Farewell to Oumar N'Galla Gueye 6.13

Gaucher and I visited with Oumar and his family last weekend, both to say goodbye and to chat little further about the n'doep ceremony and the provenance of the drum I've acquired with Oumar's help. The notes of that conversation follow.

From a western perspective, psychiatric disorders are categorized by type or syndrome, and catalogued in a manual called the DSM-IV.

But the Lebou traditionally have no such manual. All forms of so-perceived aberrant behavior are attributed to jinn or spirits. As a teaching colleague who grew up in Ziguinchor and Yoff reminded me yesterday, there is a very different worldview at work here, easily overlooked by the bias of my rational, scientific-centered, western mind.

I am very pleased to have contact with two authorities on the n'doep ceremony now, at a time, ironically, when I'm about to leave Senegal. It is equally ironic that while these two sources have very different frames of reference, they are both Lebou, friends, and neighbors in Yoff.

Dr. Omar NDoye is a psychiatrist at Fann Hospital and author of a book which I've just acquired, The N'Doep: Trance Therapuetic Healing Amongst the Lebou of Senegal. Fortunately, I've been able to contact him by email, though, unfortunately, he is out of the country, and our paths, at least in the near term, will not cross.

Dr. NDoye is just the person I'd hoped to find: a western-trained psychiatrist whose cultural roots are in West Africa, and thus, presumably, of two minds -- traditional and western. That he would be Lebou and from Yoff is remarkable. Hearing his perspective would be of great personal value.

The contact with Oumar N'Galla Gueye will continue through Gaucher, who is Lebou, resides in Yoff, and who plans to create a website devoted to Lebou history and culture.

CONVERSATION NOTES

Re N’Doep drum

Type of drum: Sabar bung-bung

Owner of drum: Ran M’Bey, born 1900 in village of Deng, close to Barney, grew up with uncle, Samba N’Daw Seck, in Yoff. Seck was the official grio in Yoff at the time, and his family continues to serve as official drumming for Yoff events, except for rab/tuur stuff.

Ran M’Bey family still responsible for N’Doep drumming in Yoff.

Common for sabar drums to be given names, more as tributes than ceremonial; this drum inscribed with M’Bey’s wife, Fat N’Dioye.

Re N’Doep ceremony

Douda Seck, from Yoff, consulted as a traditional healer on cases presented at Fann Hospital until his death.

Magget N’Bow (MN) has replaced him. She works closely with Bintun N’Diere (BD). NM is a sort of screener/triage, using divination (throwing shells) to diagnose a patient to determine cause and a recommended course of action, whether going on to consult with BD, or like recognized traditional community healer, and a simple, more commonplace sacrifice.

BD’s personal rab is Mame M’Bisaan, from her mother’s side; this rab is unique in being able to treat patients of all cultures.

MN & BD work in collaboration. BD always refers potential patients first to MN for screening. MN diagnoses, but does not conduct the healing, while BD does not diagnose but does heal.

While a patient is welcome to consult with anyone specializing in rab divination, BD prefers MN.

The three main types of divination include use of shells, sand, and the Koran. Many other methods exist.

It is good to check with several doing divination for confirmation of diagnosis and cause (as pact made with jinn in family history); if one knows this family hx already, one could go directly to BD, but is good to get confirmation.

MN can inform BD whether a tuur can be placed in the home of the patient, or should be situated in BD’s home; the tuur attracts the jinn, then a conversation may take place with the jinn to see what it wants. MN makes a recommendation of a course of action, whether the patient work it out themselves in their home, or seek a specialist, BD.

Not all jinn’s have a place to reside, some wander, and a tuur offers both room and board.

If a pact was signed with a jinn (this was more common historically when families sought their protection from malevolent jinns) and not respected, a sump might be created n the home.

A sump is an anchor for a jinn, then a tuur can be brought in to provide a home and food.

BD may construct a sump (the room) and a tuur (food); requires a specialist to do this, as does most jinn-related activities, because you’re treating not only a patient’s symptoms, but protecting future generations; the consequences require a specialist.

If one has a headache, might be prescribed a jinn incense called shay-tan (shey-tan is the name of a wicked jinn).

Sump only used in matters of possession, draws jinn within reach, then one can communicate with it; the jinn can still travel, but will eventually come home.

A jinn can be killed. Oumar shares story of someone who was able to do this for a neighbor.

If a person is possessed by a rab, then as a consequence is susceptible to sump; if a rab refuses to enter, then indicates there really isn’t a need.

A sacrifice always precedes a sump; the patient opens the mouth of a goat and speaks directly to the jinn, as: I am sick, and I am asking you (the jinn by name) to help me and my family heal, with God’s help.

The goat is then slaughtered, and the communication travels directly to the jinn.

Six items are required for the sump (each representing a part of the body of the jinn, as if you’re assembling the jinn):

1. 2 pounders, representing the feet of the jinn

2. a large ceramic calabash, representing the body of the jinn

3. a smaller ceramic calabash with plant roots (of a particular plant called djender, the same name of the oldest Lebou village, located neat Thies), representing the head and brains of the jinn; when one talks to the jinn, one speaks to this object

4. tel-lich = an intact gourd, representing the world of the jinn’s

5. toop = a gourd with two holes, representing the jinn house in that world (houses typically have more than one door, one to enter, one to exit)

6. ta-ch = a gourd with one hole, representing the jinn room in that house in that world

one speaks to the jinn only when in the ta-ch; if the jinn is in the toop, then one wait until it has moved into the ta-ch, with it’s one door.

