here!

The airport was named after Leopold Senghor - who I named my blog after.

Cool instrument - a kora maybe?

First impressions - lots of sand and lots of garbage. I hadn't expected the ground to literally be sand. Also there is an incredible amount of garbage just strewn everywhere. Poverty is obvious, but there are also many modern buildings mixed in with the crumbling. I haven't been able to photograph too much yet, but I will soon.

Now we're about to go take a walk on the beach ;) More soon!

The Before

 So where exactly is Senegal?

There it is! And there I will be for the next three weeks!

Since it is technically a study abroad trip, I am required to create a blog to receive the credit. Although I plan to attempt an ongoing narrative, I have no idea how often I'll actually be able to post while I'm gone (depending on time and wireless access). It may end up being mostly created upon my return.

I bet you all have some ideas in your head of what I will see and experience. We all have our own belief of what "Africa" is. And as a reference to give me the ability to re-evaluate my perceptions post-trip, I will make a list.

Here are my most honest (ridiculous or shallow as they may be) expectations:

1. To be surrounded by music at all times.

2. Come home with loads of amazing jewelry. And completely broke.

3. Experience a family unit very different than the isolated nuclear units of Western civilization. Here, even within our families we each have our own space in the house and are afforded much psychological space. I expect the Senegalese family unit to be much more extensive and inclusive. By way of this - I expect to have very little space or privacy. As someone who has always needed quite a bit of alone time, I think this will be difficult for me.

4. To love the food, but to hate the "tea" served in the evenings. The Senegalese traditionally gather as a family and have 3 rounds of green tea, each stronger than the last. The last round is supposed to be quite bitter, as the tea has become very concentrated by then. Since I like my coffee and tea very sweet (and am terrible at pretending to like food when I don't), I expect to more or less suffer through this so as not to offend my host.

5. Gain a greater understanding of the Islamic culture. The majority of Senegal is Muslim, and the call to prayer will be announced five times a day. This kind of submersion in Islam will be a first for me.

6. Learn to effectively haggle. Become a little proficient in French.

7. Get to wear one of those African head wraps! Always so jealous of those! Who wants to do their hair every day, seriously.

8. One of the only things that really makes me angry is inequality for women (and inequality in general). Seeing or hearing or reading about a lack of education and opportunity for women makes me uncharacteristically mad. I expect to see a lot of this and become more educated myself on the particular obstacles women in this part of the world face.

9. To fall in love with another culture, another language, another people. To be greatly and permanently altered.

More to come! I leave in the morning!