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Since late January, I have been sporting a classy beard, causing much consternation here in Dabo. I may be the only person in the community with a large quantity of facial hair. This is because people here are 1) remarkably poor at growing facial/body hair, and 2) according to the good people of Dabo, the Koran requires them to keep their hair short and clean. Whether or not this is a different interpretation than that used by people in the Arab Muslim world, I do not know. All I know is what people here tell me.

Oftentimes villagers will tell me things about Americans I did not know. A few weeks back I was told that non-black foreigners (locally known as tubakos) do not eat rice, EVER. Apparently, in America people just give you money just for being there. Probably the largest (and strangest) conception of America is of who is a “vrai Américain” (true American). To those in Dabo (and throughout much of Senegal), my neighbor Wilma is not American because her parents are Chinese. For a country where people are Pulaar (or Wolof, Mandinka, Sereer, etc.) before they are Senegalese, this is not exactly surprising. You would think that after the election of Barack Obama, that attitude would have changed. Nope. Black Americans are not black, they are African, or incorrectly assumed to be Pulaar.

Back to the beard. Since its introduction here in the region of Kolda, I have been told quite a few times that I am not American. It turns out that a few Senegalese people have gleaned something about my genealogy that I never knew: I am Arab. Lately, this has whipped up into a frenzy. People I’ve never met tell me that no, despite what I say, I am not American. Before my facial hair experiment, I was always asked if I spoke French, English, Spanish or Italian since clearly I’m not a native Pulaar speaker. Now, I’m often asked if I “speak Arab.” Most people have enough common sense to realize that a beard does not equal Muslim, but many do not.

Given my religious background, this is more amusing than anything else. I know not all Arabs are Muslims, but people here don’t. If you taught them how to make Venn Diagrams, and then you asked them to make one of Arabs and Muslims, the Arab circle would be contained entirely within the Muslim one. Most people don’t know what Judaism is, but my guess if that if they did, and I then explained to them that I had a Bar Mitzvah, their heads might explode

I cannot speak for the rest of Senegal, but at least here in Kolda, Arabs have a bad reputation. No matter how many times I try to protest otherwise, I have been told on countless occasions that I should fear Arabs. One of the men who works at my middle school told me that when I go back to America, I need to stay away from Arabs because they will blow themselves up next to me. All Arabs. Upon telling one person I have a Arab friend, he replied, “And you’re still alive???”

About a week and a half ago, while at a bar in Kolda, I was told (despite my explanations of the countries of my ancestry), that not only am I Arab, but I am Osama Bin Laden. Those of you in America may not be scratching your heads, because as you know, Osama Bin Laden is dead. While people here in Kolda have also heard this news, they don’t believe it. I was told by a group of teenagers in Kolda that “he has two faces. America just killed one of them.” In Dabo, I have heard, “Bin Laden said that America would say they killed him, but not to worry, because when they make that announcement he will go into hiding and we will not hear from him.” Yet another person claims Obama faked it to win the presidential election.

It doesn’t bother me at all to be confused for a person of Arabic descent. It bothers me somewhat to be told (upon showing American governmental ID) that I am not actually American. However, it does bother me to be called Bin Laden, or to be told (granted, by a slightly intoxicated person) that he wouldn’t dare go near me because I would slaughter him. It confuses me the animosity many people here have towards Arabs, given that they associate so strongly with their Muslim faith. They have affinity for Arab countries, because they hear or see of the wealth in some of them, but they would never want to be around Arabs. Usually this dissipates as education/interaction with foreigners rises, but that is not always the case.

Being in Senegal: a cultural experience for the ages.

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