Greetings are different in every culture and here in Senegal specifically
greetings are different in different part of the countries. Where I am
currently located, it is mostly inhabited by Wolof people which is also the
biggest ethnic group in Senegal. Greetings starts from Salam Walekum and
Nanga def which means basically hello and how are you. What interests me is
that in the Senegalese greetings, there is Allah everywhere for example the
reply to nanga def would be mangi fi alhamdoulilah which means I am here
thanks to god. The greetings change according to the time of the day. In
the morning people will ask how is the morning, in the afternoon they will
ask how is the heat and at night they will ask how is the night. Senegalese
greetings are the longest greetings I have ever seen. It starts from Salam
Walekum to how your health is to how your every single family member is to
how your pets are. It is also very common to hear namm nala in greetings
which means I missed you even though you might have never met the person or
you’ve met them once and you have to reply ‘Malaraw’ which means I missed
you too. At the end of the greeting you have to say you’ll see them
until… Ba suba means until tomorrow and it comes with inshallah. So at
the end of the greeting I would say see you until tomorrow if god will. It
interests me so much how greetings and a lot of other things have God
everywhere. Until the next blog Inshallah:)