"KOLLARE" -NEVER ENDING ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

THE MOTHER OF ALL SENEGALESE VALUES

Uppermost in the minds of many people is the question : “How come“Teraanga”, the Hospitality of a small African land of 241.000 square kilometers known as Senegal is so famous around the world ?”

It’s not because of economical wealth but because of human resources. There are 10million people tightened together by traditional values going far beyond families, ethnic groups, languages casts or nationalities.

Hospitality is the most basic value a foreigner first experiences on arriving in this land. The fact is :” Whoever pays a visit to someone, deserves to be well treated” So, whatever the host or hostess do to make the guest feel at home is a duty imposed by Teggin that is the Know How thing that allows every member of the society to deal with anybody according to his or place in the community.

As you already know, Senegalese Family or Mbokk is a very broad concept that includes people that are not blood related but almost any one who is in good terms with the family network or with another family network connected to a particular family. At an early age, children are taught to call mom the woman that is in the same generation as their mother and call father, uncle, aunt, elder brother, elder sister those who are the same generation as their father, uncle, aunt, elder brother, elder sister. Being introduced to members of a Senegalese family you will hear :” Here is my mother, my father, my elder or little sister, my uncle, my cousin” Relationships becomes more important than numbering : Ask a Senegalese how many brothers or sisters he or she has : You will put someone into trouble. Instead, ask him or her how many God's bits of wood (Remember Sembène Ousmane's novel: "God's Bits of wood"?) his or her parents have.

The value that helped all Senegalese cultures be it Pulaar, Séeréer,Wolof, Joolaa, Màndinka,Soninke, Bedik, Mànjak, Bassari Hassaniya, Saafi-Saafi, Mënik,Guñuun,Jalunga,Laalaa, etc is KOLLARE. The word Kollare is the fact of keeping in our mind a good deed nor for our self, neither for a while but to share with our family and community and remember it and keep it alive forever. There are no boundaries for Kollare to exercice. When we have a connection with someone within or from a different ethnic group or a foreign country with whom ties exist based on good deeds. And he or she becomes our family’s and community’s Wollare.

So, if we take our typical Senegalese family as home, each member seen as a break, Kollare is the cement between all members, helping the building that is the family network to have a strong foundation, stand firmly and resist to all winds and earthquakes.

Leaving altogether within different groups in the community, the country, dealing with each other is not easy. A very helpful tool such as Muñ – endurance and patience help Senegalese people to deal with difficulties and give time to time.

Kollare is kept alive during social events such as baptism, funerals, marriages where griots or prayer singers announce publicly peoples good deeds mentioning clearly what they did for whom and also giving or asking the audience to pray for those good doers. Nothing is said to those who behaved badly because of Sutura – Discretness – to avoid them losing faces in public (which a Senegalese fear most) in the hope that they will take those praised one as role models. The most famous prayer among the Wolof being : “Yal na la Yàlla sàng malaanum sutura“ May God cover you with a blanket of “Sutura”