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Journal of African trips

Africa, spring 1999 part II

Agelasto
2004-05-21 18:00:16

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of St.
Joseph (Soeur de St. Joseph, CCP Dakar 03505B, Senegal). Or more accurately, it is run
by two nuns of this order and a handful of French women volunteers. Theirs is a
comprehensive undertaking. They are concerned with the plight of girls and women
because in Africa females are definitely second class citizens. Given scarce resources,
families send only sons to school, if indeed anyone goes to school. Thus, the Center offers
kindergarten and primary education for girls. This includes a meal in the middle of the day
for about 75 people, including boy infants who need to be taken care of while their
mothers are at the Center. Also, women are taught various crafts and produce some
tourist items. They also learn how to grow vegetables because the local diet which almost
exclusively includes fish and rice is not very well-rounded. They receive instructions on
child spacing (as versus birth control). Strangely enough, one room in the center
resembles a modern kitchen. There?s a full stove, a refrigerator and washing machine.
This is for educating the rural women on how to use domestic appliances like the type
they will be exposed to in Dakar when they go to the big city to become domestic
workers. The nuns see migration to Dakar as inevitable. Due to the civil war, tourism in
the Casamance has dried up and there are few jobs in the region. Many of the men have
fled to Dakar, leaving behind the women and children. The irony is that Dakar is about as
similar to the Casamance as Albania is to Alabama, which is to say different language,
different religion and different culture. Which is why a lot of people in the Casamance still
believe it should separate from Senegal (read Dakar) and never should have been part of
Senegal in the first place. A resumption of the civil war is just a matter of time.

I am not sure how long this Center will continue ...