Observations on gender, religion and status

So, there are a few themes that have run through my stay here in Dakar that I haven't blogged much about because they are sort of just constant undercurrents to my daily life here. But I've been observing and reacting to them over the past couple of months and feel like I should take the time to write about them before I leave. And, since I'm a student and am here partly to do research on some of these very issues, it's only natural that I start to do a little analysis of my observations.

Of course, the main reason I'm in Dakar in the first place is to learn about gender in peacebuilding in Africa, so it's only appropriate that the first of these themes is gender. I wrote a little about attitudes towards polygamy when I first arrived, and that continues to be a subject of conversations from time to time between me and several of the men I live and work with here. Polygamy is legal here, and men are allowed to have 4 wives, under the condition that they can manage them and treat each one equally. But opinions about whether that's even really possible (or desirable) differ greatly between the men I've talked to. One of the things that has surprised me the most is that Moussa, one of my co-workers, seems to have the most traditional view of gender and has very little respect for women, yet he works at an NGO that is working to promote women's rights...and he doesn't seem to see the disconnect there. He tells me he wants to have a women in every city in Africa and that women don't know how to manage things and shouldn't be allowed to be in charge...little things like that that make me question exactly why he's working here.

The second theme is religion, and my observations about it come from the fact that I'm living in a majority Muslim country for the first time and am woken up nearly every morning by the call to prayer from the mosque right by my house (if not that, then it's the roosters outside my window). Senegal is 90% Muslim and Islam is definitely a big part of people's lives here. It's not uncommon for me to stumble upon one of my co-workers praying in the kitchen at work or find my host mother praying when I get home in the evening. They just unroll their prayer rugs wherever they happen to be and pray, 5 times a day. At first it made me kind of uncomfortable, because I felt like I was intruding or something, but then I came to realize that it's just part of their daily routine and it doesn't matter if I interrupt or intrude...they're used to it. Also, the kids (at least I think it's only the kids) wear these strings around their bellies with pictures of their Marabou tied to them. Marabous are traditional religions leaders and hold a lot of power in Senegal - especially in politics. It's pretty hard to get anything done without their support. But, although religion is very much a part of the daily life of pretty much everyone I interact with, it's almost never something that comes up in conversation. They don't talk about it much, it's just sort of there in the background (quite literally, sometimes, like when I'm having a conversation with someone up on the terrace and they start praying at the Mosque and I can't hear anything else...)

The third theme is status/hierarchy, which I already had to adjust to when I moved to DC, since it's much more important there than in MN or San Fran, but is even more relevant here from what I've observed. The biggest manifestation of its importance is just the fact that pretty much everyone who can afford to has a maid here. It's pretty unheard of to do your own laundry or clean your own house. At my house, we have two young girls who cook and clean. They don't live there, but they arrive pretty early in the morning and are there until the evening everyday but Sunday. It's taken a little time for me to get used to it, and I still haven’t gotten to the point where I can just shout their name when I need something (which is what the other members of the family do), but I must admit that I could get used to having someone do my laundry back in DC too...though it's especially nice here because it's all done by hand and so it takes nearly all day to do one load. But the theme of status extends beyond just having a maid. It has been particularly apparent at the different conferences I've attended and has been kind of disturbing to me because I think it's really been detrimental to the efforts of FAS...I say that because one of the things FAS tries to do is to empower women at the grassroots level to be more involved in peacebuilding by connecting them to women and men at the higher up levels and increasing their visibility. But what I've noticed is that women who have achieved a certain status really like it to be clear and sort of hold it up as something that sets them apart from others. They have chauffeurs and they wear really extravagant outfits and treat their inferiors with very little respect. And all of that seems to get in the way of their ability to connect with women at the grassroots level and help them. I think it also has prevented the women from including youth in the movement, which is an issue that comes up a lot in their discussions but is never really addressed very adequately. I think there is a recognition that they need to make an effort to involve more young people in their activities, but the way they treat the youth illustrates that they don't think they merit the same respect or position as the older women.

So, there you have it, at least my initial musings about gender, religion and status in Senegal. I'm sorry they aren't more well-developed or articulated, but consider it a work in progress. I imagine a number of these themes will come out in the paper I have to write at the end of this internship anyways. But for those of you who aren't all that interested in these things, I'll spare you the longer version.