Sarah George's blog

I’ve never felt like more of an awkward toubab than I did this week. We left early Monday morning for a five day trip to the Southeastern part of the country with an English professor, Mr. Barry (his name doesn’t sound it, but he is Senegalese). The drive was much more comfortable than taking public transportation, since we had only five passengers in a 7-place (3 row station wagon), and we could stop whenever we need to go to the bathroom or anything, but it still took 12 hours to get to the Parc National de Niokolokoba (Niokolokoba National Park). It was only once we got there that the awkward toubab tourist experience set in.
Niokolokoba has one hotel in it, and several campground type places made up of huts. We were staying at the hotel, which was REALLY fancy by Senegalese standards. Located right on the Gambia River (which flows through Senegal also), with a pool, showers and toilets in every room, and a restaurant serving 3-course European style meals. As the only female on the trip, I got my own room in the hotels for the whole week – wouldn’t want to be improper! The most ridiculous meal we had there was salad (I ate it all, and boy was it delicious! And no resulting digestive complications!), followed by duck (yes, duck – I’m not a fan), peas, and bread, with crêpes served for dessert – so decadent! All the other guests at the hotel were toubabs as well, all Europeans I think. You have to have a guide with  you to enter the park though, so every group had their own Senegalese guide as well.
We went on a driving safari through the park the next morning, where we saw tons of baboons, as well as warthogs, antelope, guinea fowl, and other stuff I don’t know the names of, followed by a boat ride on the river, where we saw some crocodiles, but unfortunately no hippos! This whole time in the park was nice though, and not too awkward, because outside of the hotel area, there were no people, just cool animals. I did notice an awkwardness during lunch on Tuesday, when our professor and guide were served plates of delicious looking Senegalese rice, while the four of us toubabs were served the meal I described above. Aside from the salad, which I greatly enjoyed, I (and I think Erik, Neal, and Ryan also) would have much preferred the rice! We asked Professor Barry why they had gotten rice, and he said they had asked specially to have what was made for the staff. We got the European meal because we were toubab guests. The rice would have been way tastier than weird duck.
After we left the park on Tuesday afternoon though, we went to the city of Kedougou, which is the last major city before the border with Guinea. Here we were staying in what’s called a “campement,” which turns out to be a hotel made up of cute little thatched roof cabin/hut things. I got one all to myself! There were actually Senegalese staying at this hotel too, and they served Senegalese dishes (couscous one night, mafé for lunch one day!). We had a guide in Kedougou also, and on Wednesday he took us to les chutes de Dindifellow (Dindifellow waterfall), which was absolutely GORGEOUS. Neal, Ryan, and I followed out guide Ibrahima along a rocky ledge so we were standing right under the freezing cold spray of the waterfall, and jumped in! It was absolutely the coldest water I’ve ever felt in my life – I couldn’t take full breaths for at least 30 seconds after I jumped in because it was so cold! Totally worth it though, it was so invigorating!
Thursday is when I felt really like an awkward toubab tourist. We went to visit a Bedik village located on the top of a mountain. Speaking of which, I had no idea there were mountains in Senegal before this trip! I thought the whole country was completely flat! I can now assure you though, after a horrendous 30minute climb up a mountain, that it is not flat. The Bedik’s are an ethnic group that relocated to Senegal some 500+ years ago, and now practice an interesting mixture of Christinaity and Animism. This particular village we went to relies largely on tourism, and are therefore fully accustomed to toubabs coming through. The chief of the village explained the history of his people to us, and give us a brief tour, including showing us the huge sacred baobab tree in the middle of the village – apparently if you cut it, it screams. We also saw men weaving long strips of cloth, using thread that had been spun and dyed by villagers, after growing and picking the cotton themselves – it doesn’t get much more organic than that! I bought a huge length of it, though I have no idea what I’m going to do with it yet! The village was really interesting, and a few of the little girls attached themselves to me for the whole time I was there, but I sort of felt like I was in a zoo the whole time, looking in on this quaint little village, like I was somehow objectifying the beautiful people who lived there, and disturbing their everyday lives.
The visit to this village is exactly the kind of thing I wanted to avoid by coming to study abroad for a a year. I’m here to actually try to learn about the culture from (sort of) within, not just to observe people as if they’re on a stage.
Friday we headed back to Saint-Louis, leaving at 6am, our luggage increased by 2 marble tiles, a length of steel cable, three green parakeets in a cage, and four large bags of charcoal. Let me tell you, a 13 hour drive in the 3rd row seat of a station wagon driving over incredibly bumpy roads in 85˚+ weather is made significantly worse by a parakeet chirping induced splitting headache.
We stopped in Touba on the way back. Touba is the holy city of the Mourride brotherhood of Islam in Senegal, and home to the largest mosque in Africa outside of Morocco. We got a tour of the mosque (the parts non-Muslims are allowed to visit), which was quite interesting. It’s an absolutely gorgeous mosque, all made of marble, with fantastically tiled ceilings and such. I had to cover myself pretty much completely to enter the outer wall of the compound – ankle length skirt, all the way up to headscarf. I did feel out of place here, as the only group of white people there, but somehow less awkward, because at least there, I knew that I didn’t belong.
I didn’t fully grasp the total toubab tourist-y ness of this trip until I talked to my German friend Christa on Saturday though. It turns out she had gone on literally exactly the same trip the week before us, visiting the exact same thing. I guess every single tourist who visits that area of the country visits the same waterfall and the same little village. But, Senegalese people never visit these places. It’s only for foreign tourists. I think the difference between the park/waterfall and the village though, are that the park and waterfall, you’re looking at nature. It seems significantly different to be goggling at baboons in the forest, then staring at women preparing lunch for their families in a village.
I think it’s impossible to get this same sense of awkward tourist-yness in the U.S., because most tourist attractions in the U.S. are visited by other Americans as well as foreigners. And they usually don’t involve watching people going about their everyday lives. I do hope to go back to this part of the country when my parents come to visit though, to Niokolokoba and the waterfall. I will definitely be avoiding that village though, beautiful as the people were. That feeling of prying into their lives is not one I ever want to feel again.