Defeating the Stereotype

Back in December when I started telling people I’d be studying in Senegal for a month, I had a lot of people bringing up different assumptions about Africa as a whole.  Today I’m going to confirm/deny many of those assumptions as they pertain to Senegal.

First off all, the idea that Africans aren’t necessarily educated was implied multiple times to me.  On Friday, Maddie, Amanda, and I made our second visit a private primary school in Yeumbeul (CSN).  I sat in on part of the class for the equivalent of first grade in America.  When I got there, the students were finishing their math lesson for the day.  The teacher had written 4 math problems on the board (addition and subtraction) and one student would go to the board for each problem.  Not only did the student have to solve the problem, but they had to recite it to the class and the class had to repeat the problem out loud.  In my own experiences, this way of teaching is much more involved than my own elementary school learning.  Another way the class was involved in learning was through reading.  The first thing to keep in mind is the majority of these kids are learning in their second language.  Although most Senegalese around Dakar speak Wolof, classes are taught in French.  For the lesson, the teacher I was with (who speaks French, Wolof, and some English) wrote a paragraph on the board and the students had to recite it until they could recite the words correctly.  The children I was watching were learning their French the same way I learned English.  They do pronunciation based on sounding out words they don’t know.  In no way are the Senegalese children any less educated than American children if they attend school.

My first graders during our first day at the school.

Maddie playing with the kids after lunch

Africa as a whole is generally associated with a lack of materials and possessions required for daily life.  I will agree that Senegal is nothing like America in accommodations, however, everywhere we have stayed has running water and electricity (when the power is on).  One difference I’ve noticed between Senegal and America is the lack of extravagance.  At home, I’m used to having everything I need and more.  Sometimes I feel like I have too many possessions and I really could use to downsize.  Here, we have exactly what we need and not really any more than that.  There is very little waste of food or goods.  If an appliance doesn’t need to be replaced with a better/newer model, it won’t be (air conditioning and fans included).  Spending money just to spend it on lavish items isn’t really apparent in the city of Dakar or even in other towns we’ve been in such as Yeumbeul and Malika.

Another stereotype I ran into in Iowa was the “fear” of Islam.  In my Lutheran church at home, the moment I said the word Islam or Muslim there was an automatic fear for my sanity and safety.  First I would like to say, in Senegal, Muslims are really no different than Christians in their daily life besides that they spend more time in prayer.  After meeting so many Muslims in my time in Dakar and Yeumbeul, I can sincerely say there is no reason to fear the Islamic faith.  I certainly feel that Iowans (and many Americans) fear Islam because of the connotation associated with the word and the lack of understanding of a faith different than our own.

My hopes in pointing out these differences is to begin to make a change in how Iowans view Senegal as a part of Africa.  By making such drastic assumptions about the continent as a whole, we really do limit our open-mindedness toward an entire culture.

-Shay