The Constitution of 2001
recognized with French the statute of official language and with six
languages
that of national languages, the wolof - language spoken by the greatest
number
of people even pertaining to other ethnos groups -, the
sérère, the peul, the
mandingue, soninké and the diola. Five other vernacular
languages were promoted
shortly after (hassaniya, balante, mancagne, noon and manjaque), and
other
additions of codified languages are in hand. On the whole it is nearly
a score
of languages which could profit from the statute of national language
in Senegal.
Literature
The literature of Senegal
was
known a long time in the world especially through the exceptional
personality
of Léopold Sédar Senghor, at the same time poet
and statesman, cantor of the
négritude and emblematic figure of the francophonie. Among
the other
traditional authors from now on appear in particular the novelists
Sheik-Hamidou Kane, Birago Diop, Boubacar Boris Diop, but also Ousmane
Sembène
which will carry to the screen some of its own novels. On their side
the women
are particularly active, even incisors. In 1980, Mariama Bâ
describes with a
great sensitivity the polygamous company in a so long letter. Aminata
Sow Fall,
in the Strike of Bàttu (1986), shows that the small people
were not deprived of
resources. More recently, Fatou Diome meets success with the Belly of
the Atlantic
(2004), a novel which puts in scene, often with
humour, the dreams of escape from the young Senegaleses.
History
Sheik
Anta Diop (1923-1986) is a Senegalese historian and anthropologist. He
stressed the contribution of Africa and in particular of black africa
at the culture and civilization world.
Music
The great names of the
contemporary music sénégalaise are: Youssou Dour,
composer-songwriter, musician
and interpret; Omar Bolt, composer-songwriter, musician and interpret;
Didier
Awadi, better African rappor in 2004; Sheik Lô,
composer-songwriter, musician
and interpret; Baba Maal composer-songwriter; Ismael Lô
composer-songwriter;
Seck thione, song writer and performer of mbalax; Foumalade, better
tubeViviane
Ndour, better artist sénégalaise 2006 and queen
of the mbalax.
Cook
Good
dishes without surprises
It is absolutely
necessary to taste the ceebu
jen, the national dish containing rice, of fish
and varied vegetables but to also test the ceebu wer (white
rice), an
alternative of the ceebu jen where rice is cooked without addition of
tomato
puree, been useful with a little nététou, of
sauce of sheet of bissap or of
tamarin.
The yassa,
known
especially in its version “chicken” is an always
appreciated dish of casamanse origin.
The pieces of chicken (or the fish, the pig), whitewashed mustard,
sometimes
piqués of joke (crushed bay-tree, garlic, onions), marinated
in lemon, are
cooked with much onions and sometimes pepper and are generally been
useful with
whole white rice (but to also test with fonio!).
The
ceebu yapp (rice
with the meat), less tasty, is also to taste. It is composed of beef
cooked
with the rice and generally used with separately a sauce onions. Its
version
with smoked fish and niébé (ceebu ketiakh) could
surprise you more.
Mafé,
generally prepared
with meat, is a dish whose thick sauce is containing groundnut paste.
Its composition
makes of it a sometimes heavy dish digest, but whose taste is generally
appreciated.
The thiou is
characterized by a light sauce rich in vegetables, sometimes prepared
with palm
oil (thiou shooting) to the more particular taste.
The kaldou,
dish of casamance origin, is lighter and more digeste, because less
rich in oil and
whose sauce is citronnée. Prepared with fish, it is consumed
with rice.
Good
less accessible dishes, but to test
The dishes containing
couscous of millet will be able to surprise but it would be a shame not
to
taste them, because they represent the village tradition. There are
several
receipts according to ingredients' of sauce; simple couscous or sim,
bassi
salleté, richer and complete and containing groundnut paste,
couscous mboum
whose thick sauce contains nébéday, cabbage,
niébé of the groundnut paste,
fresh or smoked fish.
The mabxal and the daxin
are dishes containing “pasty” rices prepared with
little oil, smoked fish or
the meat and the groundnut paste for the daxin.
The supukanj, dish
containing rice been useful with a sauce containing gombo (giving a
sticky
consistency), of vegetable and palm oil, are very appreciated of the
Senegaleses but with difficulty from abroad.
The fish with the
saint-louisienne is a mule farçi with the flesh of fish
crushed with parsley,
bay-tree, coriandre, tomato, cooked with the furnace.