Le Baptéme (The Baptism)
In Senegalese muslim culture, the eight days after a baby is born a child is sans nom until it is baptized by a local imam and the parents reveal the name they’ve chosen for their newborn. This event can take place on any day of the week and seeing as the Senegalese will take advantage of any opportunity to gather and celebrate, these baptémes can rival marriage ceremonies in regards to the serious business of celebration- an epic day that starts early in the morning and continues til dark consisting of multiple meals, guests, music, dancing.
After the morning ceremony a breakfast of way-too sweet yogurt is passed to the participating well-wishers in wide plastic bowls. Once the guy responsible for the official slaughtering of a sheep has finished his task, a small troop of women begin the epic undertaking of cooking 2 more meals for up to 50-70 guests- giant kettles of rice or noodles, sauce and the aforementioned mutton.
Now, the baby is completely out of the picture once the baptism is finished- a grandmother or aunt occupies themselves with le nouveau-né and it’s the mother who is celebrated- paraded room to room (or home to home) she’s dressed in a lavish boubou (traditional dress of Senegal) and makeup. There are 3 separate costume changes during the day. Usually a camera-team is brought in to document the occasion and one was already hired but that didn’t stop them from putting me to work shooting family and friends
