April 4th, 2010 – Senegal celebrates fifty years of independence.
--------------------------------------------------I’d never been to Easter Vigil, mass on the eve of Easter, but I thought, why not. It is a good thing I went though, because it was there that the announcement was made :
Due to tomorrow's parade, Easter Mass will be at nine o’clock instead of ten, so that we don’t have to compete with the noise from the street.
And who doesn’t like a parade ?
As I walked to mass, I saw the beginnings of the parade, twenty or so students from each primary, secondary and high school lining up in the street. After the school children came the various clubs of both children and adults : Red Cross, Tae Kwon Do, Market Gardeners, Chicken Raisers, Metal Workers,.
Mass wasn't anything too out of the ordinary. Easter Vigil mass was where it all went down. We started outside standing in a circle around a small bonfire. Everyone brought candles and the light was passed around the circle. You can't really beat that. The church was packed for the vigil service, but attendance was sparse in the morning. I guess those that went in the evening slept in and well, no one else heard the announcement.
On my way home after mass the main street was lined with spectators trying to catch a glimpse of someone or other that they knew in the parade. I saw just about everyone I knew there, kids from the two schools I worked at, neighbors, aunts, uncles, cousins, friends, as well as random people who happened to know my name.
A parade is a parade is a parade is a parade. I guess somethings are pretty much the same where ever you go. I mean there weren’t any five story high balloons or fire trucks or antique cars, but they had drummers, choreographed dances, military personnel decked out in full uniform, policemen taking control with whistles and wild hand gestures, a grand stand, closed of streets. And of course there were the vendors as well hawking their wares: cold water, frozen juice, donuts, peanuts, etc.
Back to the Easter celebration...
Celebrating holidays away from friends and family is an interesting thing. So much of what makes a holiday a holiday is tradition. Yes, Easter isn’t about sitting around the dining room table with a bunch of relatives eating honey glazed ham and pineapple with twice baked potatoes and those oh so soft and warm rolls smothered in butter, and yet…It even feels like Easter when it isn't your dining room table or your relatives and your mom didn't make the potatoes so they have different taste to them, but remove all of that and well, for some reason it just doesn’t seem like Easter. Funny how that is. I mean I thought Easter was all about Christ’s Resurrection. Some how that got lost in the mix...
Here in Senegal people celebrate Easter with ngalax (the x is pronounced with a throaty « h » like sound). What is ngalax, you might ask. Well let me tell you. It is a peanut butter drink made by mixing peanut butter with monkey bread (the fruit from the baobab tree) juice. Of course there is more to it than that. 
You mix in millet, bananas, shredded coconut and raisins to give it some texture. Oh and lets not forget the sugar. They really like things sweet here, very sweet. Then for some extra flavor you throw some vanilla flavored sugar (just in case it wasn’t sweet enough all ready), some freshly grated all-spice and some essence of orange flower. I think there is some butter and eggs involved as well.
So when in Senegal...
Now since I am living with a Muslim family all Christian celebrations are left up to me. If I want to celebrate, I must provide all the materials needed. It was like this at Christmas too. I wanted to eat chicken, so I bought chickens. Luckily my family is more than willing to help me prepare things, they like a good feast just as well as the next person.
It just so happens that there are about thirty five odd people living in my court yard and that doesn’t include all the aunts and uncles and cousins and friends and neighbors who would be more than delighted to receive a plastic container of ngalax and a more than little miffed if they found out they didn’t get any. So I sat down with my host mother a few days before Easter and made a list of all the ingredients I would need to purchase : 5 kilos of millet, 4 kilos of peanut butter, 4 kilos of sugar, 3 kilos of monkey bread, 1 kilo of bananas, 2 tablettes of butter, 1 bottle of essence of orange, etc, etc.
Upon returning from mass on Easter Sunday, all the ingredients were ready and waiting. Time to make NGALAX!!! With the help of my host mother, my father’s first wife and three or four aunts we were able to produce enormous amount of delicious ngalax, which was enjoyed by all !!!
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Fifty years seems like a long time. And Senegal wasn’t the only one celebrating this year. The year 1960 was a big year for independence. In fact 17 countries on the African continent are celebrating fifty years of independence in 2010 : Cameroon, Togo, Madagascar, Democratic Republic of Congo, Mali, Senegal, Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Benin, Niger, Cote d’Ivoire, Chad, Central Africa Republic, Republic of Congo, Gabon, Mauritania, Somalia. Can you find all those countries on a map ?
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