GUIDE OF SÉDHIOU - Cesie

SENEGALESE TIME
There’s another time in Senegal, people say. What does it
mean? Yes, their day still lasts for 24 hours, there’s 7 days in a
week and 365 days in a year. But what meaning do people
give to the time? Is the time just minutes, hours and days or is
it something beyond?
The difference is the way people use the time, the way people
respect the time and timing. In the houses of Sédhiou there’s
not many clocks seen around, but still they know when to
wake up and when to go to sleep. “They have time,” we once
said. The women have time
to do the laundry for 3-4
hours, to cook for 2 hours,
to dance and joke around.
The people have time to
pray 5 times per day also
just to have a sit and
observe. They have time to
greet each other for 10
minutes and to pay visits to
work and at home regularly
just to ask how they are
doing. At the same time
when we as Europeans are
used to get many things
done as fast and organized as possible. Being used to put our
laundry in a washing machine and can’t wait for it to finish its
1,5 hour program or put food in a microwave and impatiently
take it out before 2 minutes of warming up has ended. How
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