Senegal: blending tradition & modern in English

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When kids perform or if receive awards in U.S. it is mostly parents who come to support them. I’ve even heard of some who enjoyed the recitals or plays. For my own children and other young ones I care about I appreciated seeing them grow, improve, and develop more poise. I was proud of the kids and the good job done. But there are few such presentations that I looked forward to attending.

Anticipating an evening of skits, poems, and songs by students of English clubs in the area of Kaolack, I was prepared to be polite, fulfill a duty, and support the teachers who lead the groups. Shows and occasions for conferring prizes in Senegal are attended mostly by other students, a few educators, and random kids in the neighborhood who come to watch; it is something to do.

This event began with 2 or 3 pretty enjoyable performances. There were to be 10 on the program. After the novelty wore off and the themes were repeated, I was still polite and dutiful. Since kids are usually interested in the same things, there were several groups that sang “We Are the World”. The topics of the skits were also recurrent points on the necessity of education of girls (over the objections of traditionalists), going to the local shaman for advice and remedies for emotional or physical problems, and AIDS.

Most interesting to me was how much these kids are a blend of tradition and modernism. Those who belong to these clubs, do the planning, come to rehearsals, and perform, are the better students most of the time. Their upbringing and environment, however, fuse together folklore with progressive and innovative outlooks. They navigate in different worlds comfortably and with a keen interest in harmonizing the best of each. The variety in the way they dress, the topics they bring up, the jokes they enjoy, and the ways they relate to the diversity in the society are fascinating. Kids show us the way. The Bible says “A little child shall lead them…” (Isaiah 11:6). In today's lingo, they “are the world… they are the ones who make a brighter day”.

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Comments

[Bonnie W. Salahuddin]

My Students are Grateful
Yanick, Thank you for sharing. The children had just asked last week if I had received more pictures from Kaolack. They enjoyed the pictures and asked me to thank you.