This was a baayfall weekend. Friday our class went on a fieldtrip to a baayfall Daara, or compound. We all sat around on mats outside and did a little question and answer session. All the baayfalls living there had chosen to leave the comforts of their home to come and live and work for their spiritual leader in the compound. When they’re not working the piece of land they own, they are begging (which is a VERY common practice here). The money they make goes to the marabout so that he can cure sick people who come to him from the community. I learned that baayfalls don’t fast for Ramadan. From what I understood, they want to put all their energy on working, which is the most important facet of baayfalism. Also, they do not want to simply ignorantly accept principles from Islam, just because the Koran says it. In this, they seem to have modernized the religion a little bit.
Then they performed a little chant for us. During the chant this guy took a big block of wood and did a little routine with it, which included hitting himself on the back very hard. I’m not exactly sure why they do that, but I think it’s for the same reasons as people walk over hot coals, or something like that.
Saturday night I went to a big baayfall chant ceremony with my friend Makha and two of my American friends. We all met up at their piece of agricultural land, and then chatted with their spiritual leader for a little while. He decided we should wear traditional boubous, so we all put on paygnes (wrap around skirts) and head scarves. Then we all went to the ceremony. The three while girls went in the taxi with the spiritual leader, and everyone else walked. That was kind of weird – it made me feel superior and inferior all at the same time.
We drove for 10 minutes, and then waited for the baayfalls to catch up. When they did, the three white girls got out of the taxi, and all of us chanted, danced, and drummed, following the taxi procession-style. The taxi was literally crawling along, and if any of us walked past the taxi we would get shooed back. Talk about some serious symbolism here!
We continued our procession all the way to the ceremony, which was probably a 20 minute walk away, at the pace we were going. When we got there we kept chanting on the “stage” for a little bit. It was very intense because everybody was very frantic and kind of aggressive even. I felt like I was at a heavy metal concert with all the pushing that was taking place. And then, 3 girls had these freakouts. My friend told me it’s called zukhr, and it’s basically an expression of serious joy. But these girls looked like they were having out-of-body experiences, flailing their arms around and screaming. People had to grab them and throw water on their faces to bring them back to this world. It kind of disturbed me, one, because it happened RIGHT beside me, and two, because it’s hard to imagine that something like this can happen to a normal human being who, two minutes before was dancing and singing normally like the rest of us.
The rest of the ceremony was pretty normal, but that event definitely put me in a weird mood for a while. I mean, it’s very interesting to watch their cultural practices and see how truly religious these people are. But for me, it’s also very difficult to understand that someone could be so religious as to have an out-of-body experience, or to hit themselves with stones and wood blocks.
On a non-baayfall note, I also got to see the football (I mean, soccer) match on Saturday between Senegal and Mali. It was probably one of the first times that I didn’t feel at all like I was in West Africa, because the stadium was so nice and I was doing what felt like a normal, Western activity. It was a really fun experience, though, because everybody here LOVES football, so everyone was getting into it. Every time Senegal would score there would be massive cheering in the stadium, and everybody would be yelling “Fii Nooko Moon! Fii Nooko Moom!” (here, we are one). Also, throughout the entire match, people were playing drums in the stands. There was constant drumming and chanting – it was really noisy, but you soon could just hear a type of buzzing. It was so neat. Nate, I kept thinking about you, because I was witnessing two of your favorite things – soccer and drumming.
Anyway, Senegal won 3-0, which was really cool, but nobody was excited at the end because Togo had also won their match, and in order for Senegal to advance in the playoffs, they not only had to win, but Togo had to lose. So it was a little anti-climatic at the end, but still a good time.
My baayfallish weekend
