Dakar: From the Market to the Kitchen and the Table. Food, Relationships and Symbols

Abstract

Food forms the principal theme of this essay. The study investigates whether or not symbolic activities connected with the procurement of food, cooking, rituals, etiquette and restrictions around food, as well as table manners, reinforce gender identities in a society undergoing significant transformation. The essay incorporates material from fieldwork done in the summer of 2010 in different markets of Dakar, the capital of Senegal, and the wider metropolitan area. The arguments of the essay are based on observation and interviews, ten in-depth interviews in particular, conducted in 2010.

The essay is divided into three parts: the first deals with the market as a space that provides food and household income. The market is a social space of exchange, a space where men and women have very different and clearly demarcated tasks. It is also a space for micro-credit and barter. Women work primarily as fish or vegetable vendors in the market. They leave their homes to earn a livelihood, which is often the primary source of income to feed the family. When even the last option of selling at a loss fails, women exchange their ware with one another or take back their products for consumption within the family. When they cannot make ends meet, women borrow money from their suppliers, to be reimbursed with the sale of the day.

The second part of the essay examines the role played by men and women in cooking; the distinct connotations of everyday dishes infused with a colonial past, and religious and social values that also have specific ritual purposes. The social imaginary portrays a supplier and a woman who transforms the ingredients, one well aware of the religious rituals linked to Islam, her ethnic group, and her position in the family. In a situation where polygamy and the existence of shared spaces constitute the norm, different women manage the kitchen, each one with their own marked out area, utensils and distinctive dishes. In the kitchen, affiliate relationships with other family members are strengthened or rejected. The possession of a robust body signifies being loved and cared for in Senegalese society. Husbands, therefore, cannot refuse to eat the food prepared by their wives because it would be taken as an insult and occasion a fight.

The final section of the paper describes the space designated as “table”, and the rules and symbols that apply when food is shared at the table. Here, men and women sit together or separately, depending on the occasion. The table provides the best space for hospitality where important meals are shared during ceremonies and also during the day. The shared dish embodies many imaginary lines that set the norms for the way the dish has to be consumed. The food is served in a plate and each diner knows the por-
tion that corresponds to him/her and the others invited. In addition to the fact that the portion assigned to the guest sitting next is not touched, beef, chicken or fish and vegetables, laid out at the center of the plate, are reserved for “the mother” to distribute them. The “mother” gets her name and assumed role on account of the fact that she takes care of the nutrition and wellbeing of the family, often from the infancy of its members. Although it is true that a rising standard of living and changes in lifestyle are occasioning important changes in the lives of the people of Dakar who are adopting other modes to display social status, the importance of the market, cooking and sharing of food as markers of social status are far from disappearing.