View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by NORA - Norwegian Open Research Archives Living Youth, Becoming Somebody: Life in Urban Dakar Cecilie Aardal Master thesis in Social Anthropology UNIVERSITETET I OSLO 2010 Abstract: In this thesis I wish to show how the category of youth in Africa is fraught with tension, and how this affects young men. Being a group that is in many ways at risk in our contemporary moment, it becomes important to understand what is at stake for young men in African cities. For many people in Dakar, the category of youth is a social position that is perceived as a period of stagnation, that it is difficult to transcend. Therefore I wish to show how young men cope with life in an urban landscape and social reality that does not offer many possibilities. Through an analysis of the extensive pirogue migration that took place all over Senegal in the years 2005-2008/09, and the practice of Baay Fall religiosity, I will show how young men imagine alternatives in a social environment where disappointment regarding what they perceive as a malfunctioning government and an unjust global system are prevalent. Imagining takes place in an interplay between objective structure and subjective agency, and therefore the socio-political context must be reviewed in order to grasp the background for the practices that form part of this thesis, as well as the aspirations of the young men involved. In the world today, ideals of consumption and accumulation loom large, and the global narratives of success reach every corner of the world. As such, it is important to understand how young people relate to their (imagined) participation in, or exclusion from, these pervasive, global images. I will show how young men in Dakar follow usual and alternative paths in the construction of themselves as modern subjects, and how this is linked to an ongoing globalization of desires and expectations. Acknowledgements: First I would like to thank all the people I engaged with during my fieldwork in Senegal. Your creativeness, caring and joy is truly an inspiration. A special thanks must be furthered to my family in Dakar, who patiently put up my questions and made me feel home. During this process I met many interesting young men, who try hard to make something of themselves in an environment that can be quite relentless. Of these, three must be mentioned specifically, though none are forgotten; DjiDog, Baba and Meissa, without whose love and support, my project would not have been the same (and neither would I). This paper is dedicated to you. May you find all you seek in life! My counselor, Aud Talle, who has put up with my struggles during this period, and who has been an inspiration and guidance throughout. I appreciate your patience and advice. I do not know what I would do in life, in any project or situation, without my family. To my mother Marcella, my father Arman, and the best sister in the world, Camilla. Thank you so much for all the help you have offered through this whole period. You have always supported me, in all my endeavors, and the patience you have shown in the writing of this thesis has truly been invaluable. Last, but not least, to my friends, who have put up with my absence and loved me even when I have been quite unlovable. A special thanks in this regard to Peder, your incredible patience and support has meant the world to me. Table of Contents Introduction .............................................................................................. 3 Imagining Life ...................................................................................................................................... 4 Having nothing is Being nothing .......................................................................................................... 5 Being Wasted Youth ............................................................................................................................ 8 Coping with Life ................................................................................................................................. 10 Rebellion and New Imaginings of Youth in Dakar ............................................................................. 11 Some notes on Power ....................................................................................................................... 15 Part 1: Emigration & the Aspirations of Inclusion ........................................ 22 The Fishing Community of Djabour ................................................................................................... 25 A Family Affair ................................................................................................................................... 33 Devenir un Grand .............................................................................................................................. 35 Imagining Escape ............................................................................................................................... 37 Women’s stakes in Masculine Migration - Meeting the Mother, Mame Djallou ............................. 39 The “Story” of President Wade - Making Sons out of Citizens .......................................................... 44 Imagining Europe - Searching for Inclusion ....................................................................................... 46 Part 2: Becoming through Believing: Mouridism & the Baay Fall Movement . 50 Picturing Mouridism .......................................................................................................................... 53 The colonization of Wolof society ..................................................................................................... 55 Baay Fall unorthodoxy ....................................................................................................................... 61 Creating Community, in times of Displacement ............................................................................... 64 Becoming Somebody, Being Baay Fall ............................................................................................... 69 Going to the Holy City - The Real Baay Fall of Touba ........................................................................ 75 Meeting the Marabou ....................................................................................................................... 77 The Role of the Marabous ................................................................................................................. 79 Imagining Touba ................................................................................................................................ 83 Epilogue ................................................................................................. 88 References .............................................................................................. 88 1 2 Introduction “This hostile world, ponderous and aggressive because it fends off the colonized masses with all the harshness it is capable of, represents not merely a hell from which the swiftest flight possible is desirable, but also a paradise close at hand which is guarded by terrible watchdogs”. (Fanon 1963: 41) “In many ways, young Africans can be seen as searching for a narrative that provides a territory for the free play of their imagination” (Diouf 2003: 6) For some time now the students of Africa, anthropologists and other social scientists alike, have become increasingly aware of the need to focus more of their attention on the experiences of youth. This seems to follow from an assertion that the category of youth is often seen as a subversive element in the recent history of many countries on the African continent. Being involved in military coups, riots, looting and the like, there has been a growing fear of young people both within nation-states and on the international scene (Biaya 2000, Diouf 2003, Perry 2009). Young people, especially young men, are depicted as being a risk or being at risk (Vigh 2006: 33), normally focusing most attention on the former aspect. And to be sure, the study of youth and their predicaments in Africa cannot ignore the relevance of such views, as youth have been responsible for many acts of violence. However, as many are becoming keenly aware, the study of young men must also show how and why they are at risk in the contemporary world, and in what way they struggle for a sense of inclusion, or in some instances choose to opt out in favour of other options in the search for alternative measurements of value, than those found in the global narratives of success. My focus in this thesis will be on how young men in Dakar, Senegal, cope with life, and engage creatively with their predicaments in situations influenced and structured by perceptions of marginalization and exclusion from the overhanging narratives of success found in the global world order of today. In other words: how do young men in Dakar create space for agency under the influence of neo-liberal, globally dispersed power structures? I wish to show how being young in Dakar must be viewed as linked to what Diouf coins “the globalization of desires and expectations”(Diouf 2003: 2), thus pointing to how the neo- liberal capitalist world order, based as it is on the creation of subjectivity and value through consumption, is a defining feature in the globalized world. As such, one must view the 3 production of subjectivity as a relation