Le Sénégal fait 74

Quelqu'un(e) du Sénégal nous a visité et je veux lui donner la bienvenue!

I have no Senegalese stories to tell, alas, though, as with the Cote d'Ivoire, I do have fabrics from Senegal that I have used in making banners and hangings for church. Beautiful textiles!

Senegal is located on the westernmost part of mainland Africa.


Senegal is unusual in that it is a predominantly Muslim country with very strong Sufi influence. (More info here)
Mural on a wall in Dakar, Senegal, Showing leaders of the Mouride Sufi sect, including Ahmadu Bamba (right, in white) and Ibrahima Fall (right, blue), and El Hadj Malick Sy (left), or Mouhamadou Fadilou Mbacké (Photo by T. L. Miles, courtesy of Wikipedia Commons under Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 2.0 License)

Here is a fascinating video (over ten minutes) on Sabar dancing in Senegal by a Dutch researcher, Sophie Schouwenaar. Lots of visuals, lots of dancing and color, lots of percussion, and interesting commentary. She speaks in Dutch but there are English subtitles. It is the preface of her master's thesis.



The following is a very well done (3.5 minute) video of images from Senegal with great choral music. At the tail end you get a Bible verse and image of three crosses but no preaching during the slide show. Beautifully done and I recommend it for a visual sense of Senegal.



And, finally, some contemporary music by Youssou N'dour:


Enjoy.
--the BB