Our family recently returned from a trip to Dakar, Senegal, bracketed by visits to Rome and Paris. It was exciting, challenging, invigorating, humbling in so many unexpected ways, and so very stretching of our worldviews. I expect to be digesting and reflecting on our experiences and their impacts for some time. This is the first of several postings I will be making addressing the most frequent questions we are asked about Senegal - and that we asked ourselves:
Why Senegal?
What was it like being a White person in a Black society?
Was it safe for you as an all-male family visiting a Muslim society?
What were your strongest impressions?
What are the schools like?
How easy was it to get around?
Why Senegal?
Many reasons, but here are the top 4:
History – my husband and I are passionate about history. With an ancestry of about 70% West African, it is through slave houses that once ringed the West coast of Africa that most of his and our son’s ancestors were forced out of Africa, and likely that one or more of their ancestors were shipped through Dakar’s “slave island”, Île Gorée.
Adventure – None in our family have visited Africa (at least since I was two years old). Dakar in particular is a modern and vibrant city of over 2 million with a culture, music scene, food, and language that are different than anything we’d experienced before. Navigating through a mostly non-European language, currency, and ways of interacting offered wonderful challenges.
Opportunity – Dakar is one of the most accessible sub-Saharan city for those travelling from Europe or North America.
Belonging – For our son, a young Black man, this was his first foreign trip overseas (Canada, Mexico, and Hawai’i don’t fully qualify). After our trip, he said that what he was most excited his pending move to attend Howard University was “being around all the Black people”. In the words of a friend and colleague from Central Africa, he is going where he “won’t have to be Black”.
For my Black spouse, our son (first image in the photo array), and for me, this was our first true immersion into a Black society – or even a non-White society. For different reasons, we were all made to feel welcome, to experience genuine Teranga, the Senegalese concept of hospitality, which encourages people to openly share with family and friends.
For me, issues of Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (#JEDI) now feel incomplete without Belonging: #JEDI+B.
Jërë jëfe et merci, Senegal. À la prochaine!
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