Kolda Mission: Thiès and the Konkourang

Because of the research I am conducting here, the Tostan office in Thiès invited me to go "on mission" (into the field) with them for some field observation. Presently, there are two regions of mobilizers who are doing in the field mobilization - Kolda and Futa Tooro (also known as just simply Futa). This mission was to the Kolda region down to the Casamance

  

The Casamance is in red and near the middle you will see the city Kolda.

We would leave from Thiès at 9am so I decided to stay in Thiès the night before our departure to avoid being rushed. I went out on a limb and chose to stay with someone on “couchsurfers”. I know that will make my family feel uneasy - but don’t worry - after several years I have ‘travel senses’ (like a 6th sense) and I was safe. After arriving around 4pm, the family welcomed me and had saved some lunch which was served almost immediately. I had brought them several packets of clementines that I bought on the roadside while coming. Although couchsurfers is a site that provides places to stay for free, culturally, it’s sort of an unsaid expectation that you should not come empty handed.

And there it was again. I noticed it right away. 

The feeling that comes when I leave Dakar. 

The serenity of not wanting to be anywhere else.

I think I can relate to mindfulness, which is essentially the practice of bringing one's attention to the experiences occurring in the present moment. I felt like that was what I was doing – not thinking about the past or the present – just being there, with the family, my new friends.

The evening was spent talking, laughing, joking, and learning with the family and some friends. The one thing I love about Senegalese is their sense of humor. If they aren’t trying to marry you, they are hilarious! In French we use the verb “taquiner” which means to tease or bother in a friendly manner and in Wolof the verb is “fo” which means to play or joke. Je te taquine or damay fo.

Bright and early the following day we were on the road: Kamera (the driver), Ousman*, Issa*, Fatou (a woman who’s brother and nephew work for Tostan in Kolda and was hitching a ride), and myself. Because of complications at the border with the Gambia (a lot of traffic and fees that would result in a lengthy lay over) we would be traveling to Kolda via Tambacounda in the south east of Senegal.

Our journey from Thiès to Kolda - about 620k or 385m

Yes, that was a very long and hot journey. A good 150-250 (90-155 miles) kilometers of road were pretty beat up, resulting in us doing a bit of “off roading” if you will. We stopped outside of Tambacounda for a delicious late lunch of ceebujen (rice and fish). This dish is indeed the national specialty and is the most commonly found.

My original plan was to stay at the guesthouse of a friend of my French professor, but that was changed as we rolled into town just after nightfall.  Alternatively, I stayed with Fatou, the woman who drove with us from Thiès! My Tostan crew was worried about my security and who I was staying with, so they arranged for me to stay with someone they knew and trusted. It had been over a month since Fatou was home in Kolda because she was visiting family in Thiès, so everyone congregated in the courtyard to chat and greet Fatou (and me, the new Toubab visitor).

Fatou Seck and Fatou Pam

The next couple of days were a blurry heat wave. Temperatures were over 38C (100F degrees and didn't drop below 27C (80F), even during the night. I survived under a mosquito net with a fan propped up on a suitcase that blew hot air at me and my new bed-mate, Fatou.

I'm always astonished at the stark difference in the pace of life when I leave Dakar. The constant traffic jams bellowing black clouds of smoke into my lungs were replaced with horse carts going to/from the market and the hustle and bustle of Dakar was replaced with tranquil attaaya sipping.

After a 10-minute walk with my new friend Mamadou (Fatou's nephew), we had hit the end of the town marked by the “Gouvernance” – a large building found in nearly every town/city where... well I'm not exactly sure exactly what happens here but government things. 

Local street art in Kolda!

The following day we had a big meeting at Tostan office in Kolda. As an “observer” that was really only invited along as a nice gesture, I wasn't sure what to expect and how much I would be involved. Needless to say, I was pleasantly surprised. Everyone was happy to have me there and allowed me time and space to ask as many questions as I wanted.

Present at the meeting in addition to me and the two men I traveled with from Thies were: three men from the Kolda office, two male réalisateurs/animateurs (they do media publicity) and nine SMAs, four women and five men. Those SMAs together made up two different teams and each team had a male supervisor who was also present. One team was Peul and the other was Manding. The réalisateurs/animateurs and the SMAs are both part of Tostan’s “organized diffusion” efforts.

SMAs and the whole crew in the meeting.

I was surprised that the majority of the meeting was in French, even though not everyone present spoke French. For the first 30-45min it was mostly the big dogs talking (those from the office in Kolda and Thiès). After some time, the conversation was directed to the SMAs and their work, Alhamdulillah. The supervisors started to bring up issues and problems with the current plan of action.

Their plan of action states that each team will visit 18 villages in a three-month span, that's six villages a month. Normally, the team will spend two days in each village.

The main problems that Yaya Diollo, supervisor of the Peul team, expressed were about community leaders who didn't agree with the themes of the sensitization, specifically with the idea of abandoning FGC** For example, the Imam of one village refused to attend the sensitization. In another village it was the Matron (a very senior or the chief nurse), and in the third it was the ‘Président de Groupement Promotion Féminine” (think women’s empowerment group). In all of these instances, these people disagreed with the idea of discussing and abandoning the tradition (aka FGC), not the ending of child marriage or another topic.

As I said, the teams are usually in each village for two days. On the first day they do the “training” and on the second day they do more of the sensitization. After that, on what would be the third day, they leave to go to the next village.

We took a break after the first supervisor spoke and I had a chance to ask some follow up questions to his explanation. Typically, even though some village may have this one ‘important’ community leader (imam or matron etc) who doesn't agree with the abandonment, it won’t change the outlook of the entire community. At this point in time, the community is ready to abandon and that's why they allowed the SMAs to come and sensitize in the first place. This one person won’t change the mind of everyone. As he summed up, “When they community is ready, they are ready.”

Me and my team from Thiès!

One huge success that was brought to light was a declaration of abandonment in one village where the parents themselves, not the SMAs, had brought the idea across the Gambian boarder to villages where their children had married. This is, essentially, exactly what the SMAs do but this time the community members had taken it upon themselves to share the knowledge.

After a nice snack-break, the team got back to business. The next SMA supervisor brought up a very interesting and surprising problem they were facing in the field. The mobilizers were doing their work at the same period that the kankourang (see below) was active. The solution was that the village chief went around to the houses so that they didn't have to disturb the practice/tradition.

KANKOURANG:

Historically, this is a ritual celebrating the circumcision among the Mandinka of the Senegambia region (including the Gambia, Senegal, and parts of Guinne) and especially in the Casemance. More recently, due to 'globalization' and 'wolofization' (which I will possibly write about in another post), you can find this ritual practices all over the country. The mask worn by this mythical character is also called the Kankourang. It is made out of pieces of fibers that are extracted from red tree bark. 

The Konkourang protects against bad things, like spirits, and is very afraid and even violent. Stories are passed on from generation to generation about the Konkourang who walks the streets terrorizing the population to protect young circumcised during their initiation. When the Konkourang is active, the women and children cant leave the house as they are not allowed to see him because as earlier stated, it can become violent and hurt them. The event takes place over 30 days (four successive Sundays and most nights).

I was also told that if a woman or girl sees the Konkourang, she will become infertile and no longer be able to give birth. On the contrary, if there is a woman who cant get pregnant they will bring her blindfolded to meet the Kongourang. She will lay on her stomach and after the Kongourang circles her several times he will stand on her back and hit her with a stick type thing. He wont “beat her” but it will hurt, and then she will be fertile and be able to give birth.

* name changed for privacy reasons

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