Tour de Senegal/Casamance: The Home

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A highlight of our time in the Casamance was visiting with Almamy's family in the villages of Seleky, Enamper, and Essyl.

Unlike the village compounds found in other parts of Senegal, the availability of wood allows for the construction of larger, multi-room, single family dwellings. For Randi and I, the homes we visited were like ethnographic museums, for their architecture, construction materials, and furnishings. Almamy's relatives were humored by our fascination with what for them is mundane.

Photos (top to bottom): photos 1&2: Almamy and his relatives with whom we visited; photos 3&7: a smoothly-worn sitting bench propped against a mud-brick wall and cement floor; photo 4: Randi in a front-to-back corridor linking the main rooms; photo5: birds nest amongst roofing beams of palm wood; photo6: a traditional Diola oil lamp stoppered with a wooden plug; photo8: door to a storage area (I was taken by the smooth surface from long wear); photo9: a tool for hand-plowing furrows in rice fields, prominently displayed in a front room; photo10: a duck wanders through the front entrance to a house, a common site in the homes we visited; photo11: decorated sticks used in the Initiation Ceremony are stored above in the rafters; photo12: to the left is a belt used to climb palms for harvesting wine.

For vide, see clip.