Five Lenses in Dakar

I started today having breakfast with a friend from University of Chicago who greeted me in the lobby as if we had never parted!  She is now an Associate Professor at Indiana University, researching the social production of visuality and value in Dakar.  She is presenting a paper at the conference I am attending later this week.  It was terrific to catch up and connect with a member of what was once a really vibrant post-colonial studies group in south side Chicago.  After breakfast, I visited the home of Mamadou's sister and brother in law, who welcomed me into their large and loving home.  There, I met four of their five children, neighbors, cousins, and Mamadou's mother! Adama and the 14 year old nephew I have been calling Little Mamadou, took good care of me--translating and (though I swear I did not ask) bringing me a cold coke.  In the class I teach, we read segments of Dayo Olopade's book called the Bright Continent.  In that book, she asks us to look at Africa not through the tired and damaging lenses western media provides (dark, poor, diseased, etc), but, instead through the lenses of nature, commerce, technology, youth, and family.  Today, I looked through all five lenses, and, as always, I love what I see.  

 LUNCH AT HOME OF SOKNHA AND WALE

Mamadou's cousin, preparing lunch

Little Mamadou and Wale, Mamadou's nephew and brother in law 

Ba Gueye, Mamadou's friend University of Dakar.

Sohkna's prayer beads.  

Soknha inviting us to sit and eat

my first and likely my best taste of yassa, a Senegalese dish that is as delicious as it is beautiful!

SPENT LATE AFTERNOON WALKING IN PLATEAU AND MEDINA NEIGHBORHOODS

The beach behind the hotel where I am staying.  

There is a close partnership between Morocco and Senegal and there are signs everywhere, including these flags.

I have many pictures of fish, some Barracuda and other large fish
(one fish with what looked like human teeth
...seriously, look...)

one cans see almost the same launching pad for local fisherman in eastern India and Dar es Salaam.  

I survived the encounter with the eel.

watching the football game