La Lutte

• This is an aspect of Senegalese culture that I don’t understand well yet, so anything I say here is preliminary but I just had to comment on it. From what I understand, this form of wrestling is a traditional practice of many West African societies. (yall remember the first episode of “Roots,” right? When Kunta Kinte is learning to be a man by wrestling and OJ Simpson makes a random cameo?) The rules are either the same or similar to Olympic-style Greco-Roman wrestling. There is always a match on TV here, and they are always announcing international tournaments. It reminds me of boxing in the US, including the ridiculous hype leading up to major matches. Four weeks ago there was a huge fight here, and everyone was talking about it. There was a two-hour long pre-match show and each of the wrestlers came in with large entourages of hype men, “witch doctors” and rappers. There were some pre-match rituals that definitely looked like ceddo (the pre-Islamic, “animist” belief system of the Wolof) where they smashed some fruits, the wrestlers wash themselves with milk, and then they sprinkled some salt on the floor (when I asked why I was told that it was to literally to spice up the match, in Senegal even wrestling has flavor). Then dancing and drumming. Supposedly, other ethnic groups in West Africa have different sets of pre-match rituals. I don’t know what it was all about but it definitely seemed a lot more fun and interesting than walking into the ring after 50 Cent and then making your meanest mug possible when facing the camera. But just like 95% of major boxing fights the match was a completely disappointment, ending in less than a minute. I missed the whole thing cause I was trying to find a good angle among the throng of people watching the match in our living room. Luckily they replayed it (all 40 seconds of it) several times. This is not the match but it should give yall an impression.



• Talking about West African traditions, the women here are used to walking around topless at home. You can be topless in front of women and male family members which means that at home you are topless most of the time, covering up only when a man visits. This has made for many awkward moments; because I am not family I get the visitor treatment and they cover up in front of me, but I also live in the house which they seem to forget. Therefore often when I wake up in the morning or just from a nap, or come back from the internet spot (or like today from the barber) they will just all be out there titties hanging. I never know how to react; if I should act offended, or smooth or embarrassed. I usually just try not to stare and act like I have not seen anything. Either way, I have seen more titties here in the last six weeks than I had in all of my life before coming here. So for those keeping count, I have now had more fish, ate more bread, met more Europeans, seen more titties and seen more fake hair in six weeks here than I had in my lifetime previous to coming. I am also fast approaching my lifetime benchmarks for butter, black folks and peanuts.