Overseas Breifing - 03/04/10

DAKAR, Senegal — An African international student, studying abroad in Africa. Even I felt it was weird to go for study abroad to my home continent while I am actually already studying abroad in the U.S. My friends on campus kept asking, ‘why not France?’ and one of my relatives was suspicious that I had met a Senegalese boy on campus in the U.S. and I was using study abroad to cover up for ‘meeting his family’ (it was hard convincing them otherwise).

During my first week in Senegal, my program director calmly told me that “being exposed to a different culture acts as a mirror because you will get to know who you really are and what your personal or societal ideals truly are.” I have come to see the variety of cultures in Senegal.

In Senegal, I am once again breaking the stereotype of the homogeneity of Africa. I could not help but question the differences, not in comparison to the U.S., but in comparison to my home country, Kenya. I assumed that there would be a great similarity since I live on the coast of the Indian Ocean, and Senegal is on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean.

It is indisputable that there exists a similarity in the three climatic seasons — hot, hotter, hottest — and Islamic dominance. Individualism is a foreign idea that is replaced by a strong sense of community and familial ties that extend far beyond blood relationships. These similarities made me feel like I was back at home, until I had to survive with speaking only Wolof and French. Hand signs have become my favorite companion.

The food could not be more different. While we use a lot coconut milk and herbs and eat a lot of non-meat meals in Mombasa, Kenya, in Dakar the meals are deliciously spicy and are filled with beef/chicken/fish cubes and palm oil and fish is the everyday meal.

Politically, religion plays a bigger role than in Kenya, with the allegiance to brotherhoods gathering a huge following and some sense of political stability.

Culturally, Senegalese women make me feel like I am in a ‘Paris’ on the African continent. These are ladies who are permanently appealing to the eye, with an array of colors for clothing and multiple designs for hair styles. Africa is not homogenous.

When I left Kenya, I created a longer list of what makes me Kenyan. Studying in Senegal has constructed an even clearer mirror to aid my understanding of who I am and what I represent. I find myself standing with one foot in the world as it was defined as I was growing up in Kenya, and the other foot in the world as it was defined outside Kenya.

I find myself exploring ideals in both worlds, and I now realize I am not simply a product of one or the other. I hold onto ideals from both worlds very strongly, even though some of the ideals are greatly despised in either world. My advice is that you will never understand yourself until you go to a place very different from where you grew up. Second, you will never eat a tasty rice and fish meal until you go to Senegal.

Third, you will never get darker from Middlebury winter sunlight, so you are welcome to visit me in Senegal for some super-hot sunshine!