The Cassamance

I just got back to Dakar this morning after about a week in the Cassamance region which is found in south-western Senegal, under the Gambia. If you’ve heard about the region, you probably know that there is a separatist movement that has caused violence in the past. But since 2004 a peace treaty with the government has kept things under control and the tourism industry, which had been huge in the area before the violence, is beginning to return. And although the military checkpoints and trucks rolling around with large pivoting machine guns were a bit unsettling at first, you soon realize that the military presence everywhere would be able to quickly react to any resurgence of rebellion.
The trip was a series of pleasant surprises from the very beginning when we boarded the ferry. We had all heard that the boat was nice, having replaced the Joola ferry which sank, but none of us were expecting that it would have hot-water showers (many of us don’t even have those in our host family homes) and comfortable beds in our cabin, each with its own curtain and reading light. I’m sure that our roommate (the 8th in our 8-bed cabin) was also surprised when he opened the door to find seven young foreigners already eating, playing music, and generally having a little party which may have involved wearing 80s-style headbands in our little cabin. But we shared our food with him so in the end I think he was happy with the situation.
Arriving at the port in Ziguinchor, we were immediately approached by several people wanting to show us the route to our hostel. And we soon realized that unlike the people who approach you in the street in Dakar, most folks in the Cassamance are being genuinely friendly, suggesting friends who can drive you places or organize a tour from you and benefit from talking to you that way instead of just asking for money, as we’ve been accustomed to.
Our most notable experience in Ziguinchor was having dinner at a friend of a friend’s house where his family prepared a special plate typical of the Cassamance region. It was a sauce made of manioc leaves, smoked fish, and palm oil, served over rice. Another exposure to Senegalese life that came along with our meal was watching Almamy, our host, talk constantly on his cell phone via the earpiece/microphone that he had connected to the phone in his pocket. It was more than once that I thought he was participating in our conversation and he was actually on the phone . . . but ya, the whole earpiece thing is very popular among young guys here.
From Ziguinchor it was on to Cap Skiring, by far the most popular destination in Cassamance due to its miles of sandy beaches (there’s even a Club Med there, though it closed at the end of April). Yet despite being a touristy place, we saw virtually no tourists there because the high season ended when Club Med closed. While this seems like it would be a good thing (and we did have the beach to ourselves) it also meant that anytime we left the beach to head into the village, all of the taxi drivers and store owners and random guys in the street directed their attention toward us. So we stuck around the beach, spending most of our time with the jelly fish who washed up on shore (and were therefore definitely in the water we were swimming in . . . I tried unsuccessfully not to think about it).
To go from Cap Skiring to Ile de Karabane, we hired a pirogue. Pirogues are small motorized boats often used for fishing. They’re made of wood, and the base of the pirogue is hollowed out of a solid piece of wood. When in Ziguinchor we saw some boat-makers and they told us that it takes one and a half months to finish carving the shape of the pirogue. Then the pirogues are painted colourfully with designs in white, yellow, blue, green, red, and black. The pirogue trip was beautiful, passing through mangroves and stopping at a couple of villages along the way. But the moment that made the trip was when a dolphin came and swam by the front of the pirogue. And since I happened to be at the front of the pirogue, it was less than a metre away from me. We all started yelling with excitement, which was a probably a bad idea because the dolphin didn’t come back . . . oops.
Ile de Karabane itself was my favourite place that we visited. It used to be a French trading station in colonial times, and the buildings from this period lie in various states of ruin. The most stunning ruin was located just around the corner from our campement. It was just four brick walls with arched doors and windows, right next to the ocean. But what’s amazing about it is that almost all of the walls are over-taken by tree roots, and the roots even hang down in the middle of the room as trees grow on top of the walls. It was an awesome visual metaphor for the survival of African culture through years of colonial domination.
The last stop on our tour was in Oussouye where we were able to go on a walk to nearby villages and see a local woman making pottery and a cashew farm. Cashews = really difficult to produce. First the fruit falls off the tree, and you break the nut off the end of it. The fruit can be eaten or pressed to make cashew milk. Then the nut (at this point still in the shell) is boiled or steamed. After that, the shells are placed one at a time in a sharp metal press to break them open (this has to be done carefully or the nut inside will break). Then the nut which has been extracted from the shell is roasted in an oven. And after all that, the bitter membrane surrounding the nut has to be scraped off by hand. No wonder cashews are expensive!
So that’s about it for the trip. Yesterday morning Lucy and I took a Ndiaga Ndiaye from Oussouye to Ziguinchor and walked to the port to board the ferry, arriving in Dakar at 6:30 am. And now, in the mid-afternoon, I’m still swaying back and forth when I stand up as if I’m still on the boat. I’m also getting excited to see Matt and Dad, who are arriving tonight! It’ll be great to show someone else what I’ve discovered here in Senegal!