Prayers, Fancy Clothes and Lots o' Meat = Tobaski

I predicted that Tobaski would be an interesting day, and it was to say the least. The already unique cultural experience was compounded by the exceution of Saddam Huessein within days of the holy Muslim holiday. People were not as up in arms about it as people were in other parts of the world but it was definitly a discussion topic. To describe the day I guess I should start at the beginning, but I don't think I can really do it justice with just words:

My vice principal, Mr. Camera, invited me to celebrate Tobaski with him and his family over two months ago. I laughingly agreed, half thinking that he was joking. But after repeated invitations and the assurance that I would be sleeping in the "woman's quarters", I agreed. I arrived at the compound on the afternoon of the 30th. He took me on a tour of Serekunda market and it was absolutely packed with people buying supplies for the next day's feast. You couldn't even move it was so packed and I lost Mr. Camera, who is a failrly short man, several times as we were weaving through the stalls. Following our harrowing trip to the market we went back to the compound and chatted and relaxed for the rest of the evening. The promised "woman's quarters" were a bit of an exaggeration, city living is a tight squeeze of way to many people living in way to small a place, and turned out to be sharing a bed with his daughter and her young son.

Tobaski day I was awakened at 5:00 am by the now familiar call to prayer, but on this day it seemed extra loud and extra long because of the holiday. I dozed off in bed until the men left in their very ornate holiday clothes for the mosque for Tobaski prayers. I got up to help Jeniaba and Savy start cooking the meal but was told that I was to relax. I sat around feeling useless for about an hour until the men came home and informed me it was time to slaughter the animals. This may be cause for excitement for some people but I had been mentally preparing myself all morning to witness the slaughtering of not one but several animals. Just to give everyone some background, Tobaski is the biggest Muslim holiday outside of Ramadan. Every Muslim male is supposed to slaughter a ram (if he can afford it) in remembrance of Abraham's sacrifice of his son and also give meat away to those less fortunate. Mr. Camera opted for buying three goats instead of one big ram so he could give one goat away for charity. Lucky for me, Mr. C's neighbor was slaughtering a ram so I didn't need to miss out on the "fun" of witnessing it. Everyone was highly amused that I had never seen an animal being killed close up and that the animals in America are killed for us. All the sounds kept checking on me to make sure I was getting the optimal view of the event.

After the ram and the goats were slaughtered (which wasn't as traumatizing as I had envisioned but hearing an animal make gurgling noises as the blood drains out of their throat is less than pleasant), the men proceeded to place the goats, fur and all, right on the fire to roast because this way you don't waste the hide and "it makes the sauce nice." The family I was celebrating with is Ghanaian and burning the animal before butchering it is a tradition from Ghana, the Gamibians that were around were looking at then men like they were crazy. Seeing the goat on the fire and torched was probably worse then seeing the throat cut and the smell of burning fur is pretty gross, especially when it gets in your hair. After the goats were good and charred, then men proceeded to slaughter them and I think there was more guts then actual meat. When the whole kill fest was over the meat was taken to the women to prepare and I went out with Mr. C and his friend Kwame to visit our friend Baboucar, who is the head of the NGO that I work with. The remainder of the day consisted of eating a ridiculous amount of food (I even ate goat and ram meat!) and then visiting a ton of people. I was just a long for the ride so I am not entirely sure of who all the people we visited were but it was quite the array and I got to see a lot of the different small neighborhoods that make up Serrekunda - one of the houses was even a wealthy ex-government official where I chatted with a man who went to Tufts, discussed Indian poverty and watched lots of Muslim men in fancy clothes drinking alcohol, several of whom did not greet me either because I was a woman, a toubab or not dressed all that nice.

After a long day of slaughtering, eating, visiting and chatting we went back to Mr. Camera's house and watched the "unbiased" presidential address to commemorate the New Year. At midnight we went to the center of Serrekunda, called Westfield and waited for the New Year with thousands of other Gamibians and it was no Times Square but it was festive with lots of music and fireworks and impromptu dancing. All in all a very positive and at times, surreal experience. After over a week in the city I am looking forward to getting back to the slower pace of life in village.

Check out Tobaski pics on my flickr page (link on the left!)

Happy 2007!!!!!!!!!!!!!!