There's a Thin Line Between Friday Night and Saturday Morning

[SPOILER ALERT: CUTENESS AHEAD]

You can't spend more than five minutes in Dakar without feeling the influence of Islam: the short skyline is peppered with the minaret towers of neighborhood mosques, men and women dress in traditional Arab garb, and all of the mini buses have praise Allah painted on their front hood.

Mosquee de Divinitee along Dakar's west coast was built in 1997.
The inspiration for the location and design came to the local
marabout in a dream.  He was most likely on the anti-malarial
Lariam at the time. Women are only allowed on the first two floors.

For the past two weeks, we've been piecing together bits of awareness about Muslim culture and practice in Senegal.  In addition to the very loud, bitch of a bird that calls from outside our window each morning at 6:15, we also wake to the sound of the morning call to prayer.  Our professor adjusts class schedule to go to the nearby mosque for Friday prayers, and there are public ablution stations set up for Muslim men to wash their face, hands and feet before prayer on small mats on the sidewalks five times a day. 

Yesterday, our French school organized a lecture on Islam in Senegal and took us on a tour of a mosque and to visit a Koranic school.  While neither of us expected two straight hours of 1500 years of Islamic history in West Africa, we appreciated a greater explanation of the Islamic influence that is everywhere in Senegal.

To spare you the mind-numbing details that we sat through, here are the highlights:

1. Islam was peacefully introduced into Senegal in the 11th century through trade.
2. As the religion spread, holy wars of conversion broke out.
3. By the mid 19th century, most all of Senegal had been converted to Islam (either by persuasion or jihad), away from traditional animist practice.
4. Differences in practice divided Senegal into five brotherhoods (Islamic sects) that are still intact today.  You can tell which brotherhood a person belongs to by the cut and color of his clothing.  (Sort of a universal statement, isn't it?)

5. Today, 94% of Senegalese are Muslim, although the country is secular.

Shoes stay outside when the boys recite the Koran at school.

Students memorize their prayers

Koranic etch-a-sketch

No one-laptop, one-child program at Koran school.