Senegal west Africa

By Vita, Sara, Olga, Rachel

DEFENSE

• Senegal has well-trained and disciplined armed forces consisting of about 17,000 personnel in the army, air force, navy, and gendarmerie.

• The Senegalese military force receives most of its training, equipment, and support from France and the United States.

• Military noninterference in political affairs has contributed to Senegal's stability since independence.

ECONOMY• The former capital of French

West Africa, Senegal is a semi-arid country located on the westernmost point of Africa.

• Predominantly rural and with limited natural resources, the country earns foreign exchange from fish, phosphates, peanuts, tourism, and services.

• Its economy is highly vulnerable to variations in rainfall and changes in world commodity prices.

• Senegal depends heavily on foreign assistance, which in 2007 represented about 23% of overall government spending--including both current expenditures and capital investments--or U.S. $630 million

GOVERNMENT AND POLITICAL CONDITIONS

• Senegal is a secular republic with a strong presidency, bicameral legislature, reasonably independent judiciary, and multiple political parties.

PEOPLE

• About 58% of Senegal's population is rural (2010).

• About 50,000 Europeans (mostly French) and Lebanese reside in Senegal, mainly in the cities.

• French is the official language but is used regularly only by the literate minority.

• All Senegalese speak an indigenous language, of which Wolof has the largest usage

Linguistic Affiliation

• The population is divided into twelve ethnic groups, each with its own customs and dialect.

• The largest single ethnic group is the Wolof, who makes up over one-third of the population.

• Although French is the official language, it is spoken only by an educated minority, and Wolof has become a lingua franca towns and markets, schools, and interethnic marriages.

Food in Daily Life • The basic food is rice

cooked with a spicy sauce and vegetables.

• The national dish is chep-bu-jen, the Wolof word for rice with fish. Cooked in a tomato sauce with boiled fish and a few vegetables (carrots, cabbage, and green peppers), chep-bu-jen is originally from the city of Saint-Louis.

• Yassa, a dish from Casamance is chicken or fish marinated in lemon juice, pepper, and onions and then baked. It is accompanied by plain white rice.

• Other sauces include mafé, domada and soupe kandja, (which is made from okra with fish and palm oil).

Division of Labor by Gender• Women generally do most of the

household chores of cooking, cleaning, and child rearing.

• With the growing exodus of young men from the villages, rural women have become increasingly involved in managing village forestry resources and operating millet and rice mills.

• The government has established a rural development agency designed to organize village women and involve them more actively in the development process.

• Women play a prominent role in village health committees and prenatal and postnatal programs.

• In urban areas, despite women's second-class status within Islam, change has proceeded rapidly in big cities, where women have entered the labor market as secretaries, typists, salesclerks, maids, and unskilled workers in textile mills and tuna-canning factories.

Summary Chapters 13 and 14 and 15 Isnard seems to really under pressure, and it’s like he knows and feels it like a ticking

time bomb. Other French people seem to be worried as well. They slept with their guns and wouldn't leave their specific place because of all the broken glass. The French do realized that the strike had affected them so much, that their entire being has changed. Shootings begin to happen and people marched their bodies all over the city to entice everyone's anger. As the French agreed to talk, they realize that they will have to give in. At this point, the plot is beginning to advance quickly. The author portrays the French as three dimensional characters. Isnard looks as though he regrets what he's done. He doesn't seem as uncaring as he seemed in the book before, although his wife seems to be, and Leblanc is no longer just a drunk jerk. We are given a bit of background for him, so we have some idea where he's coming from.

When we first meet with the French railroad bosses, it didn’t seem as though they were made out to be evil. Many looked as though they were likable. More specifically, one white man for helping an African woman deliver a baby in his home and cutting the umbilical chord with his own teeth, seems unlikely and completely gross, but there may be some admirable qualities in that.

Summary Part II Bakayoko is this impressive, leading character, but later on as we read, he isn’t all who he

portrays himself as. When he comes into the meeting, the personnel director for the company goes over the proposal and asks Bakayoko what he thinks. He implies that the director should ask the other men there. The director had already explained it to the others and Bakayoko showed up late.

When the meeting gets hostile and Dejean slaps Bakayoko, he responds by grabbing Dejean and choking him.

Several opinions of what Bakayoko and Dejean should have done are clear; there shouldn’t have to be any type of provoking of anger between the two of them. Some of the French consider the Africans inferior and less then human. A calm response to the slap would have been beneficial and strikers would have gained power in the conversation. The author portrays Bakayoko as more human than what was expected of him. If he was truly a saintly figure with all encompassing wisdom, this novel would have been an failure, and would not have achieved what the author expected for the novel to bring (in terms of success). The characters of God's Bits of Wood have gone through a simple, very gradual change throughout the novel. the Africans started off confused and bickering, and have seemed to become more united and strong, and the French started off appearing like simple grumpy bosses, and more recently have seemed like something far less humane.

VocabularyFerreting • verb.: to drive out by using or as if using a

ferret • pg. 155 " For a time it amused their

elders to see them running and jumping from one compound to another, ferreting out anything that was edible and happy with the task..."

• Before they had dinner, the dad went into the woods ferreting out any animal.

Hoarsely • adjective.: having a vocal tone

characterized by weakness of intensity and excessive breathiness; husky

• pg 157 "'There's no one here,' he whispered hoarsely."

• When the man was yelling at everyone, his voice became very quiet and hoarsely.

Sneeringly • verb.: to speak or write in a manner expressive of

derision or scorn.pg 168 • "They called him 'our intellectual' sneeringly, and

although they continued to receive him in their homes because he aligned to their race they had nothing but contempt for him.“

• During class, the class was making fun of the teacher and they spoke sneeringly, so that it would sound like her.

• Sullen adjective.: showing irritation or ill humor by a gloomy silence or reserve.

•

pg164 "Life was easy in 'the Vatican' - so easy that it became extremely monotonous, and the adults all seemed to have taken on that scowling, sullen appearence which is the hallmark of boredom."

During class the teacher was telling the students a boring story which made the students show a sullen appearance which showed that they were bored.

The End