Episode 8: I dreamed of Africa

AUTHOR: Claudia Woloshin, Director, The Mind of a Chef
EPISODE: SENEGAL
CHEF: SEAN BROCK

West Africa was somewhere I dreamed of visiting, even as a little girl. The place has always held an undeniable allure for me.

Not sure how it started exactly. But if I had to guess, it was when I was 8 or 9 and would listen (on the edge of my seat and utterly transfixed) to my mom as she told us stories of her trip to Africa when she was young. She loved to wax poetic about the people she had met, all the delectably spicy food, and “oh, the music!” — she could go on and on.

She had even dated an African Prince there for a while. But when my dad (who she’d been seeing for a year but hadn’t gotten too serious with yet) heard this news, he immediately sent several urgent telegrams to the village she was in, confessing his undying devotion and begging her to accept his marriage proposal.

When she returned to the US, she married my dad, and life soon became full of raising three rambunctious kids. She never got a chance to return to Cameroon, but I knew the place and the people had made a profound impression on her that stayed with her throughout her life.

There were times when I wondered what it would have been like if my mom had ended up with that African Prince? Wouldn’t that have made me part African Princess?! A life surely full of far-off adventures and glamour-filled intrigues, I imagined.

But even as I found myself to have turned out to be a half-pint mutt Jewish girl growing up in New Jersey, instead, I always knew I’d get to West Africa someday.

So when The Mind of a Chef told me I was going to be filming in Senegal with Sean Brock, it all seemed to make perfect sense.

And needless to say, this little Jersey girl couldn’t wait.

We arrived just before Ramadan started. No food or water from sun up to sun down for one whole month straight. And they also abstain from having any sex. Mostly out of ignorance about the Muslim religion in general, and never having witnessed people practicing it before, I had foolishly assumed that it must just be one hungry, thirsty drag to have to take part in.

Instead, I saw people (many of whom were very poor to begin with) welcoming this period of fasting. They generously explained to me that one month of abstaining from all these ‘pleasures’ they usually take for granted, forces them to slow down and to truly appreciate what they have during the rest of the year.

Goats were everywhere. Roaming down busy city streets. Sleeping in front of apartment buildings. Hanging upside down on street corners, ready to be butchered up and barbecued into incredible street meat.

And the astounding ability the women have in balancing and carrying things on their heads!

We knew Sean was a huge wrestling fan, and when we found out that wrestling in Senegal is as popular as football or basketball in the States, we had to try to see some while we were there. Before the rest of the crew and Sean arrived, I traveled with a guide to the city of M’bour (a city renowned for its wrestlers) to meet the wrestling team captain and finalize the shoot details with the team. This was a picture I took of him and his family. This 19-year-old is a well respected Wrestler who has won championships, and yet he still lives with his family in a one-room cinder block hut. That he keeps immaculate.

I took this photo of the wrestler’s little sister, after the family warmed up to me a bit. They cook everything outside on a hot plate. Being a desert climate, it was very dusty and she kept sweeping her little cooking area so it stayed tidy. Her expression matches perfectly the happiness I could feel pouring out of her.

After a morning of filming at the fish market in M’bour, we filmed Sean at a wrestling match that took place on the beach. It was like watching a kick-ass dance performance, an awesome live music show, and a raucous sporting event all at once. There was so much rich stimulation happening simultaneously — I wanted to soak in all of it. Before each match they dance to spectacular live drumming and pour milk over themselves (hence the white paint looking stuff covering his body). They told me they do this to rid themselves of their ego before their match. If wrestling matches were like this in the US, I would go all the time! It was thrilling to witness, not to mention being able to walk right into the ring and snap photos.

These were the guys (and little boys and girls) who were playing awesome drumbeats as the wrestling match was going on.

After the wrestling match, we took the wrestlers out to drinks at a beach hut. We ate a traditional meal called Poisson Yassa (fish with delicious onion sauce). These long wooden fishing boats were everywhere in M’bour, all hand-built and painted in vibrant colors. I saw this boy hanging out near one outside the place where we had lunch. He was very young and yet already so at ease with fishing and living off the sea. I like how tough he looks.

Senegalese Beauties. This photo and the next one are of women I met who work at a fish smoking location in M’bour where we filmed with Sean. It’s a local collective run by women that provides fish to landlocked countries in West Africa, as well as for thousands of people in Senegal who come here to buy their smoked fish.

The physical beauty of the people in Senegal constantly mesmerized me. Not to mention they have a fantastic sense of style. Even those living in the humblest of settings take real pride in their appearance. The landscape is largely sand and desert, and most of the color you see comes from the people, who look so regal and resplendent in their traditional dress.

This was the last thing we filmed. The music of this band plays throughout the episode. They performed on the deck of our hotel, perched on some rocky cliffs above the sea.