Christine: Senegalese wedding & Wolof

A few days ago, I had the opportunity to go to a Senegalese wedding celebration. Though I wasn’t at the ceremony itself, it was a great place to absorb a good dose of Senegalese culture. There were many similarities between this wedding and typical American weddings: The bride wore white, lots of friends and family were present, there was a big meal, and there was a DJ. What was different? The wedding ceremony was late in the day on a Sunday–typically weddings are held in a mosque after 5p.m. prayer (Senegal is a predominantly Muslim country). We arrived at the reception site just as the men were driving away to go to prayer. We waited several hours for the wedding party to return. Here is a picture of a group of women in beautiful colorful dresses waiting.

Each woman’s purse, shoes, and even eye shadow matched her dress.

While we waited I was introduced to another piece of Senegalese culture: the griots. Griots are West African storytellers and musicians who tend to show up (uninvited) to big events like weddings to try to make some money. Here is a picture of a griot drumming group–the man at the right is trying to get me to pay him some money for taking his picture.

A group of griot drummers. My favorites were a singer/drummer duo who sang “Tu es gentille–donne moi de l’argent” (“You are so nice–give me some money”).

Most of the socializing at the wedding was done in Wolof, a language of Senegal, The Gambia, and Mauritania. Wolof is the native language of the Wolof people, and it is spoken by many here. Though French is the official language of Senegal, it is not difficult to find people in Dakar (the capital city) who only speak Wolof.

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