dakar - janvier, kane

le 6 janvier, 2007

A rendezvous chez Mme. Kane in Mermoz.
Perfect, beautiful day of sula music, food, dance (yes, I shook my bones) and after she read words of précaution and sagesse..
Music was provided by two, a toothless smiling fou and his friend in toque, shades and manteau. Under a lime and lemon tree, ate ceboudjene in the shade. No order, just chants and string, my face stung by the sun. Melting into the rhythm and the wolof cries. Malik (Kane's son) and Yassi? (her daughter) were kind, they insisted I return. The mint tea, attaya, was strong and sweet. I took the canadian children back home because they lost their way. Impossible to recognise what I will become. Last night I dreamt of playing the djembe with bananas. Music floats into my room from Papi's stereo. The birds chirp constantly, you run into animals everywhere..time for a short nap beforedinner. Tonight Just4U and tomorrow the beach..

le 7 janvier

Dakar rises with the sun as the mosques wail the shahâdah and sourates from theQu?ran. The planes roar by every fifteen minutes, but soon you ignore thosehumming turbines and learn to dance around the roaring engines and cargo of theroads. From dawn to dusk the streets are packed with marchands ambulants(street vendors), horse-drawn carriages lugging petrol and bottles andconcrete, talibe (street children) line the streets with sticks and cans andoutstretched hands. If you have far to go, the best way to get around is in thewhite ndjaga ndiaye or the blue and yellow car rapides, both operated by theMouride brotherhood. These worn-down Mercedes buses from the 40s cost tencents, you're guaranteed a seat, frequent stops, a bumpy ride, and thedroning Soufi chants from the radio.Dakar is an oasis on a peninsula. You could spend hours walking through dozensof districts, from the colonial centre-ville through the chaotic merchantparadise of Medina into the sprawling UCAD campus of Fann, and then along thecorniche cliffs that mark the end and beginning of Africa, past the tree andbarbwire lined embassy strip, turn east and walk through Mermoz (a littlestatue commemorates the crash), through quiet stony paths that wind around thegrand mosque, past the sprawl of boutiques and dibouteries (eateries) andshacks living beside the airstrip, into Liberté and Grand Yoff and openmarkets. There are three autonomous villages (Ouakam, Ngor, Yoff) that surroundDakar to the north; they line the ocean and are inhabited by generations of Lebou fishermen.