ISD Talent Show 2011 6.10

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The Talent Show marks the close of the school year at ISD. It's a remarkable event, really, seeing how many children are willing to stand on stage and share their talents with the school community. It is a tribute to music teacher Becca Brink, who inspires a love of song and performance.

Congratulations to the 6ers who participated: guitarists Ali and Alphadi, who performed together and accompanying the Keep Holding On vocals of Anais, Brittany, Emilie and Margret; and to Ethan and brother Chaney for their Knock, Knock, Knocking On Heaven's Door guitar/vocal duet.

Note the YouTube links below:

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. . . 99, 100.

Last September, Sam Scoggins and I drove to N'Gor to meet with the owners of a dive school and club, unknown to me in my first two years in Senegal. Eight months later, I have logged 100 dives, including 22 sub-30m and 10 sub-40m deep dives, and completed a half-dozen PADI classes, all in the company of a remarkably competent group of colleagues, most posted in Ouakam with the French military.

Nautilus Dive Center, located at Hotel Abaka on Plage N'Gor, has been my second home this year. Nautilus is owned by a lovely French couple, Hilda and Philippe, supported by two exceptionally skilled dive leaders/trainers, Daniela and Amyeric, with whom I have enjoyed many hours, both underwater and lunching on the holiday-like patio of the Abaka.

It was a dream to dive the waters surrounding Pt. Alamadies. As it turns out, this was the club's dive turf, in water ranging from 20m to 40+m, with seasonal water temperatures fluctuating from the mid-80s to the mid-50s F, in conditions ranging from the ideal to the horrendous.

It was certainly a dive year, and completely unexpected.

Celebrating Friendship: The ISD Middle School Dance 6.10

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At the time of this writing, we have a mere 2 1/2 days remaining in the school year.

As many of us remember, the first day of a new school year is often filled with anticipation, anxiety and regret (over the perceived loss of freedom, and a return to life in time), while the last day is jubilant, celebratory, with boundless elation over entering a landscape out-of-time, without horizon, freedom from obligation. The energy of a first day is generally subdued, hesitant, uncertain; the energy of a last day it is effusive, pouring, mad.

While this may be true of your local public school, where kids go home for the summer, returning to what is most familiar, their neighborhood, this is not necessarily true of an overseas international school, where the turnover can be a third or more, as families move on to new posts, and friendships, at all levels, are severed. Elements of grief and loss counter the jubilation.

Our current grade 6 will experience only minor change this year. Emily is heading to Lyon, Nicky to Cairo, Ben to Manila, Dalia and Charne are moving from ISDakar to crosstown Dakar Academy. The class will largely remain in tact.

In contrast, the 7th and 8th grade classes are experiencing dramatic change, with the departure of nearly half of the current students and families. The result promises to be a very teary close of this school year, witnessed both at the middle school awards' assembly and the middle school dance last Friday. Reality has arrived: friends are leaving, and the exceptionally strong sense of community enjoyed this year will change, carried over to virtual communities, such as facebook.

The photos taken at Friday's dance, some above, capture moments of friendship, relationship, connection. For many, the connections will be severed, and the felt sense of loss will bubble to the surface over the next several days.

With The Greatest Of Ease: End-of-Year Trip To Accrobaobab 6.8

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Photos (top to bottom): photo1: Kosuke & Tom are harnessed-up and ready to go; photo2: Emily, Alice, Agnes & Catherina; photo3: Devy, ready for an high altitude adventure; photo4: Nicolas, Alphadi, Franklin, CJ & Abel; photo5: Malick, in a banana-yellow hammock; photo13: Brittany, resting between ropes' course elements; photo18: Shelia at Bandia; photo19: crocs coming to say hello at Bandia; photo20: Kenny.

As last year, our trip to the Accrobaobab (followed by pizza at Bandia) was a terrific close to an interesting and challenging school year, which is closing on a very positive note.

A special note of thanks to Ms. Chang for making the necessary contacts and arrangements.

Note the following youtube links for video:

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Packing, Packing, Packing, Packed! 6.5

Randi and I arrived in Senegal hauling eight 50 lbs suitcases. Three years later, I'm shipping home sixteen boxes & bags together weighing over 500 lbs, courtesy of Air France Cargo. Their contents has changed, now filled with memorabilia.

Packing was done with care, inspired by our egg drop contest a couple of months back. An n'doep drum is packed tight with styrofoam pellets, wedged at either end by journals; a basket from the animist island of Eloubaline is packed in a hard-shell suitcase, and filled with towel-wrapped ceramics; two handbuilt ceramic figurines from a small local potter outside Oussouye are encased in foam, packed tightly in a plastic bin, placed inside a milk-crate, packed inside a thick-wall book box. Egg in a box.

There are no future yard sale items in this shipment; there is no excess. The Scoggins profited from the cast offs, many pieces of which are of particular cultural significance, as the old fish baskets from Seleki. Perhaps the new ISD middle and high school building, now under construction, will enjoy the donations.