Entertainment Snapshot

Country's favorite sport: Wrestling (national sport)

Other sports played: football, soccer, basketball, track and field, jogging

Favorite musicians: Youssu N’Dour, Viviane Ndour, Thione Seck, Ismael Lô, Baaba Maal, Mansour Seck, Kiné Lam, Positive Black Soul, Daara j, Gokh-Bi System

Traditional forms of music: griot folk musicians/storytellers; mbalax Wolof percussion music; sabar drumming

Popular games: Scrabble!

·     boys primarily: Rolling hoops, soccer, basketball, volleyball, kickball, athletics, wrestling (Gambia), playing with trucks hand made from wood (palm), wire, tin cans and other found objects; play-dancing masks (Gambia); checkers (with variations), scrabble, parchisi;

·     Girls primarily: kickball, jump rope, hopscotch (teley-teley in Eritrea);  playing with dolls, often hand-made from wood, cloth, straw and found objects; clamping/kicking game that seems to be akin to rock/paper/scissors; "jacks" with stones (no bouncing ball)

·     Boys and girls: Hide-and-seek, marbles (not always with marbles; nuts, seeds, stones and dried fruit)

·     Everyone: board game with 10 or 12 compartments (popularized as Mancala

Favorite foods:

Staple foods: fish, rice, corn, millet, sorghum, peanuts, and beans, milk, sugar, couscous, bananas, sweet potatoes, lentils, black-eyed peas and various vegetables

Meals:

·     Ceebu jen, or thiéboudienne, flavorful marinated fish cooked with tomato paste and a variety of vegetables (the national dish of Senegal)

·     Yassa, chicken or fish simmered in onion with a garlic, mustard, and lemon sauce

·     Maafe, seasoned fish, chicken, lamb, or beef cooked with vegetables in a tomato and peanut butter sauce

·     bassi-salté, seasoned meat cooked with tomato paste and vegetables over a local couscous called cere

·     sombi, sweet milk-ricesoup

Other forms of entertainment: Live music, cinemas w/French films, theatre, wrestling, markets